1958 beetle, preservation and acceleration

[Fishynos72]

Hello Samba,
Once again I've bought another Volkswagen.
This is my third VW, and my second Beetle, all before the age of 18.

I was at the local Volkswagen club meeting (where else would i be), and someone i used to work with had been tipped off about two beetles and a dune buggy that someone wanted to sell.

Having only the following photos to go off, another member and myself decided we'd get up early the Saturday coming, and drive two hours to get them. I've called dibs on the earliest beetle by this point.

After a 45 minute phone call with the owner, because they live on a street that has no name, exists on no map and cannot even be found by any GPS.
we finally headed out on the two hour trip.

I'm as giddy as a schoolgirl by this point.

so we sealed the deal, loaded up and left.

My friend got the later beetle and the home made buggy...
(My ever suffering father, seen here)

...and I scored the 58'
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Collector of all things Volkswagen, Hazet and Matra.

1972 1302
1973 type2a
1957 type11
2005 Caddy panel van
2006 Golf R32

[SgtSamy]

Congrats! What is the hole on the right side of the car?
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At the moment owner of:
1968 Mex Beetle

[Fishynos72]

funny story that.

The sheet of roof nailed to the top of that beetle hide a huge hole.
The Previous owners would use the car for 'spotlighting'.
One person would drive, the front passenger would work the spotlight, and two people in the back would 'snick' the rabbits to knock them out, then two people walking along side the car would throw the rabbits through the hole down a shoot and into the luggage area behind the seat, it had a chicken wire top making it like a cage.

Unfortunately that car cannot be saved. it will be used to keep many others on the road though.
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Collector of all things Volkswagen, Hazet and Matra.

1972 1302
1973 type2a
1957 type11
2005 Caddy panel van
2006 Golf R32

[retroman]

Before you are 18? Amazing ...and Matras? I've only seen one in my life and I got 58 yrs on you. When my son was 18 I was steering him away from vws. Of course he did not listen and now he's 41 and still into them. When I retired he got me into them again. I had not had one in 40 yrs. now I'm in deep!
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1967 bug recovering from a PO
1987 Vanagon Wolfsburg Weekender "Otto" been all over the place with never a problem!

[Helfen]

How extraordinary! I grew up in the L.A. area and your using the term DIBBS! I haven't heard that term for about forty years and your down under!
Ta for the post!

[Fishynos72]

[Fishynos72]

Okay on with the pictures and rambling

I forgot to add, just as we were leaving the previous owner said this
"Geez it's a shame you guys didn't come round this way two months ago, my neighbor had two beetles with two funny little windows at the back, they clocks in a dash to match the speedo, no one around here wanted them so he took them to scrap."

Apparently they were still running too

o well


Anyway after a long trip of towing, the beetle had finally made its way to a new home
And i couldn't help but explore a little

And of course found what i expected to find

r


as a good friend of mine said "there's a little floor in your hole there"




the inside Before

After a little clean up

_________________
Collector of all things Volkswagen, Hazet and Matra.

1972 1302
1973 type2a
1957 type11
2005 Caddy panel van
2006 Golf R32

[Fishynos72]

all of that was just over three months ago.

Progress has been minimal as this project will officially begin after my kombi is finished. So hopefully 2014 will be the time it kicks into top gear.

So between now and then i need to decide what i want to do with it, and what direction it will take. I'd like it to have a theme.

Inspired by the crazy attention to detail, preservation and bonanza of New Old Stock parts displayed in this thread


http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=419739&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0


And the 'awesomeness' and vintage speed element of this thread

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=501821&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

I think i have come up with some sort of plan


So like LT's oval thread, I will preserve as much of the original running gear, bodywork and interior as possible.


But then I read D-train's thread and think 'wow how cool is the vintage speed twist'


So I'm thinking I'll go with a full resto of the floor, new floor halves, blasted and por 15 all over, detailed within an inch of its life.

The body on the other hand will be 'preserved'
I'll knock all the dints out 95% leaving only the slightest evidence of them to maintain some history. The paintwork i will just polish to death. The original grey top coat is super thick and cleans up fairly well.



Here's what two minutes of polishing by hand does to it.

Imagine what i can do with a proper buff in a day


so even though I'm supposed to be 110% focused on my kombi i can't help but get distracted sometimes

Over the past few months I've been doing little bits and pieces


The front guard before

After I've tried to pull it out

I'm fairly happy with it



The bonnet before (not a very good photo to show the damage, it wouldn't even shut it was that dented)

After i spent 45 minutes bashing it

I've rebuilt and re wired the semaphores so they work as well as they look

I've also put together an owners booklet for it

I've rebuilt the headlights, using only OE VW parts. Thankfully we had one early headlight glass at work.


all the original Bosch goodness

I also scored a NOS KPH speedo for the car, unfortunately it's stamped 1959, o well still a lucky find.

So instead of it reading 0000 I wound it to the equivalent amount of Kilometers that the old speedo had on it.

There's plenty left for me to tinker with over the course of the year, in between waiting for paint to dry on my kombi of course

I may have found some original seat covers from a 57' from a fellow samba member, fingers crossed that all works out.


And hopefully next weekend I will re-fit the headlights and fit the new speedp and have lots more photos to share

(The Original motor ended up at my friends place with the later beetle. Hopefully I end up with enough money to rebuild it as an Okrasa, we shall see)
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Collector of all things Volkswagen, Hazet and Matra.

1972 1302
1973 type2a
1957 type11
2005 Caddy panel van
2006 Golf R32

[Rome]

Nice going so far, especially with the un-denting activities! Your plan for pan restoration and body preservation is realistic too.

Have you checked your right-front wheel as to width and offset? It appears to be wider than the stock 4", seeing how close the wheel/tire comes to the edge of the fender... But as you mention, you have a year to investigate this detail.

Is it safe to assume that your car was built at VW's Australia factory, or was it an import from Wolfsburg?

Last Triumph's efforts on preservation were truly remarkable. I'll look forward to updates on your '58 also.

[Fishynos72]

Thanks, my panel beating skills are minimal at best

ill check that wheel, could just be the guard sitting wrong

In 1958 the Volkswagen Australian factory was under construction. My car is a September 1957, one of the last cars to be fully CKD and assembled in the Martin and king factory before it was modified and extended to assemble vws. So the car would've been shipped in 1957 then assembled and registered in 58'

That's pretty much all I know. I may look into getting a birth certificate for it, but I have three possible engines that could be from the car and I don't think they confirm engine numbers from a list, and there's no point getting a birth certificate unless I have that info, as the rest of the numbers stuff is all right here on the samba.

Hopefully I can go through with my plan to some extent
_________________
Collector of all things Volkswagen, Hazet and Matra.

1972 1302
1973 type2a
1957 type11
2005 Caddy panel van
2006 Golf R32

[Fishynos72]

Sorry for the delay with posting, I didn't think there was enough progress to make it worth showing off in a hurry

I had about an hour to 'fiddle' about with the beetle

I fitted the headlights, and I'm over the moon with the result

Nice and silver again


And I fitted the speedo

Once more it is the Jewel of the dash


I also climbed underneath the car and had a look around, and found more rust, but this time it's structural, in the reenforcing on the inside of the bottom of the engine bay, there's two big holes. It was too scary to photograph so once I'm over the PTSD I'll find the nerve to grab some pictures.


Untill then; take it easy folks, winters' coming

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Collector of all things Volkswagen, Hazet and Matra.

1972 1302
1973 type2a
1957 type11
2005 Caddy panel van
2006 Golf R32

[Fishynos72]

hello again pre 67 beetle owners.

I'm sure most of you during your restorations would go through the similar issue of not being able to spend hours on your project car, or perhaps like me your car is stored a stupid distance away, making weekend restoration work difficult. So as a result I find myself hoarding parts, restoring small items I can sneak into my overnight bag, and planning and fleshing out designs in the small amount of time I'm not working to pay for all this madness.


So over the past months I've accumulated more parts and ideas for this wreck of a car. Progress on the car itself has been small. I've only managed to get the original 36hp engine running between working on my kombi, the rest of the car remains untouched.

After having it running (poorly as expected), and much nagging from every possible source, I will be tearing the motor down for the most detailed (anal some may call it) engine build I can muster. I've located a pair of Australian made duel carby manifolds that I've had TIG welded to repair cracks, and I've spent an hour each side 'porting' them back into shape. Stay tuned for the photos of them.

Here's a few happy snaps of what I've collected so far

an australian made, pick-nick radio

the set of 4 stripped 6 volt gauges at the front, including original senders

a set of 58/59 door cards that i will dye red to match the seat covers

the original bosch coil that i've tested and 'restored'

A new old stock fram filter, that I will convert from a holden one to an okrasa/judson issued filter. (the only question is what colour shall i paint it?)

here it is after sandblasting

and some miscellaneous stuff that is too dull to talk about individually

so now my boot looks like this

yeah that's my 1960 only hazet tool kit, still working on completing it

There's quite a few thing i haven't posted photos of yet, mainly because I can find where I put the photos.
so once I ship my kombi back home for painting fingers crossed it'll be floor halve replacing time!

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Collector of all things Volkswagen, Hazet and Matra.

1972 1302
1973 type2a
1957 type11
2005 Caddy panel van
2006 Golf R32

[panicman]

That radio is quite a find. How does it work?
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Plate of shrimp

[Fishynos72]

like most pull out radios, this section

pulls out from the 'cradle' section. it contains a rechargeable battery, it's own speaker and antenna both are turned on when you pull it from your dash.

ideally I'd like to give it the restoration as seen in the following thread

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3...;start=360


btw here's my fram filter in it's first coat of paint

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Collector of all things Volkswagen, Hazet and Matra.

1972 1302
1973 type2a
1957 type11
2005 Caddy panel van
2006 Golf R32

[kuta]

Any updates? Good on you for saving it.

[Fishynos72]

Sorry things are moving quickly. This is my side project but seems to be plowing along as fast as my kombi. I did the trip to Sydney for the nationals show a few weekends back, a lot of parts were bought for this car. I'll have an update tonight if I can sit down and prepare the photos.

I'm really surprised anyone was interested/following this. Glad to see another melbournian on here too.
_________________
Collector of all things Volkswagen, Hazet and Matra.

1972 1302
1973 type2a
1957 type11
2005 Caddy panel van
2006 Golf R32

[Fishynos72]

Okkkayyyy
I've been busy the past few months changing jobs so please forgive my lack of updates.

Have been tinkering as usual with a few little bits and pieces bolted on; like the seat recliners

and that's when it went downhill...........

I ripped the engine out again and did this to is.

So over two months it's finally ended up like this and should be assembled as soon as I get the report regarding the camshaft.

It was a shame to loose that lovely gold coating but the dirt was so ingrained into it that i had no choice.



I've also picked up this nice little bit of old world tech

so I'm in the middle of restoring that too (photos will be coming), and cannot wait until the engine is ready for it to be fitted.



Also did a trip to Steak and Kidney for their big VW show, bought too much there, lots of Matra tooling and parts.

Like this lovely original seat for $10

And also the original venetian that's peaking out there, that wasnt as cheap.


I also bought another steering wheel as the original one had a scale model of the Grand Canyon running across the back of it.

Then I got curious as to why the brakes wouldn't adjust....

So then i checked the back and luckily found them in perfect condition with original riveted linings and all.
The backing plates I'll blast and paint then replace cylinders, flexible lines and shoes. Luckily all four drums appear to be fantastic, none of them ever being machined.

so that answers that question.

Does anyone have any experience with the brake spring and fitting kits that wolfsburg west sell? a new set of pads, fittings and wheel cylinders for front and back will solve all these problems.

So the final plan for the car is fairly well formed in my head. Now armed with a clear goal i will push forward and hopefully have a nice car for causal driving.

Im off now to get all the wheels painted and cross ply tires mounted. until next time folks
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Collector of all things Volkswagen, Hazet and Matra.

1972 1302
1973 type2a
1957 type11
2005 Caddy panel van
2006 Golf R32

[grandpa pete]

I Put a set of WW brake springs on a recent project . Quality parts with thorough instructions . I have always been treated well by them.....
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63 two fold rag
66 sedan delivery Type 6

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=569619&highlight=sedan+delivery

[Critter1]

I support this!

This is pretty much what I'd like to do with a 67 vert I'm rescuing after a 30 year squat in one place. I'll keep my eyes on this thread. Very nice!
_________________
Justin

[Fishynos72]

I've recently ordered quite a bit from WW i just wanted to know of someone who had used their spring kits, the only reason i was skeptical is because they were so cheap.

I'm placing the order now, shame the shipping is double the cost of the parts i've picked.
_________________
Collector of all things Volkswagen, Hazet and Matra.

1972 1302
1973 type2a
1957 type11
2005 Caddy panel van
2006 Golf R32