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Wed Nov 12, 2014 6:17 pm

I am going to start building my 57 Beetle over the winter and I am going to start with doing the brakes, where is the best place to buy the parts from? I am going to replace everything in the brake system and so far I am not having much luck finding places that sell the parts for the Oval Beetles.

Thanks
Jerry

Wed Nov 12, 2014 6:45 pm

Some shops will re-line the brake shoes but it's nice to get new ones if they are good quality, AirCooled.Net caries what is available for them these days but there are probably some part's houses closer than Salt Lake that have them. But AirCooled.Net know there parts better than most part's houses and may even offer some advice!

Wed Nov 12, 2014 6:49 pm

I am needing everything from the master cylinder to the shoes, I am replacing all the lines and everything the car has sat for about 10 years so there is nothing in the brake system that I will trust to be road worthy

Wed Nov 12, 2014 7:45 pm

Yeah, the flex lines to the front wheels fail at about 35 years so they may have already been replaced. I was using chains on my bug to get out of the driveway out in Colorado one winter day and a chain came loose and took out one of the rear metal lines. I wound up replacing them all the way up to the master cylinder because the fittings twisted off where they go off to each rear wheel. Not too big a deal though got it going that same day. Master cylinders tend to go out about every 10 years on the old bugs. Water gets in them and they get pitted. But if not pitted they can be rebuilt. Same is true for the wheel cylinders. It's important to use good rubber. Get German OEM parts where you can unless your going to disc brakes or something which is not a bad idea either. I have found that VW's and Porsches do better with Castrol Brake fluid than other common US brake fluids which I have had start things leaking and eat the rubber and the fluid turns dark. Other fluids being used for Porsches are "ATE" and "Pentosin" found on the Pelican Parts web site.

Thu Nov 13, 2014 9:32 am

Check wolfsburgwest.com. Last time I had checked a few months ago, they had oval era brake parts in stock.

Fri Nov 14, 2014 10:36 am

Original oval brakes is not up to date for todays trafic. I would at least consider to change to 58-64 mod brakes if you should change everything. Also cheaper parts.
Some say they give up to 100% more brake power.

Fri Nov 14, 2014 7:56 pm

Wolfsburg West - www.wolfsburgwest.com is one of the best VW parts suppliers. Great quality, service, and price. Sell most Oval parts

John at www.aircooled.net is great too.

Fri Nov 21, 2014 5:14 am

Kjell Roar wrote: Original oval brakes is not up to date for todays trafic. I would at least consider to change to 58-64 mod brakes if you should change everything. Also cheaper parts.
Some say they give up to 100% more brake power.

True, but the OP lives in a part of the US where people are not crazy drivers, and roads are good and it is flatter than you can ever imagine.

Well maintained stock brakes in Hoosierland are fine, driven with respect.

Sat Nov 22, 2014 1:35 am

Abscate wrote:

Well maintained stock brakes in Hoosierland are fine, driven with respect.

Since I cant always trust other drivers, I like good brakes. The beetle was made for, and partly became popular because, you could drive it flat out all day, all week, all year. I still use my oval that way (or more exactly, nearly flat out).

Been in a quite huge chain collision once (with my motorbike), I experienced that everything seems so fine, all of a sudden it was not... Things happened very fast.

So when driving with my family in the car on the highways, it became clear that better brakes was strongly on my wishlist.