1966 "Proud" new owner of a rust bucket

[fla2smoker]

Long time lurker, I have owned bugs in my younger years, and have done one pan off resto 23 years ago.... My oldest son is about to turn 13 and said he wanted an old bug for his first car. I was apprehensive at first, but after giving it some thought for a few months and discussing the costs with the CFO (Wife), we decided that I would build one first, and if he shows interest in working on it with me then in two years, we would purchase a second one for him to work on. My how times have changed. I looked long and hard for about six months here in Florida and the entire southeast for something that was mostly rust free for under $3k, not happening.... Then I did research on the replacement parts that are available and the complaints outweigh the positives. I finally took the plunge on a mostly original (Ok body, pan and engine are original) 66. I am in the disassembly stage now and should have the body off the pan in the next week or two. The deeper I dig the more I realize that I only saved this car from the crusher. All of the normal rust spots, check, I have them, wiring done by a teenager with only a pack of wire nuts and some generic wires, check I have them. Lack of maintenance and care, check that box too. Regardless, I am going to bring this poor little original black '66 back from the dead. The original engine is still there, has good compression, someone attempted a 12 volt conversion and changed the flywheel and realized it doesnt fit and left it for dead. I will post pics soon.
I have to replace the floor pans, the heater channels, the front and rear apron, the luggage tray, the napoleon's hat, the lower front frame head, and who knows what else. At least the doors and the main body appear straight and relatively rust free. I originally thought two years would be my time frame to complete this car but the deeper I dig the more the costs go up. Oh well, I will pass it on to my sons. I have the tools and most of the skills to complete this car, the timeline is infinite. I want to do it right, not concourse, but as close to original as is possible.

[estolze]

good project for you and your son....pis please of you progress

[fla2smoker]

Here is the link to photos so far:
http://s1213.photobucket.com/albums/cc471/fla2smoker/66%20vw%20bug%20resto/
I havent taken the photos of the frame head damage yet. I will wait until I get the body off. I know, I need to clean my garage...

[fla2smoker]

After I brought it to its new home

The worst of the rust (I thought).

After a few days of removing parts and "trying" to preserve parts. BTW if you pull the washer bottle out at an angle, it will tear the bottom nipples that have held it in place for 40 plus years. The original brake fluid reservoir is cool, only a torn cap, until I attempted to remove the brake fluid hose that was stronger than the plastic. OK, OG request soon.....

[drscope]

You have 3 years. Better get cracking!

You may want to consider buying the BugMe videos that apply t this car.
http://www.bugmevideo.com/

They are a great resource for "how to" and show you just what you need in the way of parts, materials, tools and skill to do the things you will be doing.

As for your project plans, a few thoughts came to mind. You said YOU would fix this one up and if your 13 year old showed interest then you would get another for him.

Maybe a better idea would be for the 13 year old to fix THIS one up - with your help and direction of course. And then latter find another one for you.

A project like this can loose steam very quickly, and most young kids only have so much interest. if he is involved right from the start and knows this is HIS car, he may stick with it long enough for the project to take hold and make it to the end.

But if he knows he is doing all this work so Dad can have a nice car, he will probably just spend his interest playing video games or looking at porn on the net.

Get him involved and keep him interested knowing he has that carrot at the other end of the project.
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Mother Nature is a Mean Evil Bitch!

[fla2smoker]

Thanks Dr. for the advice! I do have the bugme videos as well as just about every restoration manual including the 61-65 Bentley that I could get my hands on. We try and limit the time we spend on it so it stays exciting. I tend to go out and work on the tougher stuff after the wife and kids go to bed so that the expletives are not heard. Here is a couple of pics of where we are now:

Almost Ready to pull the body off the pan:

A lot of attention is needed here:

Pile of parts that need to be repaired is getting larger:

[Ghia Nut]

Where did you get the beetle from? I looked for about 2-3 months. They go fast around these parts, I was looking around Jacksonville area.

I'm also going to echo what drscope said, make it his car, there's no telling how much motivation I had for my ghia to be my first car... had my dad helped it would have been but he was always to busy with work. Yeah daydreaming of taking a girl on a date in the ghia...
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'59 typ1 rajay turbo
'72 Ghia rajay 1641 dual 36DRLAs, 1 3/8" SS merged header and fat boy
78" GL Vert with ej22t swap
This will likely change tomorrow to something else.

[fla2smoker]

[Ghia Nut]

Im up in savannah if that helps, I just got a 59 even though I was looking for a late model. And yes what people are wanting around these parts is NUTS!
_________________
'59 typ1 rajay turbo
'72 Ghia rajay 1641 dual 36DRLAs, 1 3/8" SS merged header and fat boy
78" GL Vert with ej22t swap
This will likely change tomorrow to something else.

[sportin-wood]

Should be a fun project. I have a '66 project of my own. I lucked out and paid $400 for it here in Texas. Mind if I ask how much $ that set you back?
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1966 Bug project
1973 Thing project
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"Relax, all right? My old man is a television repairman. He's got this ultimate set of tools. I can fix it." --- Jeff Spicoli

[fla2smoker]

[NCdad]

Welcome!

Subscribing to follow your progress, I am working on a '66 as well... currently redoing the brake lines.

It is wild what they sell for in different areas of the U.S.
_________________
ROBERT
My VWs & Projects - | - German Invasion VW Show - Sept 7, 2024 Shelby, NC

[sportin-wood]

$1600 isn't bad. I've seen cars in worse condition with asking prices close to double that! I'll be replacing my pans fairly soon as well. I'll be watching your progress and picking up useful info, I'm sure.
_________________
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1966 Bug project
1973 Thing project
.
"Relax, all right? My old man is a television repairman. He's got this ultimate set of tools. I can fix it." --- Jeff Spicoli

[fla2smoker]

[silvertonguedevil]

Good luck with your project. I'll be following along as I'm also building one from the ground up with both of my young sons. It's a blast!!
_________________
-Greg

[str8buggin]

I'll definitely be following your post here and watching your progress. I'm looking to sell mine in order to get another project and the one I have my eye on is in just as bad, if not in worse shape, than yours. Looks like you have a good solid plan of attack in order, look forward to your updates.
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It's good to be buggin...

1970 Beetle 1600SP <--build thread (0\ ! /0)....SOLD

19__ VW _(insert next project here)__

[NCdad]

[Rome]

Black with red interior will be a beautiful combination, though I'd dread a black car without A/C in Florida! I hope you do stick with it and complete the car as your wife wants. Maybe it will be a treat for your son to drive when its done, as a change of pace to the inevitable "modern" daily driver he will pursue.

20 years ago my mom bought a condo up the road from you in Bradenton. She met a similarly-aged German couple in town who were original owners of a pearl white '61 Beetle. The wife drove it regularly as her only car, and her husband had a modern Buick or such. The wife let me borrow the car and clean it a bit when I'd be in town from NY. It was in good shape, no rust at all (always garaged) but had some dings. Of course it had the original 40hp stale-air engine. Had excellent, quick heat coming thru those solid heater channels during a cold spell in the early 90's. In the late 90's she decided to sell it, offering it to me first. I had over 4 VWs at home at the time so it was not wise for me to buy it, even though I had absolute confidence in driving the car at highway speeds back to NY. She soon sold it to somebody in town for like $1600. But no doubt such car is the great exception to the well-worn Beetles you'd find in FL.

Once you get your car going, the engine rebuilt; you can take it out on I-75 and floor it- with the 70mph speed limit you'd still be passing the foagies in their Fords in the right lane!

[Hammarlund]

Although this car is indeed in rough shape, if I read your original post correctly, it is a matching numbers car, and so is an unusual find.

I applaud your decision to keep it as original as possible. There are not many matching numbers cars left to be restored!

Bear this in mind when you are deciding what to replace and what to keep. In particular, I would never part with that engine, even if it cannot be used due to the case being worn out. Just having it around increases the value of the car!

It sounds like you don't have much faith in that twelve-volt conversion. You have of course two paths; restore the car to six volts, or re-do the conversion properly. As far as performance and reliability goes, there isn't much to choose from between the two; although IIRC twelve-volt lights may have more raw candle-power than six-volt ones, properly maintained six-volt ones are still adequate. Twelve-volt parts are certainly easier to find.

If you go with six volts, please let me strongly recommend an Optima battery. Stay away from generic six-volt batteries; they are mostly junk these days. I've told the story of why I feel this way too many times to repeat it here; a search should bring it up if you are curious.

[fla2smoker]