Update on Steve's Ragtop

Last time I reported about half of the roof had been lead loaded, well it didn't take Simon long to get the rest whipped into shape and into epoxy primer. And it looks wicked, check an up-coming issue of the mag for the finished results.

With the roof finished it was time to start blocking the main panels to iron out any dents, ripples and imperfections.
First on the list were two of the most important jobs. Getting the sides straight, and setting the door gaps. There's only one way to do this properly on a Beetle and that's to have the 'shell bolted to a floorpan. As my 'pan is still in my garage getting it's final fettling before it goes to paint. Allan kindly offered to bolt the 'shell up to a pan they had in their workshop. Why does it need to be bolted to a 'pan I hear you ask? Surely it's easier to work on off the 'pan? Simply put, as you bolt a Beetle 'shell to it's floorpan, the tension applied to fix the two tightly together makes the 'shell move and twist slightly. If you set the door gaps with the 'shell off the pan, by the time you bolt it all up, chances are the door gaps will be out, or worse still the door will foul on the edges of the 'shell, resulting in a door that won't shut properly. Take it from past experience on another car I built, that this really does happen and can lead to tears before bed time when you shut the door on your freshly painted car and remove a big chunk of paint.

As you can see from the pictures Simon is still going all out for perfection. I spent (I thought) long enough detailing under the spare wheel well and Simon has gone even further. Absolutely no corners are being cut and I applaud all at Creative Coachworks for going over and above my expectations.


It takes a lot of work to make a car straight and quarters and doors are up there as the most challenging. The blue you can see is 'Stopper' used to remove tiny blemishes as it's a finer material than normal plastic body filler


Underside of the spare wheel well is getting the same attention as main body panels!

To contact Creative Coachworks call 01939 235 707 visit creativecoachworks.co.uk  or check them out on Facebook http://en-gb.facebook.com/creativecoachworks