68 Fastback from Poland

[Ralfik]

Hello Everyone! This is my first post on TheSamba forum - however I'm here a frequent visitor since at least 10 years...
Some months ago I became to be an lucky (so far) owner of '68 Fastback. As I'm from Poland, this car is really rare in my country. This one is special - everything is original and complete, without any mods, bought from the first owner, who left Poland in early 80s to realize his American Dream. The car has been not started since '93. After 3 years of my tryings, finally, partly by coincindence, the car is mine

Here are first pictures:

I plan to try to start the engine soon, but I don't want to spoil anything, so I'm patiently waiting for my old friend, who was an aircooled vw expert years ago, and promised to help me in next weeks.

I'm writing this post, hoping to keep motivation in bringing my Beauty back to the good shape and condition.

[DQDan]

Very cool, very very clean looking score!! Let me be the first to say WELCOME TO SAMBA!

[Jason37]

Looks to be really solid and clean.


Please post more pics, we LOVE pics.

[EverettB]

Very nice! Congratulations on the purchase.

To anyone who knows:
Do European 68s still use the 67-down style column?
I don't remember knowing that fact.
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[Bobnotch]

[BSQUARE]

[ALLWAGONS]

[Max Welton]

[EverettB]

[Bobnotch]

[Clatter]

Wow!

What a treasure!

If the motor has been sitting that long, you would be wise to approach the first start-up with caution.

While you might see a bunch of those "Will it Run' videos on YouTube,
A calculated approach to firing off a motor that has been sitting can prevent costly internal damage.

First thing, before you try and turn it over, pull all of the spark plugs and squirt a bit of Marvel Mystery Oil or similar in each cylinder.
Also pull the rockers and pushrods(!)
Very carefully rotate the motor a quarter turn counter-clockwise before trying to turn the motor around by hand.
If it hits some kind of stop, don't force it.
Check to make sure a valve isn't stuck open.
Re-torque the four lower head studs.
If you can get the motor turning through by hand, then fill the pushrods and rockers full of oil and install.
Adjust valves.
Turn the motor over by hand and make sure all valves are opening and closing like they should.
If it's all behaving like it's supposed to,
Then stab the plugs and try to fire it off.

Sometimes people just go to cranking and valve hits a piston or the motor breaks a ring.
Carelessness can damage an otherwise good motor that has been sitting.
Be careful and deliberate in breaking things free with lots of oil,
And it might just fire off and run for years.

What peach of a car you have there...!
Original colored fender beading.
OG seat upholstery.
A real treasure!
Let's see some more pics..
_________________
Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[Ralfik]

Hi all,
I was not supposing that my post will find so many responses - appreciate that!
Thank you very much for your good advices - I have no rush, the car was waiting so long for me, that now I can slowly prepare everything before first startup - and for sure, I will not do anything without my VW expert's support.
The good thing is, that there is oil in the engine, and previous owner was removing all, even the smallest defects, in very famous workshop (the first VW workshop opened in Poland) and giving appropriate notes.
To not completely loose the time, I'm collecting all neccessary things to run the engine:

The weather here in Poland was not allow me to make any advanced activities with the car during the weekend. Let's see, maybe the next one will be a little bit warmer. I will keep you updated, if there will be any progress with startup.

In the meantime, I'm sending some new pictures:

And to show, that the car has also some weaknesses:

Moreover, the fuel tank has some spot holes - I suppose it'll need to be changed. Unfortunately the new ones are not available - at least in Poland.

Do you have any advises, where to buy a new / good one in Europe?

[mdege]

That is a really nice fastback!

I would try Mario for a replacement gas tank http://type3headquarter.de/
_________________
- Michael

1965 21F: Restoration of a former '65 firetruck
1963 Typ3 Notchback project
1988 Multivan Magnum 112i
1984 Standard: My son wanted a bug for his first car

[Ralfik]

[andybla]

Good luck with the car!

And the gas tank, indeed no new ones available, and the gas tanks available always need some work, but watch out because of exlplosion danger

[Ralfik]

Hello after few months of silence! As we had long winter in spring in Poland, most of activities had to wait for the summer weather. Therefore let me share with you what activities have been made.

First of all the interior has been cleaned up - the upholestry is in pretty good condition, without any holes and damages. I'm really supprised how nice it looks

Wheels have been sandblasted and powdercoated. Vredstein Classic tires have been installed on them (155/80 R15 - hope the size fits enough)

Drums have been taken off. Now I'm waiting for the new shoes and other stuff to make brakes living again.

Luckly I found the gas tank in quite good condition (at least without holes) - now need to search for posts, how to renovate it.

Last but not least - the engine has been successfully started!

Link


Now the new challenges appear... As the exhaust is heavly rusted, I was searching the new one. Unfortunately, it seems the exhaust for Typ3 is some kind of "special" - not available on stock, need to be shipped with quite long lead time, and 4x more expensive than the T1 or T2... Is there any reason for that? Maybe stupid question, but... are you all using the dedicated exhaust, or there are some "tricks" to adapt for example exhaust from T2?

Cheers!
Rafal

[Ralfik]

Still waiting for new parts arrival, I spent some time to clean up the car. Still not perfect, but... I think it looks quite fine

[Bobnotch]

[Clatter]

Wow!

Love seeing so much original interior stuff all in one place..
That dash pad looks perfect.
Here in the US they have all cracked wide open years ago.

Driver's seat headrest is an interesting add-on.
Does the material match the OG seats as it appears to in the pic?
Also seat recliners and an under-dash parcel tray..
Cool period accessories..

Those original carpets have many unique features and no reproductions have any of the fine molded details.
Don't think for a moment you could ever find any better.
If you are intent upon fixing this car up nice,
Remember that cleaning/restoring the original parts is often preferred to buying new aftermarket reproductions.
This is especially true for carpets, interior vinyl parts like panels and seats, many rubber seals, on and on.
Toss nothing, until you have a better item in-hand.

Your car is a creampuff.. Most of them here in the US had their original parts lost years ago.
_________________
Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[Buscowboy]

You have a great looking Fastback. I had to replace the exhaust on my Fastback last week, I decided on a NOS type 3 item but I know CSP in Germany 🇩🇪 do an exhaust for a type3, not cheap but if you can’t find an original it might be worth saving up.
The red interior looks sweet against the white exterior paint, I would just clean it up and not change a thing.
The original carpets in mine were in pretty good shape but had faded to brown in places, I applied some black carpet dye and they look great once again, it was cheap to do as well.
Keep the posts coming and welcome from 🇬🇧
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1963 SubHatch Westfalia MG/PW
1967 Fastback RHD Regatta Blue
1970 FI Auto Squareback
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