My 74 Body Off Restoration

[oasis]

63ziggy, if I had your skills, I'd be on my 20th dub -- perhaps my second wife, too -- but my 20th dub nevertheless. Great stuff.
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Now: 2003 New Beetle Turbo S / 1990 Single Cab Transporter / 2014 Tiguan R-Line 4motion / 2013 Tiguan S / 2002 Golf GLS TDI
Past: 1974 Thing Acapulco / 2009 Eos Komfort / 1997 Jetta GT / 2002 Cabrio GLX / 2002 Passat GLS / 1971 Super Beetle / 1993 EuroVan MV Westfalia / 1981 Pickup LX / 1985 Vanagon / 1986 Jetta GLI

[63ziggy]

Thanks for compliments. It has been a learn as you go experience. or should I say a lotta learn.

would love to say it's my S class.

long story, it is my young son's. He inherited from his grandmother (wife's side) when she passed away a couple years back. It's a 2000 model. One of those rides everyone would love to have (not being egotistical please don't take me wrong). All original, excellent condition, garage kept and very low mileage. One of those things and her request. My son and his grandmother had a special bond as he was her first grandchild and a grandson and they had no sons.

He just got his license. Don't worry. He gets limited drive time. It spends its time still in garage. She did prefer he sells it for college funds. Tough decision as we tried and no real offers ever came for over a year. We decided to bring it back home from dealer once he got his license.

He does shine the heck out of it almost every day.

And yes, it has taken some of his time away from working on our Thing project.

[Emeritusx]

[63ziggy]

yes it is bedliner in Grey. My interior seats will be gray with cloth inserts in fronts. wanted to go different than black plus I am in TX. Black vinyl is tough on the bottom and back.

[63ziggy]

Thought I out to bring our main posting up to date... been putting her together. Here we go:

New aftermarket taillights that delete the amber lens for a cleaner look, cheesy chinese plastic nut holders were a pain in butt once they rounded out. Went with stainless allen heads to mount. Also made pigtails for the harness to allow a quick disconnect feature in case of future adjustments or repairs.

New taillights

And pigtails for them

Broke down and bought a new assembly, and with minor adjustments its in place and works nicely now.

New Pedal Assembly

New reservoir installed, and extra L Bracket to the firewall for support just in case. Also installed new lines and installed repainted cover.

Brake Fluid Reservoir, lines, and cover

Cleaned the headlight buckets and sprayed them with Rustoleum brand aluminum paint. Turned out pretty clean.

Rustoleum Aluminum paint on headlight buckets

The horn received the same treatment. Pretty cool to hear a 35 year old VW horn blowing in your ear. Will be sure to use the OG in the case.

Again on Horn

Painted the turn signal bulbs with model paint, "turn signal amber", it was a lacquer paint. Definitely turned out nice looking, not many brush strokes, left a nice smooth coat.

Turn signal bulbs painted with "turn signal amber" model paint

My son tackled the headlight rings. 0000 Steel Wool then turtle wax chrome polish and never dull. They turned out real nice and those Hella's look brand new for 35 year old hardware. That said, one of the mounts on the ring snapped off upon mounting. Oh well, stopped progress for the day.

Nice, clean polished headlight rings

We also had the rivet the old headlight mount out of the old fender into the replacement painted one. Good support.

Riveting in the old headlight mount into fender

Up close

Turn signals were installed as well as pig tails for quick disconnect. Wanted to delete the amber lens, and went with clear turn signals.

Turn signal

Bucket installed

Headlights installed (before that ring snapped)

Again

Here was a little bit of homegrown ingenuity. We bought a electric windshield wiper pump from JC Whitney and installed it in the trunk to push the cleaning fluid. Does a pretty good job and a strong stream.

New windshield cleaning fluid electric pump and tubing

Again, just closer up

Thats it for this week, need to get a hold of another headlight ring so we can mount them properly and then onto, well, steering? roll cage? motor? wiring harness? who knows....

[mstatedog]

nice work!....when are we going to wake up and put tariffs on chinese crap to bring them level with the money we spend on environmental laws and wages...?....i'd better stop here, i could go on for hours about a country that has foreigners building our tank motors...etc...oh well....

dog

[63ziggy]

some updates. spent the day working on steering mods. 3" body lift steering mod as well as using quick disconnect steering wheel.

used buggy dual needle bearing steering shaft carrier encased in OG steering tube with og mount. cut down original shaft using double u-joint system. quick disconnect attached.

some minor tweaking to do and she'll finally have steering again. not sure if you could talk me into body lift again. lot of hours just thinking through, collecting parts and collecting more parts bcs others did not work.

will be worth it in the end....I hope.

hope you enjoy the pics.

[WD-40]

Did the collapsible section make it back in?
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"The new Volkswagen 1303. We've made so many improvements, they're beginning to show."

[63ziggy]

No it did not. generally designed to keep the steering shaft from becoming a harpoon. when struck from front. The double u-joint set up will collapse/fold up and "prevent" harpoon. It would be nice to have at steering wheel itself as original under all the plastic. no way to achieve that with aftermarket wheel.

[63ziggy]

thought would update, post some pics maybe tomorrow. Hit a lull in motivation and took some well needed time off from work for vacation.

got in gauges, tach, amp, oil pressure and oil temp. got the hole saws and drilled out dash panels. unfortunately messed one up and trashed the new paint job.

doing common look. 3 smaller gauges in 1 panel and larger tach in other. the difference will be that I am placing tach to right side of steering and other gauge panel with be on left of wheel. worked out for when working around original holes and addition of other switches etc.

added new GM style light switch in dash and windshield wiper switch and push button for electric washer pump. nice billet style knobs. added new key ignition switch in dash pod as well vs column as og column has been removed.

got messed up panel reprimed other day or should i say my son did. then painted tonight, small learn as you go paint work with auto sprayer and mixing paint. only a dash panel. came out good.

started the wire harness project. that is taking motivation. well labeled kit for beetle from Watsons Streetworks. newer GM style fuse panel, fuses etc.

starting from scratch has taking some thoughts.

got run from inside dash, down drivers front fender and into trunk. tied headlights, front blinkers as well as horn run and run for electric windshield washer pump. tucked up nicely and sleeved in plastic black accordian style conduit.

started rear run between lights and main harness run. still a ways to go.

[63ziggy]

heres a couple pics of dash panels. worked on wiring some more today. got wires run connecting rear tail lights etc together. all connections set up for quick disconnect in case of future needs. need to work on main run from engine bay along tunnel to dash. maybe next weekend. tedious task for myself on this rewire project.

need to get headlight dimmer switch and new horn button as well.

hope you enjoy the pics.

had to re-shoot this one as messed up during drilling process. practiced some weekend warrior auto painting. good thing only had one panel to do.

new tach, wiper switch on top with momentary for electric washer pump. new headlight switch below

2nd panel under primer before reshoot. new amp, oil temp and oil pressure gauges. also going with in dash new ignition switch.

[63ziggy]

Well today was one of those days.

took all day to get motivated on trying to finalize wiring.

discovered my deck lid took a spill off the cabinet. bent the top corner edge pretty good and fracture dthe paint. Yep, new paint trashed and new damage to deck lid.

gotta wonder sometimes if i am being sent a message by the Thing Gods.

looks like some minor straightening and some more self learning lessons with repaint of deck lid. Can't afford to take back the the shop that did spraying. it would be gone for months.

minor set back and moral buster

[locky]

Ooooh. As I read your last post, I found myself cringing. I feel for ya buddy. I haven't started on my body yet, but I have had a few of those "Messages" along the way. Like yesterday when the torque wrench slipped and I drove the fleshy part of my hand into a sharp piece of metal, and cut the $%#& out of it. Sometimes that stuff happens and you just can't believe it.
Keep on Vdubbin.

[63ziggy]

time for update

been messing with complete rewire with watson's Streetworks Beetle re-wire

It has been a long learning process. I changed all light assemblies, all dash switches, blinker assembly, fuse block, added gauges from tach, temp, amp meter, new dash mounted ignition etc. Nice kit, well labeled. My first adventure. Large learning curve. Kit is well designed if doing a straight swap and retaining original VW switches etc.

after several weekends off and on, my 16 year old got tired of playing. he has been working on it the past few afternoons. Tonight, we finally were able to celebrate. woohoo.

we have lights, brights and dim, blinkers, hazards, dash lights, wipers, reverse lights, power accessory port etc. all working. couple minor glitches and one tail light socket that needs addressing.

all and all, can't believe we have almost seen the final electrical re-wire.

pics show some of dash and new guages, lights working, wiring underway and one showing modified steering tube etc.

I am using aftermarket blinker assembly. i made a hard mount on tube so it will bolt up vs using hose clamp. I am using a foot dimmer from early models on lower rt side of tube. It can be activated by hand. steering wheel is quick disconnect. the horn button needs final wire. at this time, it is mounted in the spoke of the wheel. kinda of like a kill switch. it is easy to hit with thumb. planning on using headphone type coiled wire that can expand when wheel is turned.

added a power port accessory for cell phone charging. still have thoughts to do with radio and final hook up on gauges.

cleaned up speedometer and replaced deteriorated faded green blinker light cover/plexi. tested all bulbs before installing. added some bling red tip to the speedometer needle.

no motor yet. I wante dto get wiring sorted out and tested before moving that direction.

enjoy the pics.

[Chad1376]

I hate you.

I say this only because your Thing is turning out first rate and I'm jealous.
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My never ending 1302 Autocross Project:
http://www.shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=51&a...02b8f83f22

[wardvwracer]

Lookin good! Please keep posting updates.
_________________
David Ward
ACME Nostalgia Street/Strip '62 Buggy
1963 Single Cab
1969 Beetle Convertible
63 11-Window Kombi Bus
Cornpanzers

[63ziggy]

Chad1376 and Wardvwracer

appreciate the compliments

Chad1376, not too shabby of a project yourself. After seeing some of your build, I wish I had done a couple things different. maybe in the future.

will drop some more pics. tinkered all saturday cleaning up wiring etc. trying to keep from looking like a rats nest under the dash.

needed a little motivation. dropped in the front and rear seats.

My 16 yr old and I had to take an imaginary drive around the block.

actually first time we have installed seats since modifying bases and putting on covers. The ride height is great.

it is really started to look like it may be completed one day.

future cage to be built. another learning curve about to be embarked upon.

thanks again, helps keep me motivated

[63ziggy]

some more updates

installed rear seats
modified steering tube primered and painted as well as installed. steering all wrapped up now. will get pic of final ujoint assembly.

installed a lot of body trim this weekend, door pockets, door tops, complete body molding.

installed foot pads

did some cleaning after collection of dust and grime that has been building up in bedliner. pic of before and after clean in rear tray.

pushed her out of the garage for grins too wash off dust accumulation.

[63ziggy]

more progress over weekend

[Pierre G]