My 65 Notchback project

[T3+4_Mike]

Well I figured out why my phone was taking such crappy pics. Gues I should have taken the protective film off before I put it in its case Much better quality now! Altho that might be a bad thing as now you can actually see what I'm doing

MonT3 thank you. I only cut out what I had to and luckily the outer edge of the pan was salvagable. I did have to replace one section in the front and patch a few smaller holes tho in the outer rail. I didn't even touch the seat mounts either which I am glad I didn't have to. Your Squareback is turning out awesome and I can't wait to see it finished! I'll be in for the same challenges when I finally got to rebuilding mine. I'm just waiting for a garage to be able to work in to do her the right way.

Bobnotch Thank you and it has been fun trying to cut and shape them to fit but it wasn't to bad. I've been picking away at it a few hours a day when It has been nice out. I'm on hold again now tho as its suposed to rain the next couple of days and they are talking an inch of snow Tuesday night I don't know about you but I've about had enough of winter this year! I'm planning to have at least the chassis done and drivable by the weekend weather permitting. Then I'm going to set the body back on and make the rest of her drivable. I'll slowly pick away at the body fixing the little spots over the summer. Then come fall I'll pull the body off and take care of the major rust. I'd like to do it all now but the owner would like to be able to drive her this summer At least it will give me the summer to improve my welding skills on other things like my Jetta and the chevy before I tackle the rest of the Notch. I'm definitaly going to have to do what you did MonT3 with the heater channels as even tho they look solid I found some bad spots once I removed the pan gasket.
Anyway here are the pics from today. Next mission is to clean up the welds finish off the rear seat mount/ kick panel, close up the tunnel, weld in the nuts for the rear subframe cover, strip the rest of the pans of rust and loose paint, then paint them and undercoat them

Now that the pictures are clearer do you still think it looks good
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1 rusty low vin-ed 1967 squareback- very long restoration project
1973 412 4-door sedan, basket case to say the least
1967 fastback, rat rod build
1969 fastback,
1965 Notchback, The mother's summer car now! http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=477439
1986 Jetta Diesel 5spd, Was the beater, now currently undergoing an overhaul
1995 Chevrolet Caprice, The daily driver and tow rig

"You say it's rotted out, I say its weight reduction, better fuel economy "

[MonT3]

Looks really good. Lined up and tied in nicely Bobnotch recommended re-enforcing the brackets in the tunnel for the clutch cable and shift rod. Not sure if your opening would give you that kind of access but if it's available. I took his advise since I have three opening on mine. Keep it going and do what you can until you have your garage place hooked up.
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MonT3
67 Squareback
64 Squareback
63 Squareback
Engine rebuild
Trailer rebuild

[Bobnotch]

[T3+4_Mike]

Well, not much new here. Between the weather and yard work I haven't done much. Bob I did weld the pans in solid since. I just havent done the bottom of the rear seat mounts yet. Still thinking on how I want to do it so it doesnt look to hacked. Since its only been in the 50's and still lows in the 20's-30's I've put the pans on hold for now as the next time I get to them I want to be able to finish them. Welding whats left, stripping and painting them. But its still to cold to paint so I moved on to the trans for now.

Mont3 for what it is I guess it didn't come out to bad. I wish they were OE pans but I already had these for 10 years and I just couldn't warrent spending the money for the new ones. The budget is already tight as it is and I'd rather spend it where I really need to.
Before I weld that hole up I'll check everthing out in there for sure. the tube felt pretty tight but it definitally doesnt' hurt to be safe. I'm also thinking while I have it opened up I may try to sneak in a couple fuel lines thru for the future FI if it is possible.
Bob as soon as I'm able to a gas kit is on the must purchase list

Today I dissassembled the transaxle that I'm guessing is original? (stamped number 686376) to the Notch (Vin 31519888). I have an AH trans that I'm swapping over to swing axle to replace it. Taking apart the old transaxle I found the axle spacer on the driverside shredded. I did notice that the bottom half of the outer axle flange cover's gasket was missing. This is the same side she had been hit on at some point so I'm guessing the axle tube was damaged and it had been changed. Not the entire transaxle like I had thought. Would that missing part of the gasket be the cause of that spacer being shredded like that? I saw something about shims being in there but I didn't see anything on either side, just the paper-like gasket. The Passenger side still looks brand new and the gasket was all still there. I guess a trip to John's in VT is in order Saturday for a new one. this is a picture of the spacer I'm talking about. I hijacked it from the gallery as I didn't think to take any pictures today.

One other thing I did was took some measurements from fixed points in the rear, and managed to figure out that the rear clip is still "in" a 1/4" on the driverside. Before I do any rust repair or even think about hanging engine hangers back there, I'm going to have to hopefully get it pulled out. I want to try to get it at least a little bit better than what it is now. It is highly noticable just looking at it. The rear hatch doesnt line up with anything, and if you bolt the driverside fender on where it "should" be lining up with the door and rear apron it bows out over the tire. My buddy who owns the white 65 ragtop bug in one of the pictures I posted co-owns a body shop in town so I'm going to talk with him and see if its fixable and if he can pull it for me. But before any of that can happen I gotta get her running and back together again so she can go to the body shop and drive onto the frame machine.
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1 rusty low vin-ed 1967 squareback- very long restoration project
1973 412 4-door sedan, basket case to say the least
1967 fastback, rat rod build
1969 fastback,
1965 Notchback, The mother's summer car now! http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=477439
1986 Jetta Diesel 5spd, Was the beater, now currently undergoing an overhaul
1995 Chevrolet Caprice, The daily driver and tow rig

"You say it's rotted out, I say its weight reduction, better fuel economy "

[Bobnotch]

[T3+4_Mike]

Still battling the cold weather. You would think by now it would just stay at least above 55. I'll even take 50 But nope, still 30s at night and lucky to hit mid 60s during the day. Today every time I uncovered the pans to strip them it would start to rain. Cover them up and go inside it stopped. After a few tries I gave up. I did manage to go pick up a small box of goodies that have been stored away for 30 years or so. I've also gotten one side of the pans in primer and one half of the other side stripped over the past week. I'm hoping tomorrow I'll be able to get the rest of it stripped and at least all of it in primer.

Bob last weekend my buddy stopped by to check on the, well, progress. I showed him the accident damage and he said it can be pulled. He said since I plan on painting it anyway we can weld pull tabs to the body in spots and pull it that way. It looks almost like that car had crumple zones designed into the body and that is where it looks to short. It is hard to see but if you look close in the pictures of the engine bay and the one of the wheel well you can slightly make out where it is wrinkled up.

As for the trans yes I believe that it is the fulcrum plate I'm looking for. I've seen it called a few things now from that to a daisy plate. As far as using the AH beetle trans with the T3 hockey stick, well that is out now. The only way to safely convert an IRS trans to a swing axle trans is by tearing it down and using the ring gear from the swing axle in the irs trans case. This has to be set with a special tool which is something a trans shop should do which I'm not up for doing right now. In the future once I get the T4 engine built I'll have a trans shop go thru one for me and add a 3.88 ring gear to it. She'll be a nice cruiser then
The original Trans was fine just me being me I wanted to add reverse lights, and I didn't want to hang a T4 motor off a trans that has been cleared out for a 12v flywheel. I know it should be ok to do it tho as many people already have. Plus I'm going to be running a stock bus flywheel (it has had the bearing installed in it) and I don't know how much more if any will need to be cleared out of the 6v bell-housing to fit the 210mm/215mm clutch set up. It will however slide right into the 12v one which is another reason why I wanted to swap to the newer AH trans.
As far as adding the reverse lights switch. I should be able to swap nose cones from the 71? AH bug trans to the original Notch's trans correct? Obviously keeping the T3 hockey stick. When I rewired the rear I added provisions for reverse lights. I'm adding them for more of a safety thing then anything. Well, at least one anyway, the other side may end up a fog light, I'm not sure yet.

I'll get picture of the pans once I get them in paint! I'll be busy the next few days on her trying to get her back together. I wanted to be able to drive her for mothers day but I guess that's not going to happen

For some good new, my mother picked the colors she wants when it comes time to do the body. After going back and forth with a few colors. A couple different browns, a VW Titian red (my Jetta's future color), a nice burnt orange, and a couple greens all two toned with a white roof. Well not wanting to have to change the registration from brown (even tho its easy to do ) she settled on the Porsche Macadamia Brown Metallic, with the cars original Pearl White with a gold metallic added to match the brown for the roof. I'm going to have a local shop mix up a spray paint can of the Macadamia for me so I can add some custom touches to the T4 motor, and to get a good feel for the color. Even tho I like the color if it were mine I would have gone with the VW Titian red and the Pearl White roof, but hey, I'll save that for my fastback I know some people were bashing on the color as there was one that made the whine section from the classifieds at one point. But o well When in the sun it is only a few shades lighter of a brown then the current color the PO painted her back in the 80's, plus its not there's its hers so...

Alright and for something a bit off topic. My buddy with the body shop, (unfortunately it was before I started hanging around there) had a black '64 Notchback 1500s with a sunroof. By the sounds of it it was in ok shape, mostly there, but needed a full restoration. He sold it to someone in New Hampshire I guess sometime between 2007 and 2010. I was just seeing if anyone out there recognizes this and may be the person who bought it. I'd like to think its still out there somewhere! It was sold from North Central MA on the NH boarder. And also if anyone reading this from the Arlington, VA area might recognize the fine specimen of this build thread I would love to hear about her history!If anyone has information on either one please PM me!
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1 rusty low vin-ed 1967 squareback- very long restoration project
1973 412 4-door sedan, basket case to say the least
1967 fastback, rat rod build
1969 fastback,
1965 Notchback, The mother's summer car now! http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=477439
1986 Jetta Diesel 5spd, Was the beater, now currently undergoing an overhaul
1995 Chevrolet Caprice, The daily driver and tow rig

"You say it's rotted out, I say its weight reduction, better fuel economy "