The Family '55 Oval restoration Hoppys VW

[HoppysVW]

As a kid who grew up spending a lot of time at my grandfather's VW repair shop back in the early 90's (Hoppys VW out of Gorham Maine) I have fond memories of climbing through all the old VWs looking for any treasures I could find down in the "junk yard" (Mostly change at the time). I was always told that the Oval window VW beetle was not to be played in or tampered with. This has always stuck with me. At that age I didn't know anything about vehicle let alone an "Oval window VW beetle". As many years went by I had followed in my grandfather and fathers footsteps in the automotive industry. I am currently a Senior Master Certified Ford Technician. (Obviously for job security 😅) but I have always owned a VW as its in our blood. It's always been a dream of mine to own and or drive a beetle just because that's what my grandfather made his living working on for so many years!
Being 30 now I was just recently put in a position to aquire/Restore and or work on my grandmother's 1955 Oval VW beetle. The very Beetle I was told not to play in as a child in my grandfather VW junk yard.
This car has a lot of sentimental value to me and quite a few members of my family. This vehicle was acquired by my uncle back in the late 80's from what I have been told. (1989-1990ish) Shortly after purchasing the beetle my Uncle, my grandfather, and my father had rebuilt the engine with all NOS parts at the time and had replaced all the steering and suspension components along with the entire brake system. Once they had rebuilt and replaced all those parts the vehicle had been driven only a few miles from what I have been told...
The vehicle had then sat outside until 2014 or 2015 shortly after my grandfather had passed away. Before he passed he had given the catrto my grandmother.
Once my grandfather had passed my grandmother had reached out to a customer of my grandfather's that had been to the shop and bought may parts out of the junk yard. She had reached out to him to restore the '55 Oval Beetle. The individual has 3 restored older VWs including a bus, a beetle, and a Thing. His vehicles are in great shape and well restored and I understand why she reached out to him. But once the '55 got to him he had analyzed the extent of work that was needed to be done and realized that the job was just to much for him to take on. The vehicle then sat at his place for about 7 to 8 years under cover.
My uncle and father had brought up the '55 beetle and I decided to approach my grandmother about taking on the restoration process. Reluctantly she came around and reach out and her and I went and pick up the beetle.

On Novemer 6 2022 the '55 Oval landed at my house.

After being in the automotive industry for the past 10 years full time I have a lot of experience and I feel as though I'm ready for the restoration!

The vehicle sat in my garage from November tell late May when I decided to tear into the project!
All good things take time right?

In the past week after work I attempted to get the engine running. From what I was told the engine was rebuilt so I had confidence in my grandfather's work that this Bug would fun.

The fuel in the tank was tarnished and smelt horribly. I proceeded to make a makeshift fuel line that went into a 5 gallon gas can.

I purchased a new 6 volt battery and installed the battery.... Turn the key and nothing but a click. Used a ratchet and socked and turned the engine of over and found it to rotate freely which was good sign. I knew then that I was aiming for the starting causing the engine not to turn over. I removed the starter and found that the bindex drive was seized on the starter shaft. I freed the started and reinstalled and was surprised that the started now turned the engine over...

Now I was dealing with a crank no start concern. Verified voltage at the ignition coil with a test light and verified voltage at the point. Used a spark tester and found no spark at the plugs and no spark at the coil. Just to get the engine running I replaced the ignition coil and condenser with what I could get my hands on that day because I was eager to fire the engine up.
Once the coil and condenser was replace I then had spark. But there was no fuel getting to the carb. I removed the carb and cleaned it. After removing the carb I used a spary bottle with gas and sprayed it into the intake and then cranked it over and the engine tried to fire up. This was great!
Took the carburetor, disassembled and cleaned it. Came home after work and installed the cleaned carb and cranked the engine over. To my luck the old engine fired right up and ran pretty damn well.

Since I had got the engine running my interest was sparked and my excitement multiple ten fold.

Once the engine was running it was time to firgure out the next plan of action. Got power now its time to test the drive train system... Upon further inspection I found that the clutch would not depress indicating that the clutch friction disc was seized on the inputs shaft or the pressure plate and clutch linkage was seized up from corrosion.
In excitement knowing the engine was running my father came over snd helped remove the engine so we could check out the clutch situation.

Once all the bell housing bolts were removed we attempted to sperate the engine from the transmission. But we were unable to detach the engine from the transmission because the clutch friction plate was seized on the input shaft....

After a few searches on this site for engines being stuck to the transmssion I determined that I had to detach the clutch pressure plate from the engine flywheel.

I proceeded to remove the 6 pressure plate bolts with a custom bent 14mm wrench through the starter hole in the transmission. Once the pressure plate bolts were removed the engine was then able to be removed from the vehicle.

That is where I decided that I should document this journey and which has lead me to thi g long winded post!


If any ones made it this far here are some pictures. Pictures of the day I picked up the beetle to pictures of me pulling the engine (06-04-2023)

More photos to come 🤘

[scarabee]

Hi HoppysVW,

I enjoyed reading the background story of this amazing car and look forward to accompany you on your journey. That picture with the stark black nightsky would make a great poster.

[tehillah1]

This is a nice example of a stock (near as anyone can tell), early 1955 semaphore, over rider, egg tail light bug. Pics are great and will help folks identify some of the details in the ever on-going discussions about what's correct on 1955 model bug...I particularly like the muffler. I've never seen one of those.
Thanks for jumping into the Samba project pool! Looking forward to the journey.

[HoppysVW]

I appreciate the reply and interest in the thread! Many more pictures and videos to come. The journey has just begun and I have so much to learn but I'm looking forward to the road ahead.

I do know there are a lot of original parts still intact on the vehicle which is great. I'm sure I will need to source certain bits and pieces to keep it as original as possible but it's a marathon no a sprint.

I have a a floor pan that my grandfather had keep all these years in anticipation of fixing the car up so that's a huge head start in the repair process. Its even dated 1955 so its the same vintage as the car which i was pumped about.

The rust really has consumed the entire car but at this point I want to get the drivetrain and Chassis sound and then work on the structural Integrity of the body. I don't really plan on doing much with the exterior of the vehicle for the time being I'm just so eager to run it down the road.

Here is a link to the engine starting up and running

https://youtube.com/shorts/CC2uDtnZ3s4?feature=share

I do have the original air cleaner I just had it off so I could use a spary bottle with car to prime the system if you will.

Thing starts and runs great.


Next big step is removing the clutch friction disc and pressure plate from the input shaft of the transmission as its seized on there from corrosion. That'll be tonight's project

[nlorntson]

Lovely!

I have my Grandmas car also (a turquoise 1962 sunroof) all original that we restored 15+ years ago. It's a special thing to drive around in it, more so than any of our other cars.

Good luck on your restoration!

[ecallaway]

[HoppysVW]

Just out in the garage moving stuff around and taking more pictures in better detail and adding them to the thread.

I still have so much to research but the knowledge on the platform is so vast and any insight or feed back into what's right and wrong on the engine would be geartly appreciated

Thinking about posting the picture of the engine on the "54 - '55 what's not correct" thread

I know the coil and hold down and the condenser are not the correct parts vintage wise but I just used them to verify the engine would indeed run before I progressed with the restoration process.

I installed the air cleaner back on the carburetor for this picture so the engine is in the same state as when It arrived at my house.

I also took a close up of the distributor. Haven't done enough reading yet to know if this is the correct distributor for this era engine but the part number part number was surprisingly easy to read.

[HoppysVW]

Just adding more pictures or the car!


Below are pictures of the floor pan i have that i plan to swap all the parts to from the car as it sits to give me a solid engine and chassis platform.

Floor pan which has been stashed away for the car since the early '90s. There is damage to the passage side cast iron shock mount but other then that the pan has held up very nicely over the years. The pan sat outside leaned up against a tree. My grandfather acquired the floor pan from a local Vocational School that had rebuilt the floor pan.

A few pictures of the clutch friction disc and pressure plate that is seized to the transmission input shaft from sitting for the past 25+ years. That's my next step in the process of getting the car functional.

And a picture of the "VW" stamp on the single outlet exhaust on the '55. Unfortunately the muffler has a few rust holes in it but it interesting to see the stamped VW symbol on the muffler.

And a another picture of the car sitting outside the garage before I moved it into the garage for the restoration project!

[Dan22]

Wow, you were able to remove the pressure plate with the engine installed! Must have had access to the bolts from the starter hole.

I am impressed! One more trick in the books for old car fix'n.
_________________
1-0900722 die langsame grüne Schildkröte
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=765074

[scotty timmerman]

Is the body and pan numbers matching? If it is I would recommend not swapping pans. Also what is wrong with the pan that the car is on? If it only needs pan halves that would be easier then fixing that broken shock tower on your extra pan.
_________________
71 ghia coupe: Build thread http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=511738&highlight=
71 type 3 fastback auto
71 type 3 fastback manual
73 super beetle
57 oval: build thread: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8616563#8616563
63 beetle reassembly: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7458619#7458619
2332cc engine build: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8608429&highlight=#8608429
84 vanagon westfalia wolfsburg edition

[splitjunkie]

[HoppysVW]

So I can't quite make out all the numbers on the car..

Here are pictures of the number.. will upload a picture of the current pan number tomorrow.

From what I could make out this is what I came up with:

Current Chassis/pan number -1-073340
Body number (just the number stamped under the vin plate) 708020
Vin plate number -1-0793404
Engine number -1-1103116-

New pan number -1-0899035

When the terms matching numbers they are all suppose to be the exact same? I thought I read somewhere on here that the numbers vary but usually all end up being from the same year but the month may vary not quite sure how that all works.

Current pan is in very poor shape due to the rust will up load pictures of its current state tomorrow as well.

[HoppysVW]

[splitjunkie]

How about a picture of the number on the current pan? Your numbers sound close enough that maybe they match but you can't read them correctly due to corrosion.

The VIN on the plate and the number on the pan should match. The body number will always be different as will the engine. The only way to know if the engine is original is to send off to the VW museum for a birth certificate. You provide the VIN and the engine number and they will confirm if the engine is original or not.
_________________
Chris

You know, a lot of these scratches will buff right out... Jerry Seinfeld

[HoppysVW]

Here are the pictures of the pan number

A few pictures on the extent of the tin worm cancer (rust)

And a sweet picture of a maine license plate that was in the car that was dated '55... who knows may be the original plate to the car 🤷‍♂️

[janerick3]

Car and original pan are January 1955

Engine and replacement pan are June 1955

Check your transaxle number. It is on the right side, by the nose cone. If should be either A39XXXX or around A500000, depending on which car it is from.
_________________
Thanks,
Jan K.

[VW_Jimbo]

WOW! That has some rust! I will be following along to see the progress. You are in for some FUN!
_________________
Jimbo

There is never enough time to do it right the first time, but all the time necessary the second time!

[janerick3]

For you detail nuts (like me), this is the earliest documented car I'm aware of with a "Made in Western Germany" badge.

I am assuming the engine and spare floor pan are from the same car.

Since this car is in the same block of U.S.-market chassis numbers as my original (but rusted-out) Jan '55 parts car, here are some other "gnat's-ass" details:

The Knecht "coffee can" air cleaner may be correct for June 1955; my engine (1-0960xxx) had the Knecht, strap-type air cleaner.

There should be two screws front and back holding the shoeboxes and cylinder tin together. The cylinder tins will be one-piece, not 3 pieces welded together. This applies to both January and June '55 engines.

Side/rear glass should be Sekurit, not Duro-Glas.

Fender weld nuts should be the big, square type.

Semaphore arms should be painted Strato Silver inside and out, could be from either supplier (my black ones were from Hans Strobel, aka "SHO").

Sealed-beam headlights may be date-coded "53M."

Door hinges will have oiling slots, not oiling holes.
_________________
Thanks,
Jan K.

[sunroof]

It took me a good 3 hours to separate my engine and transmission but it sure was a good moment when it finally let go!

Don
_________________
Better and better mistakes!

[HoppysVW]

Got the transaxle number

Got another picture of the entire Vin plate. Still can't make out the number....

Took some pictures of the Semaphores. Haven't had much time this week to work out in the garage so I haven't looked into any of the lighting wiring yet but the Semaphores look to be intact. Hoping they aren't seized or damaged from the corrosion.

Pictures of the head lights. Outter glass are different 🤷‍♂️

Pictures of the glass.. you can see front door glass and rear side glass in the Semaphore pictures if you can zoom in.

Rear Oval glass

Front windshield glass

Drivers side 1/4 smokers window

Passenger side front 1/4 smokers window

Passenger door glass

Passenger rear side glass

Pictures of the door hinges.... didn't know there was different styles. Not sure what style the car has

And just a few pictures of some of the OG stuff still intact on the car that are usually missing like the fuel tank cap and the jack