TheSamba.com :: View topic - Bahama Blue 65

Tue Aug 26, 2014 8:40 pm

I picked up a nice 65 from the classifides here back in Febuary, it was close and in my price range. I have been away from the VW scene for a few years and this bug turned out to be the perfect VW to get me back in.

Here is the bug as I bought it, clean and mech. sound. After buying it I stopped for a photo in the nor cal redwoods on the way home. Not having had a VW for sometime, I just drove it and enjoyed it without doing much cleaning or detailing. I have put about 6 thousand trouble free miles on it, but it's time to show it some love.

I will post repairs/detailing of the car, saving/cleaning what parts I can, paying close attention to not remove all the signs of use, but to preserve them when and where possible. This is a daily driver, it will not be perfect, but will look much better after...lets get started.

Tue Aug 26, 2014 8:46 pm

Tue Aug 26, 2014 9:14 pm

Anyone who has ever picked up an old VW knows that the rubber is always toast, this bug is no exception. In even the lightest rain the windshield leaked in minutes, so I decided to start here. We carefully cut the old rubber, being careful not to cut into the paint. It was stuck good, but came out with some more cutting at the edge of the glass.

There was the typical dirt and some rust, but not too bad. I used 0000 steel wool and CLR to remove the rust and stains, it came out pretty good. I cleaned down into the defroster vents as far as I could, there is some rust at the edge, but it should be fine now that the wont be any more leaks. After cleaning, the area got a good coat of wax.

Tue Aug 26, 2014 9:19 pm

Tue Aug 26, 2014 9:27 pm

Replacing the windshield rubber and trim is NO picnic as many here can attest to, I didn't stop to take any pics as I was not having a good time, however it did go in with some help from a mobile glass guy. I looks much better, and will keep the water on the right side of the glass.

Tue Aug 26, 2014 9:36 pm

Tue Aug 26, 2014 10:58 pm

WOW, sexy car!! I have always loved the Bahama Blue ones in stock form!

Hard to find solid cars in the NW, especially not rusted out or poorly modified ones. Im surprised how clean that metal channel is. Any pics of interior or engine??

Wed Aug 27, 2014 1:27 am

Nice car! WOW, you must do a lot of driving to put about a 1000 miles a month on it. It must be your daily driver huh?

Wed Aug 27, 2014 6:46 pm

I pulled both bumpers off as well as the headlights, disassembled all and sent misc parts to the powder coater. The rear blade and over riders are in decent driver shape, the front blade and over rider are in bad shape. I straightened them the best I could and blasted all the flaking paint and chrome from the backside of the blades and gaurds, and painted them with some spray can light silver. They came out OK, but I am on the hunt for some better used origonals.

The bumper brackets and assosiated parts were powder coated silver, the color is abit off but all looks much better. The buckets and bulb ring were powder coated too, the light grey is abit too light, but they too look much better. I have seen several shades of silver, grey and pinkish grey on factory buckets, if I was doing a pan off, I would spring for mixed paint of the correct shades. Anyway here are the before and afters....more to come.

Wed Aug 27, 2014 6:51 pm

Wed Aug 27, 2014 6:53 pm

When I got mine, I removed the fenders and cleaned and polished the mounting flanges also. You'll be surprised how much dirt and crud was in between there. It looked similar to how your window frame looked.

Thu Aug 28, 2014 8:43 pm

Some more progress, you can see the differance in color in the headlight bucket, much more green. Did I mention that bahama blue is one of the best factory colors, well to me anyway.

I thought the bucket grey was abit light, after assembling them and getting them on they look just about right. The bumpers also came out pretty good, they are far from perfect but look fine for their age and will work for this driver.

I put on new blinker lenzes and rubber, the rubber needed some mods to get them on, but with some dish soap, bailing wire and trimming with the scissors they were on. I also found out that there is a differance in them, 64 to mid 65 take the ones with the small barb where they pop into the fender well, late 65-69 have a larger barb...hum

The car is coming along, more progress soon.

Thu Aug 28, 2014 8:50 pm

Fri Aug 29, 2014 8:58 am

That is a great survivor right there. I had a '66 Bahama Blue, great colour.

Well done.

Fri Aug 29, 2014 10:07 am

Nice! Bahama Blue is my favorite VW color. I'd still be driving my 66 if it hadn't gotten totaled last year.

Fri Aug 29, 2014 11:52 am

BEAUTIFUL car - I love it! Looks like it's cleaning up very nicely too.

Fri Aug 29, 2014 1:52 pm

Great looking car and you are soooooo lucky. Lucky in that your windshield channel is still intact. Usually with that much rubber deterioration the channel is gone. If only the cars when they were built new had silicone spray done to the rubber and more importantly to the channel itself. The silicone remains there forever until someone uses a cleaner and rag to wipe it away and water doesn't like silicone! Every time I buy a new car a couple of large cans of silicone spray goes in the bottom of the doors, all the place under the hood and deck lid and in all the drain holes including drain tubes in sunroof cars and cow area. if done properly will never rust!l

Tue Sep 02, 2014 7:15 pm

I will post pics of the engine and interior as I get to them, they do need attention.

Yes I do drive it alot, but hey, that's what they're for.

Baham blue has alot of fans, I sure like it.

The silicone spray, I will have to remember that...thanks guys.

I know I stated that this bug was a survivor, but I guess that any bug still around being driven is. This bug is that and more, it still has all origonal panels, the driver rear fender having the most damage, all paint is origonal. It has never been in an accident, and as far as I know the 75 grand is the origonal mileage. The running boards as well as the seat covers have been replaced at some point, more on them later.

I put the bug up on jack stands and removed the UGLY white wheels. I scrubbed the fender wells with a hand brush and some Comet cleaner. They were clean before, but look much better now, look at that factory paint. There is some road tar in all four, I will try some remover at another time to remove that...stay tuned, more to come.

Tue Sep 02, 2014 7:24 pm

Wed Sep 03, 2014 6:28 am

That car looks like it came from Arizona!
By golly keep it all stock.