Restoration of our 66 Bug in Arizona

[vw_romania]

Very nice! What color is it?

[AZ66Bug]

Thanks for the feedback Cusser. Having never owned or driven a beetle I'm not sure what a driving experience would tell me However, we will keep that offer in mind. Glad to hear that you are happy with the single center.

Relative to DP, what has been your experience on the durability of the rubber connectors on the intake manifold. My sons is fretting over that and the fact that you have to take quite a bit of the engine apart to change them out. How often have you needed to replace them under PHX conditions? ALso, are Weber 40DCNFs still available? Thanks
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66 Beetle Sedan, restored 2014
66 Mustang: Original Owner, restored 2008
66 Ford F250: 4th Owner, restored 2013

[AZ66Bug]

[Cusser]

[AZ66Bug]

Well, I did have a high school friend with a 60's beetle and a college roommate with a 50's beetle, but never drove either. Do remember is was interesting heading up I-70 west out of Denver in the 50's model and wondering if we were going to have to get out and push it up the hill

More thinking on the engine. That Weber 40 is actually a two barrel progressive - is it not?
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66 Beetle Sedan, restored 2014
66 Mustang: Original Owner, restored 2008
66 Ford F250: 4th Owner, restored 2013

[AZ66Bug]

Been a few weeks since we posted and the progress continues. About a week ago our painter was color sanding the 5 coats of single stage PPG Agave Green. For the last two coats he mixed in clear coat for some extra sheen! Today is was all finished and ready to load. We rented a "14 foot U-haul to get her home. We knew a 12 foot trailer was not good enough from past trips. Turns out the 14 feet includes the little over hang above the cab!! False advertizing Well, we still manged to get her in by angling the body and stacking all the other body panels in and around. Made it home without incident and got her set up in the garage.

We got the seat frames blasted and painted. Still working on the lower front seat frames that will show - want to get those looking good so doing a little "body work" on those still. Painting a bunch of little parts and got a few others off to my chrome guy in Tucson (blinker lens covers, radio bezel).

Got a motor - sort of Dan at CE found us a nice 1600 DP from a van. We tore it apart yesterday and it is mostly usable. The block may need to be line-bored and the crank might need a little work as well. Cylinder heads will get rebuild and it will need new lifters and cam. Still, the price was right and it will save us money for all the other parts we still need!

Running out of room in the garage and so things are spilling over to the den. Getting crowded there as well. Hope to have the motor back and ready to put together by next weekend.

Oh yeah, got the wheels back from powder coating - came out very nice.
More to come.......

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66 Beetle Sedan, restored 2014
66 Mustang: Original Owner, restored 2008
66 Ford F250: 4th Owner, restored 2013

[Rome]

Beautiful color choice! And I'm thrilled to see the stock color scheme on the 356 wheels! Most people will not notice this subtle treatment compared to the stock wheels.

[AZ66Bug]

Yea, wasn't sure how that was going to look on slotted wheels. Looks great on smoothies. We mocked one up as best we could and were pleased so then we got them powder coated. I was actually suprized they could do a two-tone PC. Given the process its hard to imagine how that works. They would almost have to bake it twice.
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66 Beetle Sedan, restored 2014
66 Mustang: Original Owner, restored 2008
66 Ford F250: 4th Owner, restored 2013

[gt1953]

Nice colour cannot wait to see the car in person at a show sometime.
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Volkswagen: We tune what we drive.
Numbers Matching VW's are getting harder to find. Source out the most Stock vehicle and keep that way. You will be glad you did.

72 type 1
72 Squareback
({59 Euro bug, 62, 63, 67, 68, 69, 73 type ones 68 & 69 type two, 68 Ghia all sold})

[AZ66Bug]

ITS A CAR! Well, sort of

Got the body mated to the pan. Most of the holes lined up just fine; some others were a little challenging but we got her together. Did a test fit on the front fender and wheel. The 5.5 x 15's we were hoping to use are not going to work in the front. The tire sticks out beyond the fender and doesn't look right. Even with just the wheel and no tire, the wheel face is a little proud of the front of the fender and right on the edge on the rear of the fender. We are going to hunt down a couple of 4 x 15 slotted wheels. Luckily we thought this might be a problem and did not have all four 5.5 wheels powder coated. We also decided to go a little more classic on the tire and will run some Coker American Classics with the 3/4 inch whitewall (http://www.cokertire.com/165r15-american-classic-3-4-whitewall-tire.html). 165R15 in front and 195/75/15 in the rear. Should look sharp.

Found a few little areas (underneath the rear window, where the heater ducts run in the side wells of the trunk) where the painter did not get coverage. We applied a little rust encapsulator to those areas.

Got some of the rubber installed in the engine bay and the trunk.

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66 Beetle Sedan, restored 2014
66 Mustang: Original Owner, restored 2008
66 Ford F250: 4th Owner, restored 2013

[mark_85226]

The car is coming along great... can't wait to see it finished!

[AZ66Bug]

Finished up the front suspension - finally - after getting the steering column installed. Got the fuel tank installed and plumbed. Finished the master cylinder set up and did a final bleeding on the brakes. Starting to work on adding sound deadening to the roof and quarters. Also started to put the dash together a little more and to get going on the wiring. Decided to go with upgraded gauges to give us a better way to monitor the car. We are converting to 12v from the stock 6. That meant all new relays, switches, wiper armature, etc..

The biggest news is that the motor is starting to go together. We are doing a 1776 DP starting with a 1600 DP long block that we got a good deal on at Competition Engineering. We took it completely apart and the shop did a line bore, rebuilt the cylinder heads and polished the crank, which was already 20 over on the rods. They fixed us up with all the necessary parts and we started to assemble it today. So far we have the case together and have re-installed all the studs. The cylinder and pistons will go on tomorrow so we can measure for the combustion chamber size and get the proper shims. Also got the distributor and oil pump installed. We are going to do a full flow pump and filter. Going to run a dog house cooler. More parts are on order to complete the build - hopefully by next weekend.

[
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66 Beetle Sedan, restored 2014
66 Mustang: Original Owner, restored 2008
66 Ford F250: 4th Owner, restored 2013

[AZ66Bug]

We were mocking up the tin today and found the repro and original parts do not play well together. Definitely need to get some original DP cylinder covers and maybe a new original small pulley tin. The one we have was on the 1200 we found in our supposed 1300 66 and does not seem to match up to the larger pulley piece that goes across the back of the motor, a 66 piece which we picked up at a salvage yard in Phoenix. Got a repro (probably an EMPI) dog-house shroud and hope that does not give us fits as well. Know we need the Hoover bit for the EMPI and maybe more. We may find that all this mix and match is going to be a major headache!
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66 Beetle Sedan, restored 2014
66 Mustang: Original Owner, restored 2008
66 Ford F250: 4th Owner, restored 2013

[lawn ninja]

Tin can be a slight headache if you can't source all german or even the mexican stuff.
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Jason

My 64 1500 S Notchback project here
My 58 sedan project here
My 63 Ghia here

[AZ66Bug]

Got an original set of DP cylinder tins heading our way from CA and hope that solves a few problems. Our long block also came with the original "Cool-tins" from a Type 3. Did a little research here on Samba and got all sorts of opinions - as usual . I asked one local bug engine builder here in the PHX area and he said there is absolutely no problem in going with these cool-tins in place of the little square plates that are stock. Competition Engineering told us the same thing so I think we will proceed with those. The originals we had from our 1200 are too small anyway for our 1600. Hope to get 3 and 4 cylinders installed tonight. Its beginning to actually look like an engine
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66 Beetle Sedan, restored 2014
66 Mustang: Original Owner, restored 2008
66 Ford F250: 4th Owner, restored 2013

[AZ66Bug]

Oh yah, and a Hoover bit on order as well.
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66 Beetle Sedan, restored 2014
66 Mustang: Original Owner, restored 2008
66 Ford F250: 4th Owner, restored 2013

[AZ66Bug]

Lots more progress since we last checked in. Finished the motor build - a 1600DP turned 1776. The installation was fun - NOT - but it went ok. Borrowed a motorcycle lift from a neighbor and that made things a bit easier to control as we lifted the engine into place. Ran into a snag with the top left motor mount bolt (http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=606538) but got that solved this morning. Now I know why the PO left that bolt off in the first place! Sorry, this was a two person job so no photos of the actual engine install.

Got some more work done on the wiring. My son is handling all of this. Looks pretty messy behind the dash but that will get organized better soon. Converted to 12V so lots of new parts required - lots of expensive parts!! Installed some relays for the headlights. Did this in our Ford truck last year and it made a huge difference in brightness and puts less stress on the llight switch. Got the gas gauge "sending unit" installed as well. My son was really throwing himself into install the plate holder on the decklid Oh yea, we also fashioned a little custom hood stand off to get a little more air flow into the engine bay.

Finally got a couple of the fenders installed. Realized as we were getting ready to put them on that they had no holes for the turn signal lights! When we got the car it came with all "new" fenders. We thought these were orignal fenders but apparently they were repops. Luckily we had one original fender (crumpled badly) that we were able to use to fashion a template for cutting the new holes in the repops for the turn signals. A little nerve wracking drilling big holes into freshly painted metal Its finally beginning to look like a car.

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66 Beetle Sedan, restored 2014
66 Mustang: Original Owner, restored 2008
66 Ford F250: 4th Owner, restored 2013

[arizonabuckeye]

Looks great! Also, nice wood shop.

[AZ66Bug]

[AZ66Bug]

A few major accomplishments this week. We finally got our last two wheels back from powder coating. We were set to run reproduction slotted wheels (5.5 x 15 all around) but discovered the 5.5 x 15 were too big in the front. Ended up getting some 4.5 x 15 and that did the trick. Went with 3/4 inch whitewall American Classics from Coker. They were a little pricey but the look is right. 165R in front on those 4.5x 15 and 195/75/15 in back with the 5.5 x 15s. Got one of the rear fenders installed as well.

Got both doors hung and beginning to put the guts back in those. We restored our original vent windows and attempted to install them earlier this week. Ran into a bit of a snag with the rubber that was ultimately solved by realizing we are idiots! Check out the tread (http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=607450). Need to fashion an arm rest hanger for the driver door.

The biggest accomplishment was that we FINALLY got the oil filter and cooling system plumbed. Dan at CE in Phoenix turned us on to this nifty little bracket they make for mounting the filter inside the left rear wheel well on the bumper support bracket area. We plumbed one line to the filter "in", one from filter "out" to the external oil cooler and then one from the cooler back to the engine block. Used Redhorse PushLoc connectors and it made the job relatively easy. Well, at least it eliminated the need to have separate lines fabricated for each connection. The connectors are good to 300 PSI which should more than cover us. Added some heat shielding as the oil tubes run near the j-tubes. The zip ties are a temporary fix as I doubt they will hold up to the heat. Was able to get in place the final piece of tin - the rear large pulley tin. She's now all buttoned-up in the engine bay. Still need to mount the coil and run the gas line and electrical connections to the dizzy, and choke. We plan to eventually add an AC unit - so we are going to mount the coil on the side left firewall.

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66 Beetle Sedan, restored 2014
66 Mustang: Original Owner, restored 2008
66 Ford F250: 4th Owner, restored 2013