My 63 Ragtop

[63Ragtop NZ]

and those are just Japanese Mid Sized ones!

still rolling this pile daily. been out to a few shows C&C, Kumeu the other day.

Got some new rear tyres for xmas, as the others where 15 years old and bald as.

actually slid out on me in the dry once!
Fancy Pirelli and everything, heaps of grips, just like a F1 car mate!
The guys at Lincoln Tyres sold them to me at a better price than shitty firehawks etc..

making the most of summer!!

slammage.(sitting on a funny angle)

cruized around town the other night.

me and Bell climbed a tree.

birds eye view.

since I got it back on the road I've been sure the exhaust didn't sound right, as it had been nearly a decade I just rolled with it but for the last week or two it been starting to sound more and more like a massey ferguson by the day. So on friday night I dropped the whole thing out, which was pretty easy as half the nuts holding it on were missing : and one of the studs, so sorry about that if you were following me at the time!

and then I found this on one of the heat exchanger pipes.

what the fuckity? lucky I have a welder, also don't weld in jandels, that shit hurts!
Should last another couple months, right?
got it all back together last yesterday which nearly killed me in this heat! and finally I can hear the actual exhaust note now, brum brum!! I like it alot.
Also spring washers where used this time so all the nuts and studs should stay put!

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[bobnorman]

[HUGO bOSS]

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[63Ragtop NZ]

Beach time!

went to a local hod rod show,

managed to find a friend

been taking the boy to cricket on saturday mornings.

bloody "family" cars are getting so big and fat!
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[63Ragtop NZ]

finally got the proper camera out on friday evening, car was looking pretty in the sunshine.

bell and her friend had to get in on the action.

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[HUGO bOSS]

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[63Ragtop NZ]

Been driving this thing everyday, been trying to get the brakes to work better, had the handbrake button pop off the other day, I had never really adjusted it much, it worked, I had other things to sort out, so i put it back together and carried on. After the button came lose again I realised it was because I hadn't adjusted it tight enough and the clicker was running off the end and undoing its self So, put it back together again and adjusted it more and whatya know? the pedal feels much better too! Not sure how that works but it's much nicer to drive without the pedal going right to the firewall.
Re greased and adjusted the king and link pins this week, gave the front drums and bearing a tickle while I was at it, again, much nicer to drive. I also sorted something that had bothered me for years before I took it off the road. The breather on the oil filler would just spit oil mist out all over the back of the engine lid, originally I had a neat little K&N filter here, but after a month or so it got blocked and oil pissed out of the dipstick hole and made a mess.

terrible photo. Screwed a right angle fitting in and a length of hose out down under the tinwear with all the other oil leaks

and went for the a drive.

By the mighty Waikato River in Huntly.

made it to my parents in Te Kowhai.

photo op at the meeting of the waters

Car performed well, motor is strong, no wheels fell off etc, Did over 200miles of highway speeds and bumper to bumper stop-go traffic no problem, still need to get that sunroof replaced and really needs a couple hundard kgs of dynamat, with earplugs its fine. And those assholes need to finish that motorway in and out of Auckland! Stuck in gridlock at one in the afternoon because State Highway 1 is one friggin lane
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[63Ragtop NZ]

Thank you gentlemen, soupcups I'll try and relink the early photos one day, best I have is at the mo is the pics a page back when the motor was going in.
Have been driving the ragtop to work for a couple weeks now, have started sussing the cold start routine, turn key on, let the fuel pump get some gas moving to the carbs, 3-4 big pumps on the go pedal and boom! but usually I need to start it again and blip the throttle to keep it going for a few seconds before it will hold anything near a idle, Winter will be interesting!

traffic still sucks! going the back way is much more enjoyable, sometimes heavy but moving at least!

just been enjoying doing boring stuff like going to the mall.

or the supermarket. still can't believe it sometimes!

will need to do something about the interior one day soon, if I want to be able to hear anything in a few years.

in the mean time I decided to cancel some of the racket out with more racket.

I've had two of these old sony 222watt amps sitting in a cupboard for about 15 years, the plan is to set one up to power my 12inch sub behind the rear seat, and the second to run some front mids and maybe tweeters.
But in the mean time I tested both, was surprised they both worked, mounted one to a sheet of ali I found at work, placed some rubber mat on the floorpan to stop damage and movement, ran a power wire via a stinger resettable fuse thingy, also something I've held onto for many years, earth to one of the pan bolts and ran the remote wire that turns the amp on, up under the carpet to the same fuse that runs the fuel pump, so its only on when the car is on.
This runs the 6x9s in the rear parcel tray and gets the jams for my phone via a headphione jack to RCA cable.
goes hard for what it is!
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[finefettle]

Good for you and yours.. Real nice car and work.
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1979 Bug project

[soupcups]

Damn! I've been following this since the beginning and now thanks to photo bucket I can't refer back to the pics. This was my favorite thread and now they've ruined it. Excellent work on the car sir. Finished product looks excellent. Wolfsburg himself would be proud. I'm interested in the removable rear apron. Can you repost photos on that?

Thanks Mate.

[EMPIImp69]

Carl looks badass man, nice.
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1963 Ragtop Bug

[HUGO bOSS]

CGS!
Finally you see the end of the tunel and get out of him!
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http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=538182

[63Ragtop NZ]

Yes Sunday was a good day, very little use of a AK.
After the wof and reg last week, first job was to get the wheels all pointing in the same direction.

me ol mates at lincon tyres sorted that out, easy, rear was pretty good, I'd lined the axles up with some old marks on the spring plates and it did feel good, but the fronts were 10mm out each side, no wonder it was so scary on the motorway.
After a short test drive home, it felt much better, need to go over the kings and links again and should re pack the front bearings with more grease, but first.

as we pull into our street something went thump thump thump!

rut roe

when I put the rear drums back on the pan, many moons ago, I didn't actually have the torque wrench so I just leaned on the multiplier stuck the pin in and forgot about it.
I think I may have over done it???
the splitpin and the castle nut were still in place but the drum was lose and the back of the studs had been gnawing at the wheel cylinder.
At this point I'm out of time and money, the Auckland VW Club Spring Jamboree is days away and if I have to go on three fucking wheels this car was going!
So I pulled out the bits of seal and that mangled metal thing, backed off the wheel studs so they were flush with the drum, backed off the front brake shoe has most of that also seems to have rubbed off and redid the castle nut, without hulk smashing it, and so far so good.
I am really regretting not replacing all the soft brake lines now, as I have a feeling this is why the rear shoe has rubbed so hard.
So Sunday morning loaded up every tool I own and then some, after checking and checking the hubs, drove down to local gasser and met these guys and girls.

and arrived at sunny St Heliers Bay for the cars first wee show.

and I thought my car was low.

were some really nice cars there.

one of the picks of the day for me.

really really nice, so I was pretty please to get second place in the 58-67 bug class.
not bad for a homemade car!

So cheers to the VW club, Matt and the guys for letting/making me lead the convoy in, MichealJFox for the choise pic of me and the family leaving, kiwikombi for the new smaller Dellorto chokes and all the other nice volks I chatted to and said nice things about the ragtop on the day.
Look forward to more runs and adventures, now where is that rear wheel???

Chur.
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[63Ragtop NZ]

nail biting time.

WOF sorted.

Reg sorted.

Sorted!!
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[63Ragtop NZ]

Cheers AZ, I friggin love it!
But...
Been have been having a nightmare getting this thing legal, Drove it to work a couple weeks back as I was feeling to weak with a headcold to ride my bike anymore, Knocked off early and went to see Frank at the local vw workshop, but he had staff off sick also and was flatout himself. So I rolled the dice at a nice looking garage across the road from work for a WOF.
I didn't want to leave my baby with any fuckwit or some young guy who wouldn't even know how to drive a real old car, this guy has been in the trade for nearly 30 years and use to own/work on bugs back in the day, Sorted.
Or so I thought, it failed, which I was fully expecting, as the brakes are not great and the rear tyres are old,hard and nearly bald. But it didn't fail on any of those things, there were a few small things like rear seat belts are old and one won't adjust, somehow though the rear tyres past and the front one didn't because apparently they are full on drift spec stretched tyres, ie to narrow for the rims and the real kicker the chassis number doesn't match the paper work, this was something I've always know about, this car is build from about 12 bugs, but no one has ever worried or picked up on it before, so I was off to the vtnz, handly just up the road also, filled out MR16 change of reg details form, waited a week, computer says no. can't just be swapping chassis numbers around I guess.
So now I'm waiting again for the faceless bureaucrats to rubber stamp me a new VIN number and I should be good to go! still need to sort a couple small things but tyres really piss me off,I looked up the rim size they fit on(145.65.15) a smart car and it's 5inchs, these mags are 5.5inch, that an't stretched fuck all and in my opinion, the rear tyres are more dangerous as most of the vehicles weight is on the rear.

rant rant ranty rant, I know the guy is just doing his job, but I'm running out of energy at this point.

anyway as our recently departed friend Mr Petty sang, Waiting is the hardest part.

so I didn't

rush hour still sucks

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[AZOffTheWall]

Great to see you finally get to drive it, the car looks awesome. Great work!
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My Build: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=665399&highlight=
Continued:
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=676470&highlight=

[HUGO bOSS]

Fantastic work! Cgs!
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[63Ragtop NZ]

Went for another wee spin last night, found a dark wall and adjusted the headlights, so now they point at the road, not the sky. Also adjusted the steering box, feels much better, just needs alignement me thinks, still a bit vague and twitchy. Rear end feels good, amazing how much of the road surface transfers though the car, from the rear end it would seem, might be the ride height I guess

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[63Ragtop NZ]

so, were was I? ah yes friday. I phoned around a few places and found Autostop are the only people that carry Bosch car parts these days, asked about a GT40T (for transformer) coil, no worried the helpful young man said, I 'll ring ya back once the van drops it off, sorted. at about noon the guy rings me back, the coils here in the local shop, but for some reason I double checked, it is the small square one right? no its the round cylinder one, doh! no worries he assures me, I'll get it on the next van, I get another call at about 3, square coil is here, sweet! so I bunk off work early as I have the wifes car for the day to go and pick it up, get home on the double time just as Darrell does and we install the new one and she fires straight up!
Once I got the old coil out it was obvious it had see better days, but in my defence most of that great crack was hidden from view under the mounts, and I was more worried about the clutch and piston rings still working etc..

all this pissing about with the coil had at least given me time to sort a few other small but important things.

these are my jets.

as I said in the earlier winge post everything has been checked and double checked, which does at least give me more confidence in the old girl.

gave the last few parts of the sunroof mech a lick of paint and duct taped the old cover on for now.

water tight bug

which bring us back to friday night and a for the first time a running car. First job, wash all the dust and cat paw prints off it.

jeah.

stood back enjoyed a beverage until it was nearly dark.

once the kids were in bed and I'd realized the only things stopping a wof was a front number plate, wipers and them brakes, or lack there of. I then remembered I hadn't yet had another go at adjusting the rear drums and noticed when I pulled the handbrake on, I had a good pedel, hmmmm.
Sure enough they were miles out, whats next? wipers and a plate? might as well keep going!
I have some how amassed quite a collection of wiper arms and blades over the years and so had a nice working matching pair, something else new of this car, polished up the old black plate, so many battle scars, but I love it.
By now its 11.30, fuck it, I'm going for a drive!

:mrgreen:

now it get this thing legal.

I have however driven it on private roads and those twin carbys have transformed this car into a bit of a beast.
that little 1600 feels like it wants to rev to the moon! still needs a bit of work on the timing and jetting, but dear god it pulled 50mph in second gear today! a little bit scary with drum brakes!

so friggin loud though, no headlining at all, my brother said after I took him for a wee blast, it like sitting in the engine bay!
it kind of hard to drive normal as it so much fun to wind out.
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[63Ragtop NZ]

Super frustrating as it was running and driving, warmed it up to change the oil and it's not been right since.Best I've got it to run it was only running on 3 and 4, 1 and 2 side felt cold still, or it wouldn't fire at all.
Went and got another set of spark plugs and a "big mother"of a battery.
Have had the carbs out and pulled apart twice, the accelerator pump jet on number one was blocked so that fixed that problem, also adjusted the float levels to spec, 5-6mm closed, 12-14mm open, i think it was.
started playing with the timing and got it to fire and run for a short time, but just as it was warming up it fell down to two cylinders and wouldn't start again.
have tried replacing the electronic points replacement module with the old points and condenser.
have tried other HT and spark plug leads.
got to the point last week that the new started now sounds like a chainsaw and the battery went flat again.
swapped the starter out last night for a old Bosch brazil 12volter and had the battery on charge all night and most of today.
Got another good distributor cap and rotor off Frank yesterday, got home from work tonight and got everything together, but had reinstalled the old leads.
the bugger started and sounded the best it had ever had, tightened the dizzy down, bumped up the idle stop had it idling pretty bloody well, got brave enough to try to drive it down to Darrell's house 50 mtrs away to check the alt is charging the battery and when i started it up after about the third attempt it was back to two cylinders, farting and hicupin and now it wont start again'.
Have been trolling thesamba and found a page with a guy having the exact same issue's, he ended up buying new everything which didn't solve the problem until he moved some wires about, thinking about it now, I've routed my leads though the middle of the manifolds under the carbs because its tidy and looks neat, could this be causing problems? the leads are old after sitting in my shed for nearly ten years but not 40 years old or anything.
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