Austin's 1974 Standard Beetle Body-off Restoration Project

[19-VW-74]

(You're probably thinking: "Gee, that title's a mouthful." Keywords, my friend. Keywords.)

So, one evening in the summer of 2001 (I was eight), I was just playing in my front yard like little kids do, pushing around Tonka trucks and making obnoxious motor noises, when my dad rolled into the driveway with the bug, followed closely by my mother in the Astro van behind him. There was no warning and I don't recall my parents ever talking about buying a car, let alone a VW beetle, but there it was in the driveway. I soon learned that my mom's first car was a 1972 Super Autostick, that she missed it, and that my mom gets what she wants when she wants it. Little did I know that I would soon be obsessed with the car.

The car that my mom picked was this awful Robin's egg blue color shot in the PO's backyard, with rusted floor pans, shoddy body work, and an engine that ran on three cylinders. It also had some severely rusted Mangel chromies that came on some Brazilian VWs. The rest of the car was in surprisingly good original shape, as the car had never been hit in the front or rear. My dad bought it to fix it up to be a DD for my mom, but the project soon became more than that. The first thing my dad did was a four wheel brake job followed by some cheap interior bits from CIP1. He soon learned that with VWs, as well as most things in life, you get what you pay for. Unfortunately not soon enough though... The next thing he did was pull the engine and, instead of rebuilding the original (like he had done for his twin brother's '67 in the late 70's), he bought a GEX and then threw away the original block . He did this 10 years ago, so it only cost $750 for a longblock (as usual; lured in by low prices and shiny HotVWs ads). With the engine installed and the rest of the car mechanically sound, the car became my mom's daily driver, but not for long.

My oldest brother started driving it when he was 18 (he's 27 now) and he beat the hell out of that car. I mean he absolutely thrashed on it. He was young and stupid - glad I'm not... stupid. I remember days when he would pick me up from friends houses and then "rally" it (as he called it) down the summer roads around my house (I live out in the sticks of eastern WA), downshifting at speed, grinding gears, and "power braking". It's amazing that the GEX engine held up to his redline shifts. I can even remember the gravel and dust coming up from the holes in the floorboards. I also remember packing the car full of people and having to ride in the little compartment behind the back seat (who hasn't?). But the time that my brother had control of this car was short lived. My sister liked the bug and soon began driving it and referring to it has "hers" (like sisters do) .

In 2003, my sister (she was 17) began using it as her high school car. Luckily, she didn't thrash on it like most teenage boys do. She was actually quite nice to it and I got to ride in it when she picked me up from elementary and middle school. One time, on the way home from school, the throttle cable snapped and we had to walk to my sister's friend's house while my dad had it towed home. This was before I knew how VWs worked - I couldn't repair it. Another time, my sister was driving the bug while following a flatbed with some boards on it - a long 4"x4" beam fell off the back of the truck and the bug hit it so hard that it burst one of the tires. I recently sold the other three to a friend with a 74 Super who couldn't afford new ones (The car was parked in 2005 and never really wore out the tires... read on.) My dad did all of the valve adjusting, timing, and points and taught me how all of that stuff worked. The car actually made a reliable daily driver for my sister until 2005.

In 2005, my sister was driving the car at night on her way home from a friend's house. While driving down a long country road, she was being followed by an impatient driver in a little Mazda B-series pickup (Why do people get so impatient when driving behind a beetle?). She put on the brakes around a bend and the Mazda assumed that she was turning left - when she wasn't. He figured he could slip past her on the right-side shoulder and be free of the prison that is driving behind a beetle on the motorway. Not so. Since she was not turning, the Mazda clipped the front passenger fender and was put into a spin. The bug scraped the barrier, lost a hubcap and screwed the passenger side fenders. The Mazda was wrapped around a nearby tree. I don't remember if the guy had insurance or not. Anyways, my sister drove it for a little while until she got married. Then the car was parked. That was 2005.

Within a year of parking it, my mom decided that she wanted her car back. Everybody knows mom get's what she wants. So my dad began to restore the car. He pulled off all of the fenders and threw them away (Two were in good shape - a regrettable rookie mistake) and pulled off both bumpers with shocks and sent them to the dump. BIG MISTAKE. The bumpers were straight (though a bit rusty) and the shocks weren't compressed; my dad just didn't realize that they were not reproduced anymore (and reproduction bumpers are not the best quality). Oh well - you live, you learn. My dad learned about the product POR-15 and decided to give the car a sizable helping of it to prevent rusting, so he rented a sandblaster, sandblasted the wheel wells and applied POR-15 liberally. He then sent the car to our neighbor's (He owns a shop) to have the pans replaced. My dad bought the Zito brand pans from CIP1 - far from high quality. The welder then proceeded to cut out the old pans (body on) and then weld on the new pans to the BOTTOM OF THE PAN FLANGE!. This put the pan about 3/8 of an inch lower than it should and caused the brake/clutch pedal stop to stop working. To add insult to injury, the welder held onto the car for 7 MONTHS. Ridiculous.

Anyways, after the car came back, my dad had lost much of his interest in the project, so it sat. For about a year.

By 2007, I was in 8th grade and began researching the car (I have always been a car guy). I was a mustang lover until my parents bought this car. I found thesamba.com in 2007 and spent hours on end on the site, but I didn't post for fear of making a fool of myself. My interest in the car sparked my dad's interest in the project yet again, but my mom had lost all hope and interest in it... so she began referring to the car as "Austin's". My dad was frustrated by this as he thought he was completing the project because mom wanted him to - but my mom insisted that since the car mattered most to me, it should be mine. My dad reluctantly agreed.

So the car was mine and so was the burden of the project. The car was in sorry shape. This is the earliest picture I could find of it before I began to work on it. I know that we have a picture from 2003 of the complete car somewhere, but I can't find it. Anyways, without further adieu, the car:

Don't mind the date, its a little off.

You'll notice that the car has a new front beam, shocks, and sway bar. I had started my work on it earlier that day. The black paint around the wheel wells is the POR-15 that my dad applied a year before. I had learned my lesson early that Jcwhitney and Mofoco were to be avoided. The beam was a "rebuilt" mofoco unit with used ball joints with significant play in them and cracked boots, some rattle can paint, and a "Remanufactured in Brazil" sticker. It also took a month to arrive. No more Mofoco for me.

I also bought a heavy duty sway bar and KYB shocks from Jcwhitney. They confused my order and sent me a "lowered" sway bar. I will end up using it now because I'm lowering the front and it seems fitting. But when I bought it in 2008, I was pretty pissed. I also ordered urethane transmission mounts from them that were the wrong type. The label read "Fits type 1 61-79". Yeah right . I traded them at a swap meet for a new rear apron.

Early in the project I figured that I didn't have the money to complete this project at age 15. So in 2009, I got rear ended and was given $3000 as a settlement. That was very beneficial for the well-being of my project. I was also given an inheritance from my grandparents that left me with a total of $5000 to put into this car. Last summer (2011), I spent $1000 of that on this little mini-project:
It's a 1975 Honda CB550Four

Which ate up an entire summer and left me with $4000 left to finish the bug. Totally worth it though - It had only 6700 miles, original paint, 40mpgs, and taught me more about carbs than I could ever ask for (Mind you, it did not look even close to this good when I bought it). Not to mention it's a total blast to ride (the sound is intoxicating ) and everywhere I go I get thumbs up and people asking me about it. Almost like an ACVW with two wheels. It's also dead reliable after rebuilding it - I took a 900 mile trip on it in 3 days.

Now back to the VW. Now that it's December of 2011, I have made significant progress on my car. The body is out for paint and the chassis is nearly complete, so I'm hoping the car will be done before the spring quarter (when I start classes). I have all of the hard work behind me and the fun stuff is just around the corner. But I have a ton of pictures of the restoration up until now so I will post those with descriptions over the next few days.

Everybody loves a build thread more than anything else on thesamba.com. I know I do - I've read over 50 of them in the last 3 years at least. My favorites being: http://www.glenn-ring.com and http://www.1974beetle.com. I love seeing other people make progress on their car and getting tips and tricks from the forums - it's the best entertainment I can ask for. But I need a little bit of motivation from you.

Here is what I ask of you, fellow sambahomies:
Give me advice, constructive criticism, tough love, or whatever feedback have you, just give me feedback. I need to get off my ass sometimes and just work on my project instead of reading about how to do it. My commitment in this project has been like a rollercoaster over the last few months and I just dumped $2112.62 in parts last night at CIP1, Aircooled.net, and WCM - so if I wasn't committed 48 hours ago, I'd better be all in by now! Comments would be awesome - I'll update as often as I can!

-Austin

[19-VW-74]

The first thing my dad and I did was pull the body off of the chassis to get ready for sandblasting (In the first pic you can see that we had jacked up the body and were already removing pan bolts).

My dad rented a sandblaster from Sun Rentals in Spokane and brought it home with a huge trailer-sized compressor. We gutted the entire body in a day (and regrettably didn't tag and bag because my dad was in a hurry) and sandblasted the body and chassis in about 2 hours. Not being learned in the specifics of sandblasting, we warped the roof in a few places, but not much.

It made a nasty mess.

We also placed a carpet underneath the body to prevent scraping on the concrete.

In this picture, you can see some of the nasty swiss cheese rust in the rear apron. It's MUCH worse than it looks - my dad and I eventually cut out the entire clip (bumper mounts were disintegrated) and replaced with original metal off of a donor car from Avery's Aircooled in Woodland, WA.

The sand got in the bearings on the chassis (you can see the first picture of this post) and made the entire a huge PITA to clean up and get working again, but alas, it was done.
_________________
-Austin
My 1974 Standard Beetle Build:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=492617

[19-VW-74]

After sandblasting, the body sat in the garage for a few months with little work done to it. I started scanning thesamba classifieds for some wheels. I became obsessed with the 1973 Sports edition bug (I dig fat chicks, what can I say) and HAD to have the factory wheels. I found a set locally from a guy on thesamba. A set of four 5.5" ET26 Sport Bug wheels freshly powder coated in sparkle silver. I paid $200 for them:

These are my favorite 4 lug wheel (original sprints in 5.5" a close second) and have never seen them mounted on the front of a standard beetle, so this should be a treat. I plan on lowering the front of the car a bit, but I can't do much until I get a narrowed beam, as these wheels stick out an inch further than stock. Coming soon - these wheels wrapped in 195-60-15 BGF Radial T/As with raised white letters.
_________________
-Austin
My 1974 Standard Beetle Build:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=492617

[djkeev]

EXCELLENT STORY!!!! Thanks for sharing and the best of luck to you with this project.

I must say I am impressed and encouraged that a young person today has written in such a well thought out and composed manner. You even used proper Grammar and punctuation for the most part!
Your parents must be proud!

Stay with us, keep us updated, ask many question and post many photos. We as a group are here to help and encourage (though there are a few who lurk to tear you apart and criticize any and all comments that you may make..... ignore those cyber bullies and focus on the good!)

Dave
_________________
Stop Dead Photo Links how to post photos

Ghia
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=392473

Vanagon
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=6315537#6315537

Beetle
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=482968&highlight=74+super+vert

[19-VW-74]

After sandblasting the body, much more work than anticipated was discovered . I found that the entire rear driver quarter panel had been filled with an inch of bondo, the B-pillar was kinked, the rear clip was full of fiberglass filler, and we had warped the roof with the sandblaster. This was disheartening and intimidating... So I decided to work on the mechanical stuff. The stuff I'm good at.

I love new parts

By the way, that EMPI intake manifold boot set is crap (as if you didn't already know). It split in a month and hello massive vacuum leak. In my recent massive parts order, I ordered a new set from WCM, along with some other rubber parts - but let's not get to ahead of the ourselves... this is a story, after all.

I bought a nice set of stainless shroud screws for only $18 shipped.

I started to do a little work on the engine, making it look pretty and all. I sanded all of the tins down to bare metal, etched with Metal Ready, painted with POR-15, sprayed with Rustoleum Automotive Primer, and then with Rustoleum Professional Enamel in semi-gloss black. I will wetsand the tins eventually because the texture is a little rough (that's the nature of inconsistent rattle can nozzles).

I also took a wire wheel to the case to shine it up a bit. I learned real quick that bare magnesium doesn't like to stay shiny... It looked good for a week or so.

_________________
-Austin
My 1974 Standard Beetle Build:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=492617

[19-VW-74]

Thanks, Dave, I appreciate it!
_________________
-Austin
My 1974 Standard Beetle Build:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=492617

[EXJAY]

^ very cool story. I really hope you stick with it and get her back on the road again.
_________________
EXJAY

'74 Superbeetle (Family owned since new)
'73 181 Thing (sold)

[19-VW-74]

I started some chassis work with the engine just about complete (picture of that later). Took the sandblasted beam and painted with two coats of POR-15.

Before:

After:

Too bad I'm going to have to mess up that paint when I install adjusters.

I also painted the sandblasted rear trailing arms with two coats of POR-15,
Then a coat of Rustoleum Enamel in semi-gloss black.

I got paint on the original rear wheel bearings, along with sand from the sandblaster, so I pulled the bearings out and soaked them in paint thinner. I then pressure washed the bearing cavities, let them dry, then packed everything with fresh grease, along with new grease seals and gaskets... Good to go.
_________________
-Austin
My 1974 Standard Beetle Build:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=492617

[19-VW-74]

[69 Jim]

Right on Austin, glad to see you finally getting the thread up. When I first met you it didn't take long to see your passion for these cars. It's rare to see young guns that are willing to dig that deep into a project and see it through. We wish you continued success with it and can't wait to see it at the local events. Remember you can always call me for a hand or any tools you may need, not to mention any misc parts I may have.

[19-VW-74]

[69 Jim]

[19-VW-74]

[19-VW-74]

So I bought a "rebuilt" beam from Mofoco in 2008 for the decent price of $230. It took about a month to get to my house in WA from southern CA... apparently they were out of stock at the time that I paid for it, but it was still available on the site... (why is that so common these days?) Anyways, after a month and several phone calls, it arrived. I pulled it into my garage and started pulling it apart and inspecting it. It had a sticker on it that said "Remanufactured in Brazil"... but this "remanufactured" beam left much to be desired. It had two shot ball joints, 4 shot ball joint boots, torsion arm seals made out of a rubber hose, bare metal in several spots, and the disc brake spindles had been so beat that the lock-nut threads were shot and the bearing seats were uneven. Needless to say, I had to re"rebuild" it .

So What I did was replace the torsion seals with genuine VW, press out the two shot ball joints and press in new ones, and replace the other two shot boots with the CIP1 ball joint boot kit. I also bought a complete disc brake conversion kit on ebay for a steal: $185. I used the spindles in the kit because they were in better condition than the ones on the Mofoco beam.

Here are some pics of the installation of the CIP1 boot kit:

In the second pic you can see the shot boot on the upper torsion arm and the new CIP1 boot on the bottom torsion arm. I don't recommend the CIP1 ball joint boot kit... it cost me $23 for 4 boots w/clips, but in a month all of the boots were completely split and leaking grease. The car hadn't even moved yet. The boots disintegrated while just sitting on a parked car in my garage in the heat of the summer. For $23 I could have bought two high quality ball joints and never have had this problem... you live, you learn.
_________________
-Austin
My 1974 Standard Beetle Build:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=492617

[Steenkbug]

Man, awesome on you to tackle this HUGE project.

The best advise I can give you is to NOT GIVE UP!! If you have to - part that car out to get the work done. BUT DO IT!!!

Looking at the (new) bug in my driveway makes me sad as my last one had to be parted out (as in SOLD) because I got in over my head and lost motivation.
_________________
Procrastination is like masturbation...
It feels good at the time, but in the end you are only fu*king yourself...

[Fabiandiaz1234]

were did yo get those boots?

[19-VW-74]

[mnussbau]

Nice work so far, keep at it!
_________________
Mike
Sold my sedan
Parts...

[19-VW-74]

[19-VW-74]