1959 Beetle Restoration Project

[jbannon]

Thanks Chad. Sobering indeed. I have purchased a lot of sheet metal from WolfsParts, Restoration Panels, Klassic Fab, and BBT. I am excited to bring this car back to life, and I have a very good metal fabrication guy who's work is amazing. He should start this month and Ill document his progress as he sends updates or when I visit his shop.

[Rome]

[jbannon]

Rome, thanks for sharing. I think this is why I like the 58-59s so much—they have a lot of oval features, as well as unique colors and interiors that scream 1950s, but have the bigger windows. I have a 56 oval as well and the small rear window definitely changes the feel inside.

[hsosa1]

good to see another 59 being restored. not many left
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Just Cruzin Sur Califas VW Car Club est♤1998

[jbannon]

Thanks hsosa1. I couldn't agree more. The body of my car needs work but the cars "completeness" as well as matching numbers engine and transmission make it worth it.

[jbannon]

VW Bosch TE6B1 Coil

Equipment Used:

- High temp semi-gloss black paint

- High temp clear coat paint

- Scotch bright pad

- Different levels of sand paper

- Rot Weis Polishing Paste for Acrylic Glass / Plexiglas

Parts:

- Reproduction Bosch Coil Sticker

I found Bosch coil stickers from two locations. If you are in Europe, BBT carries them. In the US I have purchased them from Wagen Werks out of Victorville, CA. Both look the same, and both companies got my order out quickly.

Details

I spent last week/weekend working on a few things for the car. I sent several pieces for the engine out for powder coating, and sent a box full of bolts, nuts, and miscellaneous engine and car parts to the plater to get re-zinced. In addition I finished up the coil, which I'll talk about here.

The car came with a few coils. A Bosch Blue 6V coil and a Bosch TE6B1. I opted to restore the TE6B1 given it is period correct. I had the coil tested before I decided to repaint it.

This is where I started. Notice how the coil strap warped and deformed the paint after 60+ years of heat and pressure!

I used scotch bright to knock down the bumps followed by the use of increasing levels of finer sand paper to get the coil down to bare metal and make it smooth. However, even that level of work could not remove the paint in the grooved area on the bottom of the coil. I let the bottom of the coil sit in acetone for a few minutes, and an entire ring of thick paint came off. If you are going to do something similar to your coil, definitely wear a mask--who knows what they put in the paint back then.

After the paint removal was finished, I spent a bit of time masking off the top of the coil and worked the masking tape into the small groove between the metal and the bake light to ensure the paint looked good.

I then applied several coats of high temp semi-gloss black paint from a rattle can. I suppose I could have used normal spray paint, but I felt the high temp paint would maintain its appearance longer inside the engine compartment. I put on the sticker, and applied two coats of clear high temp paint. I felt this would preserve the sticker longer as well as protect it from coming off.

After everything was dry, I took off the masking tape and used an acrylic/plastic polish and my Dremel to buff out the bakelite top.

[EverettB]

Very nice, thanks for the tip on the plastic polish for Bakelite parts
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[jbannon]

'Magic Eraser' and Acrylic / Plastic Polish to save/clean parts made from Bakelite

Everett, thanks for the comment. Acrylic/plastic polish will do wonders on bakelite and bring out the luster in faded items. It will also take out small scratches and imperfections. I've also found that using a magic eraser before you use the polish really helps to clean and prep the bakelite for the polish. In fact the combo can make bakelite look new.

Finally, I've used the combo on interior ivory knobs and its amazing how they turn out. These photos are after less than 30 seconds of cleaning with the magic eraser. While I don't have pictures readily available of the final results using the acrylic/plastic polish to bring back the luster, you can get an idea of how effective a magic eraser is at saving old and tired knobs.

[jbannon]

36HP Powder Coated Engine Tin

Vendor

- Sandstrahlen-Stockerau https://www.sandstrahlen-stockerau.at/

Details

I received a call today from the sandblast / powder coat company that my parts were ready to be picked up. These guys are absolutely amazing, and have really helped me with my project. The majority of my powder coated parts were for the engine, but there were also a few pieces for the pedal cluster. In addition, they sandblasted my exhaust system, which will allow me to cerakote the exhaust this weekend.

While this development is not a huge step forward, it will allow me to finish rebuilding the pedal cluster and make progress on my engine.

As a reminder, this is where I started…

[jbannon]

Interior Challenges

I started putting together all the interior metal that needs to be re-painted, and spent the weekend taking my seats apart. The PO had used seat covers to protect the seats, which did a great job of protecting the original "leatherette". However, I had never spent any time looking at the seats beyond a cursory look when I took them out during the teardown. Therefore I was surprised when I got to the front seats after disassembling the rear seat...

No, that is not a color balance issue. The front seats are blue/gray, while the rear seat is the correct green/gray. Don't you love how projects keep surprising!

Last year my friend Thomas sold me some very nice and original green/gray door cards given the PO had swapped out the car's original door cards at some point in its past. Here are a few pictures:

Given how nice the seats were, I was going to clean/restore the interior and use it as is. At the time I was considering having new seat covers made with period correct fabric (instead of leatherette) since its more easily available in Europe, but opted against it due to the cost and desire to use the original interior. However, now that I can't use my front seats as planned, I may revisit that decision. The car originally came with green/gray leatherette, but fabric in my opinion is nicer, more comfortable (maybe?), and better "matches" the diamond gray body color. I think the 1958 red-brown/gray color scheme "fits" and looks better with diamond gray instead of the 1959 green/gray color scheme. I personally find the gray leatherette color clashes too much with diamond gray, and the 1959 green/gray/beige fabric option softens things enough to make it work better. Please note this is only my opinion. Here are some pictures I grabbed off the web that gives you some idea of what I am talking about.

As a side note and while we are talking about original fabrics, some of you may get out a kick out of this. When I was taking the back seat apart I found this sewn into the leatherette on the inside and used for padding (picture is front and back of fabric):

Looks like VW used anything and everything to fill out their seats!

Here are some pictures of the original fabric next to a sample of new fabric from Döpper in Germany (http://www.doepper-profile.de)

The original is discolored (perhaps from the horsehair and glue?), but the weave and pattern are identical!

I am going price out what it would cost to go this route and let you know what I decide. I will use re-use the door panels, and plan on restoring them. I have received a lot of wise council and help from Samba member, Stale Air, who restored his and posted his amazing results in the 58-59 forum. I'll document those efforts when they happen.

And if anyone needs some very nice (but not perfect) front 1958-59 Blue/Gray seat covers, let me know. Even the horse hair inserts in these seat covers is in amazing condition!

[jbannon]

Reserve Fuel Tap/Valve Restoration

Parts Used (All from Wolfsburg West)

- Fuel Valve Rebuild Kit (111209113A)

- Sealing Ring (111209139)

- Fuel Filter (111209147A)

- Grommet for reserve lever (111209175B)

- Reserve lever clip (111209181)

Resources

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=383448

Details

I finished rebuilding the fuel reserve fuel tap / valve this weekend. This is where I started:

From the above pictures you can see it was pretty beat up. I am going to assume from the wear and tear, as well as the build up of gunk and debris inside the fuel tap / valve, that no one had ever restored the item. Removing the internal retaining clip took a while given it was completely covered in some form of calcified material. It was a bit of a challenge. However, all the internal parts were in good condition, so all that was needed was a clean and the new replacement parts installed. I used an ultra sonic cleaner to clean all of the metal parts.

I used the above link from Samba Member "Duginabug" to restore the fuel tap/valve. It's an amazing and thorough description of what to do, and made the whole process effortless. Duginabug suggested you have a friend help with reassembly, and I strongly second that recommendation. Even with my friend Christian helping with decompressing the internal spring / mechanism so the new retaining clip could be installed, it took a bit of effort and time to get the clip properly seated in the inner groove.

On a side note: After cleaning all the parts in my ultra sonic cleaner, I threw everything into a parts tumbler (with green plastic triangle media) for final cleaning and polishing. I find using a parts tumbler can make metal look nearly new by removing deeply embedded grime, as well as removing any small burrs. It also cleans up cosmetic scratches and blemishes in the metal. In the case of my fuel tap/valve, it also removed the residual calcified material that the ultra sonic cleaner wasn't able to get off. The results were great, and I finished up with a little metal polish on the outside before reassembling. Here are the results:

[jbannon]

Replacement Sheet Metal

Vendors used:

Kaeferteile Janker (Austrian BBT vendor)
https://shop.kaeferteile-janker.at
https://www.bbt4vw.com/en/

- Frame head (0870-1)
- Silverweld Left Front Fender (These are amazing) (0104-060)
- Silverweld Right Front Fender (0105-060)
- Rear quarter panel, right (0818-1)
- Rear quarter panel, left (0817-1)
- Engine compartment side panel, left (0888-050)
- Bolt, Door hinge (hex versus Philips) (8050)
- Door hinge pin with screw thread for mirrors + 0.10 mm (0461-1)
- Door hinge pin + 0.10 mm (0475-2)

Wolfparts
https://wolfparts.com

- Front quarter panel, Beetle 52-60 LEFT (W62119)
- Front Apron 1950-1960 (W6257)
- Rear quarter panel 1952-60 Left (W6232)
- Rear quarter panel 1952-60 Right (W6231)

Klassic Fab
https://www.klassicfab.com

- Right Heater Channel Beetle 57/59 (KFT1 525)
- Left Heater Channel Beetle 57/59 (KFT1 526)
- Right rear fender (KFT1 927)
- Left rear fender (KFT1 928)

Restoration Panels
http://restorationpanels.com/product-category/oval/

- Door bolt plate A-pillars
- Tank carrier (left side)
- Rear floor repair section panel
- Full height A-pillar panels (left and right)
- Side seal channel for engine room
- J channel for aprons and hoods
- Floor rear corner section (left and right)
- Jacking points
- Door skin repair metal

Other

- NOS spare wheel panel with tray (purchased locally)
- NOS rear apron (purchased locally)
- Replacement front valence for windshield area

Details

Metal work has begun, but before jumping into what has been happening I thought I would share the replacement sheet metal I purchased. In making this list it feels like a lot of new metal is going into this car. Some pieces I found locally (rear fenders and NOS parts) which saved me some money. The choice to replace the front fenders stemmed from the amount of metal work that was needed to save the originals. BBT's Silverweld Fenders are AMAZING and fit like a glove. Don't worry about the original--they went to a good home! Nonetheless I did my best to buy the highest quality sheet metal I could find, and was again impressed with the level of service I received from all of the vendors. I must have emailed Wolf Parts, BBT, and Restoration panels a million times with questions, and Wolf, Bob, and Mika endured my requests and never hesitated to help.

Here are some pictures of the sheet metal:

[jbannon]

Sheet Metal Work

Vendor

Pasztor Classic (Hungary)
https://pasztorclassic.hu/en

Details

The car has been at Pasztor Classic for a few months now and they have made a lot of progress on the necessary metal work. I chose Pazstor Classic based on several independent recommendations from multiple VW enthusiasts in Austria. All of them spoke highly about Pazstor's craftsmanship and attention to detail, and the results spoke for themselves. I had the opportunity to see the before and after results of many cars and was impressed with the quality of work. Pazstor should finish metal work this month and then they will prep the body for paint and paint the car.

All pictures were sent to me from Pazstor

[sportin-wood]

Wow! Impressed with the task you've undertaken & progress. Looking forward to more updates.
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[RUN99]

Well done Sir !

Any updates??

[Larmo63]

You are a brave (and patient) man.

This is really a labor of love, and I like your attention to all of the details. They make a big difference in the end.

Great thread!
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‘61 Mango Green Single Cab
'62 Pearl White Ragtop sedan
'66 Ruby Red Cabriolet
'86 Porsche 911 Carrera

[jack1448]

[jbannon]

jack1448,

Thanks for the comment and feedback. Its always greatly appreciated as it pushes me to learn.

I had to revisit my original pictures and decision making process when I read your comment, and came up with the following:

The replacement part I used for that area was a VW NOS piece from pre-august 1959, which I bought locally. In addition, its an exact copy of the piece that was removed from my car. Granted my car had been hit at some point, but the sheet metal appeared to have been repaired and not replaced. The NOS part came with the spare wheel panel and spare wheel well as one unit (welded together by VW.) Here is a picture:

Currently Wolf Parts and Restoration Parts sell them as two pieces (Restoration Panels sells the wheel well panel, while Wolf Parts Sells the wheel well spare wheel panel. But none come as one piece like the NOS piece above.) In addition, the picture you posted appears to be from a pre-1958 beetle given the spare wheel panel has two ribs instead of the three ribs that began to be used in 1959 model cars. Here is a photo of my 1956 Oval (currently in storage--this car has never been hit or had any metal replaced) and you can see the wheel well spare wheel area (same as your picture) and two ribbed wheel well panel:

The 1958-1959 thread discusses the wheel well area/spare wheel metal and "ribs" quite a bit, and it's not clear what month the change took place. I think there was also some discussions on differences between export models versus local cars, but that never made much sense to me given the engineering costs. In addition, in a recent post a samba member was looking for the wheel well spare wheel metal piece and couldn't find it at Wolf Parts or Restoration Panels. Wolf's are all pre 1957. Here is a link to the discussion:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...start=2740

What does all this mean? My decision was based on what my car previously had and what I found when I looked for a replacement panel--I feel lucky that I found an NOS piece from pre August 1959. This is not to say your wrong. Quite the contrary. For all I know one of the previous owners could have replaced this piece with the wrong piece, but all signs say the original piece was repaired and not replaced (given what this car has been through though I could also be wrong.) I think I have the right piece. I hope I have the right piece!

Thanks again for your comments. This made me dig a little bit deeper and helped me revisit my decision process when I started looking for replacement sheet metal.

[jbannon]

1959 Beetle Pedal Cluster Restoration

Parts from Wolfsburg West:
https://www.wolfsburgwest.com/wolfsburg_new/chassis/bug_chassis.cfm?type=1

- Accelerator pivot (311721509)
- Accelerator pedal (111721507B)
- Accelerator pepair kit (111721615) (not shown)
- Pedal bushing repair kit (113721002)
- Brake pedal return spring (113721163A)
- Brake pedal push rod lock tab (113721221)
- Brake pedal push rod pin (113721219A)
- Clutch shaft pedal pin (N128341)
- Foot pedal snap ring (N124241)

Parts from Classic Bug Parts
https://www.classicbugparts.com/clutch-pedal-shaft-upgrade/

- Clutch pedal shaft upgrade

Other:

- Sandblasting and powder coating

Sandstrahlen-Stockerau (https://www.sandstrahlen-stockerau.at/)

- Zinc plating with passive black oxide coating

Wittka Galvanisierung GesmbH (http://www.wittka.at)

- Cerakote

Cerakote (https://www.cerakote.com/)

Videos (These helped me when I rebuilt my pedal assembly):


Link


Link

Details

It's probably best to begin with some pictures to give you an idea of my starting point.

This gives you an idea of how beat up these pedals were. From the wear and tear, as well as the play in the clutch shaft, I assumed the pedals had never been restored. While the brass bushings were not worn completely through, they were worn down. Way down. They were also lopsided and had worn unevenly. This allowed the clutch shaft to move freely and the pedals had a lot of play in them. In addition the return spring was broken, the clutch shaft area where the clutch cable attaches was excessively worn, and the accelerator pivot was beat up as well. Also check out that 63 years of grime and grease! Things were not pretty.

Oh, but it gets more interesting:

The accelerator pedal was beyond its last legs, and had been held together with riverts and screws. All this thing needed was some bubble gum and duct tape and it would have been perfect. This made me chuckle.

Finally, the brake master cylinder rod was mildly rusted and was in need of some attention as well. I know, I know--you shouldn't take this apart unless you have to. Rest assured I took measurements and photos before I disassembled this part for restoration.

I put the brake master cylinder rod in Evaporust for a few days to remove the rust given there was surface and some deeper rust in the metal pores. I then put everything in a tumbler to prep the metal before sending it off for zinc plating (with passive black oxide coating). I realize the zinc plating is overkill, but I figured this part would be exposed to the elements via my shoes and deserved a little more care. Here are the results:

I sent the pedals out for sand blasting and powdercoating, and had the main body sand blasted with 100 grit red garnet sand (necessary when using cerakote.) I did't want to powder coat the main body given I didn't know how it would hold up in the heat. I realize cerakote is overkill as well, but I had had some air-dry silver-gray ceracote in my shop and opted to use it. Before I sent this piece off I had a local machine shop take out the old bushings and insert new ones, and then polished the contact area on the main body to ensure it was as smooth as possible. Everything fit perfectly.

Here are the results for the pedals:

Here is the main body:

Here are the parts I used:

There are a couple of comments I want to make about the clutch pedal shaft pin and foot pedal snap ring. The clutch pedal shaft pin from Wolfsburg West covers all years up to 1979, and I found it was too long for my pedal assembly. It was also a pain to install and I ended up taking mine to a machine shop to have it pressed in after I screwed up the first one (Lesson learned). I would also argue the diameter is too large and it could be a wee bit smaller. As for the foot pedal snap ring, there is nothing special about this part and you could more cheaply procure it at a local hardware store.

Here is the clutch pedal shaft from Classic Bug Parts:

Even though this part is more expensive than the stock part sold from Wolfsburg West or any other vendor, I liked the idea of the locking screw and pivot area for the clutch cable. Having changed a few clutch cables in the past, I wanted a quicker and less painful way of doing this. The upgrade seemed to be a good compromise and the money spent now would more than make up for itself down the road.

Finally some before and after comparisons:

[jbannon]

More Updates

For those whose are interested, I thought I would share some additional updates given I am not able to post these when they happen.

In no particular order...

- Sheet metal repair continues and I am hoping all metal work is completed by early April. I will then meet with the fabricator and inspect the car before we send it off to body work and paint (the body shop and painter are in the same facility.) During this time I will also bring the pan/chassis back to my shop, have it sandblasted and painted, and finish the suspension and transaxle restoration before returning it to the painter (who should have finished bodywork and paint so the body can be put on the chassis.) I have all of my parts and fasteners for the suspension, as well as new seals for my transaxle.

The debate on how to treat the pan on the Samba focuses on paint, Por-15, and powder coating. My sandblaster and others recommended painting with a durable epoxy paint given powder can chip and leave the metal unprotected. We don't have easy access to Por-15 in Austria, so its a decision between painting and powder coating. I would appreciate your thoughts / suggestions on this matter. What routes have you used, and what has worked best for you?

- I have all the parts for my engine, everything has been disassembled and cleaned, all the original fasteners have been re-zinced, and the sheet metal has been powder coated. I have also finished ceracoating the exhaust and heater boxes, as well as the intake manifolds. In addition, the carbs, fuel pump, generator, and heads have been rebuilt. All that is left is reassembly, which I hope to do in April. My plan is to do a (mostly) stock rebuild with some period correct modifications. This includes a Riechert Motortechnik dual carb set up for single port heads, BBT's Okrasa style camshaft, CSP ratio rocker arms (1:1.15), CSP Pacemaker Distributor (looks stock but has a modern, tunable electronic ignition), and CSP's high flow exhaust (looks stock but breathes much better). I won't be machining the case for bigger pistons or a different crankshaft--It's a numbers matching case and I don't want to mess with it. I have all the original parts and I wanted to make sure the engine could easily be taken back to stock if needed. I have not posted any pictures on this part of the rebuild as I wanted to save it until everything was completed. Don't worry, I have a lot more to say about this process and will fully document my efforts once the rebuild is completed.

- I have ordered fabric for my seats and have found a local upholster who will do my seats at a very reasonable price. I still need to have my seat frames sandblasted and painted. I will also send out my steering column, emergency brake handle, and shifter parts to be sand blasted and painted with the seat frames. I recently received new door cards from the door panel shop and will start restoring my original door panels. Samba member Stale Air was kind enough to share how he restored his 58-59 door panels with me, and I will use his sage advice to do mine. Given the interest in this topic, I will do a thorough review/explanation of my efforts.

- Last week I got back all of my fasteners from the zinc plater.

- I am restoring a pair of Marchal 640 fog lights for my car and am nearly ready to reassemble them.

- Things to do: Find someone who can re-chrome my parts; find replacement window glass for the driver side door (my current glass is not period correct); find a front bumper that is not mangled, bent, or has a million holes in it (harder than you think in Austria); find an article on how to restore a Neiman steering column lock; buy running boards and chrome trim; buy window and body rubber.

I am sure there is more to share but that is all I have for now.