Official Mexican / Brazilian Beetles - All years

[hopkin]

I bought it on eBay, I think I paid around $10. It was a used one from an old Beetle, but you get new ones at WW (also $10 US):

https://www.wolfsburgwest.com/cart/DetailsList.cfm?ID=111035313

Here's a cool VW VDO radio from Brazil. I'd like to see if I can find one of these

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1971 Super Beetle (past)
1971 Super Beetle (past)
1974 SunBug (past)
1972 914 (past)
1991 Honda Civic (Original Owner)
1996 'Open Air' Mexican Beetle (current)
2015 Golf (current)
2017 Dune Edition (daughter's car)

[Gerrelt]

I allready have a radio for this beetle. It's a Kenwood, and it doesn't have a CD player. It has an SD card slot and FM radio. We only listen to MP3's or the radio anyway, so this one is perfect for us. A benefit of "no cd player" is that the radio is cheaper and it's shorter.
And you made me curious on how the radio will fit, so I installed it (it was also a nice break from welding my passenger door ).
And it looks like this:

I think it's fine like it is. Yes, the creases are visible, but I hope they will still dissapear if the sun warms up the dash in the summer. If not, then I will have a look at the radio bevel.
Thanks for the link!
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[hopkin]

[Keith]

[Gerrelt]

[hopkin]

I had been thinking about adding an auxiliary reverse light to my car for a while. I wanted to get one that matched the Hella Rear Fog light that I already have installed.

I had searched for a while and finally found one on Amazon (in the UK):

I had this brilliant idea that the new reverse light would only I turn on if the headlights were on (and the car was in reverse).

A few $$ later I had a relay and some connectors. I used a fog light relay (PN 191941595) from an Audi and a relay plug (PN 161937501B) that would clip directly into the relay assembly at the front (no drilling).

Using Gerrelt's advice (thanks!); I tapped into the reverse light circuit by adding a piggy back inside the tail light assembly. In that way I did not cut into the existing wiring:

I threaded a new wire through the loom. I used blue to match the existing reverse light wire:

and a yellow wire from the light to a connector in the engine compartment:

I was able to thread the wires into the existing loom in the engine compartment (to the point where they go through the firewall).

At the front of the car I installed the relay:

onto the existing relay block (before):

You can see that the new relay (#110) does not look out of place:

As it turns out there was a connection on the rear fog light circuit (after the switch), so I tapped into that, (instead of the headlight circuit) to activate the relay. It was just a matter of changing the old style VW connector (1 to 1) with a 1 to 2. (No wires were cut, no holes were drilled for the job).

So now if the car is in reverse and I have the rear fog light activated, the auxiliary reverse light will also activate, otherwise only the stock reverse lights are on:

Here's a picture of the car without the lights on:

Finally, after 4 years, I have lights on each side and my OCD is satisfied
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1971 Super Beetle (past)
1971 Super Beetle (past)
1974 SunBug (past)
1972 914 (past)
1991 Honda Civic (Original Owner)
1996 'Open Air' Mexican Beetle (current)
2015 Golf (current)
2017 Dune Edition (daughter's car)

[Gerrelt]

Nice work! That looks like a factory install.
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[GArBa]

I was thinking to add a relay for the rear fog light, your setup is rather interesting
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cars:
'97 type 1 1600i
'14 type AA Seat Mii (sadly dead after 270.000 km)
'22 type C1 T-Cross
'23 type AC3 Hyundai I10 (VW no longer makes small cars!)
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moped:
'82 Benelli Magnum 3v

[hopkin]

[hopkin]

[Gerrelt]

Looks good Hopkin!

Now I have to join you guys.. I really don't like the yellow fog light swith too.
So, I looked around and I had an old hazard light switch, which had the red cap without a symbol on it.
And I swithed it:

Not as good looking as the Porsche one, but better then the yellow/orange one!
Removing the yellow one was harder then I thought..
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[GArBa]

hopkin: great look!

Gerrelt: the trick I used to remove the yellow cap was to lightly warm up the rubber part in my hands then gently pushing the cap out from the back using a chopstick while squeezing the rubber.

I don't know how vehicle inspections are in the Netherlands, but AFAIK in the EU the rear fog lamp warning light must be amber in color to be legal.

PS. weather is improving, this spring I'm preparing a big update on my brake reservoir issue and while I was at it I've also bought some new vredestein sprint classic tyres to replace the OE euzkadis which are starting to perish... 155/80R15 must be the hardest tyre size to come by nowadays.
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cars:
'97 type 1 1600i
'14 type AA Seat Mii (sadly dead after 270.000 km)
'22 type C1 T-Cross
'23 type AC3 Hyundai I10 (VW no longer makes small cars!)
-------------------------
moped:
'82 Benelli Magnum 3v

[hopkin]

[Gerrelt]

[GArBa]

[Gerrelt]

Ah yes, that's a bummer. The Italian rules sound almost as strict as the German ones. I didn't know that.
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[GArBa]

[Gerrelt]

I've got one more item for the category: "Modifications needed to use a 1972 floorpan under a 1996 1600i body"
It's a minor one, though..

I've come to the stage where I could put the rubber floormats back in. And, earlier in this thread, I mentioned that the handbrake and shifter is moved 4 cm backward on the 1996 floorpan compared to the 1972 floorpan.

Of course, this means the floormat's don't fit anymore, the rear one:

(BTW: the seatbelt holes line up perfectly! )

The front one:

The fix is easy, just cut 4 cm out of the floormats, and it will fit again. This leaves a gap of 4 cm behind the handbrake and shifter.
For the handbrake I used ducttape (on the back of the mat) to stick the front cut-out piece to the back, which looks OK.
For the shifter, I just cut it out along the oval shape that was allready in the mat. Which looks fine.

Another thing: I wanted to buy some velour floor mats, to go on top of the rubber floormat. But I discovered there's a problem. Most floormats sold today are for the pre-1972 beetles with the old style seat frames OR for the 1972 and later models with the 3 point seat frames.
I thought I could just buy these last ones. But, the passenger footwell mat is meant for the beetles with the footrest, like these:

The 1996 1600i didn't get this footrest (probably because of cost-saving).
So, do I need to get a footrest? Or could I use the pre-1972 front mats with 1972 and later rear mats..
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[hopkin]

[Gerrelt]

Those look great, Hopkin!
Yeah too bad he doesn't have them anymore. On the other hand, by using a footrest, I can user floormats that can be bought at every VW beetle shop.