"Molly" 1969 Standard Beetle Build

[clockworkbox]

Hello! I'm Tim and I have spent many hours here looking for parts, checking out build threads, getting technical help, and being especially encouraged by some of the resurrections that make me appreciate that Molly isn't that rusty, thanks for that. I bought Molly about a year ago on Facebook. The ad said:
1969 VW Bug. No rust! Rebuilt engine! New door seals and interior! New wheels and tires! $7000
I talked to the owner and he said the whole car had been gone over by "the best Volkswagen guy in Washington state" and it just needed a battery. I had a battery so I brought it along to check out the car. From what I could see, it needed heater channels and pans. The engine had a bad oil cooler leak but seemed to run ok considering the infamous Weber progressive carb was not tuned very well. I pointed out that it wasn't rust free and the engine might be rebuilt but that would have been 20,000 miles ago and I paid the guy $5000. I had owned many aircooled VWs throughout the '90s and I did a nut and bolt restoration of a 70 bus that I sold in 2000 but, man, none of that helped me see what was coming.
Here is a picture of the bus I built an sold when my first son was born:

Here is the bug as it sat when I drove it home:




I will make more posts with the rest of the story soon. Thanks to anyone who took the time to read this mess!
Tim

[clockworkbox]

Before I started looking under all the Dynamat, I planned to just drive and enjoy the car for awhile. Over the winter I rebuilt the engine. The engine in the car WAS rebuilt! It was rebuilt so many times that the case could not be line bored any more so I found a AS41case on Facebook and took it in to be cleaned and bored. I built the engine using the Tom Wilson "How to Rebuild Your Volkswagen Air-Cooled Engine" book. I also found two spark plugs (one in each head of course) had been stripped and the helicoils pulled out when I removed the plugs. They were pretty beat so I picked up a couple "new" heads from an unknown manufacturer through a local VW parts place. I got them home and found:

There were no identification markings so I don't know who made them but they were the worst castings in the history of casting. I called the shop I bought them from and they exchanged the bad one but I didn't trust them so I did some research and the AA Performance dual port heads had good feedback here so I ordered a pair of them and a set of pistons and cylinders. The quality of parts has declined incredibly since I was building 20 years ago but these AA parts seemed to decent. I just built a 1600 dp, not trying to win races, just looking for dependability. Thanks to aircooled.net I rejetted the Weber progressive according to their recommendations. I used lots of assembly lube when I put the engine together but who knows when I will be able to test it so hopefully it holds up ok in storage. I have learned that Wolfsburg West is an amazing parts vendor, Dune Buggy Warehouse has also been good. JBugs is ok but slow shipping and don't try to return anything. It is kind of crazy how the same parts can have such different prices depending on where you get them from. Anyway, here is my rebuilt engine:

[kpf]

Lookin' good!

What are your plans for it?
_________________
1971 Super Beetle

[clockworkbox]

[kpf]

Very nice.

Good luck with the rust!
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1971 Super Beetle

[johnnyvw164]

Hey Clockworkbox, what part of PA are you located?

[clockworkbox]

[quote="johnnyvw164"]Hey Clockworkbox, what part of PA are you located?[/quote/
Williamsport, north central, you?

[johnnyvw164]

Southern Poconos, aka Slate Belt. There's a few guys around here I have found since getting my 69 Bug last August, was wondering if you were also in my area. Sounds like about 2 hours west.
Good luck with your repairs!

[Pruneman99]

I don't think I've ever seen a valve boss completely broken/cracked off like that. I wonder if some fly by night company bought the rejects for "scrap" and are selling them. That's terrible. Good thing you noticed it. That would have made a huge mess.

[clockworkbox]

I knew I needed heater channels an floorpans when I bought the car. The passenger pan had been replaced but whoever did the job ended up short of the nap hap and decided to just bondo the 3 inch gap and call it a day:

The quarter panels, front clip, rocker panels, rear clip, and and the top 3/4 of the heater channels were all solid metal so this fooled me into believing the car was not rusted too badly. It had a layer of mud over everything and she was a dirty girl but I couldn't see the rust until I peeled all the carpet and dynamat off later. When I peeled the dynamat off of the luggage shelf, half of the bondo underneath came with it. I also found the car had been hit in the rear hard enough to break the spotwelds on part of the firewall. The worst of it for me was finding the rust that has eaten the top part of the firewall, under the rear window:

Sadly, this girl was rotting from the inside out due to a crusty rear window seal. The damage is also in the crossmembers and wheelhouses:

I will be welding in new metal to fix this damage. I have most of the luggage shelf cut out and started drilling the spotwelds out. If you need to cut spotwelds, I highly recommend this kit I found on Amazon. It cuts quickly as long as you have it in a drill with good torque, it cuts really well if you lean into it for a couple seconds:

Finally, in my quest to source OG metal I found this...makes me feel not so bad about what I have:

[johnnyvw164]

Wow...advertised as "rust free"....

[Pruneman99]

That's pretty rough. If I bought a "no rust" car that turned out to be hiding that much rust under Bondo, I would cry.

Well it looks like you have some work do do. I wish you good luck!

[OTTO 1303]

What size are your BFG's?
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74 Super Sun Bug - OTTO
74 Super - DANZIG
74 Super - HERZOG
16 R-Line

[clockworkbox]

They are 205s, too big, I know.

[OTTO 1303]

[clockworkbox]

205/60R15 on 5.5" wheels. I plan to swap to 185s in front and a narrow beam to properly fit wheels, tires, and disk brakes. I like the raised white lettering...the wheels and tires are new. The PO didnt even clean the blue coat off of them.

[clockworkbox]

I found a og metal patch section for the wheelhouse on the passenger side but I am still looking for the driver side. I just dont like the look of the repro stuff and if Im going to do this, I want to make it worth the effort. I am also looking for under the window and the front bulkhead, no luck so far but I did rebuild my speedometer...

I ordered gels from Bug City but they were actually thinner than the file folder plastic I used the last time I rebuilt one. They would bend and crease too easily when installing.

I found some colored plastic on Amazon that is used for stage lighting, I figure that the plastic should be able to take the heat of the lights and it is almost as thick as the original VW gel material.

I used some 0000 steel wool to knock down the gloss and I think they look pretty good when lit.

I also bought a speedo needle on eBay but I was not too impressed. Clear plastic with the back painted white. I guess it is supposed to "glow". I had to trim the flashing off of it and touch up the paint a bit but it is better than the broken one I had.
Now I'm working on rebuilding the pedal cluster and the front floor heater vents... as long as I keep making some kind of progress maybe I will get to drive it one day ha
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'69 Beetle (pieces)
Learning the hard way is still learning...

[clockworkbox]

I found the og metal to repair the passenger side rear wheelhouse but I am still looking for the driverside. While I wait on that, I decided to work on the passenger side rear view mirror mount. I picked up a pair of doors that are in good shape and the passenger side had a mirror mounted but the hole that was cut for the mirror did not allow for the seal to be installed. The mirror was attached with this original VW nut (JBugs and others sell the nut for about $9):

The nut held the mirror on but it caused the outer skin of the door to bend inward and did not allow for the seal to be used or seated in the door. I looked around the Samba and didn't find much about how to install the mirror so I decided to try to get a correct fit. I took my seal to Lowes and found a 1 1/8 hole saw that matched the o.d. of my seal pretty well:

The problem was going to be aligning the hole saw when a large hole already existed for the mirror. My solution was to disassemble an old mirror I had and check its o.d. against the i.d. of the hole saw. It was pretty close:

I attached the old mount to the door snugly and used it as a guide for the hole saw:

I was careful not to push too hard on the saw and cut into the underlying metal. The hole is a little rough but the mirror with seal fits perfectly and the seal covers the entire area of the cut. Once it is sanded and painted, it will not show.

The hole has sharp edges so if anyone tries this, be careful fishing the nut through (I stuck my finger through the hole to guide the nut in).
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'69 Beetle (pieces)
Learning the hard way is still learning...

[Tom K.]

If you are looking for a good local VW machinist, Doug out at European Imports (West of Lock Haven) does excellent work. He also has a nice stash of parts.
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'91 Vanagon Westfalia
'70 Beetle Convertible
'71 Super Beetle Semi-Automatic: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=714131&highlight=
'65 Ghia: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=762478&highlight=

[clockworkbox]