Purple 74 Standard Project - Tons of Pics

[Frankerbauer]

Hi Everybody,

I’m posting this on behalf of my dad and myself. I guess you could call us long-time lurkers. This site and the people on it have been a huge help to us as we’ve been working on our bug, so I first wanted to say thanks to you all.

Secondly, since we’ll no doubt have loads more questions as we go forward, we wanted to start a thread dedicated to our car, and hopefully give us a place where we can come back to ask for advice. I figured this was a better idea than continually posting new threads to ask individual questions :0)

Here’s the “long story short” of it: For a whole host of reasons, this 74 bug that my dad and I were going to “fix up” ended up sitting in our garage for over ten years without anything done to it. It wasn’t until we joined our local VW club (NIVA), that we really started doing anything to it. Now we’re kind of obsessed.

For anyone reading this who’s in any way new to this, I have to say that I can’t recommend joining your local VW club any more highly. It’s cheap and well worth it.

We’ve had it in storage for the winter, and we’ll be towing it home either this weekend or next. I can’t wait.

Bear in mind that although my dad and I combined have owned many VWs over the years, this is the first time we’ve done anything more complicated than bare bones general maintenance, so we’re bound to screw some things up as we learn. Here’s a history of what we’ve done…

Here’s our 74 bug close to the state it was in when we started. The red paint over the original orange was done very poorly. It was all orange peeled and would just flake off in spots. The fuel door and license cover were actually painted with a brush!!! But you can see that it’s got a lot of potential. It really didn’t have a lot of problem areas, just a few spots that needed welding. It was in pretty darn good shape for a Chicago-area car. And yes, I know that’s a 73 seat in the picture.

Here’s a shot of the 1600cc DP. In the immediate future we’ll be getting an SVDA to replace the 009. We just want to get it running well for now. Once we get a lot of other things done (and we can afford it), we’re going to get a bigger engine, maybe with dual carbs. And yes, I know that we need to move the fuel filter. We’ll be doing that as soon as we tow it home from winter storage.

And a closer shot:

You can’t really see in the pic, but the driver’s front fender was bashed in next to the headlight. You’ll notice we dropped the front about 2 inches by way of an adjustable beam that was already on the car. We want to go lower than 2 inches though, and we’re thinking about a narrowed beam as well. Also, if you look closely you’ll see unicorns in the back corners of the quarter windows. That was not our doing! We have popouts from our old 73 that we’re going to put in instead…slick.

Shot of the dash. New steering wheel we got. Dash is in good shape, just needs some ArmorAll.

Best pan shot I’ve got handy. The right floor pan was replaced once upon a time. It’s not perfect, but it’s solid and good enough. Once we clean it up and get a nice coat of POR 15 on it, we’ll be good to lay the insulation and carpet.

Here’s the underside of the pan. Sorry for the limited perspective. I took all of these shots in a hurry for my own reference more than anything. Again, this needs a nice coat of POR 15, and it’ll be good to go.

Rear area’s in pretty good shape. Once we got the carpet up, there was a bit of bondo under there, but overall it was in pretty good shape.

Shot of the beam with adjusters and 1 set of caster shims. The front end of this car is in good shape (with the exception of the tire well). We want to go lower than the 2 inches allowed by this beam, and we’re really thinking about going with a narrowed beam. I’ll have some specific questions about that soon…

Underhood with new gas tank installed. The whole front end is in great shape, except for the mess we found in the spare tire well.

Close-up of the bondo job in the spare tire well. This was pretty nasty. You can’t really see in the pic, but there were a couple of pinholes all the way through:

The other areas of concern.

Driver’s side:

And Passenger Side. Note the lone fender bolt and broken running board bolt. The fender bolt just spun and wouldn’t come out:

And finally, a nice chunky bondo-job on the rear passenger fenderwell:

Further along in teardown. Note the front disc brakes (which need a cleanup) and the shorter KYB shocks. Shout out to Glenn for that one.

Test fitting the new fender. Looks good.

And the front view:

And finally: The glass is out and all that’s left is to rip out the mirror, seatbelts, headliner, and trunk area carpet. Then it’s off to the shop for welding and paint!!!

Now…onto the really exciting stuff! For the paint job, we always wanted a really wicked purple bug. After a lot of searching for the right color, we found this “Alsa Stylin’ Basecoat Midnight Purple” that we absolutely loved. It’s got an ultra fine metal flake as well.

However, after our painter did some quick tests, it turned out that the paint was kind of taking on a bit of the hue of whatever was underneath it. Looking back at it, maybe we should have done a coat of the “Alsa Stylin’ Basecoat Silver” underneath, but we ended up going with:

- Primer coat
- 2 Coats of “Plum Crazy Purple”, which some of you might recognize as an old Mopar color
- 3 coats of “Alsa Stylin’ Basecoat Midnight Purple”
- 2 Coats of Clear
Here’s the decklid at the painter’s. I love this picture. Bear in mind with all of these pics that this is an extremely difficult color to get a good picture of:

And the hood in progress:

Here are the doors looking good:

Killer lookin’ fender:

Finally, after a good sanding and a thorough buffing, it’s looks wicked, and it’s rust free!!!

And closer:

These pictures really don’t do it justice. Also note the killer billet running boards installed which are black powder coated with polished edge. We got those from Mid America Motorworks.

So that’s about where we had to leave it for 2008. I’ll post some more pics and questions soon. Good or bad, let me know what you think!

-Erich

[NCdad]

I like the color alot, I almost went with purple too.

what's the timeline from the first pics?
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ROBERT
My VWs & Projects - | - German Invasion VW Show - Sept 7, 2024 Shelby, NC

[Frankerbauer]

Hey Robert,

Hehe, I was nervous about the color looking good because it's hard to really envision it on the car, ya know? We probably looked at every purple out there before deciding on that one. I'm glad you like it. I'll try to get a few better pics of it once we get it out of storage.

The first pic was actually taken on the 4th of July last year, and that's right when we started really working on it. Things never go quite as fast you want, but I think considering we have limited time and budget to work with, I'm happy to be where we are with it.

We just got the back window and the popouts back from the tinter (tinted as dark as night), and we just dropped off the front ones last weekend. They'll be two shades lighter than the backs. It should look pretty stealth I'll see if I can get a pic of the tinted glass too.

[TC/TeamEvil]

No question, that color is sensational ! ! Have you got an idea yet as to how you're going to trim it out? Interior color/theme? Wheels and tires? Those will determine whether the car is a design success or not.

We painted a Beetle purple around four years ago, it came out SWEET. Not as nice as yours by any means, but it looked smart. The owner decided on a set of REALLY brightly chromed aftermarket wheels and a handful of cheezy "extras," even going with eyebrows over the headlights.

MAN, what a mess. You really couldn't even SEE the body and paint through all of the shiny little distractions.



But, so far . . . . your body shell looks WONDERFUL in that color and chroma.


Luck,

TC

[NCdad]

[andk5591]

Very nice - My wife alsolutely loves the color.
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D-Dubya Manx clone 1914. Ex wifes car.
Rosie 65 bug - My mostly stock daily driver.
Woodie 69 VW woodie (Hot VWs 7/12).
"John's car" 64 VW woodie - The first ever
Maxine 61 Cal-look bug - Ex-wifes car.
66 bug project - Real patina & Suby conversion
There's more, but not keeping them...

[neil68]

Thanks for posting your photos...I've owned two '74's and they are one of the best models ever produced by Wolfsburg, IMO.

Like your color choice, as well
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Neil.

Der Kleiner Rennwagens
‘68 Beetle 2332 cc, 204 WHP
12.5 seconds @ 108 mph
Dynojet Test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9B_H3eklAo

[Fattie]

diggin' the paint
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[Frankerbauer]

[Frankerbauer]

Thanks Fattie!
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Purple 74 Standard Project: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=346688

[Fattie]

[Frankerbauer]

[BigHerc]

lookin good, I like the color!
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http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=272505

[Frankerbauer]

Ok, so I'm still saving my nickels and dimes to pay the guy to get the bug out of storage, but in the meantime I have the opportunity to get a vacuum advance distributor for cheap.

My question is: If I put the oil bath air cleaner back on there, would it be a good idea to get distibutor VW model number: 113 905 205AN (Bosch replacement number: 0231 167 070)? It's a Dual vacuum. It's clean, in perfect working order, and well priced. I was holding out for an 034, but I haven't found one that doesn't need a rebuild, and I can get this one in great condition for like $30, so I'd like to just buy this one if it'll work for us.

According to: http://www.oldvolkshome.com/ovhignbo.htm, it's a distributor for a 72-73 MT Beetle. This engine was originally in our 73 bug, so wouldn't it be a good choice?

Just for reference, here's the engine again:

We have a 34PICT3 and we get a wicked flat spot, so I want to ditch the 009. Eventually we want to upgrade the engine, but for now it'll be nice to just get the old 1600 running well. That way we can at least drive her to some shows this year. I'm dying to get her back on the road where she belongs. Thanks for any advice you can give.

P.S. I uploaded all of the pics to the samba gallery. Hopefully those of you that weren't able to see them before will be able to now.
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Purple 74 Standard Project: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=346688

[Fattie]

[Frankerbauer]

Hell yeah...If that ends up being the route you go, you've got to post up pics and/or video as soon as you get em bolted up. I want to see those babies rollin'!
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Purple 74 Standard Project: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=346688

[112Ben]

pretty nice..

[59eurobug]

[jjwebb123]

Good Luck with the project,
i always enjoy seeing people working on their cars,gives me some good ideas so keep the pictures coming.
Cheers
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"Age does not affect the passion for Volkswagens"

[Frankerbauer]

Thanks jjwebb.

Man it's tough trying to make progress when you don't have money! We have gotten some things done though.

Got the car out of storage. Here are a few pics of the paint. Still can't get a great picture of the color though. I have put some things like the gas door and decklid license cover etc. back on since:

If you look closely at the under-dash area, you can see where the paint guy forgot to spray it purple. Since that won't be covered by anything, we had to take it back to him to spray it. He did it no questions asked though, and did a great job, so no harm no foul.

This one shows how the clear coat gives it a mirror finish. Check out the bike hanging from the ceiling and the air compressor on the fender :

I finally got around to moving the fuel filter out of the engine compartment and into it's new home under the tank. I still need to swap that line out for a braided one, and I need to spray the blue pulley black:

I cleaned up the rusty headlight assemblies, and shot them with rustoleum. I still need to get a few headlight adjustment screws (which I found at Wolfsburg west). I only have a before picture right now though:

Did a few small things like painting the headers and bugpack quietpack high temp flat black. We're going to get a Tri-Mil ceramic coated eurosport dual tip exhaust eventually, but this will look ok for now:

Then came the fun part. Removing the existing insulation board from the luggage area so we could lay down our new insulation:

That was a pain in the ass. Lots of Goo Gone and a ton of elbow grease:

Then we laid down the first stage of eDead 45. This stuff is probably not the best stuff out there, but it's butyl rubber, so at $1 per square foot, it's as cheap as the asphalt based roofing stuff, and doesn't run the risk of smelling at all.

This was a REALLY satisfying part to finish up!!!:

We're going to do the floor pans, kick panels, door panels, etc., but we wanted to get the luggage area done before we sent it off to get the headliner done. The rest of the car will get one coat, but we doubled up on the luggage area and rear wheel wells because that's where a lot of noise comes from. It's pretty good stuff, and like I said, you can't beat the price. You can find it here: http://www.edesignaudio.com/product_info.php?products_id=51

We also decided that we like the look of the stock wheels with our paint color. We did want to go with a wider wheel in back, so we picked up a pair of 5.5" x 15" stock wheels. We're going to paint them satin black and use the stock chrome hub caps.

Eventually the front will get a CB 2" narrowed beam and ride on 155/60/r15's on stock 4 lug 4.5" x 15" wheels. The back will be either 205/70/r15's or 205/75/r15's on these 5.5" x 15" wheels. We want a big rake, but I'm not sure if 205/75/r15 is overkill or not.

That's about where we left off. We towed the car down to a place in Elmhurst IL to install the headliner. We toyed with the idea of doing the headliner ourselves, but I've seen enough bad headliners to convince we to let a pro take care of it. If I hadn't popped for a more expensive tweed headliner from Sewfine, I might be inclined to try, but I don't have money to burn screwing up a nice headliner. This place is doing the liner at a really good price. They've done a ton of bugs over several decades, and they're taking their time, so I'm confident that they'll do a great job for us.

More pics will come when the car is back from the upholsterer.
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Purple 74 Standard Project: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=346688