TheSamba.com :: View topic

Sat May 30, 2009 8:51 pm

Well it's been 20 years since my Baltic Blue 1966 squareback was towed away never to be seen again. At the time I was 18 and my car was impounded when I was out of town for it not being moved in 72 hours. I couldn't afford the towing, impound and storage fees when I got back. Before going out of town I had just spent all my money on a new engine. Sigh..

Yesterday I was lucky enough after 20 years to pick up a new project. Another Baltic Blue 1966 Squareback! This car is in much worse shape than my last car when I bought it. I have to start from scratch with this car. It looks decent and runs decent, but I have already discovered I am in for quite a bit of work ahead..

Day 1:

Car heads right when brakes applied..

Removed front wheels for inspection. Brakes, shocks, ball joints and rubber bumpers are all toasted. Entire front axle is coated with 1/4" of thick nasty mud.. Removed mud.. removed more mud, and yet even more mud.. I'm actually starting to think the mud is holding the front end together. Replaced brake pads, not feeling good about the look of the calipers but that will have to be a project for another day. Replaced shocks and lowered the front end 2 splines. Ball joint and rubber will have to be ordered.. so found them online and will order them tomorrow.

Clean up..

End of day one..

I took pictures of the before during and after. I'll try to post them up tomorrow. I too tired to upload the pics tonight..

Time to hit the hot tub and think about the list of todo's for tomorrow. First order of business is to fix my drivers door that doesn't seem to want to close securely. :wink:

Sun May 31, 2009 12:01 am

Is this the 1-owner car from Poway? I saw it advertised for $1600 on craigslist

Sun May 31, 2009 7:18 am

Welcome back to the Type-3 world!! Sounds like you have some work to do. I like your story, it sounds like you now feel as if you never lost your old 66.

Try ISP West in Carson. Anthony and Alex are great and helpful. They usually have Type-3 parts when no one else does.

http://www.vwispwest.com

Sun May 31, 2009 7:41 am

You should replace those soft brake hoses as they will collapse from within and cause the car to pull to one side. Jim Adney can re-build calipers etc. It will prolly test your patience and your wallet, but sure fun to cruise around in a VW! :vw:

Sun May 31, 2009 11:57 am

RareAir wrote: Is this the 1-owner car from Poway? I saw it advertised for $1600 on craigslist

Thanks for the welcome!

No, it's not the Poway car but I looked at that one. The one in Poway had been sitting quite a while and hadn't been running. This one ran decent and was also a So Cal car with very little rust. If I could have driven the one in Poway home I may have picked it up.

Yes, I plan on replacing all the rubber brake hoses.. I also think I'll rebuild the calipers and get drilled/slotted rotors.. and probably upgrade the rear to disks.. lots of work ahead.

Once I figure out how to upload pics I'll add the ones from yesterday.

Sun May 31, 2009 7:37 pm

Day 2.

Thought I would tackle an easy job.. fixing the door latch. The door would pop open or barely stay shut and the latch was very wobbly. I found a thread that talked about fixing the loose latch by drilling a hole in the rivet holding on the latch to the base and inserted a screw to hold it tighter.

Well.. getting the darn latch out was much more difficult that I thought. I had to find a thread on how to take the window out to get behind the shield around the latch.. long story short.. got the window out and eventually the door latch out. Had no problem with drilling a hole in the latch rivet and drilling in a screw to hold it together tighter. The door is reassembled now an closes tight and secure.

Unfortunately I noticed the strip of metal at the bottom of the window is totally rusted out in the middle of the track which is why it was a pain in ass to roll it down/up when it got to half way rolled down. Guess this will be a project for another day. The outer and inner scraper trim is also completely worthless so the door has been filling with water which is what ruined the metal strip on the bottom of the window glass and messed up the door panels. The rubber door seals are also totally worthless.

Looks like my next few days will be ordering parts.. I could probably get a whole used door cheaper than just buying a new door seal.. LOL..

Mon Jun 01, 2009 2:29 pm

post some pictures! 8)

Mon Jun 01, 2009 11:36 pm

Day 1 Pictures..

Mon Jun 01, 2009 11:39 pm

It's OK to have water in the door if you make sure the drains in the bottom of the door are cleared up and can drain the water out the bottom.

Tue Jun 02, 2009 12:08 am

Today was day 3.. Spent a few hours taking out the pedal assembly.. The throttle wouldn't open all the way and the top speed was 60 mph. It was very dirty down there so cleaned everything up and tightened up the throttle cable. The cable needs to be replaced but it probably has a little life left. Add that to the list..

Wed Jun 03, 2009 12:15 pm

Just ordered a full set of ball joints, trunk seal and rear hatch seal.

Yesterday I replaced the rubber oil filler tube. The previous owner decided to use about 1 inch of duct tape rather than replace.. sigh. I also added aluminum hose on the fan shroud to the heater box because that part was missing.. obviously making the engine run hot..

I realized that I didn't just buy my car.. I rescued her!! This poor thing has been seriously neglected.

About 60k miles since the last rebuilt was put in.. Not sure how much more she can take.

Wed Jun 03, 2009 12:50 pm

I think this red hose from Aircraft Spruce will be better, but I haven't gotten it hot yet. It's supposed to be good for 530 degrees? Your beam looks good!

Wed Jun 03, 2009 2:56 pm

nice looking square. glad you found another, even if it took 20 years. i too cant believe the things previous owners will do. one step at a time and she will be the better for it. have fun!!

Fri Jun 05, 2009 5:43 pm

Replaced the rear hatch & truck rubber seals today. Also replaced all 4 ball joints.. man they were toasted.. Ordered two NOS wiper arms as I'm missing one and the other is rusted badly.. I also ordered a new disk brake backing plate for the passenger side as the current one is pretty badly rusted.. the drivers side looks pretty good. Have a new throttle cable coming too. The current one is worn out and fraying in spots.

Next is new tires.. The 165x65 crappy Arizonians are worn all lopsided from the bad ball joints and alignment not to mention the fact they are skinny as hell.. Thinking about going with 195x60's all around.. maybe 195x65.. I'm only lowered two notches in the front and don't plan on going any lower.. at least not with stock wheels.

Better go look for my next project.. will take new pics soon. :)

Fri Jun 05, 2009 10:13 pm

Ok.. wheels will have to wait a few more days.. Went on an internet buying spree..

Ordered a new OEM fusebox, outer scraper trim on both sides and inner scraper for the drivers door, two upper/back felt channels, two inner felt channels, vent wing post seals, window lift channels w/seals, NOS passenger side rear view mirror, new brake and clutch pedal pads, & an oil pressure sender.. Whew..

Wed Jun 10, 2009 8:35 pm

Got a bunch of my parts.. did my front wheel bearings, the old bearings actually looked pretty good. Also rebuilt my drivers door.. Man the made in Brazil outer scraper was a serious pain in the ass.. After screwing with it for a while I noticed the bottom piece was about 1/2 longer than the old one which is why it wouldn't fit right and I had to cut it.. same with the inner scraper.. seems 1/2 inch too short toward the wing and 1/2 too long on the other end.. :? Installed the new drivers door lift and it rolls so smooth now although its tight with all the new rubber and felt.. put on the new pedal pads too..

Tomorrow I tackle swapping out the fuse box with broken tabs and the passenger side door.. also hope to get new tires and an alignment since replacing the ball joints and bearings..

After that is a new engine cover seal, new wiper blades and arms, new throttle cable, steering wheel coupler, steering column (fingers crossed)

Wed Jun 10, 2009 9:13 pm

Sounds like its coming along nicely. Its amazing how much you can spend on Type-3 seals. Where did you get your outer scrapers? The guys at ISP said I should use the clips off the old scrapers instead of the clips that come with the new scrapers. I guess the old clips just pop in easier. Same with the inner scrapers. Did you have any issues with your clips?

Thu Jun 11, 2009 12:40 pm

Critter1 wrote: Sounds like its coming along nicely. Its amazing how much you can spend on Type-3 seals. Where did you get your outer scrapers? The guys at ISP said I should use the clips off the old scrapers instead of the clips that come with the new scrapers. I guess the old clips just pop in easier. Same with the inner scrapers. Did you have any issues with your clips?

Or you could just rebuild your old ones. Tram suggests using bus inner seals to rebuild the outers with, and bus inners for the inner seals (use your old wire clip). In my build thread (pg 18 ) you'll see how to rebuild the outers (I used old good used t-3 inners on mine). The old t-3 outer clips do fit better than the new ones, plus by re-using the old trim pieces they install a lot easier because they actually fit. Doing the inners is similar, but you use the old ones for templates (to trim and add slots), the reuse the old t-3 wires. I hope this helps.

Thu Jun 11, 2009 12:45 pm

I used ISP outers but i don't think this make a differnce becasue correct me if i'm wrong everyone gets these from the same manufacture but i could be wrong. I used the clips that came with it and they worked awesome. I did however install OG inners that came from the Martin at the ddb (speaking of martin where's my stainless trim homie).

Thu Jun 11, 2009 1:33 pm

Bobnotch wrote: Critter1 wrote: Sounds like its coming along nicely. Its amazing how much you can spend on Type-3 seals. Where did you get your outer scrapers? The guys at ISP said I should use the clips off the old scrapers instead of the clips that come with the new scrapers. I guess the old clips just pop in easier. Same with the inner scrapers. Did you have any issues with your clips?

Or you could just rebuild your old ones. Tram suggests using bus inner seals to rebuild the outers with, and bus inners for the inner seals (use your old wire clip).

What year Bus inner seals are you talking about? :?