My 1966 Beetle rebuild

supercub · Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2011 4:35 pm Post subject:

What's better than a cheap new Brazilian repro front bumper? A banged up old Brazilian repro bumper. However it does have one original German overrider that I found hidden in the trunk because it somehow fit onto the mess while the piece that came with the bumper would not. Can you guess which one it is? Behold!

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

supercub · Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 4:45 pm Post subject:

I pulled the motor today. I did not have very many wires to disconnect as most had already been broken or chewed through by rodents. I had to remove several old wasp nests to get at the nuts holding the engine to the transaxle. This old 40-horse is quite a hodgepodge of parts. The case is a March '65. The heads however are earlier round boss long stud heads which have had short stud repair kits installed. The 12-volt generator is a '67 with the push-on connectors. The distributor is a '65 unit. I have not been able to identify the rear pulley. It's a cast-iron dual pulley which appears to have no brand or part number markings. Maybe it was some sort of A/C pulley or something. I picked up a nice oil bath aircleaner along with a 28 PICT carb with a PICT-1 top for $35. Behind the valve covers, the rocker-box is surprisingly very clean. Hopefully this is a good sign, but who knows what secrets lie within. The suspense will only build because I think I am going to save the engine rebuild for last. Here are a few pictures of the beast.

I love the mismatched pressure plate hardware. At least they had the sense to install the oddball bolts/washers across from eachother to preserve some sort of balance.

Also, I fabricated some new lower windlace toothed clamps on both B-pillars to replace the rusted out originals. I had been putting this off in hopes of finding replacements but decided to suck it up and make my own. They turned out alright.

supercub · Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2011 10:57 am Post subject:

Progress has been a little slow lately. I spent a few weekends helping others with their cars. Since the last update I discovered that the engine was a little more cobbled than I thought. It had one 371A '61 head with the smaller intake port and a 371F which from what I could find was a replacement head with the larger intake port. The intake manifold was the larger size which was forced onto the old '61 head causing damage to the sealing area on the head. I started looking for a head and in the process stumbled upon a running '71 1600 dual port for $400, so I picked it up to put in the car. It still has all the flaps and linkages in the fan shroud but no thermostat. I pulled the transaxle a week ago. It had a lot of slop to the input shaft and a bad input shaft seal. I decided to have it rebuilt after I removed the drain plug and only about two drips of fluid came out. I replaced the throttle, clutch and parking brake cables as well as the rear brake lines and hoses while the engine was out. I also repaired the broke left rear body mount as best as I could. It was hard to get at with the body still on the chassis, but I did it. It is not the prettiest or most correct looking repair but it is strong.

Here are all the new cables and brake lines.

supercub · Posted: Thu Apr 14, 2011 5:14 pm Post subject:

Well, a lot has happened to the '66 since the last update. The transaxle was rebuilt. Actually a different core was used as the unit from the car had significant wear and would have required much more work. Someone had used 2 different type of bearing retainer plates on the car, one correct and one incompatible with the backing plate. It was probably an earlier unit because it had no hole for the axle seepage to exit the backing plate. That is holding up my reassembly of the passenger side brake assembly. I am hoping to find a correct one this weekend at the Texas VW Classic swap meet, as well as some other needed parts. I painted the new wheels and had the new tires installed and balanced. Big thanks to Corey from the Classified section for that wheel balancing adapter. The tire shop was very impressed with how well it worked. I painted and installed the rear fenders as well. It's finally starting to look like a VW again!

Rebuilt transaxle installed

Brake assembly rebuilt. I need to get another bearing retainer like this on efor the other side.

Here are a couple of overall shots of the car from today. It's recognizable as a Bug again.

supercub · Posted: Wed Apr 27, 2011 7:53 pm Post subject:

My heap is finally back on the ground again. I had a little setback when I filled the transaxle with gear lube there was a leak where the left axle retainer plate attached to the transaxle. So out it came and went back to the shop that rebuilt it. Turns out a new seal had a tear in it so they replaced it again and it's all good now. Excellent. I was far from impressed with the covering material on the new running boards. While installing them, a small scuff along the door frame resulted in a small tear in the material. No big deal. But then I opened the door and when I closed it, it grazed the running board and put about a 4 inch tear in the covering which disgusted me. So I removed the covering from both boards and painted them satin black. They look okay but what a bummer. Once the covering was removed, I could poke my finger right through it with no effort. Crap. But I got what I paid for. I just couldn't justify spending big bucks on running boards for this car. I placed an order for a new red '66 TMI interior kit and wiring harness from Jbugs, and seat padding and other small items from Wolfsburg West. I would like to say it will be on the road in a few months but the looming Texas summer has a way of killing my motivation to stay out in the heat after working outside all day.

It's now to a point where I am not ashamed to have my picture taken with the little car.

Streetwise VWs · Posted: Sat Apr 30, 2011 2:29 pm Post subject:

Really enjoyed reading your thread look forward to seeing more progress

supercub · Posted: Sat May 07, 2011 2:18 pm Post subject:

Thanks Paulc1964au. Here's some more progress for you and anyone else interested. I got a much better rear bumper in exchange for welding a rear floor pan section into a friend's '71 Super Beetle. I finaggled the decklid into a somewhat decent fit. It's actually pretty good considering the general lack of straightness in the rear of the car. I am sure the aftermarket chrome EMPI brackets weren't helping much either. The originals were badly botched in a shoddy repair attempt somewhere in the car's past.

Decklid and rear bumper painted and installed.

Streetwise VWs · Posted: Sat May 07, 2011 4:05 pm Post subject:

it's coming along nicely, are you going to keep it stock or will you lower the beetle?

supercub · Posted: Sat May 07, 2011 4:19 pm Post subject:

It's staying stock height. I personally like them better that way. It's come a long way and is turning out better and costing more than I originally planned. That's how most projects usually go. The car was basically ruined, borderline junk when I got it. It's far from a restoration, and a few of my body repairs would probably anger some people, but it will be another VW saved and brought back from the dead to be useful again.

supercub · Posted: Thu May 19, 2011 5:47 pm Post subject:

Progress has been a little slow because I am waiting for my wiring harness and interior kit order to show up. So I have been doing some small projects t pass the time. I installed new hood and decklid seals, a new Wolfsburg West gas tank with a new vent line and rubber fuel line. Still need a gas cap. I cleaned, polished, repainted and reassembled the headlight units. I installed them temporarilly on the car for my ammusement. Hopefully the wiring and interior will show up soon.

Left headlight assembly. I think this one is original or at least a correct style replacement with the 8 o'clock and 2 o'clock adjusters.

Right headlight assembly. This is obviously a replacement with the earlier 4 o'clock and 8 o'clock adjuster locations. It probably came with the earlier yellow fender when the front end was repaired.

and last, a full head-on view

supercub · Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2011 3:16 pm Post subject:

Hello again. In the past few weeks I have received the new wiring harness and upholstery for the '66. I installed the wiring harness and cleaned up all the light sockets, electrical terminals, and disassembled and cleaned the dash switches. All seems to be good now. The horn should even work from the steering wheel again instead of the add-on button on the column. I installed all new 12volt bulbs. Not suprisingly, when the car was converted to 12 volt, non of the dash bulbs were changed so all were burnt out. I installed the front turn signals, tail lights and license light assembly.

Here's the rear of the car now. I wish I could run these 1966 plates, which I have had laying around for several years from my old '66 Oldsmobile 98, but Texas changed their plate laws and you can't register YOM on a daily driver anymore. Bummer.

Streetwise VWs · Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2011 7:18 pm Post subject:

looking good will you be using the car as your daily driver???
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supercub · Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2011 7:30 pm Post subject:

It's been almost a month now and progress has been kind of slow. The heat has a way of killing my motivation to work on the VW. Since the last update I have bled and adjusted the brakes. It went very smoothly with no leaks! Then I moved onto rebuilding the vent widow assemblies for the doors. What do you know, both were broken. On one the lower pivot point had snapped in two. Also the rivets holding the upper pivot to the frame were broken so it was a real mess. I welded the lower pivot back together so now that should work again. I just need to get some glass setting tape to reinstall the vent glass into the frame. Fortunately I had an extra passenger side assembly which looks to be okay. I have moved onto the headliner now. Wow this is tricky. I had redone a headliner in a '78 Buick a few years ago and it turned out excellent so I was fairly confident. That headliner was cake compared to the obnoxiousness of the multipiece Bug headliner. The J-bugs video makes installing that B-pillar covering look so easy. Yeah right. It's not easy at all. Dispite my relief cutting and stretching, my headliner is ending up kind of wrinkly in places. Oh well. It will do for this car but if I ever do a Bug properly I think I'll have a professional install it.

Here is the headliner partially done. I hope to finish it tomorrow. Its coming out fair. What the heck, it shouldn't be too nice. That would just be out of character for this little battered VW.

supercub · Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2011 7:41 pm Post subject:

Streetwise VWs · Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2011 9:25 pm Post subject:

supercub · Posted: Sun Jul 31, 2011 12:21 pm Post subject:

In the past couple of weeks I have bought a new 12 volt battery and fabricated a hold down bracket for it. I rebuilt the pop-out quarter windows with new inner and outer seals and reinstalled them on the car. Today I just finished installing the rear window with a new seal and metal trim. I sprayed water around all the seals and non are leaking!

supercub · Posted: Sun Sep 04, 2011 6:23 pm Post subject:

The interior is nearing completion. I recovered the front and rear seats. I found out that I had the wrong rear seat bottom, a 58-64 unit. I found a local trade for a correct seat, recovered and installed it today. I also have rebuilt the driver's side vent window assembly which was broken in a couple of ways. I have to do the passenger side now. I have two of those vent window assemblies, both of which are also broken and will need some welding to repair. Ahh, the glory of junk. Before I can finish assembling the doors I also have to fix the channels that secure the rear of the window track felt. In both original doors, the bottom half of the channels are rusting away, but the tops are okay. My replacement passenger door had a good channel so I am going to cut the bad ones in half and weld the good parts together to create a good driver's side channel. It never ends.

Here's a couple of shots of the interior so far.

supercub · Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 6:35 pm Post subject:

I cut up both window channels and welded various pieces of them back together to create one good left channel. Then I assembled the windows and seals into left hand door.

supercub · Posted: Thu Sep 22, 2011 6:12 pm Post subject:

Well in the past few weeks I have fixed the passenger side vent window assembly. It was broken in two places and the latch was bent from sometime in the past when the seal folded up behind the frame and someone forced it shut. But some welding and a little hammering and it straghtened out and functions great again. I put in all the new window rubbers and channels and installed the passenger side glass into the door. This evening I continued some reassembly on the driver's door. I put in a new moisture barrier plastic sheet and some new door panel clip seals. I polished and installed the original trim strip on the new panel so it somewhat resembles a proper '66 panel even with the different embossing on it. Then I put it on the door and reattached the window crank and door handle. It all functions really well now.

The new door panel.

Streetwise VWs · Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2011 2:52 pm Post subject:

That looks fantastic
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My 1966 Beetle rebuild
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