Tazzetta Twincup the new design ! Lobitz Tazzetta
The story of my VW SP-2
The story started in 1986, on an excursion to Karmann in Osnabrück during study. There, in a private museum, I first saw the SP-2 and at once I knew: Such a car must be mine. The long flat shape with that wounderfol round back was fascinating me. Since then, I was looking for any information about the SP-2 I could get. Meanwhile I was on the job and I had to spend the first money. Because there was no chance to buy a good SP-2 in Germany, a friend of our family helped me. His friends in Brazil bought one and sent it to Germany, which was not an easy job.
Two years after first seeing the SP-2, one rolled with its own power from the trailer into my garage. The colour was "verde-hippie", Hippie-green. There were only few damages on the body to identify, and two holes in the chassis. The front-bumper was in a very bad condition and the brakes were no brakes, but the engine was dry and working. Everyone, including friends with experience in restauration said, that the substance is good.
First, I repared all the things necessary to drive safely. The first problem was, that the frontbrakes were rusty inside and the main cylinder of the brakes too. And there were only few parts from german cars that fit. So they had to be repaired, pistons and seals could be taken from the Typ3.
The engine was only checked and the heatingsystem of the Beetle was mounted, because no heatingsystem was there. The "slick"-tyres were changed to Uniroyal Radialtyres that are good especially for the Beetle-rearaxle.
Now the SP-2 could be driven.
I was surprised about the roadholding and the good driving-feeling. To get a license-plate in Germany, every car must be permittet by the "TÜV", that it fits to the laws. So before complete restauration I drove to the TÜV to the town near by, but they did not know what to do with that rare car and sent me to Munich-TÜV. There I was friendly informed about some changes to be made and I was happy that no big law-problems were coming up. For example separate reflectors at the back had to be mounted and the headlamps had to be changed. And, of course, the holes in the chassis had to be welded.
During next winter, I checked the interior trim and covered a lot with leather. The surface of the instrumentpanel was destroyed by the sun.
In spring 1989 I drove to a friend, living on the isle of Fehmarn in the East-Sea. He had a lot of experience in car-restauration and a workshop and wanted to help me.
But after removing the paint we were shocked. More and more polyester and rust. The crazy thing was, that all these polyester-art was really "perfect" and could not be seen, because all the surfaces were really perfect. The inside of the trunk and the flanges, everything was perfectly covered with polyester and paint.
My friend now had a big job. Without any body parts to be bought or
a second car to be copied, every bodypart had to be handmade and integrated
in the body, step by step. The parts were fitted with zero-gaps against
deforming during welding.
For me, the time was endless, because I could only help during vacation.
Additional, the studies of my friend took a lot of time. But the progress
was going on. After the bodywork was done I took the SP-2 back home with
a trailer to finish the restauration.
Soon the "wedding" of chassis and body took place after the chassis
was painted.
But then in spring 1992 the drama followed. The varnisher who promised
a top job did not smooth the surfaces well and did not cover the chassis
well. The trunk and the inside of the car were sprayed with all the dirt.
In some areas it was hard to find the new colour. To save the car I decided
to buy hughe amounts of sanded paper. For the next spraying I did all the
preparation myself. During that work I found out that the first filler
on the door did not become hardened. I could scratch it with a fingernail.
After that I sprayed the trunk and the inside of the car myself.
I was happy the next varnisher did a good job. With care he made the
car beautiful. Me and my wife who supported the project all the time, now
were happy and looked forward to a good end of the story.
The assembly that followed does not need so much words. One of the
bigger problems were the bumpers and the illumination of the licence plate.
The original bumpers are made of PU-foam enclosing the steel carrier. The
carrier was very rusty so the PU was totally deformed and instable. I mounted
the bumpers on the body and then made a negative form with fibreglas. With
that form new parts were made. The lamps for the licence plate illumination
we bought in Brasil during vacation. Although these are parts of the Brasilia
they were hard to find. Generally parts for the SP-2 were hard to find
because the SP-2 is a rare car even in Brasil. Sometimes we could find
used parts but more about that see link "Spare parts".
Then came up the great day. The SP-2 was completely finished, got a
licence plate for test drives and me and my wife changed our working outfit
to outdoor dress.
The last 3 1/2 years the starter had not been engaged. But after half
a minute the engine was running and we left the garage.
TÜV and registration - no problem.
Since then we drove lots of kilometres without any problem, with the
SP-2, "mit dem schönsten Volkswagen der Welt".
Restauration
| Übersicht über die wichtigsten Arbeiten:
- Mein SP-2 wurde von Grund auf neu aufgebaut. Das heißt, Polyesterschichten die mehrere Zentimeter dick waren, wurden entfernt. Darunter taten sich riesige Rostlöcher auf. 
Anschließend wurden die äußeren Bleche neu angefertigt und auf dem rostigen Unterbau angepasst. Daraufhin wurden die äußeren Bleche wieder entfernt und der Unterbau erneuert. Nur so war es möglich, ohne Vorlagen eine gute Genauigkeit der äußeren Bleche zu erreichen. - Dann wurden die äußeren Bleche mit Null-Fugen eingepasst, damit sie sich beim Schweißen nicht verziehen, und verschweißt sowie verschliffen. - Da die Karosserie schon original nicht sehr genau war, wurden die Hauben und Türen aufwendig in die Kontur eingepasst. - Viele Hohlräume waren für eine Versiegelung nicht zugänglich, ausserdem konnte oft Wasser nicht abfließen. Hier wurden Öffnungen zugefügt. - Die Wasserablaufkästen unter der Windschutzscheibe wurden komplett erneuert und mit dickeren Ablaufschläuchen versehen. - Versiegelt wurden die Hohlräume mit RLS von Ovatrol, einem Kriechöl, das auch durch Bördelflansche sickert. - Das Chassis wurde mit Blacky Chassislack von Ovatrol lackiert. - Der Hauptbremszylinder und die Bremssättel vorne wurden überholt, die Bremszylinder hinten und alle Leitungen und Beläge wurden ersetzt. - Der Motor wurde nur gewartet und mit neuen Elektrikkomponenten versehen. - Die Instrumententafel sowie die Konsolen wurden mit schwarzem Leder überzogen, da sie von der Sonne zerstört waren. - Der Einsatz mit den Instrumenten wurde mit naturfarbenem Leder bezogen, um den Plastiklook zu vermeiden. - Alle übrige Innenausstattungsteile wurden gereinigt und überholt. - Die Elektrik war total wirr "repariert" und musste in Ordnung gebracht werden. - Die roten Zierstreifen aussen wurden mit neuer roter Folie beklebt. - Die Stoßstangen wurden aus Laminat neu hergestellt. Dazu wurden die beschädigten und labilen Originale an die Karosserie geschraubt und eine Negativ-Form am Fahrzeug hergestellt. In dieser Form wurden neue angefertigt. 
- Der Frischluft-Gebläsemotor erhielt neue Bronze-Lagerbuchsen. - Die Rücklichtgehäuse wurden überholt und mit neuen Lampenfassungen versehen. - Die verbeulten Dach- und Fensterzierleisten wurden gegen flexible Kunststoffzierleisten getauscht. - Diverse Dichtungen wurden erneuert. - .... und viele viele andere Arbeiten. - Letztes Jahr bekam ich neue Originalzierleisten für die Front neben dem VW-Logo ! **** |
Overview, the most important works:
- My SP-2 was reconstructed completely. That means, Polyester, some centimeters in thickness, was removed and huge rusty holes appeared. Then new outer panels were made and placed on the rusty ground. 
After that, they were removed and the rusty ground was replaced. Only this way, the outer panels could be made with the right shape. - Then, the outer panels were fitted with zero-gaps around, so they do not deform during welding, then they were welded and finished. 
- Because the car was not very exact in original, the hoods and the doors were fit in the shape of the body with lots of work. - Lots of inner spaces could not be conserved or water could not evacuate, so many holes had to be added. - The boxes of the airintake under the windshield were completly replaced and got bigger hoses for the waterevacuation. - All the inner spaces were conserved with RLS from Ovatrol, thats a fluid like very thin oil, that reaches every small gap. - The chassis was painted with Blacky Chassislack from Ovatrol. - The main-cylinder of the brake and the brake-pistons of the frontbrake were repaired, the rest of the brake became new. - The engine only had to be checked and got new elektric components. - The instrumentpanel and the konsols were covered with black leather because they were destroyed by sun. - The inner part of the instrumentpanel with the speedo etc. was covered with brown leather, to avoid plastic-look. - All the rest of the interior trim was cleaned and checked. - The electric had been "repared" very chaotic and had be checked complete. - The red stripes on the outside trim were replaced. - The bumpers now are made of fibreglas. Therefore the unstable and damaged originals were mounted on the body. A negativ-form then was made on the car. In this negative-form, the new bumpers were made. - The blowermotor of the fresh-air-intake got new bronze-bearings. - The rear-light-boxes were repared and got new bulb-fixtures. - The damaged roof- and window-trims were replaced by plastic-trims. - Lots of the seals were replaced. - ..... and lots of other points. - Last year I got original and new trims of the front besides the VW-logo ! ****
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