1961 Turkis Beetle refurb

[NAES]

I figured its about time to start a little build thread on a '61 Turkis I bought a few months ago. The plan is to restore the mechanicals and interior and leave as much of the body alone as possible. My wife wants to learn a bit about what I do so its super cool that she's into the project. She's a seamstress by trade so she'll get down on the interior when the time comes.

It's a 1 owner car that was last registered in 1968. It's been parked outside in Escondido CA ever since. I have all the original documentation including the OG pink slip, OG bill of sale, etc. I'll post that stuff up a little later on. The seats were removed and stored indoors for some reason but of course I'm super happy about that! The rest has been neglected for a really long time so everything needs attention.

Here it is when we first picked her up.

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Barndoor Mafia
Box On Wheels
SBS #00

[NAES]

The pan halves were toast as well as the heater channels. We decided to pull the body off the pan to make our lives easier. Wifey got down to work and pulled the beam and trans and then proceeded to cut the pans halves off. After that the spine went to sandblasting in preparation for the new halves.

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Barndoor Mafia
Box On Wheels
SBS #00

[NAES]

We prepped the pan and new Wolfsburg West halves for welding. Thankfully our shop neighbor has a spot welder so getting the pans in went much smoother and faster than mig welding or similar.

Next time we're back in the shop we'll try and prep the pan for painting. Here it is for now.

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Barndoor Mafia
Box On Wheels
SBS #00

[pastellgreen]

Wow! Nice clean work with the right tools!

[Wily]

I F*cking love the body of this one! looks great, thats real patina

[vwuberalles]

Looks like you're off to a great start, looking forward to seeing you two put this thing together!
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1973 Superbeetle: 1st car, owned since age 12. Update thread --> https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=9919140#9919140
1967 Kombi: Owned since age 17, Dad's retirement project.
1966 Beetle: My new project. (SOLD) Build thread--> https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=678040

[matthew henricks]

Nice. It is cool when the whole family helps out.
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1964 Original Owner build Thread. https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=702135&highlight=

Ambulance Fan's. https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=627707&highlight=

Parts i am looking for:
64 bug nice used front/rear Black LHD floor mat.

[usedom31]

Please tell your wife never to work with rotating tools and the hair open.

[NAES]

[56Cabrio]

Cool find on the 61, Ill be following. Are you the new owner of the Epizootic combat bus ? (Chanel bus )
I seen it being towed on the 118 on the way home from work..

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F#CK CANCER
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1956 Rag Top owned since 1988
1956 Convertible owned since 2000
1963 Hard Top

RIP Dad 4/20/1951 - 2/4/2023

[SLO-N-LO-69]

I don't usually like leaving a bunch of patina on a bug but that just looks cool as-is. Good luck with the rebuild.

[NAES]

[sportin-wood]

What a cool project! I'll be following along too.
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Dave

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1966 Bug project
1973 Thing project
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"Relax, all right? My old man is a television repairman. He's got this ultimate set of tools. I can fix it." --- Jeff Spicoli

[Buggin1963]

any updates on this one?

[obieoberstar]

looking forward to seeing how the patina cleans up.

the chassis looks awesome.

[NAES]

Its been quite a while since I've had time to make any progress but this week hasn't been too bad so far. Pan is back from powdercoating. It is absolutely stunning and I'm kinda bummed all that work will be hidden. But now I have set the bar for myself in terms of quality and it'll be a big challenge for me to remain disciplined and do it as clean as I possibly can.

Here's some pics.

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Barndoor Mafia
Box On Wheels
SBS #00

[zerotofifty]

Battery tie down is missing from the pan.
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Sorry About That Chief.

Give Peace a Chance.

Words to live by.

[NAES]

OK I haven't done much with the beetle in a few months. The heater channels, rear parcel shelf and front foot well have been repaired. I still need to either spray the Duplicolor Jade or go get some Turkis mixed. Either way that's a job for another day.

Today a nice box of goodies showed up thanks to Jeremy from the Compound VW in Hesperia. Pretty much everything to finally make the pan a roller.

I was able to assemble the IRS trailing arms with new pivot bushings and stub axle bearings. Not too bad a job but of course I have a few questions. Especially since I've never had an IRS VW before.

First is the outer bearing spacer. Does the chamfer go towards the transaxle or the wheel? Please see the pics

Next up is rear brake options. It looks like I can use the existing 4 lug style drums and drill them for wide 5. Then spot face and install studs. There's enough meat when compared to the 5 lug drum. The other option looks like using the wide 5 drum and adding a spacer between the drum and axle nut to make up for the ~1" difference in spline length. I already powdercoated the backing plates so ideally I would like to use the 4 lug brakes.

OG wide 5 drums

IRS 4 lug drums

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Barndoor Mafia
Box On Wheels
SBS #00

[NAES]

Here's a few pics of the trailing arms all done up. Working on clean parts is almost a joy in itself!

I also decided to go disc brake up front. After pricing out doing stock drum brakes properly, the cost really adds up. For about $150 more I was able to get a front disc kit complete with calipers, bearings and lines. I also snagged a dual circuit master cylinder and new hard lines. That will hopefully be this weeks project.

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Barndoor Mafia
Box On Wheels
SBS #00

[ryans65]

you can use late wide five rear drums and a spacer kit like what buttys bits sells

https://www.buttysbits.com/product/bb-034-4-stud-beetle-to-wide-5-drum-spacer-kit/