Squeaky Clean 68 - Father/Son Project

[wrdrew]

Hello all,

My name is Drew, and this is the start to the "build" thread of mine and my pops' 1968 Beetle. We purchased the car about a month ago as a project for the two of us to share. This is a life-long dream project for me, as I've been an air-cooled beetle fanatic for as long as I can remember. My dad isn't new to the air-cooled VW world, but this is the first one I've really gotten to work on and drive, so I can't wait to start digging into the little odds and ends this car needs to make it a perfect driver. I've had some highly modified Subarus over the years, and I have a bad habit of not leaving my cars alone, but I'm going to try to be mild with this one but I doubt it'll stay that way

Onto the car:

We were on the hunt for an earlier car originally (58-66 preferably) but kept striking out and either cars were being sold out from under us or sellers weren't responding back/picking up the phone when we called. We were to the point where we were about to call it quits for a few months and start again in the spring when we came across this 68 in Phoenix Arizona. We talked about it, and after looking at the pictures, we decided we were going to go for it.

The owner said the car had never seen snow/salt/much rain, and that it had 33k original miles, and had undergone a mild restoration with basically just new paint, new interior/headliner, and a refreshed engine. We had it shipped to my dad's house in Indiana, and could not believe how clean this thing is. The pan is spotless, spare tire well is rust free, as is the battery tray. We're beyond excited about this thing. We're currently working on cleaning up the mess that is the wiring (previous owner hacked it all up and had no idea what he was doing with it) and restoring the dash to its original state as well. The ugly fiberglass cover is now gone, and we will be either buying a factory padded cover, or shaving the holes and making it basically into an pre-68 dash. Also on the list to be replaced are the tacky door panels.

Enough rambling, time for pictures:

Seller photos:

Day the car arrived!

The car in its new home. We took her for a drive the day after Christmas as the weather was warm, and she runs like an absolute dream. Very smooth, and the gearbox feels fantastic! Now that the weather has turned back to winter, we pulled the seats to work on the adjusters & junk dash cover is out:

My Frenchie approves:

Also, had to add this obligatory sticker to my Subaru:

[Tim Donahoe]

Looks like you got the brass ring with that one. Very nice! Not a lot to do—after the dash, glovebox, gas gauge, etc. is done.

You’ll need heat for those cold “Chicagoland” winter days when there’s no salty snow on the ground. See if you can also get a stock air cleaner with the preheat hose. Then you’ll be able to close off that hole in the tin, as well as hook up your open blow-by pipe on the oil filler.

Tim
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Let's do the Time Warp again!

Richard O'Brien

[wrdrew]

[wayne1230cars]

Factory ‘68 would have had electric fuel gauge. Earlier gauges were mechanical.[/img]

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1960 beetle
1970 beetle convertible

[wrdrew]

[walter kandetzki]

if you need any pieces to repair your dash i could cut some off a dash i have i used for the 1/4 panel.nice car tho.i hope to get my 68 on the road next year

[joey1320]

Great score.

One thing I would recommend is to cap off the freah air vents on the fan housing and cover up the holes on the tin. You're losing cooling and adding hot air from the exhaust area.

Can you please post better pics of the engine?
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1971 Super - Sold
1984 Puma GTC - Sold
1971 Campmobile

[wrdrew]

[Rome]

You did really well to spend some more money up front for a solid, unrusted car and have it shipped to the midwest. Wishing you lots of enjoyment with it.

What a shame that the dash metal is so hacked up. I think you can reshape it close to original by using a body hammer and dolly. That large tear-out at the left bottom of the radio opening will require welding to close up. But if you decide to go with a stock dash pad, you can probably get by with riveting a patch panel over the tear-out, and drilling a new hole for the left fresh air knob.

The left opening next to the speedometer already has its cross-brace cut out. This enables you to buy a panel with pre-made openings for accessory gauges such as a large tachometer, oil pressure and oil temp. gauges. Like this one: http://vwparts.aircooled.net/VDO-Gauge-Panel-Left-Side-14-1003-0-p/14-1003-0.htm

Horrible wiring mess. The original wiring harness was easy to work with. Probably best alternative is to buy an OEM replacement harness for the front half of the car. Hopefully the wires going to the back of the car for engine and lights have not been hacked up front. Here's a good replacement stock harness- http://vwparts.aircooled.net/VW-Wiring-Harness-Kit-1968-69-Beetle-WK-113-6869-p/wk-113-6869.htm

There is an outlet for that fresh air box in the trunk, that is not going anywhere except draining generally into the trunk. There should be a tube, such as a garden hose, that goes from that outlet down to a depression and hole just to the rear of the gas tank. Rain water that comes through the hood air vents drains down through the fresh air box, goes out that drain, through the tube, and the tube front ends up above the transmission tunnel. Again, you can cut a spare section of garden hose to make it run through that access hole and let it dangle about 2" down from the gas tank ledge.

[wrdrew]

[TDCTDI]

Hopefully the new paint isn’t hiding the same sort of nastiness that the dash cover was. Right off, I see an incorrect year door on the driver side causing misalignment of side molding that wasn’t caught before paintwork was done.
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Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

[joey1320]

[wrdrew]

[joey1320]

[grandpa red]

Did you buy the car without seeing it in person?

If you did not you can only rely on what the seller discloses and only looking at pics can be misleading just like looking at houses for sale on websites.You find things that don't show up in pictures!

The possible wrong door is not an issue unless the seller represented the vehicle differently.

Anyway looks like a great project have fun!

[chicagovw]

Nice VW! I'd personally also install the correct engine compartment insulation. You mentioned doing a "correct" engine, and your firewall is not show car finished, so why not enjoy a quieter interior? I am in Chicago, good to see another person at least in the vicinity. It will also probably be easier-as well as more reliable, to just replace the wiring harness, as has been recommended above. Even if you guys sort that old wiring out, it can become pretty brittle over the years. A standard VW beetle wiring harness is pretty straightforward-my dad and I installed one over a couple of weekend evenings in my '67.

[wrdrew]

[viiking]

That speedo says the car has done 30000 miles but it isn’t the original Speedo. It’s a much later Speedo. Wrong font and has tenths miles. Speedos are marked with a manufacturing date on them. Bet yours has a seventies date on it.

Sorry but it’s unlikely it has so few miles on it. I’d dig deeper if I were you for peace of mind.

viiking

[Buggeee]

I'd have thrown a stock air cleaner on it, a set of heater tubes for the fan shroud, and driven it all over town with a huge smile on my face! I dig the flat dash glass mod and the Miami-Vice door cards. Showing my age here! Really nice bug. More than a bit jealous of your starting point on this one.
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Big Time 1988 Vanagon Westy
Release the Krankenwagen! 1966 Sportsmobile Camper
Dr. Kompressor 72 Super Duper
61 Turkis Pile (adopted out)

[wrdrew]