Australian 1964 1500N Bahama Blue Squareback

[60beetle60]

Starting a thread for my 1964 1500N Bahama Blue Squareback I picked up in July and have been slowly beavering away on.

Found the car on Gumtree after a relative sent me the link. Car had a pretty honest description and was priced well, best part it was under 10min drive away from home so I was dead keen on it. I rang the previous owner within a few hours of the add being up and he already had an offer, I was second in line. The next day he calls and says other guy is dicking him around with money and if I can pay a deposit on the spot its mine, safe to say it didn't take me long to send the money over, still hadn't seen the car in person.

Picked the car up a few days later once I got back from work. Car was as expected from the add which listed rust in the floor, sills and around the engine lid and "55 years of small bumps on virtually every panel"

Very stoked to have it home, have been after a Type 3 wagon for many years, plan for the car is to fix the major rust to male it safe and waterproof the cabin, replace window rubbers and drive the crap out of it.

Photos below are same day it came home.

Lined up with the rest of the family

The car also came with loads of spare parts, reeled dad in the borrow his trailer to haul all the parts home. All up it came with a full set of spare glass, spare panels, front window visor, fuel tank, spare gauge set, new set of ISP West window rubbers and all sorts of other additions. Was a full trailer and full wagon on the way home

The first few weeks of ownership it got driven around as my daily. All up runs sweet and haven't had to do too much to get it driving nicely, new shifter coupling, adjust the brakes and other basics and it was good fun to drive again.

I've already started some rust repair work on the car so will detail where it's currently at in the next few posts
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1960 Beetle
1960 Karmann Ghia
1964 1500N Type 3 Squareback

[60beetle60]

After driving it around for a few weeks, hit a spot of wet weather and with half of the windows rubbers leaking I decided it was a good time to get cracking with fixing it up a bit.

Started out getting a good grasp on how bad the rust was.

Around the engine lid will need attention

Putting it up on the lift definitely helps for getting your head underneath.

The previous battery tray repair was less than desirable, pop rivets and silicon holding it in.

Started stripping out the interior to get a better look, pretty happy with the condition of the salt and pepper interior. Will get some patch work done ob the seats then return them to service.

Door and interior panels all in good nick, nothing to be done here.

Getting a good look at the floor rust for the first time, both sides need work. Ended up ordering ISP West repair panels for both sides

After ripping out the battery tray "repair"

Was a bit annoyed to find rust hiding adjacent the rear seat after removing interior panels, will need to figure out how to address this later

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1960 Beetle
1960 Karmann Ghia
1964 1500N Type 3 Squareback

[60beetle60]

Started with removing the kickboard

Kickboard is rusty and needs bottom 1" replaced in sections

It was about this point I got annoyed with the doors on the car

Test fitting the ISP West repair section

First big cut

Repair section tech screwed into position

Ongoing tacking into place. Followed the process of cut through panel and car floor with cutting disc in grinder to make one neat cut through both panels. Then bit of panel beating to align both and clamp into position for tack welding. Remove clamps and repeat process gradually working around the whole repair panel.

First repair section welded in and welds cleaned up.

Sub frame mount was test fitted before cutting the other side to confirm location of welded in brackets.

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1960 Beetle
1960 Karmann Ghia
1964 1500N Type 3 Squareback

[60beetle60]

Second panel tech screwed in and tack welding in progress

Close up of the clamps after tacking in place

Fully tacked in

Welding in progress

Both sides fully welded. This is my first large size go at welding and rust repairs on a car and very happy with how its turned out

Garage shot during repairs

Coat of primer on the floors

That sums up progress to date, next steps are to
- Clean up and weld in the jacking points as I forgot all about them before giving it the primer coat.
- Give the floor a coat of black
- Rust repair in front passenger side guard
- Rust repair around engine bay
- Pull off rear fenders to asses rust adjacent rear seat
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1960 Beetle
1960 Karmann Ghia
1964 1500N Type 3 Squareback

[Erik G]

very nice work. Must be awesome to have a shop like that
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Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

[T3Yoshi]

Looks like a really nice car and I dig the originality. Nice work too!

[ALLWAGONS]

Nice! my favorite bug color on a type 3? is that an Australia / New Zealand thing?
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I'd be UNSTOPPABLE if not for Law Enforcement and PHYSICS.

I recycle old cars and parts, other than when I rot, that's as Green as I am going to get.

Thanks to my Tesla driving neighbors, I feel more relaxed driving my SUBURBAN and old VW's.

NON INFLUENCER APPROVED

[Mid West Dubber]

Looks like a great car! Keen to see this all finished up

[MonT3]

Nice looking car there and way to get after those pan issues. Take your time in those corners but I think you have that under control. Nice work all around!
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MonT3
67 Squareback
64 Squareback
63 Squareback
Engine rebuild
Trailer rebuild

[Bobnotch]

Good looking car you picked up. Nice, complete, and unmolested for the most part. Looks like you're dealing with standard equipment rust. As for the rust on the sides under the rear seat, that starts when the seam sealer dries out, and falls out, rust starts there at that seam and slowly rusts thru. To fix it, you'll have to remove the rear fenders, so you can get to both sides.
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Bob 65 Notch S with Sunroof
71 Notch ...aka Krunchy; build pics here;
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=249390 -been busy working
64 T-34 Ghia...aka Wolfie, under construction... http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=412120

[notchboy]

Great now I have shop envy.
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[bobnorman]

Nice car! And great job on welding in the pans, you’re not messing around! You sure it’s a 64 and not a 63? Reason I ask is because of the salt and pepper interior. Also, like everyone else here, I too have extreme garage envy.
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Air does not freeze. Air does not boil.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=289807

[notchboy]

[60beetle60]

[60beetle60]

[Bobnotch]

[60beetle60]

Got round to welding the jacking points back in place and giving them a coat of primer to suit the pans.

Also had a poke around the rust by the front wheel, as to be expected the rust grows the more I look

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1960 Beetle
1960 Karmann Ghia
1964 1500N Type 3 Squareback

[Bobnotch]

Still looks like standard equipment rust to me. The more you keep digging, the more you'll find. It's just the nature of the beast.
You're doing it the right way though. It's just a slow process to cut the rot out, and patch it in. It could be worse though, in that you could have gotten a project like Clatter's, that had been hit and poorly repaired. Even he admitted that he would have rather repaired a rusty car.
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Bob 65 Notch S with Sunroof
71 Notch ...aka Krunchy; build pics here;
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=249390 -been busy working
64 T-34 Ghia...aka Wolfie, under construction... http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=412120

[Clatter]

Not jealous of that shop... Not at all..

It would be about killing me to not see what the pan seal area looked like on that one.
That seal can hold rust.
Looking at yours, my bet is you’ll want to pull the body in order to fix it correctly.

Looks like you have room to store stuff,
And,
Having your own lift,
It couldn’t be much better easier.

Almost like cheating!
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Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[60beetle60]