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Wed Apr 11, 2012 9:53 am

I figure it's about time to start posting some of my restoration up, so here it is.
First, a little bit about myself; I am 20 years old, and have been attracted to old cars since I was a little one. I am currently attending college-which means most of my updates will be spread out until summer-and am studying Mechanical Engineering.

The car which I am fixing up was bought by my dad back in '96 or '97, and we used it up to '99 when it developed a nasty oil leak. That same year we bought a 1999 New Beetle, so the '75 got parked. Last year I managed to convince my dad to let me "have" it. I say "have" it because he will be registering under his name until I get out of college.

Here it is after sitting outside for 12 years

There actually wasn't much rust, drivers side floor was gone, some on the passenger and a little in the spare tire well. And of course cancer in the rear vent area :cry:

I decided to pull the body

then pulled the engine and brakes-leaving a mostly bare chassis

here it as of now(march 25 actually)

I have removed the trans-axle, and will be removing the front beam next time I go home. I will hopefully be able to sandblast and paint by May.

More to come-gotta run to class now

Wed Apr 11, 2012 10:19 am

Looking forward to progress!

Wed Apr 11, 2012 11:42 am

Down the road change out the altenator to an internal regulator type.
Keep us posted.

Wed Apr 11, 2012 12:20 pm

Engine Teardown-
drained the "oil," all I found was stale gas, quite literally the engine had 4-5 quarts of old gas-stunk up the garage for a good month
pulled the heads and cylinders before removing the engine from the car, then put it up on the bench

the engine after complete disassembly

was about to lose rod #1, reason why that rod is off-it was the only one significantly 'looser' than the rest

rod bearing

the engine block back from a line-bore - with new German bearings

one of the factory "case-savers" was lost at some point between the cleaning and machining, so I will have to figure something out.

My plan for the engine is for at least a 1641, but I am hoping to get a 74mm crank so possibly a 1759cc engine, I have a single 40 IDF, and will be getting a w100, I have 1 stock head so will be getting another one soon('71 style dual port)-could have gotten the original heads rebuilt for $500 :shock:. I will keep the flywheel stock weight. If I find a good matching 40 IDF(made in spain) I will make it a dual carbed car, but also don't want to spend money that I really don't need to. the exhaust will remain stock-need the heat for the centermount carb.

which brings up a question, I know that bus and bug heat exchangers vary slightly, so can someone confirm that the exchangers I have are bus not bug so I can pick up a matching one?

I know that the bugs had a separate arm to help open the flap-and I don't see a mounting point for that arm so I am assuming I have a bus exchanger-could I still use it; and/or can I mount that arm to the exchanger I have and pick up another bug one?

Thu Apr 26, 2012 6:52 pm

I'm going home this weekend so I will hopefully be able to pull the beam and get ready to sandblast and paint the chassis, trans-axle, and other parts

A quick question about this rust, I know it is because of the foam, and I know that I will be grafting in a repair section, what I don't know is it worth it to cover the vent, by welding a panel over it? or leaving it open and putting on say a side scoop of sorts?

what do you all say out there? leave it, cover it, air-scoop for some protection? if a majority say cover it; I may get whole panels from the junkyard that are from 71? and earlier and cut up to the rear window

now, I know that the vent aids in the fresh air system, so I would like to keep the vents, but in the case of keeping the rust at bay for a longer time I will cover it if that is the consensus

Thu Apr 26, 2012 7:23 pm

Great progress keep it up. I would cut out rust, pull the foam out weld in new metal and keep the vents. A buddy of mine just chopped a bug if you get in a jam for metal.

Thu Apr 26, 2012 8:48 pm

Are you staying with the carb or going back to FI?

Thu Apr 26, 2012 9:02 pm

I got a single weber 40 IDF(not ideal, I know), I would like to do EFI in the future, so I might run two fuel lines in case I do convert later

I've also got a long time ahead of me to plan out future build/buy-
got a list of VW's I want- split double cab, early ghia, early bug, another late model I can turn into a class 11(for use in the winter)

yeah, I'm fantasizing a bit too much right now :D

Thu Apr 26, 2012 9:11 pm

I have rust in the same spot!! Wonder how hard it will be to replace??

Fri Apr 27, 2012 7:07 am

Dclay1979 wrote: I have rust in the same spot!! Wonder how hard it will be to replace??

tried posting this in your thread, but?? wouldn't post, just a link to the vent quarter repair to give you an idea of what needs to be done

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=259211

Fri Apr 27, 2012 7:32 am

The car was FI in the first place so unless the unused return line is rusted you won't have to install one. The only issue you may have is the spigot for the fuel return line for the gas tank if a PO has either replaced the tank or plugged up the return. You can't buy new standard Beetle FI gas tanks, you have to modify on that works for carbed Beetles.

Fri Apr 27, 2012 8:00 am

fuel lines are slightly rusty so I will be replacing with stainless steel- I would rather be safe then sorry-especially since I have the body off right now

Sat Apr 28, 2012 8:30 am

I did mine using a coil of stainless from summit. Way easier to do with the body off. I had the crumple zone plate in the front off and fed the lines in from the front access hole behind that crumple zone plate. Still a bit tricky but not hard.

Sun Apr 29, 2012 4:06 pm

Update 4-29-12:
Pulled the beam-super easy-4 minutes at most

brought my seats down from storage because my dad thought that one of the seat tracks was welded on crooked

Driver's side fit well-don't have all the plastic bushings but it fit and slid well

Passenger side-not so much :x

Good thing we haven't gone to the local scrap it yet

I will be cutting of the upper brackets(not the whole pedestal) and welding the old ones on the new pans

So be warned that Zito Pereira pans are crap-they are thin, have questionable welds(4 spot welds holding the upper bracket to the pedestal), and on top of that they don't have a hole drilled for the seat lever return spring.

drilled the drivers side for the return spring and mounted and tested

another note on the pans- if the passenger bracket mount were correct-the slide pin wouldn't actually line up and go through the whole way

But for $100 each pan, it was worth it for this job, on my dads '67 definitely going with a heavy duty pan

Sun Apr 29, 2012 4:13 pm

I also went to a car show/swap meet this morning, waited in traffic for 1 1/2 hrs, almost got my hands on some heater boxes, but I waited just 1 minute too long-I hate it when I do that ](*,)

but I did get this 4-tip monza style exhaust

the heat risers were cut off, but it actually doesn't look used, so for $20 I think it will work for now

this is my proposed plan for heat risers-as I will need them with a centermount

Mon Apr 30, 2012 3:56 pm

Ok so you dont have a crumple zone thing as you have a standard,my bad.

I swaped out my seat center brackets as well just cause the quality is so much better on originals. Good call on that.

Where are the swap meets in NH? Are they a decent size? as in worth a trip from Burlington VT area?

Mon Apr 30, 2012 4:17 pm

the swap meet I went was the Amherst car show- swap meet area is large-but it is mainly oriented towards muscle cars and antique model a's- occasionally you will find something of value-my dad picked up some parts for his jeep worth around $300 for only $25, coming from Burlington it may not be worth it-but here is the site anyways

http://www.cruisingamherstnhauto.com/

Thu May 31, 2012 7:51 am

Small update, between college, work, registering and inspecting my daily, and getting sick, I've had almost no time to work on the beetle

But anyways-fixed that seat pedestal so it now fits

and the process-
first I removed the bracket from the old pedestal(wish I could have used the old pedestal put the bottom was too rusted)

marked in red is the welds I need to remove

the initial cut with a cutoff wheel

smoothing it all out with a grinder-that flat stock was the perfect fit so I didn't bend the bracket in the vise

the test fitting-I came to the conclusion that the pedestal was meant for the drivers side

welded up with lever installed

the thin metal was extremely hard to weld-I found for the best weld a setting of 2(out of 10) and a wire feed of 1(out of 5) worked best, although I still blew through the metal a couple times

hopefully the next time I get to work on it it will be on a rotisserie for blasting and painting

Thu May 31, 2012 5:24 pm

I am liking the work you doing...the idea about the heat riser is a good one to get the cross flow pulsations going.

Thu May 31, 2012 5:42 pm

I had the same issue with my new pans. The right side had the left tower weled to it. I made the same adjustment you made. Mine came from Mid America. Live and learn