My 1970 Bug's restoration thread

[Stuggi]

I'm buying a 1300 in a couple of days, and there are some things I want to ask about this car.

1) The owner tells me that it's been restored engine and chassi-wise 3 years ago.
2) It's been standing for 2 years because of unintrest.
3) He thinks that all it needs is a new distributor and a retapped oiltray-hole for it to run perfectly.
4) It looks all nice and clean from the pics I've seen, but since I'll have to drive 200km to see it, it would be nice if I could judge it there and then.

Here's a link to some pics:
http://www.nettiauto.com/viewVehicle.php?id_car=1561123
(it's a finnish carsite, but the pics should be kinda international )

What I'm really wondering is if I could just hook it up to my car's battery with some jumpleads and see if it'll run (since it has no battery).

Thanks again!

EDIT: I've renamed the thread, since I bought the car and now I have a lot of questions.
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1970 Beetle
1969 Panelvan

Orange VW Fest!
Pulled out of a Lake Fest!

[Bashr52]

Check the pan over good if it has been sitting in that grass for two years. Also, you are going to want to get the breast plate and any other missing engine tin on that thing ASAP too if you plan on driving it and not blowing it up. Pics look good, but you need more to go on than just those few.

[Stuggi]

[piemat]

You shouldn't be able to see the ground when you open the deck lid.

There is a piece missing that goes under the pulley and around those two hoses.
Also, in the pic its hard to tell, but it kind of looks like your missing the parts of the body that go beside the engine? It may just be some glare, but its looks like I see a big gap there by the heads.

And to answer the question about the battery... yeah, it might work. But I don't think it would be good for either car.

If its been sitting outside for two years, I know from experience, that:
1. it was parked for a reason
- the fact that its missing cooling tins, could be that reason.
2. its going to have bad gas
3. brake system will work.
4. it will need some carb. work

So, in the event that it does start, it wont be running decently.
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Same Questions, Different Day.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/search.php

[Stuggi]

Okay, so now I have it at home on a trailer outside my house, and here are the things that are wrong with it and which need fixing:
1) I don't have any keys for the doors or the engine bay.
2) The signallight switch is hanging under the dashboard
3) The hinges for the enginebay-lid aren't installed, and might need some rebuilding/painting.
4) The enginebay shrouds aren't installed and need some brushing and painting before they look allright.
5) A part of the chrome-sidetrim needs some crimping before it'll stay on properly
6) The steeringwheel needs some assembly.
7) There's some rust on the doorsteps, and a hole in the rubber.
8] The roof inside the car has some flaky paint on it, might need some touchup or scrubbing, depending on what I decide.
9) The headlights aren't installed since the owner didn't want to risk breaking them, but they just need to be screwed inplace, the wires are still connected (he put them under the hood)


Otherwise, the car has a lot of strong points:
1) Engine looks flawless, and I have a receipt from the shop that did the enginerebuild 2004. It was taken apart and sandblasted last spring, which was the last time the engine was running.
2) The orange paintjob is great, semidull, but I'll maybe buff it up to a gloss paint.
3) The seats and interior is in great condition, red plusch seats and balck interior. The steeringwheel and dashboard is in original condition, which is very nice since most of these old cars here in Finland are pimped out with a steel dashboard, rally wheel and racing seats.
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1970 Beetle
1969 Panelvan

Orange VW Fest!
Pulled out of a Lake Fest!

[DrDarby]

Let me give you a small bit of advice. If the engine rebuilder left all the tinwork off and installed the engine the way it is the only thing the reciept is good for is to light a fire. Anyone with even the slightest hint of VW knowledge will tell you that VW didn't spend millions developing cooling tin just to be left off. If the engine has been run this way you may as well consider it needing to be rebuilt or scrapped. I'd question any work done to the car just based on the fact the engine is only half there. At the bare minimum the engine now has to come apart fully to see what kind of overheating damage has occured, correct it and install ALL of the cooling tinware.
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Midwest Autosavers, Inc. Woodstock, IL

[Stuggi]

The tin was in place until this spring when it was removed for the engineblasting, and the owner didn't bother to put it back in. The car hasn't been used in 2 years, so it had it's tin until a half year ago!
_________________
1970 Beetle
1969 Panelvan

Orange VW Fest!
Pulled out of a Lake Fest!

[DrDarby]

If the engine has been driven more than in and out of the garage with no tin in place I'd consider it damaged and wouldn't trust it. I won't even start an engine on the test stand without full tin and a thermostat.
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Midwest Autosavers, Inc. Woodstock, IL

[Stuggi]

Well, all it was driven during that time was in and out of the garage, since it haven't had any plates for 2 years (I've checked ). I'm going to sand down the tin and repaint it and then reinstall it.

What's this thermostat you're talking about? What does it look like, and how do I check if mine's got one?


BTW, upon closer inspection some problems revealed themsleves:
1) There's some rust on the sidepanels and the paintjob on the left door is all cracked in some places.
2) The windows seals are cracked and need replacing.
3) The interior has some torns in it which I'll have to fix somehow.
4) The rear engine compartment lock looks like it's been busted open with a screwdriver, so I'll have to replace that one aswell.
5) The left door isn't hanging properly, do someone here know a good way to fix it?
6) The sumpplug isn't really fitting properly, so I'll have to replace that aswell
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1970 Beetle
1969 Panelvan

Orange VW Fest!
Pulled out of a Lake Fest!

[piemat]

Are bugs hard to come by in Finland? I'm just skeptical about this car, it sounds like there are things the owner is not telling you. It should be in much better shape than you describe.

I'm not trying to say that I've never bought a car that didn't need work. Just that you should be aware. On the other hand, working on the car is the best part... sometimes.
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Same Questions, Different Day.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/search.php

[Stuggi]

Bugs aren't that hard to come by, they are just expensive. Anything that passes the MOT-thingy in Finland costs well over 1000 €, and anything that's in good condition costs a couple more grand. I think it has something to do with the post-WWII decades here in Finland (we where under Soviet sanctions well into the 70's....
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1970 Beetle
1969 Panelvan

Orange VW Fest!
Pulled out of a Lake Fest!

[Stuggi]

Okay, these are the engine and chassie codes:
Engine s/n: F1211807
Body s/n: 1102655097

My car says 1300 on the back, but according to some charts a car with a body s/n like mine should have a 1600 engine, and the engine code states that the block has been replaced.
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1970 Beetle
1969 Panelvan

Orange VW Fest!
Pulled out of a Lake Fest!

[Stuggi]

Could anyone confirm my findings? And maybe give me some advice on how to check the engine volume?
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1970 Beetle
1969 Panelvan

Orange VW Fest!
Pulled out of a Lake Fest!

[Stuggi]

Noone?

Anyhow, I installed a new battery today, a Varta C10 if someone's interested. It went in smoothly, which made me happy since it's bigger then the original battery.

I then continued with trying to fire up the engine, which didn't work, it only made a loud sound. I checked the carb, and it was getting gas (gaslines have been restored in the rear) when I pulled the throttle. I then notice some drops on the carb mount, I don't know if it was gas or something else...

After all this I decided to pull out one of the sparkplugs (I think it's #2), and it had carbon deposits all over it. Every single square mm of it was covered in a ½mm of carbon.

So what should I check and replace next, besides all 4 sparkplugs?
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1970 Beetle
1969 Panelvan

Orange VW Fest!
Pulled out of a Lake Fest!

[DMC-12]

Timing for one. Lean your carb out a little. Soot means you're running rich.

Also, beware the bigger battery. If someone sits in the backseat, their arse may cause the seat springs to come in contact with the battery posts. There are many threads from sad owners whose bugs have caught fire this way.
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"Unpimp ze auto"
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1974 Orange Thing Daily driver/Rolling resto.
1981 DeLorean DMC-12

[Stuggi]

The battery is a low profile, so it clears the backseat. It just has a bigger footprint than the original battery.

I'm going to install a 009-dist. so I can restore the original properly.
How do I go about "leaning the carb out"?

An other thing I want to check is the fuel filter. It's behind the right front wheel isn't it? (I want to make sure since I'll have to roll out the car to get better access, jack it up, and remove the tire to get this done....
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1970 Beetle
1969 Panelvan

Orange VW Fest!
Pulled out of a Lake Fest!

[Stuggi]

Okay, I've replaced the sprakplugs, tomorrow I'm going to rewire the distributor and coil cable...
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1970 Beetle
1969 Panelvan

Orange VW Fest!
Pulled out of a Lake Fest!

[Stuggi]

I rewired the carb, coil and distributor, and now it runs perfectly! I'm happy!
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1970 Beetle
1969 Panelvan

Orange VW Fest!
Pulled out of a Lake Fest!

[Stuggi]

Okay, a lot have happened in the last few days.

1) I've replaced the faulty lock, and reinstalled the hidges for the engine lid.
2) I've cleaned of all the crap from the windows (masking tape, toning film etc.)
3) I've replaced the 001 distributor with a 009, and it runs smoothly now!
4) I've adjusted the timing and the carburator
5) I've adjusted the front lid lock.

AND,
now I have a lot of pictures!

Bringing it home:

Standing on the front porch:

_________________
1970 Beetle
1969 Panelvan

Orange VW Fest!
Pulled out of a Lake Fest!

[Stuggi]

Okay, small update:

I've stripped out the seats, so I can sort the rust behind the back seat, and at the same time I started to remove the aftermarket swedish seatbelts that were butt ugly. At the same time I noticed that one of the upper seatbelt bolts had a stripped head, which I tried to remove with a bolt remover, which broke . I then sawed of a small portion of the head so I could tap it out with a hammer and chisle, but that broke loose the bolt inside the B-pillar. After all this I was able to see behind the fixing, which showed why the bolt didn't break off, it was welded in place. So now I'm going to grind of the head, remove the fixing, and somehow repair the bolt, so I can install new proper seatbelts.

I've also lubed up the front torsion bars, and I'm renewing the zerks tomorrow.
_________________
1970 Beetle
1969 Panelvan

Orange VW Fest!
Pulled out of a Lake Fest!