What did you do to your Bug Today?

[MSBenko]

Took my 75 Beetle out for it's weekly drive to clear the spider webs from underneath and leave a fresh trail of oil around the neighborhood.
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Mike

75 Standard Beetle
72 Standard Beetle (first car) sold in '96

[unclewede]

Found a new motorcycle repair shop so I can get my bike running so the kid can drive my truck while we take his bug in for a good once-over before college starts.

Yesterday, I met my son at my parents' house so he could drive the truck. I got to cruise around town in his bug for about 30 minutes

[VW_Jimbo]

Drove me and the kid, over to Pick up sticks for dinner! The Bug is running really good. I love driving this car around!
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Jimbo

There is never enough time to do it right the first time, but all the time necessary the second time!

[rjplumer]

Replaced rusty fuel sender unit in my 74 Bug. Still needs calibrating but it does work. Took it for a spin around the block. Responded to a message on Samba inquiring if I'm selling the Bug, which I'm not as I just bought it. Nice to know there's interest in it.
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Current VW: 1974 VW Bug(Standard) https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8505350#8505350
Previous VW: 1971 VW Super Beetle

[mark tucker]

well a week ago I started to re work the head lights, blasting&painting, new bulbs with the "city lights" new h4 led's and amber led turn for the city lights and the std amber 1156 for the turn in the bucket.and some extra wireing and other stuff. finished it tuesday....then lwan mower kicked my ass so i didnt get to test drive at night....next day...too tired to go for a nite ride....today it's raining and I dont feal like going for a rainey ride and having to put a engine cover on....so...someday Ill see how my new lights work out. it does look pretty good now with the buckets all painted up nice&clean and the projector bulbs I out in kinda look like it's eyes have pupils now. somuch more light that the shit hella halogens had and less watage now a lot less.almost 1/2 the wattage. when i painted the housings I used shiney aluminum and then dusted/misted with gold paint from about 18" away to give it the "patina" look to match the dirty car. I had ordered new lenses, but they got hear a day late.didnt need them,but these have a few pits after....50~70 years but not bad.( yes OE old style headlights in my bug, they look better). so...the new lenses will be hear when I do my 356's headlights. I also ordered another set of the headlight springs with the eyelets on the ends for the 356.
so in the end...what I did to my bug today was to run out this am and push it under the cover (about 6' forward so the motor wasent getting rained on....and rolled up the windows. thats it...well i think I started it for a few minutes to dry the motor&filters too.(I dont like wet filters)

[Rome]

Mark, I consider a favorable comment from you about a new product being a significant endorsement. I've been considering upgrading my '77 Beetle's H 4 headlamps to LEDs also. What brand and wattage/lumens did you use? Was it a simple installation?

What I did to my Beetle yesterday, felt like I gained an easy 10 hp by properly adjusting the throttle cable to the Kadron dual-carb linkage. The 1600 dual port engine was simply a reasonably carefully built spare from a few years ago, with the only modifications beyond stock being home-ported stock-valve heads that had semi-hemi combustion chambers, Berg 1.4 rockers, HD alu pushrods, a used OEM Bosch 034 SVDA distributor, and a 1 3/8" header with single quiet muffler. Always seemed to lack power, which I attributed to either the semi-hemi heads (timing set to approx. 38 BTDC with vac hose pulled off the vac canister) or a weak vacuum signal from the Kads. Before the cable adjustment I was able to get the car to about 85mph but after that it only slowly built up speed. Not that I "can use" it in this area. I also contemplated going to a pair of dual-throat Dell'Orto 36's with a Berg linkage to try to add power...

The throttle cable's end initially protruded about 1/8" rearwards of the barrel clamp. I unhooked the linkage cross-arm return spring, and placed a sledge hammer head on the gas pedal so that it would go to full throttle. At the engine I saw that the carbs' throttle arms stopped approx. 1/4" away from the full-throttle casting on the carb body. That indicated the throttle plates were not opening fully, thereby being down on potential maximum power. I loosened the throttle cable barrel clamp, held the throttle arms fully open using a vise grip, then fed the cable back into the barrel clamp. Pulled the cable rearwards gently with pliers until I felt resistance from pulling against the sledge hammer at the pedal. Now there was nearly 1/2" of the cable end extending beyond the clamp. That's alot of slack in the cable . I removed the sledge hammer to let the gas pedal come rearwards, and reconnected the return spring. The throttle arms came back to the idle stop on the carbs. Good sign.

So I could not resist a test drive. As soon as the engine fired up and I touched the gas pedal, I could tell I now had immediate throttle response instead of a "rubber band" feel. I drove up my steep driveway just with tiptoe pressure. Once on the highway, I got to 75 much more quickly than before. With a clear stretch, it did not take long to go "significantly faster". The car now had the long legs I remembered from past engines.

[unclewede]

[mark tucker]

rome I would get the dells only if you saw them run good on another motor, and they were cheeper than the new hpmx carbs. or just get the 40 hpmx carbs. also I would either cut the crap out of the heads to get rid of most of the hemi crapola and shorten the pushrods, or get some new heads, like the new lostpanchetos from cb performance. As for the head lights I got them off flebay.projector lights for around$20..the C6 72 watt H4 leds range from $12~40 depending on who you get them from,( yupI got the $12 ones.) there are lotsa of different choices to buy. the headlights came with halogen lights in them I threw those away and installed the leds. some of the headlights have the locating lugs placed rong I just marked and trimed the mounting ring in my b uckets I dont know how that would work in newer model light buckets as I have 60+ year old buckets in mine.. I some what documented what i did on the performance form under led headlights. yes I went as cheep as I could and get the ebay china stuff instead of ording the $$$$ all togeather china kit others sell ( the leds I got use USA made led cob chips in them) I did get the lights with the city lights option and put amber leds in there for turn signals witch turned out pretty nice.

[sminton1]

I got new tires. 145s up front now, the 165s were rubbing the fender.

[VW_Jimbo]

[mark tucker]

I popped the vc's off and checked the adjustements...perfect,no adjustment needed, I was just messing around to keep from doing anything...witch is rare since I dont like working on my car. I did however add a toilet flush valve to the #1 spark plug for a boot allIve seen and tried are shit so I figured I wood give this a try fits great,feals liek silocone but not sure,it was in my pluming box I saw it the other day looking for somethen else and it hit me what it might work for. soft, large od, tapered cone this flexiable"hat rim" ...so I cut off the legs cut a x in it for the wire to go through and the cone comforms to the hole in the tin perfect and the big "hat" thats about 1/8" thick is flexable and bends nicely around the intake nut and selas well.so ill see how long it last and will look at lowes next trip for one labeled silycone..I hope, I think this one is atleast 15 years old.....but looks new. any air leeks there is air that isant cooling the heads....and possiably adding warm/hot air back into the fan. ( on sealed cars witch mine isant)

[sminton1]

I put a new exhaust on from empi. looked good online and in the box. Took some work with a dremel and a pry bar to get it to fit the bug. Probably should have got the tri-mil.

[Karma-Car]

Got rearended =

Last night I put on a new trunk seal.

[Dan Hiebert]

Removed, cleaned, re-lubed, painted, re-installed the gear shift lever and base. Grease was old and getting a bit stiff, works smoother now, time will tell as I've been on leave for a week and didn't drive any of our cars anywhere. Back at it tomorrow. Also replaced the passenger side defroster hose. Original one (appeared to be, anyway) had the inside layer of paper delaminating and plugging it up. Driver's side would "defrost", but passenger would barely do so. It'll be in the 40's tomorrow AM for the drive to work, so we'll see if that works now, too.

[mark tucker]

I went for a ride finaly at night hear in fl to check out my new head lights....fricken awesome!!!!!!! I got a new led plate light for the back ill do it sometime.....I better do it before I get a ticket as the old one is dead. it's fricken hot out there. of corse I keep my home at 72 degrees so....crap it's still hot out there even if it's only 98 degrees my bug dosent ever seem to mind the heat, I went grocery shopping today at 1:30....dam hot out there..must be the duel 44 carbs it's breathing through...hmm then 51mm carbs would realy breathe good

[Mid Engine Bug]

I took a friend for a quick little ride around the block. It was only like a 2 mile loop. Took him for a quick spin up to 100mph and as I was coasting back down to normal speed, I hear it starting to pop and spit out the exhaust like none other. Pull over to the side of the road and it dies. Go to start it again and its just pumping out black smoke. So I tried it a few more times and it finally fired. Engine sounded fine. Started driving again and anytime I went over a 1/4 throttle, it would start popping out the exhaust. Air fuel ratio was going super lean. So I baby it back to the house and park it in the garage. After doing a little bit of looking around, I found the positive post on the battery loose. Glad it was nothing bad!
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1970 Bug Shell - the rest of it, well see for yourself...

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=679467

[unclewede]

glued the top scraper on the driver's side window back in place.

[Bandolito]

Started ripping out old, tattered carpeting, insulation and sound deadening in preparation for new carpeting!

[mark tucker]

I never put those vents back in mine. got new ones around hear somewhere, just decided not to stick em in.
I did squat to my bug as the wife had it all day. I wonder if I need to go check it....or give it a hug? you gotta love a maintanance free car.( I was fixen her honda)

[Karma-Car]

Toto got new Toyo treads in the back today....
Monday the under dash AC starts to be put in.
But this morning the oil light stayed on so who
knows what's next oil pump ? fan ? oil cooler ?
Oh the joys