TheSamba.com :: View topic - Shaka's Mild Refresh (aka Build thread) -- An old fatty!

Thu May 03, 2012 6:31 am

Original "Build" thread from Raf:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=278286

Background:
This is my third air-cooled VW, but my first T3. After selling my 1970 Standard a few years ago to help afford our home and having a child, the time finally had come to get back into a 3rd car/toy. And while I started my search for a Bug, Raf's old SB came into my radar too. It was too hard to pass up, as it had always been one of my favorite ACVWs around. I've got a soft spot for Porsche wheels on a VW. Raf had sold it to Chris, who had it for not a very long time, but family planning forced him to sell too. Lucky me!

What is NOT going to change:
One of my favorite things about the car has always been the wheels and the stance. I'm not a huge fan of polished 7 slots (chrome/polish in general isn't my thing), but it just WORKS on this car. And the color, roof rack, and general style of the car are perfect. It is a good 10-foot car with some patina and some imperfections. The car is great to take to shows, even if not a full-on show car. And that is what I wanted -- something to take the wife/kid places and enjoy. So the overall image of the car will remain.

What is ON MY LIST to do:
At this point I've been taking care of small electrics and such: added a horn, replaced the non-working clock, fixing the brake warning light, adding a 12v windshield washer motor.... and also getting a rear belt in the car for the kid to enjoy cruising with us. Lots of small things have been happening to get the car where I want it, but it has a solid 1600 w/baby dels in it that runs solid, so not much needed in that department.

However, I do have some "modest" plans to update a few things here or there that will change the image of the car slightly, inside and out. I've got a surf board and wicker basket to attach to the roof rack. And inside, I've got some Scat lowback 1400-series seats going in. Have a local upholstery guy who is going to help me give it a "personal/vintage" look by doing tweed on some surfaces of the seats. Front and rear seats will be getting a tweed/vinyl feel, with the front and middle door card panels matched along with them. Nothing massive, just a personal touch ...

There had been some other threads about windows, but I've decided to keep the glass in the car (did get some rubber, currently in transit, to refresh the seals on the door/glass)... my one-piece glass plans have been scratched after lots of feedback here, etc. I had planned to try to retro-fit pop-outs too, but have scratched that idea as well (see classifieds under my name, hah!)

Conclusion:
Rolling down the street, the car will easily look much like it has, with no major changes. The interior work should be done sometime later this month or early next month. My goal is to have it done before June Jitterbug (Niagara Falls) at the latest. Beyond that I just can't wait to CRUISE!!

Thu May 03, 2012 7:00 am

It has been a pretty car since the get go, so we trust you won't 'ruin' it. :wink: I like my popouts for the ventilation! :idea:

Thu May 03, 2012 7:33 am

In for the wheels & stance yo :D

Thu May 03, 2012 12:47 pm

Cleveland, huh? Bet nobody there even knows what that car is anymore. they were all over the area in the '60s and '70s, though. What part of Cleveland? Shaka Heights? :lol:

Thu May 03, 2012 1:01 pm

Tram wrote: Cleveland, huh? Bet nobody there even knows what that car is anymore. they were all over the area in the '60s and '70s, though. What part of Cleveland? Shaka Heights? :lol:

You'd be surprised how many ACVWs you see around here. But for the most part they are west coast cars that were brought here. All the original local ones rusted away a long time ago.....

LOL @ 'shaka heights' .... I'm one 'burb away from there actually ... east side, the river divides us! :twisted:

Thu May 03, 2012 1:14 pm

Shaka wrote: Tram wrote: Cleveland, huh? Bet nobody there even knows what that car is anymore. they were all over the area in the '60s and '70s, though. What part of Cleveland? Shaka Heights? :lol:

You'd be surprised how many ACVWs you see around here. But for the most part they are west coast cars that were brought here. All the original local ones rusted away a long time ago.....

LOL @ 'shaka heights' .... I'm one 'burb away from there actually ... east side, the river divides us! :twisted:

Oh, yeah- I forgot about L.E.A.K.O.I.L. and so on. Used to post on that forum occasionally but had a PC crash and lost my password. I need to PM Sean and get set up there again. I get back to the area about every year and a half or so.

Thu May 03, 2012 7:51 pm

So today my retractable front seat belts arrived. But before having a chance to install them, I was invited to dinner at my brother's house. Below is a photo from his driveway -- the first "real" drive the car has had since I bought it almost two weeks ago. Also the first time my wife and kid have been in the car.

Overall a good drive, but some back firing makes me wonder if the carbs are timed right. Have two people whom are local experts on dual carbs / ACVWs that I plan to solicit (at least one of them) for some help getting it sorted. But other than some fun poppin' noises the car drove like a champ.

We even stopped at the grocery on the way home, to which my wife commented something about my grocery-getter wagon ... haha!!

Here is a fun photo (thanks to Instagram) to enjoy ...

Fri May 04, 2012 7:34 pm

Here is my first real official update, with photos even for some stuff, of the work I've been doing to the squareback since picking it up just under two weeks ago. Enjoy!

Picked up this pewter key chain from here on the samba classifieds. Also got proper keys from WW and had the local auto parts store take care of that. One does glove box, one does doors/trunk, and of course black one does ignition. Now I have two full sets of keys, just in case.

Upgraded the old seat belts to retractable. I had these in my 70 std Beetle and loved them. These are from CIP and were a little bit of a time consuming mess to install, but they are of very nice quality. Worthy of the price of admission IMO.

Of course the kid needs a place to sit, too. There were no rear belts so I bought one and slapped the car seat in place. My wife opted to use the LARGEST car seat we have because it is the safest. Funny part is that it sits so high the kid gets stadium style seating and can practically see over the high-backs LOL

These are low back 1400-series Scat seats, with sliders. Still waiting for the squareback specific Scat adapters to come in. Plan is to add some tweed to the interior too --- so these seats won't look really much like they do now. This is just a "of things to come" photo for the moment... plan to get this work done sometime in late May or early June hopefully. More on that at a future date...

Not pictured but planned is a Parrot MKi9200 bluetooth module. Yes, I realize what you are thinking but trust me, this makes sense. I'll stealth mouth some small speakers in the stock speaker grille, the remote can be mounted to the steering wheel, and the screen will be at the lowest spot of the A-pillar where it meets the dash. So you'll barely notice it. Cool part is that not only will this charge my iPhone, the MKi9200 has an amp so it can stand-alone play music too, with out a need for a headunit. This is more for the 4yr old kid / wife to enjoy than me really... the BT feature I may use, when it isn't too noisy. But the music, well.... a happy wife is a happy life... 8) .... I'll take more photos of this as it develops. Have a friend who spend 10+ years doing car stereo work, and he plans to help when he gets back from vacation in a few weeks ...

Picked this up locally on clearance for cheap. Also have a surfboard that I scored off eBay that will be mounted to the roof rack. More photos of that once the weather is good enough to properly clean the car and get it on! (Don't worry I got proper pads, cords, etc to mount it safe!)

Lilo & Stitch, anyone? Keeping with my surfer theme here I got this antenna ball topper. The kid thinks it rocks, and that is really what matters here! :)

Not pictured but forth-coming are new side-view mirrors. Apparently the mirrors on my car are from a 68-79 Beetle convertible. The OE mirrors didn't want to install (Something inside door was there that didn't allow the full length of the "threads" if you will. So I had to return to ISP the OE-style ones. The one I have on the driver-side matched up to the 68-79 vert, so I ordered a new set of those (DS one is blistering, so wanted new both sides). Car already has passenger threaded hole -- safety first!

One of my biggest projects has been this, the windshield washer system. After the vanagon pump wasn't powerful enough, I found a generic ANCO pump for cheap on Amazon.com that works great. Also on Amazon (gotta love being a Prime member) was a switch (see below). What you see here is the pump (top right corner -- wired, in the loom). Power goes back to fuse box (fused) with a ground-based switch (think horn style). Also visible here is the new wire for the horn I had to run, old wire had a break somewhere and easy to just run at same time as when I did windshield system. BTW, it sprays washer fluid now, like a champ!!

Since my brake warning light wasn't working right anyhow, I just removed it, capped off the old wires, and used that hole for the momentary switch shown here in its place. I had to use a washer due to the hole being larger than needed for my switch -- might paint that washer or make something nicer in the future -- for now this was all I had laying around. It works good!! Also note the new clock, OE but the old one had given up the ghost -- this was a Samba classifieds find -- w00t!

Since I had mentioned it, here is the horn. Less than $10 at the local auto parts store, does the job nicely. Was going to do air horns -- but my project here is a VERY budget oriented one... so the wife was really happy to hear that it was something I fixed on my own and for less than $10 (well, maybe $11-12 if you include wires/crimps haha).

When I first got the car my drive home ended up later than I wanted and in the dark. One thing I noted, the stock lights suck. So I ordered up these H4 bulb-holding style headlight housings from Airkewld. And then I snagged a set of [ur=http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1300069l]H4 HID HEADLIGHTS[/url]. But I've decided I don't really want to go HIDs with this car... so the HID kit is for sale. I can also say just the new housings from Airkewld are a big improvement, so that is good. (my old headlights are for sale HERE, by the way)

The other big project that came to pass was a brake fluid leak I noticed when I got the car home. Unable to tell if it was the blue reinforced hose from the passenger side down-spout, or the reservoir itself, I just ordered both from Wolfsburg West. So here you have it, a new reservoir (which also has new blue hose not visilbe here, but trust me, it is there). That was a messy ordeal.

Yet to come then are the interior upgrades (got new door clips too, and plan to do a little tweed'n to some of the door cards). May upgrade to an electric fuel pump down the road, we'll see. Have all new rubber/felt (a kit from CIP was cheapest option) en-route -- once that arrives my local body shop is going to install it for me (they've done air cooled VWs before and will make better quality/time than I could, and he is cheap) -- then it is off next door to the tint shop for 35% window tint all around. Basically upholstery, window rubber/seals/felt, tint. Those 3 big things remain.... then show season will be here in the midwest in full swing.

There is a big local GTG that I will be attending Sunday, so tomorrow's plans are to clean up the car (won't have time to do a full on detail as we have Cinco de Mayo plans in the afternoon/evening) -- but at least wash it since it hasn't been washed since I got it two weeks ago, and then Sunday I'll snag some pics of the car at the local meet. Should be a fun weekend, and the weather prediction is great.... yay!!

Fri May 04, 2012 8:09 pm

Nice Ari. I can't wait to see this thing. You seem to be 'all in' as usual! LOL can't believe you spent so much time on window washers. I've been driving buses for 16 years and never had em! Hahaha wish I was going sunday

Fri May 04, 2012 8:12 pm

Normally I'd agree window washers do not matter. But 4 years ago or whenever it was, we took our 70 bug to Niagara Falls and it kept getting sunny after it would rain, and there'd be this crusty crap on the glass and it annoyed me. After that I vowed to do power sprayers on any ACVWs I have. (FWIW, the pump only cost me $12.62 shipped, the switch/button was $8.73 shipped, and the rest was just labor, wire/loom I already had, and some hose I already had LOL)

Bummer you won't be there Sunday -- I'm sure we'll see you around soon tho!

Sun May 06, 2012 2:14 pm

Took the car to a local hotdog/ice cream stand today for lunch ... then to a big GTG. This is the only photo I took all day, but I'm sure others will surface and I'll post them up soon. :P

Mon May 07, 2012 7:18 pm

Here are the photos as promised. For more details on the event or to check out various other photos (like the cool slammed & cambered wagon you can see the guy next to me with his T3 had) go HERE.

Wed May 09, 2012 8:51 am

Happy birthday to me (tomorrow I turn 36). Got some new bits and bobs to take care of a few random things on the squareback. ISP supplied: fuel vapor hose (from filler neck), plus a new cap and outer neck rubber. Samba classifieds: defroster switch (old one was on its way out, loose contacts), and finally a roller pedal from THIS guy.

Fun stuff to work on to keep this excitement going!

Wed May 09, 2012 9:07 am

On this 1971 squareback that I picked up there was a bung (hole) already in the passenger door for a mirror. And the driver mirror had a few imperfections so I decided, why not get two new ones? My first set that came in (see front/back comparison photos) was from ISP and supposed to fit. But alas there is something in the doors (see two photos, blue) that kept those from working right. So I sourced convertible Beetle mirrors, as they looked correct (see photo)(too big diameter). However, I think that Bus hardware (see photos of brackets) might work. So that is my next plan of attack.... more to come soon!

photos:

Wed May 09, 2012 12:47 pm

Very cool car and some awesome pictures! I can tell you really like this one. One question.....why are your used headlights $25? :wink:

Wed May 09, 2012 12:51 pm

Kirk wrote: Very cool car and some awesome pictures! I can tell you really like this one. One question.....why are your used headlights $25? :wink:

Thanks.

As for the headlights, I am including free shipping for that price, but agree the cost may be too high. I've really got no clue on this stuff -- what is a reasonable price for those? Do you want them, or were you just suggesting a lower price? 8)

Wed May 09, 2012 1:20 pm

I used an original passenger arm with a new EMPI Karmann Ghia mirror. My short curved original arm hits the sweet spot for placement.

Wed May 09, 2012 9:05 pm

Tonight had a LOT of fun activities .... rather than post up a bunch of info, I pretty much did so by adding text to all my photos. So here they are in chronological order... enjoy!

LATER IN THE EVENING IT WAS TIME TO PLAY WITH PEDALS....

Wed May 09, 2012 9:18 pm

Hmmmm. I don't see the pedal stop on the floor....

Wed May 09, 2012 9:42 pm

Tram wrote: Hmmmm. I don't see the pedal stop on the floor....

You mean that small "L" bracket that is bolted to the floor? It is there, hard to see in all the dirt.... you can see the bolt head for it in my "dirty" photo... once I cleaned things up it was there ....

updated, photos: