TheSamba.com :: View topic - Great Grandpa’s 1964 Sunroof Bug Full Stock Restoration

Wed Jun 27, 2018 3:35 pm

Nice VWUSA roof rack you have on top. Hang on to it.

Wed Jun 27, 2018 4:56 pm

I hope the story i lay out is at least half as interesting as it is in my own head...

Bug was washed for the first time in probably 15 years yesterday.

VOA rack was a $20 deal many, many years ago. Noisy as all heck to drive with but cool.

Sunroof on the car. Interesting story there. The sunroof is the reason the car was unwanted and also the only reason we still own it.

My dad tells me he would have sold the car in the late 70's except a sunroof in California is cool. I am also told that grandpa did not want the sunroof when he bought the care but had to take it that way.

A little teaser and I will fill that story in once i dig out the as new pictures i have.

Thu Jun 28, 2018 3:25 pm

Wow! That paint cleaned up nice.

Fri Jun 29, 2018 10:30 pm

Looking forward to hearing your story! After my grandfather retired from the USAF in 1969 he bought a used 66 to drive to his new job at the post office. He passed it on to my Dad in 1976. I started driving it in 1989. Last week my wife and i participated in Dubs Around The Lake 8, a Lake Tahoe cruise.

My grandfather at Donner Summit back in the day

Currently:

Tue Jul 10, 2018 7:23 am

Nice bug Morganworks. I wish i had more pictures of my grandpa or dad with the bug. Sadly none i can find.

I dug high and low to find the original 1964 pictures of the bug with no luck. The best i could find was the day it was given to me which was likely the summer of 1986. Literally just drug home by my dad and un-hooked in the front yard. Who knows what i am looking for there...

The story as i heard it was back in 64 Grandpa wanted a commuter car to drive from Torrance to Huntington Beach where he worked for Douglas Aircraft. The VW Bug was the choice but the wait at the dealer was 6 months and cost ~ $1800. You of course got to choose the color and options.

At the corner of 11th & Pacific Coast Hwy in Hermosa Beach, Ca was a Grey Market VW dealer. Grey Market means they buy the cars new in Europe and import them for "personal" use just to re-sell them as "new". Really new/used as they usually had very low miles on them. The deal was for a premium you got the next car in line. No choice of colors or options. Take it or leave it but you get it now. Grandpa got his VW but he also got things he did not want. I do not know what he paid but my recollection was $2300

- L360 sea blue. Not sure if he cared.
- Sunroof. He did not want this and it cost him an extra $100
- Radio. Did not want that and it cost him more $$
- European Steering Lock. Standard equipment.

The rest of the bug was pretty standard as far as i could tell. He got his bug without the wait but had to pay more for it.

Here i am right after my restoration at that same intersection. Dad took me down there to take pictures.

More later.

Mon Jul 16, 2018 6:39 am

And let the work begin.

My son has been baptized in VW grime. We learned what the parts are and how to take apart from the wheel to the backing plate Saturday.

The key leasons for the day:

1. Once your hands are grimy don't pick up another tool or touch the car without wiping them off.
2. Gloves are good.
3. When dad say's clean the tools don't use soap & water and the kitchen sink. My tools are really clean but mom is not happy.

We found a few surprises. Drivers side inner tie rod is WAY shot. 3/16" play. The rest seem fine.

The link pins. What do you guys think of the red dust here??

I had these rebuilt maybe 30K miles ago. (of course 25 years ago too) It looks to me like they were never greased and now have red "rust" from wear. There is also a pretty good clunk in each side. I have already been researching.

- King pin rebuild. Can this be done at home if you have a hydraulic press and a basic machine shop? Seems line the king pin reamer is the only trick part.

- Link pin rebuild. Aside from the shim set-up at install any special tools here?

- Does brand matter for either?

- Brakes. Been researching Wide 5 disc systems that add no track width. Alot of mixed info out there. Any links to honest reviews?

We will take the spindles off this week and start the rebuild.

Fri Jul 20, 2018 7:48 am

Small steps this week.

I dug out the old parts cleaner from when i was a kid. Served me well then and will serve again. I use Simple Green as the cleaner. Very effective with some elbow grease. Must have taken out 3" of sludge.

In anticipation of a bad link & king pins i did the research, found a king pin reamer and ordered parts. Good thing i did because once the spindles were pulled i found that i was probably snookered back in the day. No grease at all and the amount of wear suggest they may have never been replaced. Not sure.....

That was not even the worst one. Both king pins have play in them too.

Next move is to dig out the old hydraulic press and start taking them apart and then clean all the parts up for re-build and re-install.

My question for today is this.

How hard is it to pull the front beam, link arms and sway bar? I hate dirty things. The front beam is clean but the link arms on both sides are dirty. Really dirty. Any advice here?

Tue Jul 24, 2018 1:41 pm

Wow! I also have my grandfather’s 1964 Sea Blue sunroof California car. When he passed in 1989 I bought the car from my grandmother. I don’t however have kids and can’t seem to attract any nieces or nephews to the car :(

Tue Jul 24, 2018 4:03 pm

Pulling link arms and sway bar are probably easier than taking the kingpins apart. I don’t bother dicking around trying to get the stock clamps off the sway bar and typically cut them off and replace them. Think they’re only $10-15 to replace.

Tue Jul 24, 2018 6:02 pm

Bryan67 wrote: There`s nothing wrong with nice, shiny new paint.

That's one nice 66!

Tue Jul 24, 2018 11:09 pm

matthew henricks wrote: No grease at all and the amount of wear suggest they may have never been replaced. Not sure.....

Did you, maybe, perhaps, not realize they have to be greased regularly as part of general maintenance? :?:

The 1964 manual calls for the pins to be greased every 1500 miles. That's why they have zerk fittings on them. They likely were greased, 30K miles ago when you had somebody work on them - but if nobody greased them since...

Mon Jul 30, 2018 6:48 am

Crimes of my youth. Very good chance of this...

Mos6502 wrote:
Did you, maybe, perhaps, not realize they have to be greased regularly as part of general maintenance? :?:

Mon Jul 30, 2018 6:49 am

Nice 64 Blitz64. Very clean.

blitz64 wrote: Wow! I also have my grandfather’s 1964 Sea Blue sunroof California car.

Mon Jul 30, 2018 6:51 am

Thanks Sharp64. I ordered a Bentley Manual to see the details. Will look into replacement clamps. When removing the old ones how much danger of the sway bar springing and hitting me when removing and re-installing?

Sharp64 wrote: Pulling link arms and sway bar are probably easier than taking the kingpins apart. I don’t bother dicking around trying to get the stock clamps off the sway bar and typically cut them off and replace them. Think they’re only $10-15 to replace.

Fri Aug 03, 2018 7:33 pm

I'll upload pictures later but today we pulled apart the king pins. Hydraulic press and a bashing of shims and rods and they came apart. Things are all cleaned up and ready to go back together. I have a few questions.

1. Is the bore in the center steering section supposed to be a tight fit on the king pin?

2. The thrust washers. Should they be shinny? I have one that is and one that is not.

3. Do the grease nipples screw in or press in? Tried to take one out and it was not going anywhere...

4. What tricks do you guys use to get the surface rust off parts (backing plate and steering knuckle) so it would take simple black paint OK and look somewhat better? I do not have access to a sand blaster.

Thanks

Fri Aug 03, 2018 7:38 pm

matthew henricks wrote: Thanks Sharp64. I ordered a Bentley Manual to see the details. Will look into replacement clamps. When removing the old ones how much danger of the sway bar springing and hitting me when removing and re-installing?

Sharp64 wrote: Pulling link arms and sway bar are probably easier than taking the kingpins apart. I don’t bother dicking around trying to get the stock clamps off the sway bar and typically cut them off and replace them. Think they’re only $10-15 to replace.

Sorry I missed this. Sounds like you got it worked out but there isn’t any spring back which I’m sure you figured out.

A wire wheel on a grinder works well getting rust off. There is also something called Vaporust that I recently used and it worked great. Literally eat the rust off. Pretty cool stuff. Its not cheap though and you are supposed to submerse the part. You can also just clean it up well/degrease and spray paint with a rust converting paint.

The bore is supposed to be tight but not too tight. You should be able to manipulate it by hand. Iirc it’s supposed to take like 4# of force?

Mon Aug 06, 2018 6:54 am

More of the story.

Grandpa bought the car as a cheap commuter car in the mid 60's and was working for Douglas Aircraft likely in Santa Monica. At some point Douglas (or McDonald Douglas) opened the Huntington Beach plant and the bug was the commuter car for that for many years.

The ensuing years are lost to time. Grandpa has passed and back then picture taking was not as easy to do as it is today. I can remember in the 80's the bug parked with a cover on it at my dad's shop in Fountain Valley and that is all. I will have to ask if there are any stories about it available.

Now back to today. Branden & I took apart the spindles Friday and pressed in the new bushings yesterday. It is nice to have a hydraulic press around. Man were they a hard press out.

Look mom. I did this and yes these are my new shorts...

The results

The bits and pieces

We then attacked the sway bar. After some whacks it came off pretty easy.

Our next task is to send the king pins off to be reamed and then to take off the trailing arms. We want to clean them up and i want to know if there are any broken leaf springs. The bug has always sat sort of low to me. Both front and back. Sorta sagging.

Question for the day. What are the shims that came out of the sway bar clamps?

Tue Aug 14, 2018 6:25 am

No pictures today but some progress.

Big shout out to Greg over at Vintage Warehouse. He was a huge help in getting the new king pin bushings reamed properly since that was a tool i did not feel the need to buy. King pins should be back next week.

After some thinking and adding up cost we decided to install front disc brakes on the bug. I know that is not stock but all along i told myself and Branden that he could do whatever he wanted as long as i could un-do it later. This qualifies. :)

Last night we pulled all four link arms off. Talk abut dirty. We want to replace the seals, clean the area up and make sure all the leaf springs are solid.

Slow but steady.

Tue Aug 14, 2018 10:31 am

I love the history of your Beetle....seeing a young person working on a vintage VW and not playing with electronics gives me faith in the next generation again...thanks for posting...

MikeC

Thu Aug 16, 2018 10:17 pm

mikec4193 wrote: I love the history of your Beetle....seeing a young person working on a vintage VW and not playing with electronics gives me faith in the next generation again...thanks for posting...

MikeC

DITTO!! :)