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Sun Dec 14, 2014 12:23 am

That ball joint seperator is slick but its not match for pb blast and a nice hammer. When hit correctly is should take the same amount of force... My hammer cost $7 at a yard sale, 100s of tie rod ends later and still coming down like the day i bought her... The hammer...

Mon Dec 15, 2014 4:09 pm

Front end looks good! Did u press the ball joints, Or take em somewhere?

Mon Dec 15, 2014 8:44 pm

EA812 wrote: Front end looks good! Did u press the ball joints, Or take em somewhere?

Thanks man! The beam isn't all clean and glossy looking (not pretty(, but it's no show car! I had the ball joints pressed in at a place near Fort Worth (The Bug Stop) that specializes in air cooled VWs. I couldn't find anywhere in the small town I live in who could do it.

Sun Jan 18, 2015 4:25 pm

My first update of 2015. Took advantage of some awesome January weather (reached 73 degrees). Had some issues with both the left outer and right outer tie rod ends not seating, but thanks to Ken (aka VOLKSWAGNUT) and others, it was determined that my '66 had later model knuckles, meaning the '66 ends I ordered from Wolfsburg West were useless, so I ordered 68+ tie rod ends and they did fit (I have no freaking clue why the PO would change both spindles to later model, other than to torment the next owner!). So I've now replaced the brake components all around including brake shoes, brake springs, all 4 brake cylinders, rubber and metal brake lines (the longest brake line was a pain in the ass to bend just the right angles), master cylinder (kept single circuit), rubber brake line to chassis grommets, and brake line T-fitting.

Next step will be getting the pedal cluster installed. Until then....

Sun Jan 18, 2015 6:06 pm

we should have got together in the tie rod ends. I ordered the later ones like you needed. Maybe your car is a later 66. I think they might of switched over to those.the front wheel bearings might be different too.

Sun Jan 18, 2015 6:50 pm

EA812 wrote: we should have got together in the tie rod ends. I ordered the later ones like you needed. Maybe your car is a later 66. I think they might of switched over to those.the front wheel bearings might be different too.

My bug was built in February of 1966 according to its VW Birth Certificate. I did have an issue with the front outer bearings as well, so that too points to later knuckles. The same tie rod ends fit years '61 thru early '68. It just baffles me why someone would change both front knuckles, unless it was salvaged without the originals and a PO bought what he could find? It doesn't appear to have been in any front end accident that would require replacing them both...

Sun Jan 18, 2015 7:30 pm

Yeah I bet it was a parts available thing. I found stuff like that on our 65.

Wed Jan 21, 2015 1:20 pm

The later spindles are a stronger design and with the possibility of an issue early on in life an experienced mechanic used them or they just replaced them with what was available(by the mid 70's the 69 and later spindles were more common than the 66-68 spindles and were essentially a bolt on with new ends which it probably needed by then anyway). I will also note that all aftermarket forged ball joint drop spindles use the later, larger tie rod ends.

Sun Feb 15, 2015 8:06 pm

Since I'm mostly done with the chassis components, I thought I'd try to tackle some bodywork that it'll be needing. Namely, getting the old rear bumper mounts off so that I can have new ones welded in place. Here's what I'm starting with:

I spent close to an hour first wire wheel and sanding the perimeter to find the spot welds. I didn't realize there were so many! And I'm still having trouble getting the left 1/3 of it to separate from the body. Looks like there's a couple of spot welds where the bumper mount tabs go beneath the apron overlap that I'll have to tackle when I have more time.

Does anyone have any suggestions or feedback on anything I'm doing wrong??

Tue Feb 17, 2015 8:21 am

I did those so long ago on Herbie but I think I just cut them tabs off and the replacements didn't have the the tabs. I wonder if there are some spot welds on the engine side too? There is deference through the years. The replacement mounts I put on do get in the way now when pulling the engine.

Tue Feb 17, 2015 9:06 am

Yeah, that's my next move - cutting off the tabs since I'm not doing any rear apron replacing. I bought a $27 spot weld bit from Eastwood that I figured because of the price, was something that wouldn't dull, but no such luck. Damn thing dulled after about 3 or 4 drillings. I ended up using a cheapie from Harbor Freight, but ended up blowing through the metal on a couple. I was told to only use those when I'm intending to reuse whatever part I'm removing, of which I'm not. I'm wondering if I should just center punch the spot welds (so that the drill bit doesn't stray) and drill them out with a big drill bit, being careful not to go too deep? Another suggestion I was given was to just grind the spot welds until it was thin enough to separate from the body. Well, that's a hell of a lot of grinding given that there looks to be about 2 dozen spot welds! Wonder if an air chisel would be more damaging to the body side.... :P

Tue Feb 17, 2015 6:05 pm

Yeah the grinding thing is tuff but you only need to grind where it still hods the part on. Drilling works too. I killed my drill by this point and wired a cordless drill to a deep cycle battery since it didn't have a battery.

Sat Mar 14, 2015 4:05 pm

Got around to cutting the tabs off the bumper mount to get the old one off. It looked like swiss cheese!

Wire wheeled the panel and coated it with some weld thru primer, then dry fitted the replacement bumper mount. Everything lines up good, although I wish I could have found some bumper mounts like the ones it came it. Oh, well....I've never claimed I was doing everything "correct"! :wink:

Sun May 17, 2015 6:40 pm

Had time in between Texas storms to work on removing the front apron. Have I said how much I hate spot welds?!?!

I ended up just cutting the apron off along the bottom and grinding the excess off to the tire well even with the metal. I then coated the bare metal areas with weld thru primer from Eastwood.

Here's the replacement apron dry-fitted. It's not an exact replacement from what I believe was the original, but it should work. I opted for a used original apron over a cheaper aftermarket one.

Next up: To drill out the broken stud in one of the front bumper mounts before I get the replacement apron welded in. At the same time, I'll have the rear bumper mounts welding in, about 5 fender weld nuts installed, 1 headlight screw (on fender), and a some minor patch work before I start on the bodywork.

Mon May 18, 2015 8:28 am

nice work

post crash comment

I see sunshine in your picture in TX.

I am in SE TX, all my area keeps seeing is rain after rain after rain. missing that TX sun. feels like we have moved to Seattle (no offense meant)

glad you took advantage

Mon May 18, 2015 8:27 pm

63ziggy wrote: nice work

I see sunshine in your picture in TX.

Thanks for the kind words. The 1st pic was actually taken about a month ago when I started dealing with the spot welds on either side of the apron. We finally got a break from rain today but it's humid as heck...plus it looks like more rain on the way *sigh* #-o BTW, I'm in north/central TX.

Sun Jun 14, 2015 1:03 pm

Got the motor loaded up. Next stop, The Bug Stop in Arlington for a complete rebuild.

Tue Jun 16, 2015 3:11 pm

Her home for an estimated 3+ months....like dropping your kid off at summer camp... :P

Tue Jun 16, 2015 3:27 pm

sportin-wood wrote: Her home for an estimated 3+ months....like dropping your kid off at summer camp... :P

Lol, nice!

Tue Jun 16, 2015 6:45 pm

nice shop, good people

I purchased a rebuilt tranny few years back when in area visiting my brother. He shops there quite often.he lives in NRH