Just thought id say hi

bought the worst t34 ever the other day, ill get pics up tomorrow when ive built up the courage to get back in the garage!!

its fire damaged, BADLY but 3 owners from new and RHD so getting rare, as for if its saveable we will see how parts prices stack up, im fine with doing the work but panel costs may well make it uneconomical

cheers james

You ARE a brave man! That's a project that may indeed be more worthy of being cut-up for parts. I wonder what happens to the melted plastic & metal components (ie aluminum) that get bonded to the steel body metal. Are those bits removable? After you get it disassembled & media-blasted you should have a much better-looking T34 to begin considering whether to restore her or not. At least the body panels will have been blasted & de-rusted so if you cut them up they will be presentable. Is the US$1000 media-blasting effort worth the value of the metal parts? Dunno ...
Good luck (and thanks for sharing your adventure)!

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Lee [restored 1962 Cabrio replica (0 001 776) -- 1965 346 (345 012 044) under restoration since 2004]

Cheers Lee

over here t34's are rare and RHD ones even more so, it would be a shame to chop it up but i may have to

Im over at my garage tomorrow to have a proper look over it, ive got all lights apart from one front indicator and underneath is solid, good beam etc.

If there is interest in body cuts to help other restos then i may follow that path but id rather try and save it.

Rear end is good and areas where others go seem solid although the nose as usual is a patchwork.

cheers james

That's a good plan. But before you put ANY money into the restoration work, make a detailed list of the costs for all of the parts/service that the T34 will need. Once you get a bottom-line figure then see if that money couldn't go into a daily-driver T34 that would not need that level of work/effort/time.

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Lee [restored 1962 Cabrio replica (0 001 776) -- 1965 346 (345 012 044) under restoration since 2004]

Dont worry, ive been into vw's for over 20 years, ill put time into the body and get it to a stage where the hard work is done for someone to transfer over stuff from a rotten shell onto. Otherwise i may custom build a racecar from the base ive got (i import race stuff from the states to the uk for a living )

I'll get detailed pics up tomorrow after ive been down and scratched my head over what to do with it.

cheers james

hi James

i saw this one offered at volkszone last year ... wasn´t it ?
how is it possible that the front bumper looks so good ?????

nice project ...

regards

carsten

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Carsten Klein

That'll buff out

Rust-wise - it's no worse than any other UK type 34 I've seen, in reality you would expect to put the same amount of work into any UK resto (but I'm sure you know that already). So unless the panels are warped due to the heat, it's definitely salvageable body wise.

(Our foreign cousins sometimes do not appreciate how lucky they are climate wise. )

Various panels are available, (wheel arches, sill sections), but there are still plenty of panels that you will likely need that are not - panels like - headlamp repair sections, door skins, door bottoms, so expect to have to spend more time / money doing some fabrication work.

Biggest thing will be sourcing all of the Type 34 specific parts - this is pretty much all of the trim, interior and rubber. Some stuff turns up fairly regularly, but other parts simply do age very well - things like dash pads, door cappings and arm rests, Sill trims, bumpers and overriders - they all generally deteriorate over time, and everyone needs them, so when they do turn up, they generally go very quickly. So even if you have the $$$'s, you will also need to factor in the time - it might simply take years to collect this stuff.

Carpets are being reproduced by a couple of firms - try spirit of the 50's in the UK - and whilst I don't think you can get WCM type seat kits, any trimmer will be able to recover your existing frames (back seat base is wooden - similar to Type 14 seat).

Lee's advice is wise - try to weigh up the cost. In terms of a full and correct restoration, it will simply be cost prohibitive as you will be able to buy a good complete car for less than it will cost you to restore this one, so perhaps it may be better suited to a custom / racecar, but in any case, it would be a shame to see any Razor cut up, as there will be someone out there brave enough to take it on.

Mick.

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