TheSamba.com :: View topic - Brought home a Jan/ Feb 54' Jupiter Grey Euro

Sat Jan 11, 2020 9:19 am

Just dragged this home last night. Central Washington. It's been Owned for a few years by an guy I have known forever, but have never really been friends with; he's into VW's and super nice, but tends to keep to himself.
He grabbed in a couple years ago from over on the coast where it had been taken apart and a sort of restoration started.

Looks like initially they probably meant to do a pretty nice job. Body was removed and stripped/ blasted, the paint is decent. It's had a few patches/ repairs that I wouldn't call fantastic, but could be much worse. 1 front fender is a patched bullet, the other seems original. Rear fenders seem to be german, maybe not originally on this car. What rust it had has been fixed, just a little in a bumper bracket and one spot near the torsion tube. No evidence of any rust in the pan ever. Which is wow.

I was given the important interior stuff. Original Door panels and red leatherette for pillars and window surrounds. Armrest, mats, seats seem to be original.
Engine is NOT correct. But runs. Poorly. I tinkered with it...it's just a 36hp and it should run amazing. Compression seems fine, I rebuilt the carb but it acts like it runs out of gas. It's not though. I'll get to it I guess.
Trans is original.

Getting the right tail lights is gonna sting. Anyway. I'm going to put it all back together using as much of the original stuff possible. Semaphores work, need a bulb for one side.

Anyone reading this have some 50's corpses a couple things I'd like to find is the wiring harness from the screw junction by the tank to the headlights and same for the tail lights. The whole harness is this car is nice except those parts have been hacked.

Sat Jan 11, 2020 10:06 am

Looks nice, and looks like you can make it real nice with the finishing touches you mention. Amazing the pan had no rust.

Is the hacked bullet fender not period correct (later fender with bullet added)?

My 55 looks like it had the same interior color.

Keep us updated on your progress!

Sat Jan 11, 2020 10:12 am

Dan22 wrote: Looks nice, and looks like you can make it real nice with the finishing touches you mention. Amazing the pan had no rust.

Is the hacked bullet fender not period correct (later fender with bullet added)?

My 55 looks like it had the same interior color.

Keep us updated on your progress!

-Front fenders have no signals. The right front fender was originally a bullet fender, but was patched. Left front no sign of patching...so replaced or original I guess. Wiring tubes are still behind both fenders.
Fairly sure the stuff with this car is correct. Title says 'GR' for color. Grey? Green?
Just going by this cars past I feel like they repainted it the original color. But
Doing more research though- Jupiter Grey was generally on standard beetles? Seems like if you look hard enough you can find a couple normal/ deluxe's in Jupiter.
The read interior definitely came in this car- could it have been a green / red?
Grey/ red seems more likely...

Sat Jan 11, 2020 10:17 am

Steve Wood owned a '52 Standard Zwitter in Jupiter Gray; perhaps that was his inspiration, if Jupiter Gray is not the original color.

Sat Jan 11, 2020 10:27 am

I'll have to send for a Birth Certificate to know I guess.

This bug was not originally a standard- but also wasn't 100% dismantled when it was resprayed. And it's ALL Jupiter grey. All around the wiring which is intact and uncut, engine area. under the dash.
I can tell you it was not Pastel green.
So..does that make it a Jupiter grey Deluxe +/ - ?

Sat Jan 11, 2020 10:34 am

I think I Saw this for sale earlier... and noticed some of the body damage that didn’t get dealt with during the restoration. Was it under the rear seat? Anything is repairable as long as the purchase price was right! ;) for the wiring parts, pretty sure partial sections are available to fix that. Better with new wires and connections instead of a 60+ used piece? Congrats on the purchase

Sat Jan 11, 2020 10:44 am

bwaz wrote: I think I Saw this for sale earlier... and noticed some of the body damage that didn’t get dealt with during the restoration. Was it under the rear seat? Anything is repayable as long as the price was right! ;)

It was for sale for a while, on and off. There's some visible repairs, but they weren't done horribly. I mean, I've owned a couple 356's that has worse body work AT the assembly line. The way they patched the gaps back then...well, is shocking to just stumble across.
So, could have been done better in a couple spots. But importantly it's straight and solid. For what this car is (it's about a 13 footer') most of the repairs are okay. If any of the work was much better you'd have to start over on the rest that wasn't done as well.

I'll admit..there are a couple repairs I'm just going to pretend I never saw.
NOT RIGHT. But they work and don't hurt anything.

Sat Jan 11, 2020 10:48 am

Get it running right and have fun driving it is always the best result! ;)

Sat Jan 11, 2020 5:43 pm

I like this car, regardless of the color.

Most U.S. '54s and '55s came with red leatherette interiors, regardless of color. Tan leatherette interiors are common on restored cars, but I have never seen an original one. I have seen black original leatherette interiors, but they are rare.

Does it have the ram protection plate at the bottom of the spare tire well? The common belief until recent years was that ram protection was a post-1955 dealer modification. Ram Protection blocks the taillights, so there is a safety consideration to leaving them off.

Does it have sealed beams or euro headlights?

Original heart lenses will be dark red, not dark amber. Modern LEDs make the brake lights visible during the day.

Good-quality reproductions of the correct trunk liner exist, so you can ditch the wiring cover as soon as you find one.

Sat Jan 11, 2020 8:38 pm

Why do you think the car is Euro? Jupiter gray looks great, are you thinking it was originally Jupiter Grey? (Normally only Standard model color IIRC)

Sun Jan 12, 2020 8:41 am

I'm assuming it's a U.S. market car, because of the leatherette interior. Canadian market cars have the unique Volkswagen of Canada ID plate.

Sun Jan 12, 2020 7:30 pm

Mr. OGPaint wrote: Why do you think the car is Euro? Jupiter gray looks great, are you thinking it was originally Jupiter Grey? (Normally only Standard model color IIRC)

I figured it was euro because semaphores I guess. Most of the 54/55 cars I've seen in the US either had turn signals or were euro. Also, among the old bad parts that the previous owner scrapped were euro bumper blades, and parts of what looked like euro headlight buckets.
It's really just guesswork unless I get a VW Cert that shows what it's story is.
96% of the wiring harness is still in place and fantastic and behind all those wires it really looks Jupiter grey. What other close option was there?
It's not Pastel green anywhere- seems like that's the closest thing I could confuse for grey.

I have all the remnants of the red leatherette for around the 1/4 windows. I have a weird feeling if I send for the Birth certificate it's going to tell me some combo that is NOT anything like what it is.
It would be cool to know...but if it says it was green / cloth interior..it'll freak me out.

Mon Jan 13, 2020 9:54 am

Beautiful car 😍

Mon Jan 13, 2020 12:38 pm

Hey Bub,
I'm just finishing my resto of a Jan 54. Mine was delivered to Seattle with semaphores and sealed beam headlights dated 11/53. I have lots of leftover odds and ends, so let me know what you're needing....I may have it. My harness went to a buddy though, sorry.

Mon Jan 13, 2020 12:50 pm

joe h. wrote: Hey Bub,
I'm just finishing my resto of a Jan 54. Mine was delivered to Seattle with semaphores and sealed beam headlights dated 11/53. I have lots of leftover odds and ends, so let me know what you're needing....I may have it. My harness went to a buddy though, sorry.

That's awesome Joe! I'd love to see some pictures of it, little details matter as usual. I'm not missing much that is really important for this car or specific enough to need to come from the exact model.
My list of trinkets that I'd like to find -
ebrake access hole cover
horn button surround is busted
TAIL LIGHTS DAMMIT

The wiring is easy. It's a justa little section to headlights and tail lights. The rest is present, original and too good to fool with.
Couple questions though- what insulation/ sound deadening is anyone using? Mostly for inside the door shells and 1/4 panels. I'm back and forth between dynamat type stuff and a thicker closed-cell foam rubber type stuff. I built a 68' 912 and did dynamat throughout the entire interior and that worked fantastic. I'm considering a few thin sections behind the engine insulation too.

The interior will wait a little while since the engine is so ugly, a little leaky and 1/2 aren't firing much. Compression isn't bad. It's good enough that it should run decent, but it's not. So I'll drop the engine this week. Get the tin cleaned and powedercoated, pull the heads and psee whats up. And go through all the brakes.
The WHOLE brake system is new, but this thing has been of the road a LONG time. So, no miles, but sitting 25 years doesn't help the brakes.

Just to be up front I have $11k into this thing. Historically I get cars super cheap, so it was a tough one. But the more I go over it the better it looks.
The pan has never been patched and doesn't have a drop of rust.

Mon Jan 13, 2020 9:34 pm

Curious , is the speedometer KM or MPH ?
E-brake access cover , are you talking of the cover that’s on the front of pan ?, I have one for you

Mon Jan 13, 2020 9:50 pm

empiracer wrote: Curious , is the speedometer KM or MPH ?
E-brake access cover , are you talking of the cover that’s on the front of pan ?, I have one for you

Speedo is in MPH and actually correct for year and month build for this car.
That's something I considered too. It's probably not a euro car. Probably wasn't even Jupiter grey! It just sort of looks that way and I got nothing else to talk about.

Yeah- the ebrake mouth cover thingy. I'll take it!
Totally weird setup. It's one of those things that you sort of knew about in the back of your mind for years. Like a dozen little weird things that you can't believe VW did at all. Then you own one of these cars and just shake your head.

The e-brake cable does a 180* at the backing plate? MMMkay good idea. Did they seriously just not think about it at all? I mean, the cable e-brake existed many years prior..and they came up with that. So much of it is perfect simplicity then they throw in the e-brake system.

p.s. Talked to Aliak yesterday! We want to plan a CT70 campout this summer.
Holla!

Tue Jan 14, 2020 3:31 pm

The e-brake cover on the front of the pan is a holdover from the cable brake cars, so is the looping 180degree cables in the rear. Up until end of 1955 MY the e-brake cables run the entire length of the pan and are actuated by a long rod that runs thru the pan to the front of the chassis. On a cable brake car that rod can be actuated by the E-brake handle or the service brake (pedal).

When you work on a cable brake car, the design makes sense. On those cars all 4 brakes were actuated by that same rod under the cover you are missing.

Wed Jan 15, 2020 11:29 am

If you've got red leatherette material around the 1/4 windows and a MPH speedo, I would say with 99% certainty that you've got yourself a North America delivered car. Cool!! I saw that car listed...it shows nice in pictures. That color is really cool, I just sold a car that color earlier this year.
There are measurements listed on Samba for Egg tail light placement. I also have a set of original fenders here in the Spokane area for my 55', I could trace a template for you if you wanted. I would look underneath the rear fender to see if the holes were welded up (hopefully),
On the front fenders, you can use a fabric measuring tape, measure at the center of the fender from where it is bolted on the car (at the quarter panel) down to the lip. Compare from side to side. Original fenders hang way lower. It will be obvious in your measurements.

Wed Jan 15, 2020 4:26 pm

motofly196 wrote: If you've got red leatherette material around the 1/4 windows and a MPH speedo, I would say with 99% certainty that you've got yourself a North America delivered car. Cool!! I saw that car listed...it shows nice in pictures. That color is really cool, I just sold a car that color earlier this year.
There are measurements listed on Samba for Egg tail light placement. I also have a set of original fenders here in the Spokane area for my 55', I could trace a template for you if you wanted. I would look underneath the rear fender to see if the holes were welded up (hopefully),
On the front fenders, you can use a fabric measuring tape, measure at the center of the fender from where it is bolted on the car (at the quarter panel) down to the lip. Compare from side to side. Original fenders hang way lower. It will be obvious in your measurements.

That's all great info to consider. Now that I looked closer and have it up on stands I've found all 4 fenders seem to be german/ OEM. But likely not from this car. Both front fenders have patched bullet mounts and headlights wire tubes, and rear fenders seem to have snowflake light mounting holes, also filled in. Oddly enough there's no remnants of any *extra turn signal wiring to the front or back for any messy 'upgrades' they did. No wires to any bullet signals if in fact they were ever on this car. I'm sort of guessing the fenders were added while whoever started the big project on this car was trying to get it straight. No flasher, correct semaphore switch etc..
Possibly they had a spare oval for parts.

I already have a template for the correct lights- I have a set of snowflakes I'd like to run temporarily. I may see if I can get away with drilling the heart holes in the correct spot and mounting the snowflakes until I give up on an affordable OEM set.

It'll be a couple/ few months before i can touch the interior. I don't see much point in owning these cars if you can't drive them, so engine, brakes, etc comes first.
Eventually I'll get around to sending for the Birth Certificate which might say NONE of the stuff I'm guessing is correct. Whether it's original or not I'm stoked to have a Jupiter grey car, it's fairly uncommon in any case and shows GREAT on a fairly period correct car.
One thing that makes me frown is the radio. It's a Cool old skeleton of a Motorola, but it sure didn't fit the stock hole. So the wiper switch is under next to the hood pull.

Any opinions on sound deadening for inner doors and 1/4 panels? 1/2 closed cell foam or dynamat?