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DMNCLNR Sir Camp'alot
Joined: November 12, 2003 Posts: 2897 Location: Newport Beach Ca
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Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2016 3:39 pm Post subject: Re: Birch Green 1963 Notch |
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Found an insurance card from 1972 with the original owners name, talked with the guy I bought the car From and he confirmed that I had the right guy. I looked him up, got his address and phone number. As much as I want to call I am a bit hesitant as he is 94 years old and the info I have only presumes he is still alive. At this time I think I will take a cpl photos and send a letter, might just make his day assuming he is still alive.
I did find out that he had moved to Nebraska where he learned he was unable to obtain a license for health reasons and sold the car to the person I bought it from in South Dakota. I have no idea how long it was in Nebraska and will probably never know unless I can get in contact with Dale the original owner. Was hoping to find some old pictures of the car at the naval base here in Los Alimitos but no luck so far.. _________________ To his their own PBJ
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Itawayoflife Samba Member
Joined: February 20, 2006 Posts: 1181 Location: Buena Park,CA
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Posted: Sun Jan 06, 2019 9:04 pm Post subject: Re: Birch Green 1963 Notch |
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For a while now, I've been wanting to post on here about this car. if you've ever wondered what happened to it, I can fill you in...
I own a small VW shop in Orange, CA called Roth Vintage. Back in February of 2017 I got a random phone call from a guy asking if I could do a front wide 5 disc brake conversion on an early notchback. I jumped at the chance since I had never done one yet. When the car came in, the customer Greg, adds a few things on to the repair list such as repairing the sideview mirror mount, addition of shoulder strap seat belts and retune the engine. Previously, Greg had taken the notch to another shop locally to do a disc brake conversion and they installed spindles and brakes from a later model giving it the 4 lug discs with 4 lug wheels. Also, at that time, they talked him into rebuilding the motor. I believe it seized on him at one point. After he got it back, he just wasn't happy with it. The wheels were wrong and the motor ran funny. It smoked badly.
The first thing I tackled was a disc brake conversion. I opted for the EMPI type 1 Ball Joint Kit. After doing all the repairs that Greg asked for, he asked for a 12 volt conversion. So, we sourced a 6 volt generator that was converted to 12 volts. I Changed out all bulbs added an adjustable voltage resistor system for the wipers and we were done. Or so I thought.
Now, Greg from day 1 wanted to repaint this car. In my opinion, other than the orange paint, this car was awesome the way it was. It was a really solid car that had never been wrecked with very little rust. For a moment, I had him steering away from painting it. Then he asked to replace the pans. The driver's side had a crack about 2 feet long down the center of the pan. Probably caused by rust, but not other holes. The passenger side was so good I almost left it. The way I saw it, was if you want to do one side, you should do the other. So, in that moment, Greg says, "Well, if we're going to have the body off anyway, why don't we just have it painted?" My response was that if we were going to do this, then we needed to strip it completely. It took a while to find a paint shop that would do it within a reasonable amount of time, for the right price. I shopped the car around to different body shops and most of them didn't even know what it was. The shop that said they would do it, said to have it prepped and ready in couple of months. So a few months later I blew this car apart. Every nut and bolt.
It only took a few weeks to get it painted. Greg struggled with the color. He wasn't the biggest fan of Birch Green because he was afraid if he got it painted, it would come out too bright. For that he wanted to go with Sea Sand Beige which I strongly protested because Birch Green was original to the car. He just wasn't having it. So, I lost that battle. The color we wound up with was a slightly lighter beige. Since auto body shops would rather use existing colors in contemporary paint books, what we got was "Not Quite Sea Sand Beige". It still looks good and I have gotten a lot of compliments on the color.
When I got the body back, I went to work on the pan. A few days later, the body was back on the pan, we bolted it down and then sent car back to the body shop for cutting and buffing. It took 4 months! We got the car back and had worked on it between projects and repair jobs. He asked if I could rebuild the motor, so I did that. We had the motor balanced and the cooling fan welded. I also ditched the dual carbs in favor of the single carb system that was in the trunk when it first arrived and added an Engle W90 cam to give it a little extra pop and picked up an NOS exhaust that had the correct provisions for the single carb manifold.
While this was going on I had sent all the bright work out for chrome. The original bumpers, bumper guards, hub caps, door handles, rear view mirror, tail light housings, front turn signal housings and the headlight rings. All straightened and triple chromed. All the aluminum components like the vent wing frames and posts I hand sanded and polished. The lower trim was tough, but I straightened it and polished that as well.
Surprisingly, the seals weren't all bad on the car, but they did get destroyed in the removal process, so I got all new stuff. There was a few things in the boxes and bags he gave me with the car, but for the most part, I had buy it all.
In the end we got it back together and back on the road. There is still a little room for improvement and correction, however, she is a beauty once again. Greg is happy with the outcome and for that I am grateful and relieved. Here are some pics of the car as of yesterday. 22 months in the making. Enjoy!
_________________ The quest continues... |
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squaretobehip Samba Member
Joined: August 23, 2004 Posts: 3670 Location: San Jose, CA
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Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2019 10:36 am Post subject: Re: Birch Green 1963 Notch |
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Looks great! It's nice to see it finally done.
I'm sure you're stoked on that... _________________ 1963 Notchback - Ruby Red
1963 Squareback - Pearl White
1965 Squareback - Baltic Blue
Follow ISP West on:
Facebook - www.facebook.com/ispwest
Instagram - @ispwest - www.instagram.com/ispwest |
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KTPhil Samba Member
Joined: April 06, 2006 Posts: 33883 Location: Conejo Valley, CA
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Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2019 10:52 am Post subject: Re: Birch Green 1963 Notch |
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What are the odds? |
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Erik G Samba Member
Joined: October 16, 2002 Posts: 13247 Location: Tejas!
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Bobnotch Samba Member
Joined: July 06, 2003 Posts: 22358 Location: Kimball, Mi
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Jason37 Samba Member
Joined: April 21, 2004 Posts: 1027
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Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2019 7:04 pm Post subject: Re: Birch Green 1963 Notch |
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I may be a little biased in saying it should have been paintied Birchgreen, but I understand the heart wants what the heart wants. Nice job, the car looks beautiful! |
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notchboy Samba Member
Joined: April 27, 2002 Posts: 22416 Location: Escondido CA
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Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2019 10:10 am Post subject: Re: Birch Green 1963 Notch |
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Very nice execution. Thats a nice clean tidy notchback.
Paint? Meh, I think the majority of people down the line dont know VW color, dont care and would be happy to own a nice clean driving notch.
Sound slike my notch is a Nutria, but Ill still paint it Ruby red with a black top some day _________________
t3kg wrote: |
OK, this thread is over. You win. |
Jason "notchboy" Weigel
1964 1500 S
1964 T34 S Convertible
1977 Westfalia Camper pop-top |
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260KMN Samba Member
Joined: January 17, 2014 Posts: 236 Location: Devon UK
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Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2019 11:12 am Post subject: Re: Birch Green 1963 Notch |
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nice job, although would have prefered totally stock, but thats just me. |
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hentotheree Samba Member
Joined: April 06, 2009 Posts: 84 Location: las vegas
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Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2019 1:21 pm Post subject: Re: Birch Green 1963 Notch |
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The color fits it just fine, beautiful car.... |
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mannydantyla Samba Member
Joined: December 20, 2018 Posts: 61 Location: Portland, OR
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Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2019 1:45 pm Post subject: Re: Birch Green 1963 Notch |
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DMNCLNR wrote: |
Found an insurance card from 1972 with the original owners name, talked with the guy I bought the car From and he confirmed that I had the right guy. I looked him up, got his address and phone number. As much as I want to call I am a bit hesitant as he is 94 years old and the info I have only presumes he is still alive. At this time I think I will take a cpl photos and send a letter, might just make his day assuming he is still alive.
I did find out that he had moved to Nebraska where he learned he was unable to obtain a license for health reasons and sold the car to the person I bought it from in South Dakota. I have no idea how long it was in Nebraska and will probably never know unless I can get in contact with Dale the original owner. Was hoping to find some old pictures of the car at the naval base here in Los Alimitos but no luck so far.. |
This must surely be coincidence but I just bought a T3 from a guy in Nebraska who got the car from his grandfather in South Dakota. And he had two of them (one was is grandfather's and the other was his grandmother's, though there's more to the story but I'll skip the details) and the other one sold to another Samba member. It's a small world!
Where these cars real popular up there in the Dakotas or what?? |
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DMNCLNR Sir Camp'alot
Joined: November 12, 2003 Posts: 2897 Location: Newport Beach Ca
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Posted: Fri Jan 25, 2019 6:52 pm Post subject: Re: Birch Green 1963 Notch |
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I knew I was drawn to
The type 3 forums for a reason. Very nice work in the car, the paint does bum me out but hey it’s not my car anymore. Nice work can’t wait to see it In person! _________________ To his their own PBJ
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