1966 pearl white / Pigalle father son project

[Bala]

Got in a little time on the beetle this past weekend.

Front bumper is off. It's really beat up from numerous hits over the years. Fortunately it did it's job and the body is in pretty good shape still. I'll have to reshape the bracket and support tube holes a bit. Also some of the stiffener brackets and bumper brackets will need to be bent back into shape. I have a replacement front bumper I picked up at a swap meet last October that I'll be using on the front. I have new hardware kits from WW for both bumpers ready to be used. Any tips or links on straightening bumper brackets would be appreciated.

Poor bumper is really outta shape.

The rear bumper was already off, and I removed all the supporting parts and bagged them up along with the front. They'll all be cleaned, hammered straight and painted.

Also started cleaning up the front of the chassis. It's so nice to be able to just roll this out into the drive way and get stuff done!

Removed the old single circuit M/C. I have a dual ready to go.

Dirty, but not that bad really. No major rust at all.

Scraped and wire wheeled both sides.

I'll be putting new sealer on the seams and paint this all black.

The engine has been sitting out at my folks place about 1/2 an hour away since I did the pans out there. Finally decided to see if it will start up. Armed with lots of new and used spare parts my dad and I spent a few hours putting in new spark plugs/wires, and troubleshooting it with not much luck. After poring a little gas down the carb we weren't getting anything. Finally checked for spark and while we were getting plenty of voltage, the points were not functioning properly. The old distributor was pretty worn, so we slapped in a spare that my dad had in is truck. Still no luck. Then I realized the new distributor was oriented opposite from the old one, so none of the wires lined up now. After that duh moment it started to sputter and even sort of run. I also brought a used carb. and fuel pump along. After installing both the engine finally came to life and had nice oil pressure. Wouldn't idle very well, but sounded really good! Anyway, nice to know it runs and should get me around for a while. My dad is bringing it to town soon and it will get torn down to the long block for some refurb.

The engine stand we've (mostly my dad) been building over the years.

Spotted this little guy before we got it running and took it as as a good sign.

I have a parts order coming in from Wolfsburg West on Thursday, so more fun this weekend! Also ordered most of my front end parts from Cip1, they should be here in a week or two. Chose the free shipping, so they are in no rush.
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1976 Westy

1966 Beetle

[Bala]

Parts came early! Cip1 with their free shipping showed up in 4 days!

Front end junk, tie rod ends, ball joints, 2.5" lowered spindles, etc.

Wolfsburg West parts (and new brake lines from Cip1). Mostly chassis rubber so I'll be ready once I'm done cleaning and painting.

Front beam cleaning. While not horrible (I've seen worse) this combination of dirt and grease was a pain to remove. Used degreaser, scraper, and two different wire wheels on the drill. I'm still not done, but it's much better. Also with the help of my dad got all the tie rods/ends removed. 3 out of 4 popped off with a wack or two on the side of the casting. I was pretty amazed this actually works. With the body on it's a little difficult to get a good swing, guessing that's why it usually won't work for me. The forth one came off in about 5 minutes with the pickle fork.

The steering box feels horrible when turning. I think it's pretty much empty. Play is not terrible though.

After 3 hours or so of cleaning. I'll get more pix when I do the final cleaning and paint.

Also removed the steering dampner and all 4 shocks.

Took a break to enjoy the view while removing the E-brake cables (ended up having to cut them, new ones ready to install though).

Pulled the transmission, again with the help of my dad. It's not too bad really. A little degreaser and a couple of hours with the scraper and wire wheel.

Before:

Pulled and labeled all the old brake lines. I used some junk ends crimped over to keep gunk out of the little "T" here.

How it sits now:

Just about ready to treat the rust, clean, and paint.
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1976 Westy

1966 Beetle

[60BeetleBill]

Love the progress! Hopefully I'll get my thread started soon also, but my free time is given first to my 14 yr old son's '60 Beetle we are working on. Keep it up!!!

[Rome]

With your bumper (not the brackets), I'd actually try straightening out those bends on a sturdy bench vise. Carefully remove the overriders by spraying the bolts/nuts with PB Blaster, Liquid Wrench, etc. and also applying heat from a propane torch. With them off, place the warped bumper sections between the vise jaws. Balance the bumper blade parallel to the ground/workbench, or have your son help hold it in position. Protect the chrome with a small block of plywood over each jaw. You don't want too long of a piece of plywood which would spread the jaw force over too wide an area' in previous work the pieces I used were about 3-4" long. Slowly clamp the vise and blocks tight to the chrome, then apply a decent heave on the handle. Loosen the jaws, inspect the progress, reposition the bumper and repeat. Don't be tempted to bang on the bumper with a BFH because that'll dent the base bumper metal and cause small creases that are visible in the chrome. Within a half hour work you should be able to reach a reasonable improvement to work out the folded area. It would be sufficient to be "good enough" for now, and you'd be keeping the original German bumper metal.

You can use the vise to straighten the brackets as well, but those can be "helped" with a few BFH blows.

[NM80]

How much is renovation of 66’? It is better to do it by myself or should I pay someone to do this? I would like to try by myself but I’m not sure if I can pull it.

[Bala]

[bill may]

the original bumper brackets were 4 different part numbers. if removing from bumper you should mark there location. you can use electric pencil,number or letter stamps using a small drill make "dent" example 1 dent LF, 2 dent RF and so forth. if original they will have the VW inside a circle stamped on them.
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Admin note: Bill Passed away - July, 2017

1965 panel bus-Kermit
"Camping is cheaper than therapy"
www.sv2s.com
www.steeringboxscrapers.net
SBS #100
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=453617

[Bala]

Shoot, I didn't mark them. But, I bet I can use my pictures to install them correctly. They are original with the "VW" stamps.

More progress this weekend.

Bumper spacers bent back into shape.

Tore out the old bowden tube and accelerator cable boot.

This is what was left.

Slathered the entire rear with Naval Jelly.

Then rinsed it off and wiped everything down with paint thinner.

First coat of paint.

Second coat.

After measuring them I dissassembled my tie rods.

Cleaned them all up and applied a few coats of paint.

Got my new ground strap in place.

New front mount and boot in place.
Is that mount upside-down? I put it on the same as the old one with the three little ridges facing up.

I've been letting all my nuts/bolts/washers soak in vinegar for a few days. It's amazing what it can do to the rust! Doesn't take the grease and oil off though, so I follow up with warm soapy water then the wire wheel.

I was actually able to get the transmission partially installed, but needed to be somewhere, so I forgot to snap a picture. Hopefully get a few hours in this week.
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1976 Westy

1966 Beetle

[Bala]

One of the transmission cradle mounting bolts had some damaged threads and stripped out when I tightened it. No luck removing the nut in the conventional manner. So yesterday evening I chopped it off and put a new nut/bolt on. I also cleaned up all my spring plate bolts. Just trying to do something when I can (even if it's small) to stay motivated.

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1976 Westy

1966 Beetle

[Spike0180]

Does the Naval Jelly work well? I've never seen that before. Do you have pictures of before and after? (I saw once you painted, but the picture for after the jelly and before paint?)
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Brutis Patches Izabich: 1970 VW Transporter - 1776cc DP
Current State: Projects never truly end...
Location: Grosse Pointe, Michigan
Other cars: 2003 F150, 2003 Jetta GLI vr6-6sp

Sambastic: adj; the quality of being nit picky, elitist, expecting everyone to do things the way they believe is best with no regard to situation, "sambastic"

[Bala]

[67rustavenger]

Your trans nose cone mount is upside down IIRC.
It should be like this |_|. If it smiles at you all is good.
A frown not so good.
Good Luck.
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I have learned over the years.
Cheap parts are gonna disappoint you.
Buy Once, Cry Once!

There's never enough time to do it right the first time. But there's always enough time to do it thrice.
GFY's Xevin and VW_Jimbo!

[Bala]

[Bala]

If you don't have a torque multiplier, get one! Watch Craigslist, got mine for $30, brand new. I've never used one until now, just did the empi brute force tool with a hammer. That has always worked for me, but it sometimes takes forever and I'm always worried I'll hammer my car on accident. This thing bolted on in seconds and loosed the axle nut with ease. Amazing tool. Oh, and FYI, you can use spring plate bolts to secure the plate to the drum. Lug bolts aren't long enough.

No hurry to loosen the axle nut, I just wanted to try out the tool.

After that I reattached the spring plate to the axle. The manual said to just line up the notches, so I hope it's in the correct position.

I cleaned and reused the nuts and bolts, but used new washers and stainless steal lock washers. Don't worry, I'll be cleaning and painting the axles soon.

Here are the notches. They look slightly off, but that is just the angle of the photo. Should I still get an angle finder and confirm or is the fine?

Also removed my front sway bar. Pretty sure it was the original. Still had the little thin metal pieces that fit under the clamp. After bending the little tab up I was still having trouble, so I wedged my beater screw driver behind the clamp and hammered and basically tore some of them apart. After that and several other methods I finally got all 4 off.

The old bushings were dry and hard, definitely need replacing.

After that I removed my drum assemblies on each side. Now I have access to my control arms.

Replacing the ball joints is proving to be difficult. I went to O'Reilly and got the "Free" "C" clamp press, but none of the sleeves with it fit. There is not much room to work with on a T1 control arm. I'm going to swing by the hardware store and see I can find a solution.

Borrowed my dad's reciprocating saw and after some trial and error found a pretty easy method to cutting the old tires off my wheels.

I'm going to keep the "patina" on my wheels that I got from the "farm buggy" a while back. They match the car pretty well. I'll give them a heavy coating of clear and polished up hubcaps. New tires are waiting to go on too.
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1976 Westy

1966 Beetle

[sportin-wood]

[Bala]

Thanks, but I already got the ball joints removed from the spindles. Two of them popped off with just a sharp wack or two on the arm. Nice little trick that surprises me every time that it actually works. The other two came of pretty easy with a pickle fork.

Now I need to press the old ones out of the control arms and the new ones in. O'Reilly is letting me keep the press for a couple more days, so I'm headed to Home Depot after work to see what I can find. I did swing by Sears and found that a 1 11/16" socket would work perfect, but it was 20 bucks. So not worth getting for a likely one time use thing.
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1976 Westy

1966 Beetle

[Bala]

The ball joints are finally out! I had absolutely no luck with the rental tool from O'Reilly. The adapters weren't quite right and I honestly don't think it was strong enough to get these old ball joints out. So, I headed up to my friends place. he does custom interiors for airplanes, Ferraris, etc, no big deal. Hes shop is in a shared hanger which has a 20 ton press.

I tried using some really thick plate steal to hold the sleeve that the ball joint should fall through, but it just bent. So we grabbed some 1.5" thick cast iron plates. Cranked down on it with a cheater pipe and POP! This happened.

The ball joint didn't even move. It was at this point I gave up. My friend knows some one at Precision Tune who did a ball joint in his '69, so I loaded up my stuff and headed out. Got there, found the dude and withing like 15 minutes he had the first one out. I left everything and they said they would call when done. This was Saturday afternoon and they called Sunday afternoon and had them ready. An unplanned expense, but I'm so glad they are done and done right.

Here are the old ones. That one on the right had to be beaten out partially with an air hammer. The rental tool I had would have never worked for these.

And also in that picture, if you need to get your camber adjusters off use a pickle fork. Put it vertical (fork up) on a hard surface with the angled side of the fork away from the adjuster. Hit the joint side with a hammer and it will pop right off with no damage to the adjuster.
After they were removed I gave them a quick cleaning with the wire brush.

I read that you should install them with that little notch facing forward, guess that's where I'll start.

Foil worked great to keep dirt out of the beam while I was working on the ball joints.

Pulled the old trailing/control arm seals. They were pretty tired.

New seals installed. Took a little patience, but they went in nicely. Wolfsburg West parts.

Cleaned up all the arms a bit so they would seal well.

Re-greased the arms and slid them back into place.

Glad that's done!

To get the control arms off I just removed the entire brake assemblies on both sides.

Bearings look pretty good. I'll clean them up and reuse if I don't see any damage.

Pulled them all apart. I may reuse a lot of the hardware. Sounds like the aftermarket springs, clips, etc, is still junk these days.

Backing plates ready for cleaning and rust treatment.

Generous helping of Naval Jelly.

I wire brushed them->Naval Jelly->rinsed->wire brushed->Naval Jelly->rinsed->then cleaned with thinner.

Here they are about to be painted. A little rust survived, but I think it'll be fine.

Paint going on.

did a few coats and let them dry outside overnight. Grabbed them this morning and I'm happy with the results.

Side note, I noticed this (OG part number?) on the beam and showed it to my son (8yo). He was very concerned that I keep it preserved and don't paint over it. Love it!

I was unaware that these little sway bar "shims" even existed. When removing my mounts I damaged one, and they didn't come in my WW kits.
So I was going to make a replacement, but just did all four.

Wasn't thinking and made them all the same size. A quick trim of 2 and I have these ready to install.

I know they're probably not "needed", but it was a fun little project.

That's all for now. Hoping to keep the momentum going this weekend!
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1976 Westy

1966 Beetle

[Bala]

Just wanted to reiterate that vinegar works amazing on removing rust! The following picture is what came off my soft brake line clips. These have been sitting for a couple of weeks. If you have time and want to do something less harmful to the environment than harsh chemicals, give it a try.

I just might buy several gallons of vinegar and see how it does cleaning out my gas tank...
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1976 Westy

1966 Beetle

[grandpa pete]

[Zvonimir1985]

Very nice topic!
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Proud to be Croat!