My son wanted a bug for his first car

[mdege]

and he had his mind set on a standard sedan, the older the better.

But, since I just finished my Firetruck, I did not want to spend another two year building a bug for him.

We looked a several bugs which sounded doable and also a 1959 puzzle. All of them turned out to be way too much work. Until we found this one.

A 1984 beetle made in Mexico which had not been driven much in its life time, but it had a really bad paint job which doesn't show on the picture. Since it hadn't been driven much it has virtually no rust. The PO drove the bug to our house and the first time I actually drove the bug, I really got scared to death by the not functioning brakes. The PO had been talking about that he had originally planed to drive it to Austria this summer. I am glad he didn't

Before we could register it, we had to get it ready for the inspections. We re-did the complete brakes, pulled the engine out, cleaned and resealed it. Replaced most of the window seals and other minor stuff.

Pulled the motor apart and cleaned everything

New main seal:

The motor returned to its place:

The motor is a 1300ccm and not 1200ccm which the car was originally delivered with. Who ever installed it cut some corners and therefore we were missing some parts like the rear engine tin. I wasn't able to locate the correct one for a decent price. I ended up using a repro which I had used in my fire truck which I modified to make room for the large pre-heater tube.

The tire which came with the car were at least 25 years old. A new set was need:

Finishing touches, greasing the front axle:

Ready for the TÜV inspection:

No issues were found and we were able to register it in my sons name:

Now it is back on the road doing what it was made to do. A daily driver!
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- Michael

1965 21F: Restoration of a former '65 firetruck
1963 Typ3 Notchback project
1988 Multivan Magnum 112i
1984 Standard: My son wanted a bug for his first car

[Bama Dave]

Nice car. I miss Germany.
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David Richerson

1970 Beetle
1971 Super
1972 Baja

[Tim Donahoe]

It looks like your son has a nice car. I can only suppose there are not that many bugs left in Germany, and very few made-in-Mexico bugs. Few of his friends will have a vintage car like that.

I wonder if the car was one of the 1984 Red Velvet models?

Tim
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Let's do the Time Warp again!

Richard O'Brien

[61SNRF]

Turned out very nice and what a great learning experience for your son.

Must say I was a little alarmed when I saw how you have routed the air cleaner thermostat and distributor hoses though. The way they are they will no doubt interfere with the carburetor arm. Keep in mind the arm moves when you accelerate and those hoses are in it's direct path. Have him get in the car and press the pedal to the floor while you watch the arm's movement and you'll see what I'm concerned about...

One thing you don't want him to learn is what to do when the throttle gets stuck wide open!

VW made those two hoses extra long so they could be routed up and held secure under the left air cleaner clip like this...

Have fun with the project
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-Bruce

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

[mdege]

[mdege]

Thank you for pointing this out. I will fix it tonight. I will be replacing the thermostat. I had to plug it because there is a vacuum leak.

I am still trying to find the right combination of distributor and carburetor. The original distributor is shot and now I got a single advance type installed. I am currently overhauling a 31 PICT-4 caburetor which should match the distributor. That combination was used on later AB engines.