Oatsey's 1969 Beetle rebuild thread - Details & Pics

[Oatsey]

Greetings: Long time lurker under a different screen name, first time poster. I love this community and the information contained in it....... Thank You for your contributions that have helped me with multiple beetles in the past.

I have decided to share my rebuild of my 1969 VW Beetle.

I am no novice to VW nor mechanics in general. My first car was a 1973 Super (circa 1996) and I'm a gearhead by blood. This is now my 4th beetle and my father has had a couple along the way.

History:
Bought the car almost 2 years ago from local guy. P.O. bought the car 3 years before that from a guy in Alabama who did all of the work that you see in the below pictures.
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Current Condition:
Suspension: Weld in adjusters, stock beam width, stock spindles, lots of 5 year old urethane bushings throughout the car, dropped an unknown number of notches in the back.

Body: Creative Car Craft widened fiberglass fenders (which I believe to be 3" wider than factory) Straight and pretty clean sheet metal with 5 year old flat black paint. Relatively rust free, but has been crashed in the front at one point so it has a newer front apron poorly welded in... Stock floor pans/channels with repairs on passenger rear pan. Rear apron cut out w/fiberglass cover panel. Pop-out windows, and a broken windshield.

Interior: Lowback seats, green/offwhite vynil throughout, grey carpet in and rubber mats. Headliner is up there, but poorly installed and looks ugly. Clumsily small aftermarket steering wheel, padded dash and some mismatched gauges in a piece of stainless in the factory radio location complete the "look". Radio is in the glovebox and it has some fiberglass kick panelsWindows are hard to roll up and down, passenger side vent window doesn't open without falling out. The wires are a MESS. Lots of added on stuff, ad hoc switches and grounds in the wrong place....

Drivetrain: (Please help me figure out what I have) I have not verified what I actually have but I have been the P.O. told me I have a 1641cc with a 110 engle cam. Dual carburetor and alternator conversion. (he wasn't a VW enthusiast and was repeating what he was told when he bought the car) The engine runs good, but wouldn't turn over easily when I bought it. Replaced the starter, power cables, and battery and it starts easy now... It runs strong but occasionally I doubt the carburetors are tuned properly as it has a rough idle when cold starting and has poor MPG. After driving and stopping, say at a gas station, the restart can sporadically be troublesome -- The engine turns over freely but almost acts like it isn't getting fuel and can take some good luck and finger-crossing to get it running..... It's never stranded me, but I attribute that to a good battery and a good starter.
I also have a pretty heavy oil leak that I need to track down while I have this car apart. Transmission shifts great w/no leaks.

Wheels & Brakes: BRM wheels -- (I don't know if they are original, can you help?) 135s in the front/165 in back. Brake hardware has low miles on it but there is a leak somewhere that causes a weak pedal and loss of confidence in a quick stop. At least one wheel bearing is worn and making noise.

Here are the Pics:
The day I brought it home in all it's cheesy glory with spikes and maltese crosses everywhere!

After about a year of driving it:

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PLANS:
Suspension: Bring the front up very slightly & bring the rear down moderately so that the car sits level. (Dependent upon wheel/tire selection)

Body: Pull body from pan. Address minor issues including the ugly welds on the front apron and respray it. Paint color will be white with a matte/flattened clear coat. Cut fenders for brackets install pre-67 style bumpers w/risers. Replace windshield. Acquire pre-67 deck lid and install, because it just looks cool!

Interior: Install full wiring harness from Painless, etc. Acquire and install a pre-67 factory steering wheel, remove dash pad. Remove ugly "custom gauge cluster". Install headunit where it belongs. Install a proper tachometer on the steering column. Replace rear view mirror. Replace headliner. Install new carpet kit. Replace window channel slider felt(name?). Repair passenger vent window.

Drivetrain: Pull engine, sell dual carb setup in lieu of a single carb setup. Find oil leak & repair. Clean up the gunk. General organization of engine wires. Remove fan shroud and paint.

Wheels & Brakes: I will likely sell these wheels to replace with something with an offset that will compliment the wide fenders in the rear. General recondition of all brake lines and cables. Replace wheel bearings on both front wheels.
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Stay tuned, I know I'll need your help!
I've already started the work, and have more pictures to add of my progress.

This is going to be fun!


Oats

[Mr. Mofo]

Very nice bug, have fun with it. And are those early door cards? love the interior. 69's are nice

[Oatsey]

Previous to 2/5/13 work night I removed big interior bits: Seats, carpet, door panels, rear 1/4 interior panels and stored them away.



2/5/13 Removed Removed fenders, running boards, windshield, pass door, rear 1/4 windows, rear glass, PO addon gauge cluster and all wiring/oil pressure lines, antenna, washer squirter, headlights, wiper motor assembly and wires. Couldn't get the Drivers side door off because of this ugly problem! Badly stripped screw heads! What do I do? Tried to cut a groove to use a flathead screwdriver to no avail....

Other Pics:

2/7/13: Removed almost all of the remaining factory wiring up front, removed visors, dome light and finally headliner. Pulled up as much of the carpet padding and sound deadener as possible.

Pics:

[hobbybob517]

nice bug man, also nice bike in the background.

will be watching this one.
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THE BUILD http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php

[vernonc]

Nice car and it looks like you're going to do it right.

Sure wish I had a nice garage like yours to work in.

mort
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"Those who don't read newspapers are un-informed. Those who do read newspapers are mis-informed." Will Rogers

'69 sedan, low mileage, all original.....currently being 'freshened-up' for road trips and daily driving...just not every day

Freshening-up link http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=617386

[69vduber]

good work .Hope you took lots of pics of the wiring and switches. I did the same a couple of years ago ( see gallery) On the door you may need to just take the pin out. My body guy had to do that on pass side.

[anima40000]

I had the same problem with my doors, i had to drill them out and then get a stripped bolt extracter to help

http://www.harborfreight.com/12-piece-screw-extractor-set-40349.html

[LeftSatisfied]

For the door screws. Buy a left handed drill bit and run the drill motor in reverse. That way, if you get lucky, the screws may break free and run themselves out. If not, you still have a hole drilled to try an "easy out". Tip: run the drill slow, it will grab better increasing your chances of removal.

[70photobus]

Looking good Jason!

[Oatsey]

It's been awhile since I've spent time in the garage working on this project. Tonight I plan to attack the stripped door hinge screws and the floor pan "insulation".

I have a bunch of this foam matting backed by double stick tape to deal with -- Adhesives and foam don't typically bode well with grinders and wire wheels in my experience....

Putty knives and screwdrivers are working, but just barely - Any suggestions to remove this junk easily?

[Oatsey]

Monday night's work: I stopped by the local Harbor Freight and grabbed an extra set of easy outs, like the ones that anima40000 suggested, and with a careful touch I managed to get both of the jacked up hinge screws out of the body while breaking only one cheap drill bit.

After that, I removed the remainder of the wiring harness from the front of the car. Only wires from the steering column remain, but have been pushed from through the body.

Scraped a few chunks of stuff off of the body and pans -- I think I will try some heat as most of this stuff is general adhesive.....
Some of the deadner is tar-backed - going to take a lot of heat to melt this stuff......