More cabrio fixing

As I mentioned the other day, the tiny convertible is back on the road. It's good to have it back. Such a happy little car:


I was able to get most of the parts from a local salvage yard. But the passenger side fender gave me trouble. After searching all the Craigslists in the Tri-State area, junk yards, and parts websites, I finally gave up and went to Amazon.

And they had one. In their warehouse, with free super saver shipping. I thought that Amazon was just a book store, but apparently they're a book store that also carries VW body parts (and wolf urine. Goes great with buffalo chips)

Since the fender was so cheap, I was afraid that it would be made out of soda bottles or something.

It turned out to be genuine extra-thin Taiwanese sheet steel. For $50 and free shipping, I won't complain. But I do expect it to be even less rust resistant than the already not very rust-resistant VW part, so I sprayed it with a few coats of sealer primer and rubbery undercoating.



I bolted the fender on, and it lined up surprisingly straight. All the radiator parts went in fine, but I still expected that something would be out of wack and keep the hood from closing.

But it closed. I still can't believe it went together so easily.

Cost without paint was about $600 and 15ish hours of work. That's way better than the $2000+ the body shop quoted.

I just hope that the Cabrio's deer hitting days are over.

(I couldn't find used headlights, which blew the budget for a grill)