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Rust2Rods 1964 Hoodride Beetle
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Rust2Rods
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Location: South Milwaukee, WI
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 6:33 am    Post subject: Rust2Rods 1964 Hoodride Beetle Reply with quote

While I am working on my 1967 Air Ride beetle project, I decided I wanted some instant gratification. The 67 project has started to take longer than anticipated. So I figured I'd buy something that I would "fix up" but not get too deep into the project at any time (trying to keep myself honest). I've sold off some of my other projects, sold off a motorcycle I had and a bunch of the left over parts from the 67 project. I took that money and spun it into a lump of cash. I called a good friend of mine who always has a line on VW stuff. I call him and find out that he has not one, but two 1964 Beetles. One of them is his sons, and it's mostly done. The other, he bought at a police auction. Between the two, the police auction one was 1/2 the price of the other one but it really needed some love. I told him I was interested and would pretty much but it on the spot. He described it to me and told me that he was out of town for the week, but as soon as he returned we could do the deal. He did mention that there were several people hounding him for it but he would not budge on the price. I patiently waited for his return.

I had no idea of what this car looked like.
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Rust2Rods
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 9:30 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

A couple days go by, and I call him back. I find out that he's on his way back from his trip and was currently in Illinois driving when I called him. I made arrangements and got out by him the next day in the morning. I asked him if the car rolled and drove. He said he put 4 new tires on it and drove it around a bit. He went on to explain to me that it was making some noise while driving and he thought the shocks were lose in the rear. I told him that did not concern me.
I waited until the next day and drove out there with my van and a VW tow bar. Upon my arrival to his place I went into the garage and saw the car. It was in better shape than I thought. He told me the story of how he originally sold the car to this guy. This guy fixed the car up, put a rebuilt motor into it that the guy I am talking to sold him. He went on to tell me that the guy was thrown into jail for drugs or something and the car went into impound. He said that the original owner put all kinds of fans and stuff into the car... the wiring was a mess but the stuff worked for the most part.
The guy I am buying the car from also goes on to tell me that the guy and his dad used to do war re-enactments Rolling Eyes. He said that his dad has a tank and the guy who owned the car painted the car a sand color and black and jacked it up high to make it into some kind of kubelwagen. Shocked I told him I'd take the car. He said don't you even want to drive it or hear it run? I was like nah. He insisted that I at least listen to it run. I obliged and it sounded good. Nice and strong. He put some rags over the pea shooters to listen to the motor for knocks or ticks. It sounded perfect. I gave him the cash and was on my way. Here are some pics of the car once I got it home.
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Rust2Rods
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 11:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well now that I have the beetle in my shop. I had big plans for it. I had a vision in my head. I wanted a "hoodride"... Not sure what else to call it, but the 67 will be a true show car. I am not going to want to scratch or scrape it, it will always have to be cleaned and polished for shows. I just wanted something that I could hop in, drive around, take to the occasional show and what not. I envisioned a slammed early bug, roof rack and the roof rack schwag on top....
Now, I wasn't loving the color of it. I didn't like the black fenders or the tan. The paint is very porous and attracts oils from your skin and grease like crazy. It also seems to store those stains in it. I thought about repainting it, clearing it...etc. But... have to keep myself honest... no major work on this one... So I decided to go against it. I just cleaned it up with some wax and grease remover. It took care of most of the stains, but it's also lifting the paint. Oh well...

The first step was to get the car lower and get rid of that stock whistley exhaust. I went to a swap meet in the spring and found myself a nice stainless dual tipped muffler and a pair of modifited heater boxes for it. I got those installed in record time. I found that the previous owner was a psychopath and had all kinds of weird crap in there to hold the exhaust in. I got rid of all of that and got the exhaust in. Next was to order up a set of extended swing plates. I didn't go with drop plates since I will be going with air ride. So I opted for the extended spring plates from Wide 5 Aaron. Was a great deal. Installed in a snap, lowered the rear and bam! I was on my way to my vision....
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Added a roof rack I bought a while back for the other bug...
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Rust2Rods
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 1:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I took the bug out for a spin since I lowered it and wanted to see how it rode. The front end was still at the height when I got it... It didn't ride bad...

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Rust2Rods
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PostPosted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 1:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

A little more time passed and I decided it was time to lower the front. I ordered up some adjusters and found a sweet set of Empi Eagles style wheels for the bug. The problem is they were located in Cali but I'd have to find a way to transport them. Turns out the guy I was buying them from happened to be a truck driver and just happened to make a stop across from where my wife works. She picked them up for me since I was not able to get there in time to get them from him and it was a great deal...

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sixfootdan
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PostPosted: Fri Aug 01, 2014 6:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Have fun with the project and keep updating us with pics. Cool
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Rust2Rods
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 8:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

sixfootdan - thanks... more to come Wink
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Rust2Rods
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 10:52 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

So, now that the rear is lowered, it's time to lower the front. I went and pulled the beam out of the front. I then welded in some adjusters and indexed them so I had a little more drop out of them by moving the adjuster past the original grub screw line. I welded them in and called it a night.

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Rust2Rods
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 10:56 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

The next day rolled around and I starting to put everything back together. I noticed on one of the link pins, that the drivers side was missing some shims. I didn't think much about it at the time, but it did come back to haunt me.
I cut the stops off the front of the beam and bolted everything together. Once it was all done, I decided to put those wheels I picked up on as well and see how it looks....
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Rust2Rods
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 11:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Now once I had the car together I took it for a spin. I had some serious steering issues now. I checked online for some reference. The only thing i could think of was since I lowered it I threw something out of whack. I called a friend of mine who works at a auto shop. I asked if he could toss the car on the laser alignment rack. he said he could do that sometime for me. So in the mean time, I thought possibly I had an issue with the tires and rims I had just put on. See, the 2 rear are completely bald. The fronts were new. This "wandering" problem didn't come up right away... it slowly came in. And that's why I thought it might be the tires. So I decided to put the new stock tires and rims back on to see what happened. Pretty much the same thing.. after a bit of driving it had this weird "wandering" issue.

So I decided to take the wife out for a spin in it. We stopped at a pizza place several towns from me and had dinner.

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Rust2Rods
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 11:20 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

After dinner, we started driving back. Now on the way out there I still had that strange wandering issue, but now... a new problem developed. It seemed the car was starving for fuel. On the way back, it would drive for a bit and then die... if I got on it, it would run for a short bit and then die again. If I babied it... it would go much further. Seemed very strange. I cleaned out the fuel filter (which was still in the engine compartment)... and tried several things. Eventually we made it home, but the wife was not happy. It took us over an hour for maybe a 20 minute ride...

So on that weekend, I tried everything, new fuel filters, fuel pump, fuel pump rod. I cleaned out the gas tank, snaked the fuel line with some welding wire then blew it out with air, replaced the fuel tank sock, moved the fuel filter to under the gas tank, replaced all the fuel lines and new compression clamps.... And then put everything back together and still had the same problem.

Later I figured out that it was my intake and carb icing. You see, the new exhaust I put in the original owner welded the heat risers closed. So even though I had them hooked up, I forgot to drill them out for my intake. Needless to say I already ordered up a set of new Empi EPC34 dual carbs. And thus no need for the heat risers.

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Last edited by Rust2Rods on Mon Aug 04, 2014 12:42 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Rust2Rods
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 11:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Since I was having all these troubles with the motor plus while driving I found a bad front transmission mount, I decided to pull the motor. I already had those dual EPC 34's and figured it might be easier to get everything installed and test fitted on the motor while its out. I also decided I wanted to powder coat the motor tins in the same color I am doing for my Mango Green 67 air ride beetle in my other journal and see how it holds up and if I like it or not. So, I pulled the motor and found that the previous owner was a complete idiot. wrong bolts, wrong nuts for the motor, wrong bolt on the starter and had a nut welded to it instead of having the right bolt. clutch cable wingnut was several bolts stacked to sorta make it work. So I pulled the motor out and started the whole process.... here are some pics of the progress....

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stack of nuts for the clutch cable instead of using a 2.00 part Rolling Eyes
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You can see the pile of parts from the motor behind it...
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Here the motor got a little bath and brushing....
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Rust2Rods
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 11:53 am    Post subject: Getting blasted.... Reply with quote

So, The engine tin was all cleaned up and blasted. I did some of the pieces, but I have a friend that does it commercially. He sand blasts semi trailers with a 3" hose and a rotary blaster. He sets the parts off to the side and on his passes, he just swipes past them. They get clean and fast... And it's cheap. 50 bucks for everything...and I get them back in a day or so. Since I got them back, I treated them to some after blast and cleaned them up a little more. This is a quick and dirty powder coating job. It didn't come out too bad...

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Rust2Rods
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 11:59 am    Post subject: Under Pressure.... Reply with quote

So, since I was making the motor look all pretty and stuff, I thought I'd add in an oil pressure gauge at the motor as well as a fuel pressure gauge. I had a hell of a time trying to find a fuel log block to split off the main fuel line to both carbs as well as having a gauge port in the right spot. Finally I found it. And it was reasonable. Billet aluminium and black. I think it will work nicely...

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Rust2Rods
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 12:02 pm    Post subject: Back in the saddle.... Reply with quote

So, now that the motor is done to my liking, I figured I'd put it back in the car... So off come the carbs, intake and manifolds, most of the tin and then put the motor back in the car... with some shuffling it went right back in.

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Rust2Rods
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 12:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Now that the motor is back in, I decided to take it for a spin. Parked it next to a thing...

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Rust2Rods
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 12:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So now that the cars running and running quite well, I ordered up some new tires for the front. I moved the fronts to the rear and scrapped the bald tires that were on the rear of the Empi Eagle wheels. The tires I ordered for the front were 165/45R15's Now, I wanted 145/65R15's but 1st they were 140.00 each and 2nd they were all out of stock and weren't getting any for a couple months. The 165/45's are about 1/2 shorter than the 145/65's and they were cheap. like $110 for the pair shipped to me... I then lowered the front a little more for those new low profile tires. The rears are now running 185/60R15's. The ones I tossed were 195/60R15's.

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Last edited by Rust2Rods on Mon Aug 04, 2014 12:47 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Rust2Rods
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 12:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I did some shopping on the samba and at my buddy Howard's place. The plan now is to put the chrome back on the car that the previous owner deleted. I also got me an 8 ball shifter for the car. Now that the interior is on it's way... time to do the outside...

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Rust2Rods
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 12:24 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So, fathers day rolled around and I decided to take the bug to it's first car show. I was maybe 1 of 3 VW's at this show. I had quite the gathering around the car.... you don't see them like this here in Wisconsin....

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Rust2Rods
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PostPosted: Mon Aug 04, 2014 12:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Around this time my buddy contacted me with the alignment machine. We put the beetle up on the rack. Sure enough. Remember when I said I was doing the front end and something was wrong? Well There were shims missing. I ordered up some shims and measured per the factory service manual and put the appropriate shims in for the right camber. And that fixed it right up. I am still getting the bumpsteer but that's because of the angle of the tierods. I am going to need to do a tierod flip sooner or later. I guess that will come when I start building a air ride beam for the front and add air ride to the rear....
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