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Mon May 07, 2012 9:05 pm

Hey Guys,

I'm from New Zealand and this is my build thread. I will update all the little changes I make here, and give back to TheSamba for all the great info that has helped me along the way.

There are several beetles in my family. My Brother here in NZ has a 61' on a 69' pan:

And my Father in Law in Florida has a sweet 68':

Upon returning to NZ last year my brother had a spare beetle stashed away on a farm for me to get stuck into. For the sum of $500 I was able to buy a project to take up all my spare time and money.

As I found her:

She's a 1966 NZ assembled Beetle from which the parts were made in Australia.

The objective for the project was to build a solid daily driver as this is my only car.

My brother's beetle also came out of hibernation at the same time:

Mon May 07, 2012 9:25 pm

Once I dragged her home I was able to take a better look at what I had. I decided to rent a garage and yard for a couple of months so I had somewhere to get the car fixed. My aim is to get the car road worthy in 3 months....

Nice rattle can exterior paint job:

Pretty pink inside:

Interior:

Heater channel looks pretty solid:

Engine looking pretty sad:

Lucky I knew this project was waiting for me upon return to NZ I had loaded up a suitcase of vw parts to bring back home with me from the US. I had drop spindles, adjusters, t-bars, King Pins, Link Pins, And heaps of gaskets, seals, belts rebuild kits etc....

I also purchased the full set of "Bug Me" dvds and can't reccommend them enough. I use their body on heater channel replacement for this car.

She was looking better after a quick bath to scrub off the bird shit:

After this I took time to assess all the damage and what was needed to get her back on the road.

Mon May 07, 2012 9:40 pm

After looking over the car I was able to get a better idea of what was needed. I love this part, getting a car and exploring every nook and cranny to see what you have...

I found rust in the rear under the window:

Front left fender is a big mess with cracked and broken bondo everywhere and the headlight bucket no longer attached:

Test fit of lights:

R/H heater channel was not as good as it looked upon closer inspection:

On the upside I found an empty Hazet Tourist case in the spare wheel:

And some of the matching tools throughout the car:

Score :)

And my kids love it too:

Mon May 07, 2012 9:55 pm

The first mini project was the refurbishment of the gas tank. I didn't touch the inside as it looked ok. I rust treated the outside and painted it:

Seen as I was going to a daily driver and not a stock type car I obtained some seats that would support myself and my wife better than factory seats. This also means they could be placed at the best height for us. The only issue here in NZ is that you need to have aftermarket seats mounted on original runners unless you want to obtain a certification (I didn't!):

The biggest job was going to be the heater channels. At some stage the passenger side had been replaced so I only needed to do the drivers side. I toyed with the idea of just replacing the bottom plate but I quickly decided to do the whole channel after some closer inspection:

So off came the fenders and out came the engine in preparation of seperating the body and pan:

Sadly, there is always little gems to make a difficult job even worse. For me it was one of the car's previous owners who opted to weld the body the pan in lots of little places...

This meant I had to do some serious butchery to release the old channel:

The old channel was pretty bad, I am pleased I took the whole thing out!

Now an empty hole awaiting the new channel:

Mon May 07, 2012 10:07 pm

Most of my parts came from CIP1, and although I can usually get the sent to NZ faster than they would get to me in the US, there is a massive fee added on the each order. An order was placed around every two weeks to get the parts I needed. At this stage I have given fedex around $1500 usd... eeek!

While waiting for the new channel to arrive I carried on with some other issues.

I found this damage on the flywheel. I am guessing its a result of turning the key with the engine running and engaging the starter...or perhaps having a 6v starter on the 12v car:

Tranny housing looks ok though:

The pans are in pretty good shape with no holes so they were rust treated:

All the little rust bubbles were ground out and rust treated:

Also the cancer under the rear window got the same treatment:

I started trying to patch up the rear bumper bracket that was pretty wasted:

Mon May 07, 2012 10:11 pm

Woohoo Delivery Day!

New Channel against the old:

Ditto master cylinder. I opted to get a bus master cylinder as the direct connection of the tank seems like a better design to me:

Channel slotted in place:

And all welded in. No photos of this, its the first time I have welded so not photo worthy, but should do the trick:

Onwards and upwards!!

Mon May 07, 2012 10:21 pm

Because of a lack of reasonably priced used parts I decided to work with what I had to get the car on the road and look to replace them and decent ones become available used. This means I had to patch up the doors and fenders with bondo to keep the project moving along:

I also started applying body filler where needed:

I drained the oil from the engine to see how it looked...I have never seen such tar!

And test fitted the Dual Quiet Pack. Stupid EMPI shit... waaaay off center!:

New Shifter:

Also started on the wheels:

Mon May 07, 2012 10:27 pm

The next project was refurbishment of the speedo. It was looking pretty tired with the lights dull and faded:

I removed it and cleaned it as well and replacing the transparent light covers with some coloured plastic:

At this time I also stripped the rest of the dash and painted it:

All back together:

New tacho mounted under the ash tray and fire extingusiher mounted on the firewall:

Mon May 07, 2012 10:30 pm

Next I moved onto painting the rest of the interior:

And I finished up the inside of the car with some carpet. I cut it myself using the old carpet as a pattern:

And with the seats back in:

Ooooh She's alive!

Mon May 07, 2012 11:03 pm

The next job on the list was getting her lowered. Here in NZ your car needs to be higher than 100mm (4 inches) unless you get it certified. To avoid trouble from the law and keep it practical with minimal scraping I decided to shoot for this height.

I went against the grain and decided not to narrow the beam. I dont like the tucked look at all and opted to install adjusters and drop spindles to give me a drop, and then a degree of fine tuning to get the perfect height.

At the smae time I did the link pins and king pins. As this isin't a fance build and I gave all my spare money to Fedex I had to go low tech with the disassembly and building it all back up. I really wish I had a press!!

All in all, about 2 hours of sweating and cursing, I lost about 2 extensions and 3 sockets, bent the handle of a vice and had a pretty sore hand. Not a very good looking hand for a chef!

My Sister trying to make hard work look good

Next I moved onto the beam adjusters:

Not knowing how low the car would end up and needing to keep above 100mm I lost alot of sleep trying to decide if I should weld the adjusters so they only had downward movement or centered so the beam could go up or down 2 inches. In the end I did them so there was only down adjustment:

With the beam all done I became motivated to finish up the bodywork to an acceptable standard... just to get on the road:

Mon May 07, 2012 11:21 pm

Next project was to lower the rear, wasn't near as difficult as I thought:

It looks so low because the new front beam isin't in yet:

I did put on the new 145/15's though...

Quite a gap!!

Now just waiting for my local engineer to ream the king pin bushings, then the new beam can be installed!!

Mon May 07, 2012 11:33 pm

Beam is now ready!:

Ahhh thats better!!

And finally both our cars reunited and now road worthy!

Mon May 07, 2012 11:36 pm

Time for some glory shots!

Not too bad for 10 weeks part time work and a very modest budget!

A reminder of what she looked like before:

Mon May 07, 2012 11:52 pm

I took my first trip out of town today and found an issue after going to check everything over. I had a head stud pulling out. This led me to examine the engine further...

40hp engine number:

Strange markings, looks like a "WC" and a vw recycle symbol with a "3H66"

Yet 1300 manifold:

SO who knows what I have.....

Head stud that pulled out:

Meanwhile I searched for a replacement engine while I planned for a rebuild.

I found this 1641cc which I could have for free. It had been sitting for 20 years but worth a shot:

Looks like originally 1500 with bigger p&c.... the guy said something about a big bore kit:

Uh oh, engine was full of water...

Cleaned her up on the outside....

And took off the heads:

Then cracked the case:

Badly eaten camshaft and parts of the case:

I cleaned up the case and heads:

And then decided it was a No'go. I took most of it too the dump. I kept the heads and crankshaft and a few other little bits... Bummer

Still no engine, on a car that is now driveable... figures

Tue May 08, 2012 12:07 am

After several more weeks of searching I had to break down and buy a used 1500 with no guarantee...$1200... Of course the seller said it was rebuilt by the person he got it off only 5000 miles ago...hmmm
I also got a good deal on another header hoping it would be more centered for the dual quiet packs I had:

I got the engine in the car after spending some time grinding out the transmission to fit the bigger flywheel. After the engine was up and running it had a significant knock. The noise stopped when I pulled No. 3 spark plug wire. After some online consultation it was suggested to most likely be rod knock.

I was about to push the beetle off a cliff when I found a massive manifold leak... I guess this was causing the noise...Phew!

So I swapped over manifolds from my original engine and everything was sorted.

Woohoo!

Tue May 08, 2012 12:10 am

I have had the car running for a few months now but the exhaust drives me crazy being off center. So this months purchase was a ceramic coated euro style exhaust:

SO far i like the tone and the clearence is great!

Next on the list as they come up is replacement fenders, replacement smoothies and a bunch of other bits and pieces.

Stay tuned :)

Tue May 08, 2012 1:25 am

That was fast looking good though. Is it still registered ? makes life easy if it is

Tue May 08, 2012 6:15 am

nice work!

Tue May 08, 2012 7:08 am

Nice DIY job on the '66!

Mean looking color and stance :twisted:

Tue May 08, 2012 11:53 am

NZVWFAN, yup shes all wof and reg now, so all road legal.

She's a bit rough and not everyone is too impressed out on the streets but its still a work in progress. At least all the rust is dealt with.

I do like the stance, I would love to lower it some more but we shall see.