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talljordan
Samba Member
Joined: January 10, 2012
Posts: 983
Location: San Francisco, CA
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 Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2021 4:01 pm Post subject: The 50th Anniversary Restoration Thread |
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I'm back, its been about 6 years since I was active on the forum, hopefully there are still a lot of familiar faces around. In that time, I graduated, moved to the United States from my home in Vancouver, and got myself a job that has thankfully afforded me a budget to fully restore the 1972 Super I purchased 11 years ago at age 15.
I put the bug in storage a number of years ago as the floors were rotting out and I didn't have the money to give it the treatment it deserved. Its been sitting in various barns and garages ever since. For the labour day weekend, I procured myself a private garage in SF (no easy task), flew to Seattle where I rented a truck, then drove up to Canada to pick the bug up, and then drove it all the way back home to San Francisco.
Per the door sticker she rolled off the line in September of 1971, exactly 50 years ago! So the 50th anniversary restoration thread is born!
As you can see from the pictures, I have a lot of work ahead of me!
Reunited at last
My best friends helping load her up
"Thats a lot of damage"
In transit
In its new home:
Me:
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1972 Super Beetle, Parked until adequate restoration funding is acquired in restoration!
Wanted: Male computer diagnostic plug end |
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Cusser
Samba Member
Joined: October 02, 2006
Posts: 31435
Location: Hot Arizona
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Zundfolge1432 
Samba Member
Joined: June 13, 2004
Posts: 12474
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| Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2021 4:37 pm Post subject: Re: The 50th Anniversary Restoration Thread |
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| talljordan wrote: |
I'm back, its been about 6 years since I was active on the forum, hopefully there are still a lot of familiar faces around. In that time, I graduated, moved to the United States from my home in Vancouver, and got myself a job that has thankfully afforded me a budget to fully restore the 1972 Super I purchased 11 years ago at age 15.
I put the bug in storage a number of years ago as the floors were rotting out and I didn't have the money to give it the treatment it deserved. Its been sitting in various barns and garages ever since. For the labour day weekend, I procured myself a private garage in SF (no easy task), flew to Seattle where I rented a truck, then drove up to Canada to pick the bug up, and then drove it all the way back home to San Francisco.
Per the door sticker she rolled off the line in September of 1971, exactly 50 years ago! So the 50th anniversary restoration thread is born!
As you can see from the pictures, I have a lot of work ahead of me!
Reunited at last |
Welcome back, some things have changed here and some remain same.
Six years seems like a long time but it’s the blink of an eye. A full restoration you say? Take pics we’d like to travel that road with you😀 |
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Cusser
Samba Member
Joined: October 02, 2006
Posts: 31435
Location: Hot Arizona
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Maddel
Samba Member
Joined: February 12, 2013
Posts: 939
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| Posted: Mon Sep 06, 2021 9:54 pm Post subject: Re: The 50th Anniversary Restoration Thread |
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Cool story & nice Bug. 
Welcome back and good luck with your project!
50th anniversary of my Super in August last year... 
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Tim Donahoe
Samba Member
Joined: December 08, 2012
Posts: 11742
Location: Redding, CA
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| Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2021 10:18 am Post subject: Re: The 50th Anniversary Restoration Thread |
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Welcome back, Jordan!
San Francisco? I lived there in 1968 (Geary Blvd.), and the city has somewhat changed since then—or so I’ve heard (I’m a few hundred miles north in Redding, and I haven’t been back to The City in many years).
There is a VW club on Facebook, called Deutschland Drivers. They are pretty cool guys; they help each other, and go on runs throughout the year. You should look them up and ask to join.
So, you scored a garage in San Francisco? Damn, you must be making good money. And have fun, once you get the bug back on the road, with all those steep hills in your adopted city. You have to be a quick-clutcher when starting from a dead stop on some of those hills. Hopefully, you’ll have the pans in soon, and you’ll get some miles in.
Keep us in the loop while restoring the Bug.
Later,
Tim
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Richard O'Brien |
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talljordan
Samba Member
Joined: January 10, 2012
Posts: 983
Location: San Francisco, CA
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| Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2021 12:25 pm Post subject: Re: The 50th Anniversary Restoration Thread |
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| Cusser wrote: |
| Jordan - have you been able to drive this? |
I was daily driving it back in ~2014/15 when I made the call that it was rusting too quickly and I should park it until I could replace the floors. But I rebuilt the engine less than a year before it was parked. I emailed Tim at Volksbitz about getting one of his german carbs, when it arrives I'll be giving it a shot.
| Tim Donahoe wrote: |
San Francisco? I lived there in 1968 (Geary Blvd.), and the city has somewhat changed since then—or so I’ve heard (I’m a few hundred miles north in Redding, and I haven’t been back to The City in many years).
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So, you scored a garage in San Francisco? Damn, you must be making good money. And have fun, once you get the bug back on the road, with all those steep hills in your adopted city. You have to be a quick-clutcher when starting from a dead stop on some of those hills. Hopefully, you’ll have the pans in soon, and you’ll get some miles in.
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I am in the haight ashbury neighbourhood now but I used to live on Fillmore and Geary! I signed for the apartment when the pandemic pricing was at its best, and my condition for signing was a private garage so the price is actually pretty good by SF standards!
The rough plan is to take the body off, strip it to nothing, get it repainted while I do the pan metal work.
Eventually Im thinking I'll build a second engine for it with a lot more power, perhaps I'll mimic Glenn's build, it seems pretty good.
I also have grandiose dreams of building my own computer system to monitor the vitals, and give me nice readouts on a center console. We will see how much time I end up having.
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1972 Super Beetle, Parked until adequate restoration funding is acquired in restoration!
Wanted: Male computer diagnostic plug end |
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Tim Donahoe
Samba Member
Joined: December 08, 2012
Posts: 11742
Location: Redding, CA
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| Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2021 4:56 pm Post subject: Re: The 50th Anniversary Restoration Thread |
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Fillmore and Geary? That was dangerous territory in the late ‘60’s. I lived in a three-bedroom apartment above a shop on 38th & Geary. Rent was $90 a month back then. 
So, are you going to use the Bug to commute when you get it on the road? One of the guys in Deutschland Drivers commutes into San Francisco every work day from the seats Bay. With all that traffic, I’d go nuts. I could handle it many years ago, but not now.
Here in Redding, we have plenty of rednecks, but very little traffic. And the gas is a little cheaper, too.
Tim
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vamram
Samba Member
Joined: March 08, 2012
Posts: 7335
Location: NOVA
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| Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2021 5:48 pm Post subject: Re: The 50th Anniversary Restoration Thread |
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Welcome back! My youngest son just graduated as well in May from Cal Berkeley, but moved on to LA for work. Looking forward to following your restoration!
Víctor
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'74 Super 9/16 - present, in refurb process.
'73 Super - 6/18 - Present - Daily Driver!
'75 Super Le Grande...waiting it's turn in line behind '74.
Click to view image
Save the Supers!! |
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Rome
Samba Member
Joined: June 02, 2004
Posts: 9697
Location: Pearl River, NY
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| Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2021 5:57 pm Post subject: Re: The 50th Anniversary Restoration Thread |
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Excellent that you kept the Super, and can now put time and/or money to it to revive it.
Does your Super have the small, painted-over metal tag to the left of the hood latch? If so, the first set of numbers indicate the actual day of the week when it was built in Sept.
| Quote: |
| with all those steep hills in your adopted city. You have to be a quick-clutcher when starting from a dead stop on some of those hills. |
Don't you use the handbrake to hold the car while starting off on a hill?! All 4 limbs put to use. Once you get the hang of it, the car won't roll back even 2 inches. |
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bilbo939
Samba Member
Joined: July 15, 2020
Posts: 59
Location: Isle of Wight, UK
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| Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2021 9:05 am Post subject: Re: The 50th Anniversary Restoration Thread |
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| Rome wrote: |
| Don't you use the handbrake to hold the car while starting off on a hill?! All 4 limbs put to use. Once you get the hang of it, the car won't roll back even 2 inches. |
That's exactly what you do, let the clutch out until you feel the start of engagement, let off the handbrake and simultaneously let the clutch engage. You can do it with close to no rollback.
Here in the UK they pretty much expect you to do it as part of the driving test.
But not to be off topic, early supers are the best, although I may be bias. Love the colour.
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'03 T4 2.5 TDI
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viiking
Samba Member
Joined: May 10, 2013
Posts: 2682
Location: Sydney Australia
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| Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2021 4:03 pm Post subject: Re: The 50th Anniversary Restoration Thread |
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| bilbo939 wrote: |
| Rome wrote: |
| Don't you use the handbrake to hold the car while starting off on a hill?! All 4 limbs put to use. Once you get the hang of it, the car won't roll back even 2 inches. |
That's exactly what you do, let the clutch out until you feel the start of engagement, let off the handbrake and simultaneously let the clutch engage. You can do it with close to no rollback.
Here in the UK they pretty much expect you to do it as part of the driving test. |
Same here in Australia. We call it a handbrake hill start. If you can’t do it, you fail your test. Even an inch backwards means fail.
Engage handbrake, rev engine a bit more, slip the clutch. The back end dips down meaning your car wants to go forward, release handbrake and simultaneously increase revs a bit.
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1968 1500 RHD Lotus White Beetle since birth. In the hospital for major surgery
1966 Lancia Flavia Pininfarina Coupe - in the waiting room
Discharged: 1983 Vanagon, 1974 1800 Microbus,1968 Low Light,1968 Type 3 |
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talljordan
Samba Member
Joined: January 10, 2012
Posts: 983
Location: San Francisco, CA
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| Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2021 8:26 pm Post subject: Re: The 50th Anniversary Restoration Thread |
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Built a shelf to increase the amount of storage today. Probably will put an identical one above and below it as well. Small garage, gotta make the most of the space I have. Starting to order parts and tools now too.
Also: fuck phillips head screws. You yanks are living in the stone age not using robertson. These things strip like a mofo. I'll be ordering a set of robertsons online before I continue.
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1972 Super Beetle, Parked until adequate restoration funding is acquired in restoration!
Wanted: Male computer diagnostic plug end |
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polypetalous
Samba Member
Joined: January 14, 2021
Posts: 110
Location: Kansas, USA
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| Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2021 8:49 pm Post subject: Re: The 50th Anniversary Restoration Thread |
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Congrats on the space!
Lights
Lots of light…
Ben |
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VW_Jimbo
Samba Member
Joined: May 22, 2016
Posts: 10020
Location: Huntington Beach, CA
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| Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2021 9:13 pm Post subject: Re: The 50th Anniversary Restoration Thread |
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Ah.....the madness. It has begun!!!!! 😜
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There is never enough time to do it right the first time, but all the time necessary the second time!
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Tim Donahoe
Samba Member
Joined: December 08, 2012
Posts: 11742
Location: Redding, CA
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| Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2021 10:54 pm Post subject: Re: The 50th Anniversary Restoration Thread |
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Jordan, we have robertson screws at Lowe’s, Home Depot, etc. We just don’t use them for the same reason we don’t do kilometers and Celsius. 
Actually, I usually use torx screws when working with wood. No stripping.
Tim
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Let's do the Time Warp again!
Richard O'Brien
Last edited by Tim Donahoe on Thu Sep 09, 2021 9:10 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Maddel
Samba Member
Joined: February 12, 2013
Posts: 939
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| Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2021 4:01 am Post subject: Re: The 50th Anniversary Restoration Thread |
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| talljordan wrote: |
| ... Also: fuck phillips head screws. You yanks are living in the stone age not using robertson. These things strip like a mofo. I'll be ordering a set of robertsons online before I continue. |
 Hmmmm...
IMHO these Robertson thingamajigs are quite strange...
Why not use these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torx ?
I think Tim referred to them above - instead of torn? |
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talljordan
Samba Member
Joined: January 10, 2012
Posts: 983
Location: San Francisco, CA
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| Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2021 7:52 am Post subject: Re: The 50th Anniversary Restoration Thread |
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Robertson stays on the bit without your holding it there! Because of the slight taper you can jam it on and it will stick even if you put it upside down. Torx has no such feature. Torx also is quite a bit less resistant to rust because of the shape, the head tends to strip easier after many years.
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1972 Super Beetle, Parked until adequate restoration funding is acquired in restoration!
Wanted: Male computer diagnostic plug end |
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talljordan
Samba Member
Joined: January 10, 2012
Posts: 983
Location: San Francisco, CA
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| Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2021 9:45 am Post subject: Re: The 50th Anniversary Restoration Thread |
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Starting to think about the body restoration approach. I want to strip the body down to bare metal as it has a reasonable number of rust spots and two coats of shitty paint.
I suppose I should open a thread in the body/paint forums, but if anyone has recommendations for an excellent paint shop in Northern California please let me know, Im willing to drive a few hours if thats what it'll take to have the best possible work done.
My thoughts are that I should strip the body down to a bare shell myself, weld in new heater channels, fix as much rust as my skills allow, then ship just the shell to the body shop for touch up welding/bondo and painting. While the body is in the shop, I can start welding in new floor pans and cleaning up frame rust.
Probably going to start taking out the glass and carpet/headliner this weekend and start tackling general disassembly.
I also have quite a bit of FUD around welding in both new channels and pans, as I have heard getting everything to line up just right is pretty brutal.
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1972 Super Beetle, Parked until adequate restoration funding is acquired in restoration!
Wanted: Male computer diagnostic plug end |
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Lingwendil
Samba Member
Joined: February 25, 2009
Posts: 3992
Location: Antioch, California, a block from the hood
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| Posted: Thu Sep 09, 2021 10:04 am Post subject: Re: The 50th Anniversary Restoration Thread |
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Definitely join the Facebook group Deutschland Drivers, maybe even Norcal Aircooled group (NAGVW) Deutschland drivers is a great group, lots of cruises and generous folks. Highly recomended!
I work on Toland street, off of Hudson. San Francisco seems to have gotten a lot worse than when I was younger. Lots of vandalism and traffic is crazy. Once my super is on the road I plan to drive it to work once a week or so either way... Maybe I'll swing by and check out your project
Nice start so far!
BTW, I'm a Torx guy, Robertsons are alright, but Torx seems to be less likely to snap the bit if working with particularly tough wood in situations where you don't pre-drill. Try using Robertson head pocket screws in purpleheart or Ipe and you'll see what I mean.
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