71 bug restoration for my wife

[71bugproject]

well, first off...hello to everyone! I am new to the forum also,but love everything about it. This will be the restoration story of a 71 super beetle that I bought for my wife. I purchased it for her in Feb of 2016 and I drove it home(about 6 miles) and it was a rough 6 miles mind you, it ran rough even though the PO had rebuilt the engine 2 months prior to a 1641cc.
After the wife looked at some photos...and knew my background restoring a couple back in the early 80"s (man, that was a lonnngg time ago...lol) she wanted a complete tear down and as much new or rebuilt that I could put on it, I told her it could be up to a two year project and she said as long as it kept me busy she didnt care.this is how it looked when purchased.

then I started the tear down,

I will be posting updates with pics as I progress!!

[71bugproject]

Well, another Saturday with great weather...really wanted to get out and ride and get more break in miles on the motorcycle...but, the ole vdub called again and I answered. I got the Transmission and cv joints pulled today

and also removed the two rear floor pan inserts that PO had put in with only sheet metal screws

I also got the sway bar off,pedal cluster and emergency brake assembly

I got the axle nuts off finally,I used an old bed frame I had and attached it to the hub with the lug nuts like I saw on youtube...it worked perfectly!! then came the right axle nut, not so lucky, I had sprayed penetrating fluid on it 2 days before and it still broke the angle iron bed frame. so I went and got some 1/4" flat stock I had (about 4 ft long)and drilled it for the lug nuts and all I did was bend the handle on my 3/4" drive rachet

so I broke out my grinder and ground down the castle nut to the axle threads being careful not to ruin the threads...hit a couple of times with a chisel to make it separate....put the rachet and bar back on and off it came

[pondoras box]

Next time buy one of these, every VW owner should have one in their tool box. Use a 5 pound sledge to hit the flat and it break even the worst nuts free. The nut is generally in good enough shape to reuse.

You can get from most VW suppliers.
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Looking for anything from Hal Casey Motors out of Hamburg New York, from license plate surrounds to matchbooks.

1961 23 Window (Bobo)
1965 11 Window (Zelda)
1965 13 Window (Lucas)
1957 Oval ragtop
1988 Cabriolet VR6 conversion
Plus a lot of other rusty junk