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dodger tom 
Samba Member
Joined: March 25, 2013
Posts: 2046
Location: Central Coast, CA, but we're all still Ukrainian and Californian
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 Posted: Wed Dec 04, 2024 1:52 pm Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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| Ceckert64 wrote: |
| dodger tom wrote: |
| hope you didn’t have to go out to pee too many times. |
Hopefully not, especially when it’s windy  |
here’s my solution for inclement-weather and urban-camping situations.
i fabricated a plastic box for the 1/2-gallon lexan bottle to live in.
_________________
1978 Champaign Edition 2 Westfalia
Would never find the time to keep up another classic air-cooled. |
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TrollFromDownBelow
Samba Member
Joined: January 04, 2005
Posts: 446
Location: VA Beach
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| Posted: Fri Dec 06, 2024 7:57 am Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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| Ceckert64 wrote: |
| TrollFromDownBelow wrote: |
What are you using for heaters? I was curious.... I remember driving my '71 bus around in college (Michigan State U.) many decades ago with no heat. During the day it was tolerable, but once the sun went down it was down right miserable. |
I got a heater core under the rear seat to heat the cabin. I also have a cheap Chinese diesel heater for the front defrost. They work good and make it very warm up to 50mph but then the air starts drawing too much heat out as well as the holes in the floor  it’s getting a new floor over Christmas break though. Was it a white 71 westy with a sticker MSU sticker across the back? I will say mines not always the warmest my 72 always had good heat.
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Yes! It was a white '71 Westy....think it had an MSU sticker....it's been 30 years, so memory is a bit fuzzy on that detail. How did you guess?
EDIT: It wasn't technically a Westy....it was a conversion company out of Indiana, but it had a pop top and camper interior.
_________________
1976 Westy (aka Tripod)
2.0 liter FI solid lifters
212k miles |
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Ceckert64
Samba Member
Joined: September 16, 2015
Posts: 2129
Location: Houghton, MI and WV
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| Posted: Sun Dec 08, 2024 12:42 pm Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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| TrollFromDownBelow wrote: |
Yes! It was a white '71 Westy....think it had an MSU sticker....it's been 30 years, so memory is a bit fuzzy on that detail. How did you guess?
EDIT: It wasn't technically a Westy....it was a conversion company out of Indiana, but it had a pop top and camper interior. |
I was just curious since I bought my Poptop of a 71 white westy in a junkyard in Millington Michigan that had an MSU sticker on the back, but it was definitely a westy though. I was curious if there was a chance it was the same one, there are also a few 71 Sportmobiles out there.
Over the last few days I got out to Mount Bohemia to ski, first day the lift wasn’t open so me and a friend hiked to the top and skied down.
Second day was opening day and a bunch of my friends went and I got the side tent set up for a hang out/ food spot. The drive to the ski place was freezing rain so the front got a bit covered
_________________
1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Yellow Tin Top Westfalia -Sold
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop EJ22 swap
“Rome” 91 Syncro |
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TrollFromDownBelow
Samba Member
Joined: January 04, 2005
Posts: 446
Location: VA Beach
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| Posted: Mon Dec 09, 2024 6:37 am Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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| Ceckert64 wrote: |
| TrollFromDownBelow wrote: |
EDIT: It wasn't technically a Westy....it was a conversion company out of Indiana, but it had a pop top and camper interior. |
I was just curious since I bought my Poptop of a 71 white westy in a junkyard in Millington Michigan that had an MSU sticker on the back, but it was definitely a westy though. I was curious if there was a chance it was the same one, there are also a few 71 Sportmobiles out there.
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Thanks for the reminder...it was a Sportmobile.
Mine met a fairly quick demise after I owned it. Sold it my Softmore or Junior year in college to a high school kid, and I think it lasted maybe a year before it went to the junkyard. Probably crushed long ago. If by freak chance it was still around t would most likely have been in a junkyard in the Metro Detroit area, b/c that is where I sold it.
_________________
1976 Westy (aka Tripod)
2.0 liter FI solid lifters
212k miles |
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Ceckert64
Samba Member
Joined: September 16, 2015
Posts: 2129
Location: Houghton, MI and WV
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| Posted: Mon Dec 23, 2024 10:18 pm Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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Time for a little update, the bus made it home from school on Friday, with only having to pull off at least 5 times to fix the gas pedal since it kept breaking  One of the pins to the gate hinge that I was using wiggled out and went missing, then I had to shove a random bolt in it, then the other pin kept working itself out. The pedal rod also kept going sideways then I would lose the pedal and have to fix that. It started giving me issues shortly after I got back up after Thanksgiving break and has been testing my patience since I had to mess with it so much, good news is it’s getting replaced. I won’t miss the old pedal
With that, it’s getting a new inner and outer door step/ lower dogleg on the left side, new front floor, fixing the bottom edges of the wheel wells where the front floor welds. So far I got the old floor out and everything cleaned up, the lower dogleg leg parts in and patched the left wheel well so far. Hopefully tomorrow I can get the floor in and start reassembly soon.
_________________
1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Yellow Tin Top Westfalia -Sold
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop EJ22 swap
“Rome” 91 Syncro |
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Abscate
Samba Member
Joined: October 05, 2014
Posts: 24281
Location: NYC/Upstate/ROW
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| Posted: Tue Dec 24, 2024 3:03 am Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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That’s an impressive lack of warping on that job. Mine would have looked like a pretzel.
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🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🍊 🍊 🍊 |
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Shonandb
Samba Member
Joined: January 12, 2019
Posts: 2213
Location: Vancouver, BC
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| Posted: Tue Dec 24, 2024 9:04 am Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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Nice work Aiden! I had my gas pedal pin work its way out on the way back from a trip and of course it happened in bumper to bumper traffic due to an accident. Was able to nurse it home but it was really frustrating.
Merry Christmas and I hope Santa brings you a nice fitting floor section and all the fixings needed to make it nice!
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76 Westy with a 2.5L Subaru SOHC + Vanagon (010) Automatic Transaxle
Build & Trip Thread: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=758760
Previous 1973 Panel Bus:
Click to view image |
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Ceckert64
Samba Member
Joined: September 16, 2015
Posts: 2129
Location: Houghton, MI and WV
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| Posted: Tue Dec 24, 2024 7:45 pm Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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| Abscate wrote: |
| That’s an impressive lack of warping on that job. Mine would have looked like a pretzel. |
Thank you! The trick is minimal heat and patience, to get no warping just keep the heat at a moderate setting and do a small tack at a time and space them out.
| Shonandb wrote: |
Nice work Aiden! I had my gas pedal pin work its way out on the way back from a trip and of course it happened in bumper to bumper traffic due to an accident. Was able to nurse it home but it was really frustrating.
Merry Christmas and I hope Santa brings you a nice fitting floor section and all the fixings needed to make it nice! |
Thank you! It’s definitely annoying when it comes out and a pain. Mine kept falling apart in the middle of nowhere 
Merry Christmas to you too! Santa did come early and got me floors, welding helmet and gloves. A thanks to my parents for that one! I have new pedals and all the parts 
Today I got the other lip fixed, then I got the floors in and painted. Tomorrow after it cures I will start reassembly and finishing patching the dog leg, the new floor is exciting
_________________
1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Yellow Tin Top Westfalia -Sold
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop EJ22 swap
“Rome” 91 Syncro |
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Clatter
Samba Member
Joined: September 24, 2003
Posts: 7846
Location: Santa Cruz
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| Posted: Wed Dec 25, 2024 4:06 pm Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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Way to power on my man.
inspiring!
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Bus Motor Build
I have excellent news for the world...
There is no such thing as patina.
It does not exist! |
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Ceckert64
Samba Member
Joined: September 16, 2015
Posts: 2129
Location: Houghton, MI and WV
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| Posted: Fri Dec 27, 2024 11:25 am Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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| Clatter wrote: |
Way to power on my man.
inspiring! |
Thanks! I gotta power through it! Only two weeks of break from school and I don’t want to freeze from the drafts
Over the last few days I’ve been working away on it. I got all the pedals back in, steering, shifter, grommets, wiring and all the other odds and ends.
I finally got the horn working, well sorta The original horn didn’t work at all, and the horn wiring circuit also didn’t work. It turned out to be the power supply wire for the horn was broken in one spot. The ground from the bottom of the steering column above the coupler wasn’t making good contact, and I cleaned the contact ring in the wheel, that fixed that circuit. As for the horn, I sweat the original horns never work, so rather than get a new horn that will fail in a year, I had found some free air horns over the summer at a garage sale, and they worked! So the bus got an air horn the horn systems on these cars are one thing I hate, but it works now, hopefully I can get a year out of it before it goes bad again.
I also was fighting the turn signals. After putting everything back in, only the right side signals worked, turned out a flipped a wire, they all work again.
One side note for anyone, I figured out you can use a piece of string to pull rubber plugs/ stoppers through the floor. I used it on the clutch pedal stopper. It worked well, same idea as window seals.
The last thing to button up the front end was the ebrake adjustment, everything else was done. I jack up the rear end and checking it and preparing to do the starter, just doing the final check and the I realized the left rear wheel feels wobbly  The wheel and drum wobble together, I look and the stub axle doesn’t wobble. I pop off the hub cap and look, the hub was wobbling on the stub axel. The castle nut was in place with a cotter pin and I’ve never touched the nut. The nut did not want to come off with the impact due to rusty threads. I’m not sure if a long time ago it wasn’t properly torqued or what happened.
I also am putting in a TDI starter and adapter plate for it, it’s been struggling to crank and I don’t think the OE style starter likes the Subaru engine
Anyways, here are some pictures of a fresh pedal and the last of the metal work
_________________
1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Yellow Tin Top Westfalia -Sold
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop EJ22 swap
“Rome” 91 Syncro |
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superman73
Samba Member
Joined: December 21, 2006
Posts: 2050
Location: Crystal Springs, Mississippi
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Ceckert64
Samba Member
Joined: September 16, 2015
Posts: 2129
Location: Houghton, MI and WV
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| Posted: Tue Dec 31, 2024 5:59 pm Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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| superman73 wrote: |
| wow, great job on the floor pan. i need to get my 1970 bus front floor done. |
Thank you! It’s definitely worth getting the floors done, it makes it nicer!
Today I modified the accelerator cable reverser so it would be a bit easier for the cable to move and wear it less. I cut out the sharp bend in the previous tube I made and added a roller wheel with bearing that’s used for screen doors. I used a piece of wire and kept tension on it and decided where I wanted to put the wheel.
I ran into a lot of other issues today though…
I got the modified piece in and it went downhill from there. I couldn’t get to a position where I could feed the cable to the upper part. I ended up knocking vacuum lines off and I realized I wouldn’t be able to get it in. I ended up having to unbolt the engine hanger and drop the engine to get access  when I did that I found the muffler was falling apart too. I got the muffler welded back together and got it all back together. I had been hearing a tinny exhaust noise so that was likely it. The heat shield is also a bit loose.
I will test drive it tomorrow but the pedal is so easy to push now, I was able to get rid of an extra spring I had added since it previously had trouble returning because the system had so much more resistance.
But I did also get the new TDI starter in. I realized when I took out the starter I had access to the accelerator cable tube, so that’s how the whole mess started today. But it will all be worth it.
Happy new years yall!
_________________
1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Yellow Tin Top Westfalia -Sold
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop EJ22 swap
“Rome” 91 Syncro |
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Ceckert64
Samba Member
Joined: September 16, 2015
Posts: 2129
Location: Houghton, MI and WV
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TrollFromDownBelow
Samba Member
Joined: January 04, 2005
Posts: 446
Location: VA Beach
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| Posted: Mon Jan 20, 2025 10:31 am Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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It must be toasty in the cabin if you are driving in the UP in January with no gloves. 
_________________
1976 Westy (aka Tripod)
2.0 liter FI solid lifters
212k miles |
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Ceckert64
Samba Member
Joined: September 16, 2015
Posts: 2129
Location: Houghton, MI and WV
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| Posted: Mon Jan 20, 2025 7:31 pm Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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| TrollFromDownBelow wrote: |
| It must be toasty in the cabin if you are driving in the UP in January with no gloves. |
I don’t know if I’d say that I had them off since I was hot from just doing a hike in that picture, it gets cold inside at speeds above 55, I also wear a snow suit on any drives over ten minutes these days with gloves But is was also -5F here today when I started it and she started right up. Thankfully it’s been too cold for them to use salt the last week or so.
I’ve taken a few more pictures of it in the snow lately. We’ve been getting a good amount and there has been some good skiing. The Fitz cant make it up a lot of the hills around here but it stops fine going down them at least. I have to drive the long way around to get to the top of the hill I live on then drive downhill to my house Most days I can only get through the sliding door since my door handle triggers keep freezing open
Here is today at -5, the defrost kept the ice off the windshield at least
_________________
1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Yellow Tin Top Westfalia -Sold
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop EJ22 swap
“Rome” 91 Syncro |
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Abscate
Samba Member
Joined: October 05, 2014
Posts: 24281
Location: NYC/Upstate/ROW
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| Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2025 1:57 am Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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Ooof, that -5 in a Bus is cold. I drove mine around Buffalo in the 70s in that and it wasn’t fun.
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Shonandb
Samba Member
Joined: January 12, 2019
Posts: 2213
Location: Vancouver, BC
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| Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2025 10:51 am Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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Looks like fun Aiden! I added the 2nd heater A/C unit (one under the rear seat and one between the front seats) about 2 years ago and now my Bus is toasty even in the cold. We rarely see -5F here except in the mtns in the interior during an Arctic outflow.
Still feel the cold drafts at hwy speeds though, but no need for gloves or a sweater. We may see our first snowfall of the year tonight and tomorrow but it's only around freezing.
_________________
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76 Westy with a 2.5L Subaru SOHC + Vanagon (010) Automatic Transaxle
Build & Trip Thread: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=758760
Previous 1973 Panel Bus:
Click to view image |
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W1K1
Samba Member
Joined: March 04, 2004
Posts: 5320
Location: Southern AB
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| Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2025 8:16 pm Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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Surprised you haven’t added a diesel heater since you’re using it in the winter too
_________________
1973 super 2110cc
1965 squareback 1500E-sold
1971 bay window westy- EJ2.5 subi swap |
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dodger tom
Samba Member
Joined: March 25, 2013
Posts: 2046
Location: Central Coast, CA, but we're all still Ukrainian and Californian
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| Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2025 8:21 pm Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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man, i thought i was cold in the desert last night at 22 degrees fahrenheit.
cudos to those more hearty.
_________________
1978 Champaign Edition 2 Westfalia
Would never find the time to keep up another classic air-cooled. |
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Ceckert64
Samba Member
Joined: September 16, 2015
Posts: 2129
Location: Houghton, MI and WV
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| Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2025 8:38 pm Post subject: Re: 1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper |
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| Abscate wrote: |
| Ooof, that -5 in a Bus is cold. I drove mine around Buffalo in the 70s in that and it wasn’t fun. |
Yeah, the heat works somewhat so it helps but still not always the best Today was -13F when I walked to class and I had to drive around later in the day too. I've been getting a lot of "that thing started??" the last few days
| Shonandb wrote: |
Looks like fun Aiden! I added the 2nd heater A/C unit (one under the rear seat and one between the front seats) about 2 years ago and now my Bus is toasty even in the cold. We rarely see -5F here except in the mtns in the interior during an Arctic outflow.
Still feel the cold drafts at hwy speeds though, but no need for gloves or a sweater. We may see our first snowfall of the year tonight and tomorrow but it's only around freezing. |
It is! We don't see sub-zero up here much but this last week has been something else I have a diesel heater for the front defrost and a heater off the coolant in the rear. Mine gets warmish inside, but it all depends on the outside.
I think the biggest thing I'm fighting is drafts. I got in it the other day when it was really windy and snowing and realized there was snow on the inside, I watched for a minute and realized it was coming through my upper door seal and vent wings.
| W1K1 wrote: |
| Surprised you haven’t added a diesel heater since you’re using it in the winter too |
I did add one and it helps a lot, I think some of the cold times that come to mind are when I kept forgetting to fill up on diesel when I got gas so I only had the rear heater going.
I was also running into issues where if I turned the front and rear heaters with the radio loud it would trip the fuse for 30 seconds and I'd lose all heat, but it never fully trips and power would return after 30 seconds or so. I have a 40 AMP fuse on 8 AWG wire running those three systems, so I may need to upgrade the setup.
The heat gets warm if the car is sitting but once I'm driving, I lose it. I think it is drafts coming from the doors and out the poptop. The bottom of the sliding door seals terrible too, the inner structure of the sider is rusted out so the outer skin bends/moves easily and refuses to seal. The poptop doesn't seal air out well either.
I did put a set of snow chains on it today. It felt like I had 4wd  It never lost traction in the back and went straight up the steep hills with ease that it could normally not get up.
_________________
1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Yellow Tin Top Westfalia -Sold
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop EJ22 swap
“Rome” 91 Syncro |
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