Heidi-My 1970 Beetle Project

HeidiHo · Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 8:21 pm Post subject: Heidi-My 1970 Beetle Project

I've been meaning to start a build thread for my car for quite a while now, so here we go!

My car is 1970 Beetle, serial number marks it as being made in December '69 and the engine case is an H5...so a 1500 SP.

Back in early September 2010 I moved in order to go back to college and simultaneously be closer to my girlfriend. As a result I was looking for a small car that was simple to work on, fairly reliable, and good on gas to be my daily driver.

I'd spent the last 3 months of my life working as a freelance photojournalist in rural Peru and, whenever I came out of the villages and into the towns, I saw beetles pretty regularly. It made sense to get one!

Scoured the Samba, and found this:

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

The ad was for a bug about 5 minutes away from my mother's house. I called the guy, and drove down the next day. Turns out he had a backyard full of VW's and ran a little repair shop in addition to buying/selling.
He was selling this one for a friend-it needed work, but it started, stopped, ran, drove, and had new floor pans. I picked it up for 1,000.

Took her home and washed her with a shit eating grin. Cut off the long hair I had going on in that picture and drove her back up to school the next day.

Mom asked what the bug's name was, I thought about it, and decided on Heidi-an appropriate name for a large bosomed German barmaid.

HeidiHo · Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 8:21 pm Post subject:

Once back to school I went through the usual stuff-valves, points, timing, and oil change. Took her for a ride with my best bud.

After about two weeks the battery stopped charging, tracked it down to a bum generator. With a little help from my friends, and my girlfriend (who is getting to be handy with a wrench) we pulled it out in a day:

HeidiHo · Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 8:22 pm Post subject:

The new generator ended up not agreeing with the old voltage regulator, so I replaced that as well. About a month later we got hit with a pretty bad snow storm for the region. I think it was 6-8" worth of snow-too much for South Carolina drivers to handle.

I did fine, and so did Heidi, sliding her around the iced over turns was a hoot!

After the snow I finally had enough money for some new tires. Took off the mismatched and mostly bald old tires and replaced them with some nice new Falken 512's. I've never used anything but Michelins on my cars but these were super cheap (250 for all 4) and for the price pretty darn good.

Shortly thereafter my master cylinder went, so replaced that too:

HeidiHo · Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 8:23 pm Post subject:

Eventually Jessica (gf) and I would hook up with the boys and girls of the Southern Integrity Aircoolers. The last weekend of March we met up in Lexington and had a blast. Seeing all of the other cars really inspired me to get working on Heidi.

HeidiHo · Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 8:24 pm Post subject:

Most recently Jess and I took Heidi to the 8th Charlotte Transporters Show. Again, another great time with some great people.

Lunch at Mattie's Diner was awesome, that guy can cook even when he was in the weeds with tickets stacked up in the window

HeidiHo · Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 8:25 pm Post subject:

Seeing the buses in mostly OG paint really got me looking hard at my Krylon repaint that the previous owner had done, so we started stripping it off.

Started with the inside door panels:

Then pulled the rest of the interior vinyl out along with the padded dash:

Found a cool mickey mouse sticker underneath some paint on the glove box, this is gonna stay:

HeidiHo · Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 8:25 pm Post subject:

Now for the outside:

Using oven cleaner, steel wool, and a razor knife. Progress is slow but steady on my days off from work.

This is really the only rust I have found so far:

HeidiHo · Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 8:26 pm Post subject:

Still trucking:

Finally a picture of me with Heidi in her orange/blue state:

Just spent the last 12 hours at work, so I'm pretty beat. More updates tomorrow and in continuing weeks as I do some more work on her!
Thanks for staying tuned
-Paul

themacnut · Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2011 9:32 pm Post subject:

Great work Paul!
_________________
Jeff W.

HeidiHo · Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2011 3:23 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the encouragement Jeff, still lots of work to do and many many hours to go, but I'm slowly getting there!

Today I stripped some more of the blue paint off of her,

If you sort of squint at that last picture you can see the car starting to become more and more orange.
The plan is to go around the whole car and get most of the blue off, then come back and take care of the problem areas where I ran into paint that doesn't want to come off/rust/heavy bondo.

Also found the gas door sticker hiding under a layer of paint Smile

All done for the day, stay tuned!
-Paul
_________________
My 1970 Beetle Thread
Southern Integrity Aircoolers

HeidiHo · Posted: Thu Jun 16, 2011 7:16 am Post subject:

A loose woodruff key plus a pinched belt (d'oh) means a trashed pulley:

But I got her fixed this morning, new german pulley, new woodruff key, new pulley shims, and a new belt (actually put on right...)

Ahhhh the happiness fweem brings...

-Paul
_________________
My 1970 Beetle Thread
Southern Integrity Aircoolers

HeidiHo · Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2011 1:25 pm Post subject:

Jess and I took Heidi fishing 2 weeks ago

Then I headed off on vacation to Connecticut.
_________________
My 1970 Beetle Thread
Southern Integrity Aircoolers

HeidiHo · Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2011 1:28 pm Post subject:

While in CT I met up with Jeremy Clayton of the CTVWA. Jeremy had a 1600 DP longblock that I purchased and brought back to South Carolina after partially disassembling it.

It's currently living on my kitchen floor while I take it apart. I'll be rebuilding it as a 1776 with a CW crank, 110 cam, 009, and dual Kads.
_________________
My 1970 Beetle Thread
Southern Integrity Aircoolers

Streetwise VWs · Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2011 2:56 pm Post subject:

Good thread what are your plans for the car
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HeidiHo · Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2011 7:30 pm Post subject:

Streetwise VWs · Posted: Thu Jul 07, 2011 8:05 pm Post subject:

Sounds like a plan, I added drop spindles but then needed a two inch narrowed beam, car is very low at the moment but will lift it a little.

will follow your progress with interest
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HeidiHo · Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2011 12:18 pm Post subject:

Spent the morning pulling heads off the other side of the engine. Then pulled the studs.

Both cylinders were quite stuck. Half a can of WD40 and a little rapping with a hammer, lots of pulling and cursing and I finally got them off.

Tomorrow I'll be taking the pistons out, had to stop early and get the apartment somewhat clean since Jess is coming into town tonight. She's bringing a copy of Tom Wilson's rebuild book

Off to work now, she and I will remove the pistons and finish splitting the case tomorrow morning.

-Paul
_________________
My 1970 Beetle Thread
Southern Integrity Aircoolers

HeidiHo · Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 11:55 am Post subject:

Jess and I got started on the engine this morning, pulled the pistons out and split the case.

Yanked the internals out and laid everything out on the kitchen floor.

Don't tell my land lord! Laughing

After cleaning up we went out to lunch and stopped for some gas in Heidi. Guy at the pump next to me stuck his head around the corner and goes "Hey man, I like your bug, I used to have one!" I think hearing other people's VW stories is one of my favourite parts of owning this car.

Next step is to take the case to Monkey Nut in Charlotte and have them machine it for larger P&C's and align bore it if necessary. Then time to buy all the new parts and get this sucker put back together!

-Paul
_________________
My 1970 Beetle Thread
Southern Integrity Aircoolers

lovethatconvertible · Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 12:12 pm Post subject:

My Wife is Super Cool, but she would have a fit if I disassembled my engine in the kitchen. I LOVE it, keep the updates coming.

Streetwise VWs · Posted: Sun Jul 10, 2011 2:45 pm Post subject:


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