VW Find

HRVW · Posted: Fri May 06, 2011 11:35 am Post subject: VW Find

Nice find by the OP.

Reminds me of yrs back when a lady called my shop wanting to know if I bought VW's. My answer was affirmative but would have to have a see first.

I was in a beach city and was given the local address. People were tenents at the house and the bug had been stored there by the house owner for a year.

Owner had the car for her young 17 yr old daughter. It had been newly painted. door jams, dash...real nice job. It had new wheel cyls and also new master cyl installed and parked with the hand brake on.

You guessed it...brakes froze.

Ok...price was right a $1000 and I got the okay to tow to my shop where she would give me the title etc.

Had to back off the brake adjustment stars and by pulling the car with my PU using a chain the wheels broke loose enough for me to attach a tow bar on the front after removing it from the one car garage.

Back at the shop I hosed down the minor dust to show a real nice paint job. Was not going to have a dirty car in my business.

Being a busy shop waited a while for a sat afternoon to access my next step. Being an engine builder i was anxious to hear the engine running.

1st step was to do a tune up on all the essential parts. Installed new 6V battery and checked for spk.

Engine was froze of course being by the beach. Poured some auto tranny fluid into the spk plug holes to soak the cyls/rings. Took a while to work the crank pully bolt back and forth until finally the engine was able to make a complete revolution or two.

Next step was to open the carb and check the inside bowl and clean.

Hooked up a bypass fuel hose from a can of gas into the fuel pump and cranked engine to see if the pump worked.

At this point I had spark for sure but pulled the coil wire and with the help of a 12V battery (disconnected the 6V) cranked over the engine for a few mins circulating the oil inside the engine.

Once the engine cranked over on it's own with the 6V battery I hooked up the coil wire...sprayed a few shots of carb cleaner into the carb and she fired up. Smoked like crazy of course from the trans fluid but after running for a while I shut her down. Pulled the oil drain to drain and check the screen.

Allowed to sit for a couple of days...replaced the drain plate with new screen...added new 20/50 valvoline oil and started her up.

As the smoke diminished the engine got lubed inside and got quieter as it ran. Allowed it to cool down and went thru the valve adjustment.

At this point I did the final redoing of the points setting and carb adjustment along with timing.

Happy with the engine running nice, since I'm an engine builder next step was the brakes.

Pulled all 4 wheels and replaced the new wheel cyls with another set of new ones along with the mstr cyl. Cleaned up the drums...packed the front wheel bearings...bled the system and she was a go.

Engine running nice...brakes working properly...next step was to check the fuel hoses and the gas tank before driving her around for a test drive down the industrial area I was in.

Car was a driver before being parked but caution is always needed...never take for gospel any persons word even if you think they may be honest. Over yrs I've heard many tales that boggle the mind.

Getting down to the gritty. Had $1100 invested in the car plus my own labor... now a nice driver...car sat in my shop not driven so I sold it for $1000 to a young kid about 20 ys old.

Why you ask?...Picked up a 57 356A Porsche that also had been sitting in a garage. It also sat for a while and I went thru the similiar work on it also. I'm a die hard of sorts. It also sat in my shop for a long time before I sold it to a Medical school MD to be.

Problem I had was being widowed...single for a long time and kept myself busy mentally and physically at my business 6-7 days a week working long hr days until I met a young going on 21 yr old customer with a 68 bug......

and that's another story (use your imagination)