VW BugTuck??? Custom Build... Not sure the year

[nshaddox]

yea, i think it is possible to upgrade to the newer shift rod bushing holder under the shifter without cutting the tunnel open. spot welds holding the existing bracket in should be easy enough to see from the top. I imagine with a drill, hammer, and chisel you could remove the old one. it would be tricky but not impossible to snake the old bracket out and new bracket in from the hole where the rod couples with the trans at the back of the tunnel. use some house wire to snake it through. you could pre drill some guide holes on the new bracket using the old one as a guide and hold it in place temporarily with some sheet metal screws, then plug weld from the top.

[nbturbo]

Read the latest Dune Buggies and Hot VW's- good story on how to replace the bracket.Very easy.

[SatireChuck]

That is just the coolest Bug I think I’ve ever seen! What a beauty!


-Brother Chuck

[nbturbo]

If you scroll down about 20 posts-you will see how my second VW truck I am building from scratch is progressing.

[wheel607]

A little off topic but I was in San Antonio and ran a VW shop in 1972 …..where did your uncle have his shop and what was the name. Unfortunately, I did not know of anybody doing this kind of conversion. Later I worked for VW dealership on the southside....he probably knew it well.

[mas00]

[mas00]

[mas00]

August 18th Update.

Seems like things are moving at a snails pace.. rainy weather, family birthday's to attend to, but finally had a struggling day today. The transmission is in, and the back axles are on. I need to purchase a set of rubber 0-rings for the rear axle. They didn't come with the transmission gasket kit. So I wasn't able to put the brakes and wheels on.

The transmission is a bit hard to turn the back axles which my uncle said it shouldn't be that way, but we started to turn them for a while and they loosened up. He said maybe once the weight of the wheels, disc, and brakes maybe things will be a bit easier and more in alignment. Not sure.

Still trying to look into information about replacing the shift rod bushing, and bracket and then I "SHOULD" be done with the chassis. I got to hammer/crack off some of the fiber glass on the back near the window and lucky for me underneath is metal!! So I'm a little happy as I was worried I was going to have to find some metal and weld the back and it might be all bondo/fiber glass.

Bad thing is my work is going to start picking up making me more tired than I already am and I'm also going out of the country for 2 weeks in September so.. slow it goes. I was hoping to have this whole thing done by the end of the year, but it is not looking good.

Last weekend I did however gut the car "fully ". All the windows, rubber seals and electrical are gone. I have all original windows with vw logo on them so that's good. The electrical will be whole beast and I will worry about it when i get there, which seems far away. Until next time buggers!

[wheel607]

Thanks

[wheel607]

thanks

[wheel607]

Any more pictures of the restoration?

[mas00]

no I went out of the country for two weeks and it's basically been rain every week since. My car is not in a garage so I can't work on it. This weekend was the first time I got to start on it in about two months and I ran into some problems. The rear bearing on the axle won't go on. I purchased a set of extra gaskets and right now with five on one side there is still a huge gap like space for about eight more gaskets which doesn't seem right to me so I'm trying to figure out what's wrong as this is pretty much the last thing I need to get the back end together and I can get it back to an inside garage to work on the rest while I blast the body.

I just got my computer back as well because I had to order a new charging adapter as my last one shorted out.

[mas00]

December 16 2018 Update

I have no photos because I was running out of day light yesterday but finally feel like progress is getting restored after months of bad weather and stoppage over simple things. While re-assembling the back swing axles the bearing were not going correctly all the way in and that made the bearing cap not close. I struggled with this for about two weeks and everyone was giving me the wrong advice. Finally I got some good adviced from a local here who told me, while re-assembling I need to not only take out the fulcrum plates but also the spider gears and then install them all together so they fit within the differential and bingo it worked.

So the transmission, starter, back axles, brakes, and wheels are fully installed. The chassis is about 90% complete. Only thing major left for me to do is take off some of the tar board on the top of the tunnel so I can drill out the welds where the current shift rod bracket is and re-install/re-weld a new one in that takes a shift rod bushing so my shifting won't be sloppy anymore.

I purchased a new MC, and brakes lines but still looking for an OG reservoir. I pretty much think I have one more weekend left until I start welding up some places with the body, installing hood locks, and taking off some of the bondo for when I get it blasted.

Still debating on color, My Uncle wants me to paint it green again, but I'm looking to go all blacked out with yellow head lights.

[mas00]

December 30th Last of year Update.

It was 40 degrees outside and I told myself I might as well go ahead and freeze my butt of while I weld a new shift rod bracket in

Anyways I followed a couple of threads and got kinda lucky with getting the new bracket in. All in All I have a new bracket, bushing, and ring so I believe the shifting should be nice and smooth now. Before there was a spring bracket version and my Uncle told me when he drove it with my father once it was really bad and sloppy all around.

The welding is not perfect, but will get the job done, and once I painted it black you can't even tell. While it is the end of the year I did start this whole re-building process in March/April of this year so "technically" it has not been one full year for me yet, but all in all I'm very happy where I am on this project. Once I get it into a garage I can install new brakes lines, master cylinder, OG reservoir to bleed the brakes. and put new tar board on.

I guess originally had an un-realistic goal of having this whole car done by end of year December, but one day a week is not bad to have the whole engine rebuilt, body gutted and off, and chassis re-done. I have started to take some of the bondo off the back near the window and I can see the weld and braces are pretty shitty (metal is a bit worn and thin) so I will cut them out and re-weld some new pieces in there. I need to find out the original thickness of the metal, because people in San Antonio sell shitty old VW parts for a lot of money, it will probably be easier for me to just go out and purchase some metal sheets of the same thickness. I will also drill out some hood locks before I get the body blasted.

Only bummer is when I was moving some things in my Uncles tool shed to get the welder out, where I have all my parts separated I shattered the corner of the front window, which was OG glass.

Not sure I will be able to find a 1960 OG front window but I will try and hunt one down. I'm excited for the new year and finally getting to the body and learning how to paint my first car!

[mas00]

Jan 23 2019 first update of year

So I've been spending sometime welding up a lot of things on the vw that needed done. There was a bracket inside the hood for a CB radio my dad put in, and then also another riveted metal bracket along the hood for rubber rubbie locks. A part of the hood metal latch (not sure if this is right terminology) was bent off because my dad had forgot to close the hood one day and he took off and the hood slammed up on the free way so I needed to weld that back in place. I also purchased some 20g some metal sheets to cut out the back window brackets and it looks like on the inside the job was pretty shitty too and I didn't take that into account so I will need to get more sheet metal to clean that up. This weekend I plan on cutting out the sides of the back window so well see how that goes.

Last weekend I spend almost half the day getting the fuel line un clogged as it has been rusted up with a bunch of gunk inside, but I got it done with a lot of oil, gas and air compressor. I tapped up the lines so hopefully they will be ok.

I'm needing the think how I can weld new metal hood locks instead of rubber ones which were previously there, and I've been given some advice to make them electrical, but I have no experience in this department so it will take some time to figure this out, purchase the locks, and figure it all out, measurements etc.

My Uncle had mentioned to shave the door handles off and make it suicide doors but that is a ton of work so.... Well see how it goes

[vaughn bros.]

Lots of progress!😀

[mas00]

[mas00]

Update: Feb 17 2019

So as you all know the weather has been shitty as all hell and that means no work on my lovely lady. Got a weekend of good weather so been trying to repair the back corners on the window. Like I said before, the OG owner did a shitty job or didn't know how to do body work that well. There are rivets, different patch welds, and it's full of bondo all over the back. Not saying I'm any better, but gonna try to make it "right". I almost got into welding the passenger side but we had a family emergency which took some time outta the day, but will weld her in soon and then start on the driver side.

On the inside we are just going to go from the roof all the way down, connect the back window to the door hinge so it will be nice and smooth like the outside.

What I wouldn't kill to have a garage. This project would probably half way done by now, but them are the breaks.

[mas00]

July 2019 Update:

So it has been a while, work was taking over my life, and then the weather has been really bad. Now it is summer and I've been able to make some progress. I welding in the two side of my back window. Had a lot of trouble with the passenger side because I couldn't get the door off, and then when I tried to drill out the screw the drill bit broke so I had to torch the hole and melt the drill bit. Luckily it didn't have any body damage and everything worked out.

As for the driver side, we had some trouble roudning the corner so I just recently had to purchase some body tools, ball pin hammer and next is to heat it up and make the corner a bit more rounded. My Uncle said back in the day they used to use ice as well to shrink the metal so we might do that too.

No photos of the pan, but I had to clean it up a bit, ran all the brand new fuel lines, and this Monday I'm going to install a brand new M.C. All I need is a brake reservoir, which I'm having a hard time finding an OG which is what I want. I will stay on the look out but the only thing left at this point on the pan is sound deadner, which I will wait until I'm about to drop the body on.


I took apart the 2 seat stripped most of the paint off, primered and painted them black. Next phase it to pretty much start tackling all the bondo that is still on the body and get it ready to blast.

I will try to primer it myself with some pints of Master Series that I still have left. As far as painting it, that is a whole problem I'm not sure what to do yet. I would like to paint it myself but I don't have anywhere to do it. My Uncle said I might be able to call around my city and ask if I could rent a paint booth from a shop. Last resort is to contact someone and have them paint it which means $$$.

Good/Bad news is my job contract ended so now I have all the time in the world to finish my vw. Bad is no more money to fund my project accept the money I set aside for this project which hopefully will be enough.


None the less, still at it, my goal is to finish it all by December 2019, but that might not be realistic. So perhaps body, painted on pan and maybe the electrical work all done by the end of the year so that all I have left is the interior.

[vaughn bros.]

We're watching! 😀