Ben's 65 Notch Build

[bweiner32]

Hello everyone! I've been lurking on the forum for a few months now preparing for my next project. I picked up this 1965 Type 3 Notchback from a guy in AZ a few weeks back. It seems fairly complete, mostly rust-free, and is a functional driver. My goal is to return it to a higher state of glory.

Some of the details I have gleaned so far:

The Good:
The body seems straight enough, with a respray of the original Seablau paint starting to give…a few minor bondo areas that I can detect.
The motor is a dual port 1600 with dual Weber ICT carburetors - the engine starts right up, proper amounts of power, the transmission shifts well, etc.
The ball joints, and front shocks have recently been replaced, also recent front brake work including new front shoes, repacked front wheel bearings, new hoses and honed wheel cylinders (Everything seems right with the front end.)

The Bad:
The interior is a shoddy custom job - and the door panels (front and rear) are original but not for this car (from a later model Squareback possibly?)

The Ugly
The pans have been replaced with fiberglass pans, competently done, but fiberglass pans nonetheless.

So my idea for the car is to do a frame off restoration to return it to stock condition (I like the Seablau), possibly with the exception of the wheels - I have always liked Fuchs on a Notchback. Motor-wise, I'm thinking minor refresh of seals and gaskets, and a major clean-up and detail. Interior will need to be a complete scratch reboot back to something original-esque.

I have done a few rehabs before, mostly Mercedes and BMW, but never a frame-off. I haven't worked on an air-cooled since high school. My first car was a 67 bug that I returned to stock. I also had a 64 Squareback that I ended up walking away from (and sending to the junker) before I could get it running, which I have always regretted, and which is one of my motivations in purchasing this Notchback (karmic restitution for my sins as a youth.)

I consider myself a reasonably capable do-it-yourselfer and hack mechanic - but will definitely need the help of "those that have been before me" on this project. My goal is to do it right, but I also don't want to invest more that I can reasonably expect to get out. I'd like to keep the budget to a maximum of $15,000, and the timeline to 6 months. I'm around $6K in so far, including the cost of the car, shipping, manuals, and some minor expenses to get my garage ready for this. Looking forward to the experience, and making some new friends on the way.

A full set of pics is here:http://www.flickr.com/photos/49222413@N06/sets/72157631872764690/

The Starting Point

[EverettB]

It looks like a nice start, good luck with the new project.

The seats look super comfy.

The front door panels are from a 66-67 Type 3.
Z arm-rests but with the chrome strip down the center.
You should be able to sell those off when you return the 64-65 style panels.

Originally a '65 would have rubber floor mats on the floors with carpet on the sides. The mats are not available so you may want to re-do it all in nice German square-weave carpet.

Since it sounds like you are doing a lot or all(?) or the work yourself, I think you can do it for under $15K total.
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[chaosisme]

Looks like a good start.

Did you get this car from the guy who was selling two Sea Blue notches? It looks familiar?
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'65 1500 S [quareback]

'68 FI Sunroof Squareback

'70 Westy

OCT3 - Orange County Type 3's

[bweiner32]

[ataraxia]

[Bobnotch]

Looks like a good start. A nice car.
I think you should be able to do it for under 15K (or the 9K you have left in the budget), IF you do most of the work yourself. The paint and body portion will end up being your biggest expense though, and might not let you stay under budget, depending on who does the work (just something to keep in mind).

It looks like you'll be hunting down a bunch of little bits and pieces, since some of that is incorrect on the inside (like the fresh air controls and ash tray pull handle are from a 66). But most of that kind of stuff is available. Take a look thru my links in my signature. Granted they aren't specific for your own car, but they might help you out anyway. Spend some time in the gallery and on the 1500 club's web page, to find out what's correct for your car. You'll find doing the research will be a learning tool, to get things right (or correct), and you'll learn something along the way.
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Bob 65 Notch S with Sunroof
71 Notch ...aka Krunchy; build pics here;
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=249390 -been busy working
64 T-34 Ghia...aka Wolfie, under construction... http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=412120

[bweiner32]

Making some progress...pans are ordered and should be in soon. I will complete the disassembly this week (fenders and tank are all that are left) and plan to drop the engine next weekend. The plan is to have it to the soda blaster the week of 11/12. The fresh air boxes were a bear, but other than that disassembly was fairy straightforward. Biggest surprise was a minor area of rust on the drivers side where the wheel well joins the rocker pannel. Not major, but will need to be addressed. Also found out I have a donor driver front fender that didn't have a knockout for a side running light (or else the passenger side is the donor with the knockout.) I like the side lights, so the plan is to modify the driver side fender.

[NVNATIVE]

Looking damn good so far.....
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64' Notch (Notcho)
67' 13 Window Deluxe (Maxwell)

[bweiner32]

An update on my Notch build...it's back from the Soda Blaster, and while it revealed the PO's love affair with bondo, no major issues were uncovered. I have also dropped the engine and stripped it of the accessories, and liberated the frame from the fiberglass pans (watch for them in the classifieds for those who are fans.) The metal pans arrived last week, and the plan is to weld them in this weekend. I'm contemplating doing the engine rebuild myself, and would appreciate any opinions/guidance on that. It's been many years since I last rebuilt an air-cooled, but I'm pretty good mechanically, and can read, measure and follow instructions. I also had a great conversation with Gizmo Bob regarding grey mesh and correct interior specs for this car (thanks again Bob.) Thinking about Black paint with a Grey Mesh interior. Plenty of time to mull that over, as I think I'll be doing bodywork through February. Now for pics:

Blasted

The worst of the rust

Fresh Pans...Yummy!

Motor Last Week...

Motor Today

No more fiberglass below...

[vlad01]

[Yooyenkoo]

Looks in really good shape... sad they cut holes in the rear quraters to stick 6x9s back there but other then that keep up the work.
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"84 Vanagon
"81 Vanagon "Mini truck"

[really-whale]

Great notch! Doesn't look like you have too much rust to deal with, I wish I had the money / an excuse to replace the pans on my square.
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Pete - '67 Aust. RHD Squareback - Build Thread - Engine Thread

[bweiner32]

It's been awhile since I posted an update, but the build is progressing. At this point, the longblock and tranny are out for rebuild with my friends at Monkeynut VW http://www.monkeynutvw.com here in Charlotte. They are building a 1641cc dual-port, as we are looking to reuse much of my existing motor. They have their own photo gallery going at http://www.monkeynutvw.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=37090 for anyone interested in checking out the tear-down and rebuild.

I recently got the pan and chassis put back together, here are some before and after pics.

The body is with my metal man, Paul of Deluxe Hot Rods in Salisbury and he is working through the last gap and fitment issues, of which there were many. Hoping to be in etch primer in the next week or two, and to have the body back on the chasis soon after that. Some recent pics of that work:

The interior is here - an awesome looking TMI mesh red with red and white panels from the guys at ISP West. The seats bases and frames are at the powder-coater and will be assembled in the next few weeks. North Hollywood speedo refurbed my speedo and clock (converted the clock to quartz!) and I have finished rebuilding the brakes, replacing hoses and upgrading the master to a dual-circuit.

Pretty exciting to see things coming together, still hoping for a Springtime finish, budget on the other hand may go a bit over my initial target, but I think it will be worth it.

[Tram]

If you want to sell that 1967 dash, arm rests, and door panels that came in the car... PM me.
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Немає виправдання для війни! Я з Україною.

[EverettB]

Nice before and afters, thanks for the update.
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[MonT3]

Thanks for posting your build as it looks great! Looking forward to your updates.
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MonT3
67 Squareback
64 Squareback
63 Squareback
Engine rebuild
Trailer rebuild

[bweiner32]

So it's been several months since I posted an update, but things are progressing. It's been a busy couple of months for my family, shortly after my last post my wife and I put our house on the market and it sold in a week. The real estate market in Charlotte, NC is definitely coming back. With the sale of our home, I lost my garage & workshop, and had to put the Notch project on hold. I had the body and finished chassis in with a painter, and in April, after several weeks of unreturned phone calls and email messages, I learned that the guy (Paul the Bum at Deluxe Hot Rods in Salisbury) had skipped town. He left me and 6 other clients high and dry, most of us with our cars in worse shape then when we brought them in to him. I got off easiest, all he did to my car was rip out all of the wiring, and while he did steal my deposit, it was much less of a loss than what his other customers had to bear. I had to contact his landlord to arrange to take my Notch back, and was able to recover everything. It took me awhile to find someone else, partially because there just aren't many shops doing restorations at reasonable rates here, and partially because I was overly cautious after being burned again. I did finally found a great guy (Wayne Dickersen of "One at a Time Restorations" in Waxhaw) who did a fantastic job on the car. We ended up painting it Pearl White, and I got the car back a few weeks ago and really love the color. I was able to reconstitute my workshop in a flex space that is part of an old conveyor belt factory. The motor is coming together, and should be done in the next few weeks. Right now I am working on re-wiring, and getting the sound-deadening and body rubber installed. After that, I will start to get the new red-mesh interior installed, and by the time that's done I hope to have the motor ready for installation. I'm shooting for fall cruising - here are some recent photos:

I'm sure I'll be back posting questions - the hard part is about to begin, but I'm excited to be working on it again.

[drummerboycr]

Great Job!.
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-Porsche Fan -
- Notchback 1500S - SunRoof 64´-
-Super Beetle 74´-
-Rabbit 82´- Cabriolet -

[suruba]

wow that looks great!

did you decide to make the rear apron smooth? or is the white swallowing the contours of it?

Dave

[Brent]

You've done a great job with this build. Keep it up as it's looking great. More pictures!!!
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69 Fastback Build
Berg5 Build