My 1966 Beetle rebuild

[supercub]

Drove down to Rockford, Illinois this morning for the 2024 Vintage Picnic show. It was a nice time. The park it was held at had lots of large oak trees providing some much-needed shade as it got pretty hot by noon. The drive down was very rainy, but it stopped a bit before I got to Rockford. Lots of nice VW's. My favorite was a 1951 Barndoor Bus. It was from Sweden originally and still had the logos for the logging company it once belonged to. That's the first barndoor bus I've ever seen in person. I left a bit before 1:00 because it was getting pretty hot, and I had about an hour and a half drive back home. The VW did great as always.

1951 Barndoor bus with Swedish logging company logos.

Engine compartment of the '51 bus. Even had the crank start handle.

A picture on the way home that planned to use for the VW by a crop photo in the picture challenge thread on here but by the time I logged on, someone had already beaten me to it. This picture even included all of the big three around here. Wheat, corn and soy. Since I covered about 150 miles of southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois, I could have snapped a picture pretty much anywhere along most of the drive for that challenge.

[supercub]

I had been going back and forth about selling the '66 and actually listed it in the classifieds on here for a couple weeks with no replies. After reflecting on it a bit, I realize even though this VW is a rock-solid driver, it is a bit of a hard sell. I'll admit the car has been cobbled and hacked in some ways and the body is fairly rough. Truthfully if you really wanted to restore it to original or even just make it nice and straight, it would require pretty much as much work as a ruined junker. I also doubt there are many VW people out there who really want to run a 40 hp in a daily driver. I've decided that I'm going to keep my VW and run it until the engine is worn out, however long that may be. At that point I'll likely let it go for cheap.

That said, I did take care of a few things that needed attention over these past couple weeks. First, I adjusted the clutch and brakes, which I believe I neglected to do when I took the car out this spring. The brakes engage with much less pedal travel now. Then I bought and installed a set of 3-point seat belts on the front seats. They're non-retracting which took a bit of getting used to, but I've come to like them. The old lap belts slipped loose at the buckle and had to be retightened multiple times on a drive. Honestly, they probably would have slipped all the way out and done nothing in a wreck anyway. The 3-point ones stay tight and seem a bit safer, but the VW is still just a tin can compared to anything else on the road. I also replaced the tail pipes, as the baffles were coming apart and the car was getting a bit noisier than I like. I sprung for stainless steel ones which seem a bit decadent for this car, but the metal they're made of is probably twice as thick as the cheapo ones I had on it. The baffles are much nicer and are actually tack welded to the pipe versus the sloppy press fit of the old ones. This morning, I replaced the tires which were getting thin and starting to slip occasionally in the rain. I got a set of 165/80R15 Nexens. Wow what a difference. The car had all the handling prowess of a wet noodle with the old tires. I had just assumed that the suspension was getting worn from all the miles I've put on the car. It pitched and leaned a lot at speed on winding roads and was a bit bouncy over the rough stuff. Turns out it was probably 80% those crappy old tires. I was never particularly happy with them, but the new Nexens are like night and day in comparison. I've put 10,000 miles on the new-used cylinder head and the engine is still running great. My total mileage is closing in on 108,000.

The 3-point seatbelts installed.

Here are a couple pictures from a ride I took this evening after installing the new tires.

[cdennisg]

^^^ Great photo.

New tires always make a car feel better. Seems to happen with my different vehicles every time I install some. Amazing how crappy worn out tires can feel.
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You can't spell sausage without "USA"!

[supercub]

Got the VW out of hibernation this afternoon. Still running good as ever. The VW is parked sideways behind the '69 Roadrunner that belongs to my brother, so I had to get that out of the way first. Naturally, I couldn't resist taking the Roadrunner out for a bit of a ride. It's quite a different experience from the VW. 400 or so hp vs 40 with much better handling. Call me crazy, but I prefer the Beetle though. I've got some maintenance and repairs planned for the VW before I really get into driving it this year. The clutch needs replacement. It slips when shifting under power in 3rd and 4th gear. I've got a new Sachs clutch disc, pressure plate and throw-out bearing. It appears they don't make the old 3-finger spring style pressure plate anymore, so the new one is the diaphragm type. All those clutch parts in the car have just under 110k miles on them, so they had a good run. I also need to replace the front transmission mount. I actually had a new one back when I pulled the engine to replace the cylinder head 2 years ago, but I got lazy and didn't feel like messing with it at the time. Also, I noticed that the rear axle seals seem to have leaked a bit in storage over the winter. I've got several sets of those, so I'll do them at some point as well. I think the left side is still the original seal I put in 14 years ago. That's the VW plan for this year.

[supercub]

Drove the VW down to Glacial Park in Illinois to go for a walk this afternoon. I haven't replaced the clutch yet. I was going to do it last weekend, but last week my brother hit a deer with his '07 Mustang GT so I ended up repairing that instead. I fixed it up pretty good, but the right side of the hood has a bit of a bow to it that I couldn't get all the way out. I got it to about half as bent as it was. Oh well. Had to replace the grille, both fog lights and the right headlight. His Mustang has 350k miles and probably won't last a ton longer anyway. But I thought that back at 250k too. Anyway, the VW clutch works good as long as I shift slow to let the rpms drop before letting it out again. It doesn't ever slip in gear. I still need to replace it though. Don't want to chew up the flywheel. Here's a couple pictures from Glacial Park.

A grove of huge old bur oaks on a little hill overlooking a few marshes. I love walking through these oaks and there's a good rock to sit on at one end of the grove.

The VW next to a restored 1850's farmhouse at Glacial Park. The whole valley that comprises the bulk of the park was ditched, drained and farmed for over 100 years. Since the county bought the land in the 1980's much of it has been restored to marsh, prairie and oak woods. Most of the old structures are long gone, but this little house was restored in the late 1990s.

[mukluk]

Another cool update, tah.
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1960 Ragtop w/Semaphores "Inga"

[supercub]

A couple days ago my accelerator pedal started to squeak and feel funny when pressed and released. Figured it just needed some cleaning and greasing. Pulled out the accelerator cable and greased it too. Reassembled it all with no change. Did some searching on this forum and found out that there is supposed to be a little paperclip shaped guide for the accelerator cable on one of the transaxle nosecone studs. The guide prevents the accelerator cable from rubbing and cutting into the transaxle over time. Didn't even know about that part so naturally I don't have it on the '66. I found an old coat hanger and bent up a reasonable looking approximation of the part. My cable has been rubbing on the transaxle nosecone and has worn a shallow groove in part of it, but nothing serious. I installed the cable guide I made and took the VW for a drive. No more squeaking and the pedal is nice and smooth. All good again.

Here's the picture I found on here showing the wire guide for the cable. Didn't take a photo of mine because it's hard to see when installed and it's not really all that interesting to look at anyway.

[cdennisg]

Not sure when that hairpin thing ended and the throttle tube started, but later vehicles used a length of tube that enclosed the cable from the point where it exited the pan, all the way to the back side of the front tin where the hard tube passes through the fan shroud.
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You can't spell sausage without "USA"!

[supercub]

[supercub]

Last September I drove out to Oregon to visit my old college friend Nick. He was from California, and I was from Texas, but we ended up at the same college in Kansas. We were both into skateboarding, mischief, and had a penchant for late-night climbing up the various grain elevators and buildings around town. I hadn't seen him since his 2019 wedding in California, and he now lived in Oregon, a place I had never been. I drove out there in my Toyota van versus my VW. His main mode of transportation is a 1961 Beetle. It's a 40hp like my '66. Like my car it was also resurrected after an extended rest. His sat for years at the end of a driveway down the street from where he lived in CA. Unlike me, he got lucky and was able to get his VW running again with a simple tune-up and fresh fuel. I believe he's done a lot of suspension work to it and swapped the front to disc brakes. He said when he got the VW, it was brush painted yellow with brown stripes, brown bumpers, and 2-tone brown and yellow wheels. It still had the original red interior paint though. He stripped the bumpers back to chrome and brush painted it red again over the yellow and brown. It had a lot of funky little additions to it over the years. Having no fuel gauge, a previous owner mounted the innards of a number type gauge (think it may have been an altimeter) to the dash that you manually roll to whatever the car's odometer will read when you want to get gas. My friend still uses it and rolls it to 200 miles ahead whenever he filled the tank. The '61 VW was primarily what we used while I was there. It was a bit weird at first to be in the passenger seat of a Beetle since I had never ridden in one prior to buying my '66 where I'm always in the driver's seat. I like his VW a lot.

Me in my friend Nick's '61 VW.

[supercub]

I'm building up to addressing some deferred maintenance on the VW. First is going to be the leaky axle boots. These have been on the car for a long time now and have been leaking for some years as well. I ordered a new pair of boots a couple days ago and they should be in next week. The transaxle has worked flawlessly since day one but has leaked since about day three. That's an exaggeration but it's leaked a long time. More than just the boots are leaking but they're probably 70 percent of it. Also got a new shift rod bushing, some fancy heavy-duty split style that looks way easier to install. My shifter has always rattled even with the new bushing I installed originally. When I got the VW, the old bushing was in pieces at the bottom of the tunnel, and it had been driven long enough with no bushing to wallow out the hole in the bushing hanger. We'll see what this new style bushing does for the rattling. Maybe nothing, but I'll give it a shot. Ultimately, I should probably weld in a new bushing hanger, but I'm not that ambitious right now. I've already listened to the rattling shifter for 13 years anyway. Then it'll be on to the clutch that I've been putting off. I did an oil change, valve adjustment and filed and gapped the points a few days ago. The VW's still running great.

Yeah, these axle boots have been leaking a while. After this picture I got most of the crud cleaned off the frame and trans. It was really thick in spots. There was actually some shiny black frame paint under all that filth. New boots are on the way.

[cdennisg]

Oddly enough, the recommended swing axle boots for longevity over authenticity are the EMPI urethane accordion style. Unless something has changed recently, the OG style rubber boots have a very poor track record, and tend to fall apart within months of install. The cheap urethane boots will last for years and years, pus they come in lots of fun colors to impress the judges!
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You can't spell sausage without "USA"!

[supercub]

[Blue Baron]

I'm sure this has been asked and answered, and forgive me for beating a dead horse, but it appears the car was Krylonized, and I'm wondering why, after a dozen years, it still wears a red door and yellow fender. It's not the most harmonizing look.

After all the engine work, the tremendous acheivement of the mileage you've racked up, and the overall excellence of the car, I don't understand that one loose end ...
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We are striving for perfection, to make our cars run forever, if possible.

Heinz Nordhoff

[supercub]

[mukluk]

[supercub]

I ordered a set of the EMPI accordion boots a few days ago just to have in case the new OG style rubber ones didn't work out. Even though I ordered the EMPI ones after, they showed up first. Since they were here and the others still are not, I installed them today. Filled it up with new gear lube and went for a 20-mile drive. No leaks so far! Well except for the other leaks at the front of the transaxle.

And then....

[supercub]

Only took 15 years. The color doesn't quite match but the Walmart here has almost no Krylon at all, so Rustoleum White Sand it is. I actually think this color is closer to Pearl white than the Krylon I painted it with originally. I do miss the old fan tips on the Krylon spray cans though. The door will come soon.

[supercub]

Today I drove the VW out to Pipersville Cemetery in Pipersville, WI. This is where many of my ancestors from my dad's mother's side of the family are buried and I wanted to find their graves. The cemetery is a bit overgrown and run down. Most of my ancestor's headstones are broken or have been lost to time. They had farms spread along the convergence of four townships: Concord, Watertown, Farmington, and Ixonia, WI. My grandmother was part of the last generation that grew up on those farms.

The VW at Pipersville Cemetery. Pipersville, Wisconsin.

Much of the cemetery is overgrown and many headstones are broken and fallen over. There was a large row of broken ones that had been collected and leaned against the fence along the back of the cemetery. I didn't find any of my family's missing stones among that group though. I have a feeling that this cemetery is not as vacant as it appears. The newest stones I saw were from the 1970's.

These were the only two Thorndyke gravestones I could find. The Thorndyke's are the earliest immigrants on my dad's side of the family. Charles and Josephine Thorndyke came to Oneida County, New York from England in 1837. They became U.S. citizens in 1842 and moved to Concord, Wisconsin in 1846. For reasons unknown their last name was spelled a number of ways on different documents. It was variously Thornduck, Thorndick, Thorndike, or Thorndyke. They are buried in this cemetery, but their headstones have been lost to time. These two headstones belong to their daughter Josephine A. Thorndick and Charles Thorndyke Jr. Charles Jr died in Madison, WI enroute to serve in the Civil War.

The front of Josephine A Thorndick's gravestone. Of all the spellings they used for their last name, she definitely went with the worst in my opinion. There was a long inscription on one side of the stone, but I couldn't decipher what it said. I may go back and try to make a rubbing of that side at some point.

George Burdick's headstone. Charles and Josephine Thorndyke's daughter Mary was his second wife. His first wife, also named Mary (confusing), died at 23 in 1869 and he married Mary Thorndyke in 1871. The Burdick farm was about a half mile north of the Thorndyke farm. George and Mary had a son Charles Burdick who was my grandmother's father. George Burdick died at 59 in 1893.

[supercub]

So, I finally got around to replacing the clutch in the VW. Only took about a year of procrastination to build up to it. The clutch disc lining actually was pretty decent and the flywheel surface is good enough yet. I didn't want to spend any money resurfacing this flywheel because the teeth are pretty chewed up in spots from running the 6-volt starter on 12 volts. The pressure plate surface looked like it was primarily engaging on the outer 1/2 inch or so of the plate as if it was a bit higher around the outer circumference than the rest of it. Weird. The new pressure plate is the diaphragm style where the old one was the 3-finger type. I replaced the throwout bearing too since I had it apart. The pedal feel is completely different now. It'll take a bit of getting used to after so many miles with the old setup. It does engage much firmer with no more sliding down into gear when shifting under power.

Engine back out again. I regretted not just going ahead and replacing the clutch when I had the engine out a couple years ago to replace the cylinder head. It was only about 6 months after the engine work that the clutch started to slip when shifting.

Flywheel surface is pretty good yet. No hot spots or deep grooves. I cleaned it up and ran it as-is. Ring gear teeth are chewed up a bit in spots.

Old clutch disc and pressure plate. You can see the outer edge is shiny and smooth on the plate while the machining on the inner part is still visible. Clutch disc has similar wear. Beats me.