Getting started under the hood

 So I don't really know where to start exactly. Most videos/guides on restoration I've seen have started with a mostly disassembled car. But I've decided to start with the electronics in the front of the car. I know I'll be spending a bit of time in the hood, so I just took it off. In doing so, a nut on the hood of the car that was supposed to be welded to the inside of a piece of sheet metal came loose resulting in a free spinning bolt. I couldn't get the nut to stick, so I had to cut it off. When the nut came off, some of the sheet metal was damaged, so I'll have to repair that when it comes time to reassemble. This looks like it should be a simple welding job with a new bolt.

Busted nut on the right side of the hood

After that, I just started labelling and unplugging wires. Most of my work today was in removing the blinker relay, a bosch relay that I don't know what it does, and removing the tachometer.

My plan is to eventually get a new complete wiring harness so that I can get rid of the rats nest that has always existed there, but for my own learning, and in case anything is missing from the wiring harness, I'm trying to label all I can. The dashboard of my bug has the stock speedometer, a tachometer, a batter voltage gauge, and an engine temp gauge (thats never worked). All but the speedometer, I need to see if there are original placements or if they are fully aftermarket additions, which is what I think they are.

Bosch relay that I'm unsure of its purpose at the moment

The Rats nest at the end of today

I think I'm gonna be spending a bit of time unwiring this this weekend, and then start removing the interior of the car. I have also ordered a book on restoring old bugs. Hopefully that will be a good reference for this project.