Brought home a Jan/ Feb 54' Jupiter Grey Euro

[djfordmanjack]

what distributor are you running ? what engine #? is it a bus engine 20-****?
yours is missing the vaccuum advance. maybe the reason for your engine problems.
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Hotrods, Fords, Veedubs and Triumph Twins !
52 Barndoor DLX Coachbuild project
54 Oval project
55 Wolfsburg panel project, og paint Taubenblau L31
62 Dickholmer, Seeblau L360
63 1500 Notch, og paint Rubin Rot L456
67 1500 Käfer, og paint Lotus weiß L282 w/red interior

[Bub]

[djfordmanjack]

do check the distributor. you have something that is not factory to a beetle of 54 nor 57/8 vintage. very cool car no less !
cant' see the carb enough, maybe it has a vaccuum leak where the original vaccuum line to the dizzy would be attached.
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Hotrods, Fords, Veedubs and Triumph Twins !
52 Barndoor DLX Coachbuild project
54 Oval project
55 Wolfsburg panel project, og paint Taubenblau L31
62 Dickholmer, Seeblau L360
63 1500 Notch, og paint Rubin Rot L456
67 1500 Käfer, og paint Lotus weiß L282 w/red interior

[ZENVWDRIVER]

[Bub]

The engine it came with is 3689232 - that makes it late 56’ ?

Haven’t owned an old VW for 10 -15 years, but I have had quite a few. I just don’t remember all the little numbers.
The distributor is a VJR4 BR 25, isn’t that a type2 unit?
For my purposes for the foreseeable future it doesn’t matter, but working out the little details is fun.

Should the wipers park on a 54?
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[my56samba]

No the wipers on a 54 don't park. They are part # L113 955 111 The wiper motor from a 56-7 (L113 955 111A) was the first to park and they can also have the armature changed to 12volts. I have a 54 that was converted to 12 volts but the wipers were not and I bought a 12volt converted 56-7 motor from Don West the windshield wiper guy. you also have to change the wiper switch to the 56-7 3 wire style to work with it.

[bwaz]

[Bub]

[FRK]

[ZENVWDRIVER]

[Bub]

Fully restored! Ready to go!
Engine is out and torn down for a quick once over.
Nothing shocking...except.. SOMEONE left the two case bolts out just below the thrust bearing. WTF people. Seriously. Who would do that?
So. Obviously I have to go and look further.
Hoping to get a couple misc piece of tin I'm missing-
under fuel pump
behind pulley
spark plug tube and a few other odds and ends then tin goes to powdercoating.

I have some more pics, nothing as fun as this. 6V blinky Semperfours!
I dig it, nice and bright too.
(I guess I don't get to embed an imgur .mov ? It's blocked?)


https://imgur.com/a/sF91rq0

https://i.imgur.com/u2poTxZ.mp4
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[sled]

wow they painted the car with the semaphores and door strikers in place


I have those bulbs in my 51, they work well.
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drive your split.

[Bub]

[Bub]

Ok, been saving some progress for this update.
A few pics to follow!
So, the engine came out relatively quickly. Tin went to the powdercoater and I just got it back. Next time remind me to find better/ cleaner/ less rusty-er tin.
I got it all back and it's decent, it won't be a show car by any means, so using what I had works for now.

New brakes, brake lines, hardware, drums...etc..

Some past owner ran a FABTASTIC copper bendy fuel line down the right side running board. So that had to go. I was able run a good stainless line down the rear next to the original line, through the tunnel and pop it out right behind the place it should be. Again, that works for me.
OH! And the contraption on the fuel reserve lever is a 'low fuel' switch. A warning light (sourced from 62' t-bird) comes on when it fuel is OFF or on R. I know a couple people (me?) who would absolutely forget to turn the lever back...don't need that trouble.

Removed and cleaned the trans, new seals everywhere I could access, boots, brakes, etc. Cleaned up and re-lined and sound proofed the engine compartment.

Some foglights for fun, didn't need those, but got them for less than the value of the brackets, so why not.

Engine in progress

Cleaned and straightened the interior, NOS Ra-bambus shelf, a repro cruiser pedal- of course. I have some pop-outs coming and a few misc little trinkets.
But...just MAYBE I'll be close to firing it up this weekend...

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[motofly196]

Progress looks great! Noticed you got some tail lights too...still looking for correct ones?
For what the car was when you bought it...you are getting it straightened out pretty quick! Should be ready to drive when the weather gets nice.

[Bub]

[sunroof]

Wow! That is fantastic. I want one.

Don
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Better and better mistakes!

[Bub]

Well. Got the engine thingy installed. It would be nice if it would run. Have no idea what the problem is- got fuel instantly, don't see ANY problem with the carb (which I've already rebuilt), spark? yes.
Timing...isn't that hard. I get an occasional sputter, sometimes it'll rumble and nearly fire up. 30 years of VW's and I can't make a 36hp run? Yeah.

Also- body is too low. I think I need to unbolt it and get a thicker pan seal. Engine seal sits roughly 3/4" low. Tailpipe will NEVER clear the rear apron.

Anyone know a source for a good slightly thicker pan/ body gasket? 1/2"-3/4" would probably be close enough.

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[sled]

[Rome]

Nice looking Beetle. For your taillamps, as an experiment to achieve the heart unit look, how about modifying a snowflake housing by cutting out the shape of the top heart lens and gluing in a repro heart lens? Set the heart lens back an equal distance from the housing attachment fastening screw. You can use a good photo of a genuine heart housing for dimensional reference, and just cut the snowflake housing so that the shoulder of the heart lens sits against the snowflake housing from underneath. Then use some silicone glue to fasten the heart lens from underneath to the housing. Here's a housing you can try- https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2319751

If the round contours of the lens match those of the top of the cheap snowflake housing, then you can do this conversion to your snowflakes (or buy a cheap set to redo and repaint anyway so that you keep your originals untouched). Might be enough o have a local body paint shop mix up a spray can bottle of Jupiter Grey so you can paint the housings. Mount the lamps down low in the original style heart location (aha- I see you did that; after I posted my response), not at the higher snowflake location. Since your car is a "13 footer", I bet such a modification would look genuine to most casual observers. No need to make the fake heart lens functional; you just glue it in for appearance.

Engine: I zoomed in on your "engine installed" photo. At first glance it looks like your plug wires are clocked 1 position too far clockwise (CW) in the cap. You can clearly see the wire for #4 at the "left front" of the cap when looking straight down at the cap. That would make the wire for #1 the next one CCW, namely "left rear" (ignition firing order 1-4-3-2). But "usually" the plug wire for #1 is at the "right rear" cap position.

Have you checked the distributor rotor position with the cap off and the crank pulley at #1 position (confirmed by the cylinder #1 valves both being closed)? If the rotor points to the right rear with the crank pulley at TDC, then you simply reclock the plug wires so that the wire for #1 comes out of the right rear cap terminal. But your distrib. is not an original type with the vacuum canister on the left. No vacuum canister would make it a mechanical advance type, so that there could still be a variation of how the rotor position would be... some could have the #1 cyl. wire 2 cap positions back (at "right front" cap position).