68 Single cab revival

[Brian]

I figured I should start a thread to compile my progress, though it will be slow. This "build" is being done on a very tight budget but I promised myself I wont cut corners.

So I picked up this beauty in Barstow, CA. I got lucky finding it there because its nice and dry so I was expecting not a lot of rust, and I was lucky to not find that much. I was told that the truck was owned by some guy who used it as his farm truck, so of course it wasn't being cared for. When I got it, this thing was covered in dirt. The dash was a nice color of "desert brown" because of all the dirt.

Me and a buddy towed it from Barstow down to Oceanside which was only 300 miles round trip, not too bad.

I took a picture while we were at Carl's Jr. to celebrate the new purchase. As you see, the wheel well has already been cut up for me to fit larger tires, awesome. The side markers have been replaced with some Harbor Freight side marker lights, I actually like them and am going to keep them for a while.

Finally made it home safely, of course the engine barely ran for reasons unknown at this point so I had to do a lot of pushing to get it to this point.

Day 1 I did nothing but clean, and I clogged my shop vac with dirt. There was just way too much dirt.

The engine was one of my favorite parts, the amount of grime caked onto it made it a whole lot more fun. I spent hours just trying to clean that off. I used a wire brush and it looks practically new. But, internally everything seemed fine, it just felt like a valve was stuck. The engine would fire and turn over, just not stay running.

The treasure chest was a fun bit too, PO had put a big piece of carpet in and left me with 3 quarts of oil and a gallon of orange juice. How thoughtful. Of course the lock and lock cover are missing, meaning I have to shell out for those.

I fell in love with these trucks because of the beds. 9 feet long and 5 feet wide, 45 square interrupted feet of bed. But in the picture here you can see the cab divider is covered up, I wonder why?

I have nothing to say about this:

_________________
Wash your hands

'69 Bug
'68 Baja Truck
'71 Bug
'68 Camper

Only losers litter

[hoagy86]

wow are you returning it to stock or leaving it and getting it going

[Brian]

Luckily, the M plate was still there and I decoded it as so:

Lotus white with beige interior, pretty standard not too fancy truck. I like it.


After much time of sitting in my garage, one day I decided to take out the dash and see if I could find any more secrets. I found that I have no fuse box and that the OG color looks amazing and I have no idea why anyone would paint the inside of the cab black instead of lotus white.

_________________
Wash your hands

'69 Bug
'68 Baja Truck
'71 Bug
'68 Camper

Only losers litter

[Brian]

[monkbonk]

Nice dash cluster. I think they found the simplicity that VW was aiming for (for a time).

[Brian]

After more time sitting, I decided to try to weld up holes along the body. Just the small stuff, I have not ordered any repair panels yet on account of Christmas. All along the nose there are random rivets, I don't know why they are there but its really annoying. Thanks PO.

Some time after, I decided it was a good time to tackle the treasure chest. I'll tell you what, I thought I was going to die in there.

I crawled in with an angle grinder with a wire wheel attachment and scrapped off all the surface rust. Sprayed some primer and coated it with bed liner. All with Harbor Freight respirator and swimming goggles
I'd have more pictures but its all black, nothing really to see.
_________________
Wash your hands

'69 Bug
'68 Baja Truck
'71 Bug
'68 Camper

Only losers litter

[Brian]

[babysnakes]

Nice find! That looks A LOT more solid than the '69 I found in San Diego. Good luck with it.

[Brian]

After saving up some money, I took the rims that it had over to North County Powder Coating over in San Marcos. They blasted the rims and some tin I had bought. They did a great job not destroying anything.

I decided to use a super beetle engine set up because of its cooling tins. There's a velocity stack on the back before the fan which I imagine helps a lot.

I would have stayed with the upright cooler, but my truck didn't come with this package:

But after a few rattle cans I ended up with some pretty slick rims. These are for sale though, the tires I put on them are way too big for them and I only have them mounted to move the truck back and forth. I'm going to conciser buying some widened smoothies. Smoothies being appropriate and widened to safely mount some 215/75-15s

_________________
Wash your hands

'69 Bug
'68 Baja Truck
'71 Bug
'68 Camper

Only losers litter

[Brian]

[Brian]

My most recent update is buying a washer bottle. Just the bottle, I need to find the mounting bracket and trim piece to make it complete. Well aside from the hoses.

Also, I checked my mail and found this little beauty. I have no idea how its going to stay installed though.

_________________
Wash your hands

'69 Bug
'68 Baja Truck
'71 Bug
'68 Camper

Only losers litter

[Brian]

One this you should never do with a truck in your garage is this:

Saddly, the truck bed is the only real workspace I have. Its very tight and it sucks.

I went to Interstate and got a cluster, looks a whole lot better than two big lights. I really hate how the interior is black though. I am going to be ordering in some seat covers and door panels. Then I'm going to go through the entire cab with some graffiti remover to try to get the lotus white back. Nothing looks to be too altered so that I can't get the paint, I'll have pictures when I do it.

Don't mind the Star Wars poster
_________________
Wash your hands

'69 Bug
'68 Baja Truck
'71 Bug
'68 Camper

Only losers litter

[Brian]

Here is the engine block. Its stamped AE and I don't mind that its not a B5. I think I might downgrade to a B5 just to try to keep some of the originality, but I don't really feel like I need to.

The AE is from a '70 and has dual relief plugs, the B5 has a single relief but is from '68. I'm already doing the doghouse so might as well stay unoriginal on that aspect.

Also take note as to how clean that block is now and how dirty it was. Props to me.

Here's the shroud, I do have to hoover bit but it doesn't feel like it fits right. I think that the gap is already filled from the shroud. On the bottom right of the picture, or top left of the the shroud is the port that pressurizes the charcoal canister. I do have to question though, would it make a difference if I plugged that?

_________________
Wash your hands

'69 Bug
'68 Baja Truck
'71 Bug
'68 Camper

Only losers litter

[Brian]

A word of advice, always check to make sure your oil strainer is on tight with two gaskets. Or your garage will be covered in kitty litter.

I poured some oil in to try to bring up and water that might be sitting in the case because I not too long ago pressure washed it. And as a result I have oil everywhere. Everywhere.

Also, I have a trivia question and want to see who can tell me what is wrong with this dash cluster:

When I initially got the truck the cab divider was covered and if you were wondering what it was hiding, well here you go:

There was putty where those holes are, I had to rip it out. I also pulled out a sheet of wood from behind the seats that was set in pretty well from the putty.

Oh and just another thing to add; PO left me with a pretty sweet tube bumper. Of course he didn't use the stock mounting brackets, no that would have been too easy. There are now two large I beams where the splash (belly) pan should mount. Thanks PO.
_________________
Wash your hands

'69 Bug
'68 Baja Truck
'71 Bug
'68 Camper

Only losers litter

[busdaddy]

[Brian]

Almost forgot to add this picture too; when I first got the truck I had my first taste of understanding the true craftsmanship of my PO. It was easy to see the level of compassion he had towards fixing this truck.

_________________
Wash your hands

'69 Bug
'68 Baja Truck
'71 Bug
'68 Camper

Only losers litter

[Brian]

[Wasted youth]

If I recall correctly, that SC was on Craigslist for awhile, but with different rims. He also had a bus for sale, I think...I was looking pretty hard on that SC, but got my fix satisfied with a DC later on. Glad it went to good hands with you! Looks like the side gates are pretty good.

By the way, I am deeply disappointed in your decision to remove the custom sheet metal instrument cluster. Shame on you! And put those blue jeans CV boots back on!

Your trivia question about your new instrument cluster...All I can see amiss are the missing screws and the vent levers...?

[Brian]

[Brian]

So today while cleaning the garage I decided to take a crack at what was hiding under the nice bed liner. It was a mix of paint and putty. I started to peel one of the sections off and it looked as so:

And of course its all the way down this cross member.

I also started to peel more at the cab divider.

Hopefully I can get on glideking's level and do this with ease:

Link

_________________
Wash your hands

'69 Bug
'68 Baja Truck
'71 Bug
'68 Camper

Only losers litter