TheSamba.com :: View topic

Wed Jun 17, 2015 12:55 pm

(Almost same text as in type 3&4 forum/UK, sorry.)

Summer is finally here and I drove my new old car to home in Sunday, 570km/360 miles. ( I bought it in November but the seller arranged winter storage for me.)

Engine and automatic gearbox were working fine but I was missing some luxuries like heating (aux heater is out of car and most of the hoses aren't there yet) and it was only 11C/50F and it was raining all the way.

I had to stop few times to have hot cocoa and it still took about 7 hours as the car had been standing several years and the tyres weren't even near round, so the maximum speed was like 90km/h/55mph, higher than that and whole car was shaking too much.

Some part stash unloading on the way (both ways) and total trip time (both ways) of 15 hours.

On Tuesday we had a warmer weather and I did a test drive, shaking is not as bad as earlier and got it up to 120km/h/75mph. Anyway, I decided to buy new tyres, the old ones aren't too good, worn and three different brands.

Also discussed with a friend, he promised to do some cosmetic work on the body: Sand blast & paint some rust spots, fix few dents and see if he can do something to the paint. Also paints the front fenders to green.

The goal for now is a car I can keep outside whole summer without further rusting and a '20 feeter' as they say: looks good from 20 feet away.

But the question: Which green this is, as VW (them bastards) had _16 different greens_ in 1974 alone?

I know have a spray can of Sumatra Green (leftovers from my '74 bus) but I haven't found it yet. If I find it I'll test it to somewhere to see if it's the same or at least near enough.

Recent pics of the car will follow, old pics here:
http://kharon.suomiforum.com/www/412/

Also, any ideas what kind of floor carpeting this car had?

I've bunch of small pieces of yellow carpet and I've no idea how those are arranged. PO also said that the floor carpet is trashed, unsalvageable.

And still one: Any sources for "Automatic" text for the hood?
(like this: http://www.history-of-cars.com/images/v ... 12-023.jpg)

Thu Jun 18, 2015 2:53 am

Looks like a car with some good potential!
Dont know about colors but for parts like the Automatic script look in the Classified-Parts on TheSamba and on E-bay or most likely someome on this forum will tell you they have one.

Lars S

Thu Jun 18, 2015 3:44 am

Here's a nice pic of the light tan interior your car should have:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/lit/74412s/page7.jpg

And here you can find the colour combinations for model year 1974:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/lit/74412s/page12.jpg

Thu Jun 18, 2015 7:37 am

Thanks people!

I was looking for 412 material from archives but couldn't find any relevant so this link is very useful (and I'm semi-blind, I should have seen the brochures).

Anyway, Tropical Green & Bamboo is the combination, not many other options.

I see I have to remove the seat covers to see how bad the original seats are.

No pics yet as it's raining quite heavily again.

Thu Jun 18, 2015 7:40 am

Lars S wrote: Looks like a car with some good potential!
Lars S

We'll see. So far it moves and it's inspected i.e. road legal. Not much else is included.

Lars S wrote: ... or most likely someome on this forum will tell you they have one.
Lars S

I'm counting on this, at least first. If there are no volunteers (even when lured with money) then I'll chek other options.

Thu Jun 18, 2015 8:10 am

The later Type3 had the same Automatic script as the Type4...some scripts (earlier or later?) are for sale in the Classified-Parts section of TheSamba.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/search.php?...=automatic

Lars S

Thu Jun 18, 2015 8:21 am

Thanks Lars!

I was searching the classifieds literally 5 minutes ago and couldn't find anything but automatic cars and I knew I'm doing something wrong.

This saves me the trouble of pondering wtf I was doing wrong.

Thu Jun 18, 2015 2:06 pm

I found my Variant badge here on The Samba, and the same seller also sold the correct Automatic badge as well.

Fri Jun 19, 2015 10:31 am

Good point, there were several badges for sale. Now I just have to find my Paypal-account password from somewhere ....

Anyway, here're new pics, taken today.

Overall it needs some work to be something I bear to look at. But nothing major, I hope.

Originally Swedish Police car and of course delivered into Sweden. Also the police-style antenna on the roof.

As a Swedish car it had a brake booster.

Some more new pics also, see from
http://kharon.suomiforum.com/www/412/

Fri Jun 19, 2015 10:42 am

I got mine from NavyGeneral. He still has some Type 3 & 4 stuff listed in his ads.

Fri Jun 19, 2015 11:54 am

Kharon8 wrote: Good point, there were several badges for sale. Now I just have to find my Paypal-account password from somewhere ....

Anyway, here're new pics, taken today.

Overall it needs some work to be something I bear to look at. But nothing major, I hope.

Originally Swedish Police car and of course delivered into Sweden. Also the police-style antenna on the roof.

As a Swedish car it had a brake booster.

Some more new pics also, see from
http://kharon.suomiforum.com/www/412/

What are the two silver relays to the right of the brake booster in the picture?

Thank you! Ray

Sat Jun 20, 2015 12:03 am

Oh wery intresting its a former police car and from my wery home town too!
How did this one end up in Finland?
The extra relays I guess are for some additional police equipment such as speed trapping, horn, lights etc.
Love that green color too!

Lars S

Sat Jun 20, 2015 3:56 am

raygreenwood wrote:
What are the two silver relays to the right of the brake booster in the picture?
Thank you! Ray

I have to say I have no idea yet. I assume they are related to police equipment (later removed) as Lars suggests.

Sat Jun 20, 2015 4:03 am

What about the nut through the cover of the strut....is that something -74 specific or..?
Lars S

Sat Jun 20, 2015 4:15 am

Lars S wrote:
How did this one end up in Finland?
Lars S

It's a story by itself but in short the PO wanted a four door model and there were none for sale in Finland so he bought one from Sweden. It being an old police car and automatic is just a coincidence.

I don't wonder, I was looking at the sales numbers and 4-series was selling less than 300 cars per year here in 70s and I can guess most of those were station wagons.

Top seller (at this class) at that time was Saab 99 and it sold about 3000 cars per year. Small and poor country, big family cars were sold only by the thousands.

Heavy tax on cars also (that still continues). Finland now has oldest cars in EU on the road, on average.

Funny thing is that local car registrar (Trafi) whitewashed the statistics by dropping all the cars temporarily out of traffic and museum cars from it.
Lo and behold: Average age of cars shown dropped several years just like that.

A practice no-one else in EU is doing and blatant lie because of that.

Sat Jun 20, 2015 4:17 am

Lars S wrote: What about the nut through the cover of the strut....is that something -74 specific or..?
Lars S

No idea. I can see if it's actually attached to something.

In short: I've been a 4-series owner (in practise) about a week, I do know absolutely nothing. ;)

Sat Jun 20, 2015 4:22 am

I dont remember this car even if it as the ID plate shows was in duty at the Police in my hometown. I was on my way to buy another police 412 from my area several years ago, it was also an automatic and with sun roof...sorry i dropped it... :(

Lars S

Sat Jun 20, 2015 4:42 am

Lars S wrote: I dont remember this car even if it as the ID plate shows was in duty at the Police in my hometown. I was on my way to buy another police 412 from my area several years ago, it was also an automatic and with sun roof...sorry i dropped it... :(

Lars S

Not many people can buy all the interesting cars they bump into, there's not much we can do about that.

But a 41x with a sunroof? Never even heard of such.

But I checked the M-code list and there it is: M560 Steel sliding roof

Well, luxury car basically, of course it would have a sun roof as an option.

Sun Jun 21, 2015 10:47 am

Whats the round thing below the alternator pulley? Looks like a cap or something...the square hole around it does not seem factory made
..maybe its a Variant engine and they kept the oil filling opening as it was...

Lars S

Sun Jun 21, 2015 3:08 pm

Lars S wrote: Whats the round thing below the alternator pulley? Looks like a cap or something...the square hole around it does not seem factory made
..maybe its a Variant engine and they kept the oil filling opening as it was...

Lars S

I thought the same but it still has an oil filling hole on the top of the engine too.

I do know this car is a hack job from at least two other cars so I'd say it had a bad engine and current engine is originally a variant engine, sedan stuff is just added on top where appropriate, taken from the original engine. I also have bunch of fuel injection related stuff from same source.

If I recall correctly it's easier to leave the (variant) oil filler there and make a small hole to tins than try to block the oil filler hole in the block.

Other stuff noticed:
Alternator belt is very loose and makes loud noises in wet conditions, I'll have to do something to it.

Seats have seat covers, no wonder they were looking non-original. I haven't dug deep enough yet to find out what's actually underneath.

Also the engine burns a noticeable amount of oil and emits a puff of blue smoke at start: A worn engine.

Well ... the price included '1 pc inspected 412 which moves' and '4 boxes of misc. spare parts' and '1 pc manual gearbox & accessories'.

I got those and I have to be happy that it brought me all the way home.

It's also fun to drive around town, you can actually see the 'WTF is that?' on peoples faces.

But I have to do something to looks, it's an eyesore now. For me, at least.

I got three chrome trims, too: One is for the front fender (I could use another one), one is for the rear door (driver side door is missing a trim) and one doesn't fit anywhere nor there are other missing trims (except big side trims underneath doors, but that's another story).

Looks the same as the other two and length is about halfway between the others: Door trim is the shortest and front fender trim is the longest.