TheSamba.com :: View topic

Fri Jul 24, 2015 10:14 pm

So hello everyone, I have finally gotten around to working on my '68 roller I picked up for $1200. Little back story on it, the guy I bought it from saw it sitting in a yard already stripped down and asked the then owner what his plan for the square were. The guy said he had it sitting for a while but the end plan was to stuff a V-8 into it so the guy I got it from told him he had some cash and would buy it from him right then. Quick exchange of title and cash, he went home with it that day and told his wife he would build it for her so they would have a his and hers. Few months down the road he cleaned it up and gave it a coat of primer and collected some small parts here and there but had to sell it. When I found it on the local CL he wanted $1500-$1600 for it but when he learned we both are military and worked on base together he dropped it after he found out what I wanted to do to it. I told him that it was not going to be a show stopper where it looks like factory or completely mod it out with a bunch of junk(personal opinion). When I saw it in person, I saw all the little imperfection and just loved the personality it had like that.

When I got it home I started stripping it to sand and primer (better/ thicker primer) and actually see all the "personality" (bumps/dings/attempted repairs) the car had.

I also went on a parts ordering rampage to get all the little bits an pieces I didn't have on the downer square

.....BTW this is the second square I got as the first was/is a bit beyond my abilities to fix though I have seen the skills on this site and am sure some of you would have little trouble with it. When all said and done I'll have a '73 rolling chasse with a grafted '68 front end for sale :lol:

Finally over a year later I have started working on it and trying to go slow with it so I don't get to crazy with it or my family trait of till later kicks in again. I went over the pans and found them to be in good shape, a few small pin holes in the battery area and 2 in the rear passenger floor. I busted up all the floor coating that was cracking and loose with a screwdriver so I could clean up any rust forming under it. Got that done and treated with some rustolium gray primer and laid some Dynamatting down to help reduce heat and noise.

my "go-fer" took some interest in helping me this go round too

(btw I know there is something wrong with him, its like 102 out and he has a beany on :shock: )

I was wondering if a windshield from a '73 would fit on a '68? I have all the other glass but that.

I have some more picks of the floor pan and a few items just tossed in to get an idea of how they will look/work together but have to shrink the size first.

P.S. IF there are any grammar Nazis (even if this is a German auto) please no need to remind me of how bad mine is, TRUST me I already know it's bad. :oops:

Sat Jul 25, 2015 7:34 am

Squareback_Joe wrote: my "go-fer" took some interest in helping me this go round too

(btw I know there is something wrong with him, its like 102 out and he has a beany on :shock: )

I've been told by my daughter that it is as it should be. Fashion over form - function - comfort - everything else.

Man, that thing looks exactly like one I had for a short time when I was in the military a couple decades ago. Same dents and everything. If you did get an engine with it and the rings are burnt up in it, then I call dibs on the sub sandwich that was left under the driver's seat.

Sat Jul 25, 2015 11:02 am

Was this one on cl in Arizona? I remember looking that one over if it was......the ad. Not the actual car.

Sat Jul 25, 2015 1:31 pm

Well schwim, if it's a fashion thing I hope he learns some fashion sense soon then. As for this possible being the one you had, if you still know the vin I could check it and find out. I think it would be kind of cool to find out also to get some more info on it's back round. Did you by chance cut holes in the floor to make room for a set of duel carb air cleaners? One of the PO's did that so I have to patch that up. Welding test for me, pin holes I can do no problem but long beads is a different story.

One4house yes this was an AZ CL sale.

Sat Jul 25, 2015 2:58 pm

Squareback_Joe wrote: One4house yes this was an AZ CL sale.

I'll be keeping an eye on this one. Looks like it is in god hands. I look forward to tracking your progress.

Sun Jul 26, 2015 8:20 am

Your '68 looks pretty solid, but all I can think about is the "I'll have a '73 rolling chassis with a grafted '68 front end for sale :lol: " :? Show us some pics of the '73.

Sun Jul 26, 2015 11:10 am

Squareback_Joe wrote: So hello everyone, I have finally gotten around to working on my '68 roller I picked up for $1200. ...When I saw it in person, I saw all the little imperfection and just loved the personality it had like that.

Got that done and treated with some rustolium gray primer and laid some Dynamatting down to help reduce heat and noise.

I was wondering if a windshield from a '73 would fit on a '68? I have all the other glass but that.

If you're planning on running the stock style seats, you're going to need to add the seat track pieces. Those get welded to the pan, which means some of your Dynamat is going to have to be removed. Mike probably has some pics handy that show the seat tracks (rails).

As for the windshield question, YES it'll fit the 68. In fact that's probably the only part on all type 3s (except the T-34 Ghia) that interchanges from 62 to 73. I know someone will say that the 72 and 73 got a slightly smaller windshield due to the plastic trimmed seal, but it was the seal that actually changed, not the glass.
I hope this helps.

Sun Jul 26, 2015 4:11 pm

Yeah, there are stock seat rails on the tunnel & the pans on '62-'72 Type 3's. Your '73 is one year only & different.

Tue Jul 28, 2015 4:34 pm

Well thanks to the tip on the seat rails from bob I went out yesterday to pull out items from the doner (the 73) and looked at the pan/rails/tunal. They look a lot like this pick Mike F. posted, is this of a 73 or 62-72?
[/quote]

Just today thinking of this picture and what I was looking at in the 73, it dawned on me either this has an e-brake someplace other than the tunnel or some PO removed it and welded a plate over the hole...:shock:. I wish I had started on this WAY sooner ](*,). I do not ever remember my bug's being this difficult #-o.

Tue Jul 28, 2015 9:04 pm

My pic is a '62-'72 version. Your other car is not a '73 if its seat rails look like my pic.

Tue Jul 28, 2015 9:24 pm

Squareback_Joe wrote: Well thanks to the tip on the seat rails from bob I went out yesterday to pull out items from the doner (the 73) and looked at the pan/rails/tunal. They look a lot like this pick Mike F. posted, is this of a 73 or 62-72?

Just today thinking of this picture and what I was looking at in the 73, it dawned on me either this has an e-brake someplace other than the tunnel or some PO removed it and welded a plate over the hole...:shock:. I wish I had started on this WAY sooner ](*,). I do not ever remember my bug's being this difficult #-o.[/quote]

What's the VIN on the tunnel?

Tue Jul 28, 2015 9:27 pm

Is the vin still on the flat area right under the back seat like a bug? Such a noob thing to ask but then again I am one to the T3.

Tue Jul 28, 2015 9:39 pm

Okay got the vin off the 73 and is 3612182741. I will have to use some paint thinner to get the one on my 68 as a PO strikes again and put a kind of under coating over it.

Tue Jul 28, 2015 10:03 pm

Squareback_Joe wrote: Okay got the vin off the 73 and is 3612182741. I will have to use some paint thinner to get the one on my 68 as a PO strikes again and put a kind of under coating over it.

3= type 3, 6= Squareback, 1= 1971.

It's a '71 pan.

Tue Jul 28, 2015 10:07 pm

okay, so he just dropped it onto another chasse. It is nothing they guy said it was.

Sat Aug 01, 2015 10:19 am

So looking at the rails in the doner, is there some easy way to remove them or is it just make sure you have a thin disc and cut it out as cleanly as possible. I would really like to pass on (sell) the '73 to someone with better skills than mine so they can get it going again so I don't want to destroy or mangle what would other wise be a good usable part.

Tue Aug 04, 2015 4:48 pm

So I was wondering if there was an optional e-brake location other than between the front seats. Looking at my tunnel I do not see a patch where it would have been. If you look at the 6th pic of my first post you can see the tunnel with just a blank spot where it would be.

Any info please?

Tue Aug 04, 2015 9:50 pm

I cut them out with a grinder & sawzall with 1-2" extra all the way around. There is NO other possible location for the emergency brake & the 2 cables back to each rear brake! In your case I would cut the emergency brake assembly & the 2 inner seat guides out as one tunnel section.

Wed Aug 05, 2015 7:14 am

Mike Fisher wrote: I cut them out with a grinder & sawzall with 1-2" extra all the way around. There is NO other possible location for the emergency brake & the 2 cables back to each rear brake! In your case I would cut the emergency brake assembly & the 2 inner seat guides out as one tunnel section.

^^^^Those are spot-welded to the pan^^^^^^^

Looks like some center-punch/drill/chisel is in your future...

Might just be easier to swap to your other pan at this point?
That way you will get to see if there is any rust in the bottom of the heater channels (common).

Sucks you got PO-ed like this.
PO hacks are some of the hardest to fix sometimes....

Thu Aug 06, 2015 7:26 pm

Okay, I cut out my side rails and cut/drilled my tunnel rails and cleaned up those areas on my pan to weld them back in. When I was cleaning for the rails on the tunnel I also checked the top for the E-brake I found it was just cut off and glassed over. Some PO's just suck. (pictures to come, at work right now)