Also made a start on the welding. The photo on the left, below, shows the corrosion to the ‘A’ pillars, and the photo on the right shows the improvement once it had been treated and welded.
We handmade the inner and outer sill, as the original sill had completely rotted away (left). The floor was welded, sealed and painted (right).
Unfortunately the Thing had been painted in several layers of thick coach paint, which could not be sanded or removed with paint stripper. In the end we found our best option was to scrape the paint off with a wallpaper scraper……it took a while!!! Photos below show the Thing mid way through paint removal (left) and just about paint free (right). After this we were finally able to get the sander out and flat back the base layer of paint and primer!
Finally we were able to get her into primer, and things started to take shape! We started by painting the inside and some of the removable panels in a base coat of orange.
Then things got interesting. We wanted to give the Thing a ‘California Beach Sunset’ theme, in keeping with her California roots, so we painted her in a three tone yellow to red fade, to represent a sunset.
The engine was cleaned, tuned, and painted in body colour.
The windscreen frame was badly corroded, however after many hours searching on the internet, the only replacement we could find was in Hawaii, and in no better state than ours, so we repaired the original one!
The rebuild started! Door rubbers are put back on, and the wiring starts to go back in! We had very little money to buy new parts, so a second hand steering wheel and exhaust were used. All the original door rubbers and seals were cleaned and re-used. We did splash out on new rear lights, as the original ones were too ugly!
The original hood was cleaned, straightened and repaired. We also designed and made a custom speedo (to match the steering wheel centre)
In keeping with the sunset theme, we airbrushed a sun design on the bonnet.
Custom bumpers were made out of steel tubes, and then painted in sundown orange, to continue the sunset theme.
The original front wings were too rotten to use – the one shown in the photo on the left was the better of the two, but the other was far worse and falling to bits. Replacement wings were very expensive, so we decided if we were forced to buy new ones, we wanted to go for something a bit different, so we purchased new fibreglass wings which were 4 inches widened and 4 inches higher than the originals. These were eventually shipped over to us from California, after a 3 month wait! The photo on the right shows the new wings, prior to headlight bowls being built.
A custom speaker box was built and covered in orange vinyl to match the exterior colours.
We decided that the 4-tip Monza exhaust did not really suit the Thing, so we decided to customise it. The exhaust was cut up, and the tips were set back and wider apart. We then painted it red. See before and after photos below:
The interior completely overhauled for us by Rob from Harlequin Upholstery. Seats were remoulded and recovered, new carpets were made, door cards were built and the steering wheel and sun visors were covered.
Time for the finishing touches! The wings are painted, side bars are added to match the bumpers, the wheels are painted red, and stickers are added.
Finally, by the end of July 2007, the Thing makes her maiden voyage, from Harrogate down to Santa Pod for Bug Jam! She did us proud, and ran like a dream, even though we didn’t even have time to test drive her before the 250 mile round trip! Since then she’s been on the road every day, and has caused quite a stir driving around Harrogate!
