TheSamba.com :: View topic - Official Mexican / Brazilian Beetles

Thu Mar 22, 2018 5:28 am

I'm pretty sure everything in that pic is just how it came from the factory.

the sticker's words are spanish (it reads "chasis" and "motor", in italian it would have been "telaio" and "motore"), and the unpainted appears to have been masked with tape before the application of the final red color.

there is also no requirement for the VIN to be in an unpainted area in Italy.

Thu Mar 22, 2018 8:25 am

Another year, another picture. Note the tree growth in front of my neighbour's house :)

Mar 22, 2012:

Mar 22, 2013:

Mar 22, 2014:

Mar 22, 2015:

Mar 22, 2016:

Mar 22, 2017:

Mar 22, 2018:

Thu Mar 22, 2018 12:22 pm

Cool pictures Paul! 8)

Thu Mar 22, 2018 6:45 pm

Loved the photo's Mr Hopkins, what happened to the Vocho Logo and nice twist with the smoked lenses...

Thu Mar 22, 2018 7:18 pm

Sotobaggins wrote: Loved the photo's Mr Hopkins, what happened to the Vocho Logo and nice twist with the smoked lenses...

Thanks!

The oldest photo is at the top, with the smoked lens and no 'Vocho' :)

The car originally had the smoked lens' when I bought it, the left lens was cracked around the bottom two screws and was kind of just sitting there.

One of the first things I did to the car was to replace them with original Hella lens, replace the side mirrors with original black mirrors and replace (and move) the rear fog light with a Hella light. (It's supposed to be nearest the center of the road, right side when the car was in the UK, left side in Canada).

Fri Apr 06, 2018 11:57 pm

went back to the OE dash switches I had refurbished since the febi-bilstein hazard switch had developed a rather annoying rattle I could not correct.

as it was in the beginning:

replacement switches before:

and now:

Mon Apr 16, 2018 11:46 am

just to chronicle my typical madness when working on this car... my horn has aways been weak and it seemed to respond a bit randomly. went down to take a look, and sure enough the whole horn itself was covered in smears of undercoating while the negative contact showed clear signs of corrosion...

bought a new horn from hoffmann speedster, came with a socket (but it would also have accepted the bug's female terminals inside... if only I would have been able to undo the nut retaining it to the arm and turn it about 180°. wires didn't reach, so I bought a plug from china, made an adapter cable and hey presto...

looks good, sounds good... everyone happy, right?
well, no... captain OCD was just about to strike again. alone at home after my wife and son got asleep I spent hours with kitchen degreaser to clean up the undercoating and test the horn with an old 6V battery which was more than happy to give its soul for the endavour.

and then...

all this and I still have my original horn. However, it is now working perfectly and has a couple of shiny black plastic dust caps on its bolts... And I have a spare horn and a good story to tell! 8)

Mon Apr 16, 2018 4:42 pm

Good job, the horn on my car is mounted a bit higher than yours:

Mon Apr 16, 2018 9:11 pm

It is not right position.
And where protective caps there?

Tue Apr 17, 2018 2:05 am

hi anton, yes, the stock horn position is the same as mine or yours, with the dish center rouughly in line with the fender lip.
however it is common to find the horn moved upwards as in hopkin's car, many owners did this to protect it from impacts.
late mexican bugs did not have the rubber boots on the contacts, just the white plastic sleeves like mine and they get brittle with time if exposed to the elements, mine is a low mileage car and it's driven only in good weather so I still have them on.

btw, your horn wiring looks odd, it's all brown wire and it seems it's grounded directly on the mounting bolt?

Tue Apr 17, 2018 4:02 am

GArBa wrote: hi anton, yes, the stock horn position is the same as mine or yours, with the dish center rouughly in line with the fender lip.
however it is common to find the horn moved upwards as in hopkin's car, many owners did this to protect it from impacts.
late mexican bugs did not have the rubber boots on the contacts, just the white plastic sleeves like mine and they get brittle with time if exposed to the elements, mine is a low mileage car and it's driven only in good weather so I still have them on.

btw, your horn wiring looks odd, it's all brown wire and it seems it's grounded directly on the mounting bolt?

Ciao there!

It is an additional wire of weight if to look at the electrical scheme it is specified (yes, I haven't found a brown wire and used white). It is very important that paint on fastening of a horn from him has been cleaned off to metal, I long suffered with the fact that the ground didn't work for me.

Tue Apr 17, 2018 6:13 am

sorry but looking at your schemes I still have troubles in understanding your setup. both drawings show the switched side being ground as in my car, however on your car it seems the ground from the horn is going directly to the mounting bolt.

Tue Apr 17, 2018 6:21 am

GArBa wrote: sorry but looking at your schemes I still have troubles in understanding your setup. both drawings show the switched side being ground as in my car, however on your car it seems the ground from the horn is going directly to the mounting bolt.

I have bad circuit with big layer of paint on body mount as i think later, but in really I have not brown wire from ignition switch ;) , without this short wire link my horn doesnt worked. Now I used only one (white wire / in stock b/w color wire) fuse box.

Tue Apr 17, 2018 12:04 pm

GArBa wrote: hi anton, yes, the stock horn position is the same as mine or yours, with the dish center rouughly in line with the fender lip.
however it is common to find the horn moved upwards as in hopkin's car, many owners did this to protect it from impacts.
late mexican bugs did not have the rubber boots on the contacts, just the white plastic sleeves like mine and they get brittle with time if exposed to the elements, mine is a low mileage car and it's driven only in good weather so I still have them on.

btw, your horn wiring looks odd, it's all brown wire and it seems it's grounded directly on the mounting bolt?

It looks like I don't even have the white clip on my horn. When I get home I'll have to have a closer look, maybe order one of the boots like Anton's car. I guess the traffic is much different in Ottawa, as I think I've only used the horn once or twice in 6 years, so I don't really know how it works, or even if it still works :) .

Thu Apr 19, 2018 2:29 am

GArBa wrote: went back to the OE dash switches I had refurbished since the febi-bilstein hazard switch had developed a rather annoying rattle I could not correct.

as it was in the beginning:

replacement switches before:

and now:

I have the same problem with rattling on my headlight switch! It's so noisy...Is there any more modern versions available? I'd love a billet aluminium switch set in my bug.

Thu Apr 19, 2018 9:11 am

AFAIK the only aftermarket replacement for the OE mexi switches are those febi-bilstein units, the OEM hazard switch is still available, the headlight switch is a unit that was used on early Mk2 golfs and is NLA new, so you have to go NOS or used.

Sat Apr 21, 2018 1:05 am

Hi everyone, I am still on the hunt for a mexican beetle, and came across this 1990 model, but I don't recognise the lime green plastic ball fitted on the left side of the engine compartment. The engine is a 1600 and the car was built in 1990. Can anyone help please?

Sat Apr 21, 2018 5:59 am

Willard001 wrote:
Hi everyone, I am still on the hunt for a mexican beetle, and came across this 1990 model, but I don't recognise the lime green plastic ball fitted on the left side of the engine compartment. The engine is a 1600 and the car was built in 1990. Can anyone help please?

Don't see too many model year 1990 Beetles. It a vacuum reservoir (#2):

A closer look at one:

AFAIK it does not fit on the ACD engines.

Sat Apr 21, 2018 8:18 am

Ah! Thank you. I am going to view the car next week and doing some due diligence. So is the reservoir part of the vacuum advance ignition I wonder?

Sat Apr 21, 2018 3:45 pm

I think it's part of the altitude adjustment system, no idea how it works though.