1963 Ragtop beetle

[vinnkie]

Hi guys! I was watching and reading this forum for some time now so I wanted to show you what I bought in august of the last year.It is a car that my dad first saw 7 years ago and tried to buy it then but the owner didn't want to sell it.My dad is quite the persistent man so he called the guy every couple months and finally he agreed to sell the beetle.In the meantime my dad persuaded him to put the beetle on jack stands and has removed the wheels which was a pretty big deal considering that the car was parked outside and on grass .We came for the car a few days after the guy agreed to sell it and there was some diffrence to see...He said that some kids have thrown rocks at the car so they have dented it and broken the driver's side window and the back window.Broken windows resulted in rain coming in and destroying the floor but at that time I wasn't too conserned with it then because of me having the beetle just put a smile on my face .
This are some pics of the car from where it came and the state in which it was...

...and in the garage after it came home

I'm not sure if you can see it on the pictures is that the car is an american model which is quite rare in Croatia and the whole Europe.
I hope you guys like it as much as I do and I'll be putting more images of the progress which has been made and what will be made in the future .
_________________
1963 Ragtop Beetle

[irvanm]

That car had quite a view while it was sitting there. Neat find.

[Dake]

Nice looking ride. Nice find any shot of the inside.

[rcooled]

Good score...hard to beat a '63 ragtop

Post more photos when you get a chance. What are your plans for it?
_________________
'63 Ragtop (current)
'65 Ghia coupe (totaled)
'67 Ghia convertible (current)
'69.5 Ghia convertible and
'62, '63, '65, '69 Bugs (all long gone)

[hitest]

Beautiful! My first ragtop was a gulf blue '63 with the correct blue sunroof cover. Well done. Mine even had a similar rust pattern in the qtrs.
_________________

[rsthj]

Another beauty getting back on the road. Looking forward to more pictures!

[62ItalianRagtop]

Very very nice .... it seems untouched

Are you sure is it 63 and not 62 (I can see wolfsburg badge on front hood) ?
_________________
LOOKING FOR 62 ENGINE WITH NUMBER FROM 6.904.xxx TO 6.915.xxx
http://tettodistraccio.blogspot.com/

[wardk]

Nice car , I am building it's twin my serial # indicates it's a 61. If you are going to rebuild it prepare yourself for lots of work. When I first posted Grampa Pete warned that once you remove the pan it will probably be more than year before you drive it again, He was right, I spend more time on mine than most being semi retired . hundreds of hrs so far and finally ready for paint a crossroads for me, now I can start putting it back together vs dismantling and repairing. Good luck PS putting a picture of beautiful finished bug on the shop wall helps.

[vinnkie]

There are a few things that I forgot to say about the beetle so I'll say them now.The bug was put on that place in 95' also that's the last year that it was registered.The car doesn't have papers beacause it wasn't put in the inheritance papers before the original owner passed away(not sure if there is such a thing in America),but it was in the family the whole time(grandson was selling the car).Therefore we needed to find a new chassis with papers to connect with car,the only reason that I'm not feeling sad about it is that the original chassis needed new floors and the new chassis had new floors already welded on .
So here are some pics of the inside,trunk and the motor...

Engine is a bit younger,it's a 66' but still not running.

When I was cleaning the inside of the car I stepped on the metal behind the back seats and I fell through .

That happened beacuse of the rain coming in through the back window which had been broken with rocks .
The paint is gone stay so it's going to be a ratlook like Dake's bug ,also the rest of the car fenders,doors,hoods etc...,is healthy with no rust holes .
P.S. I'm still not sure how to put multiple quotes in one post so I'll try to do them once at a time...
_________________
1963 Ragtop Beetle

[vinnkie]

[vinnkie]

[Doktor]

Aaaa, VW Bug from Veprinac, close to the city of Rijeka is finaly in good hands...

Please, post more pics, as soon as you make any progress...

[vinnkie]

As I've said in the last time the bug needed a new chassis,so we've gotten her one...

It's a year younger than the original one and completely rust holes free so there wasn't a lot of work needed for it to become nice again as you will see.The chassis was cleaned to bare metal and then coated with Wurth rust converter which turns what's left of the rust to a paint ready surface(after applying it changes the color of rust to purple).After that we sprayed primer and put some silicone which is specifically used to cover connections of metal,in this case also to prevent from dirt going in those spots.Finally we sprayed some color on it,it is dark grey so it's easier to see in future when it will be driven for some time if there will be some rust spots or anything similar to that.

The upper side of the chassis was painted in three parts:front,middle,rear...

The bottom side of the chassis was painted all at once,also we didn't remove the gearbox from the chassis since there was no need for it.

You can see the Wurth rust converter in action ...

It has been done really good and the time was taken to ensure that everything was done properly .Chassis was the last thing that was in 2015 that I have pics of.There is no pics but the interior of the car was taken out and the bug was separated from the chassis.As I am a student I didn't have a lot of time in this year until the end of february because of the exams so there was nothing done to the bug .Now I have some time and I'm doing on the beetle again,more pics soon ...
_________________
1963 Ragtop Beetle

[arizonabuckeye]

Just wanted to mention that your axel boots should be cocked at an angle not straight up and down.

[vinnkie]

[MomoMoto]

Boot seams at 10 or 2 o'clock, not straight up. Forward toward the front of the car, so when you are driving, the fluid rolls back and away from the seam.

Hope that helps clarify.

Awesome build, thank you for sharing!
_________________
------------------
'61 Beetle Ragtop
'15 Golf GTI

[glutamodo]

VW always said to have the seam horizontal towards the rear. I don't think whether you go front or rear matters that much but you certainly don't want them straight up, which puts extra stress on the seam every time the axles "swing". And I've always gone a bit up from horizontal as mentioned, 2/10 oclockish, oo in line with the nut there on the axle tube retainer:

_________________
Andy T.


IMAGE NOTE: It has been noted that Chrome based browsers may have issues in displaying my vast image library, which use non-secure links and are on an FTP server. Images should still be viewable if the link is clicked though.
I do not know how to fix this. All I can say is it all works fine for me with what I use, Firefox.

[vinnkie]

Hey guys just to say thanks for the info about axel boots and to post a few things that have been done recently ... With the patina on the bug that I wanted to preserve I was thinking about a way to clean the inside of the fenders so this is what we made...

It's basically an OSB panel cut to fit the fender on it and then put on metal legs so it's on the right height for grinding the rust .For now I've cleaned all four of them and we're debating to send to be sand blasted or not beacuse of the rust still on them also it's quite hard to clean inside of the edges(destroyed 1 drill on them ).Also we've cut the metal that has dissapeared on my bug from a lot younger bug,the one which is located behind the back seat and cleaned it to bare metal as we've done on everything so far ...

You can see the diffrence between the cleaned and rusted .

It will now be sent to be welded to the beetle and after that painted, for now it only has rust converter and primer on it.Also I've wanted to ask you guys about the reverse Hella lights that I've bought recently because the ones that can be seen of Samba don't have two contacts inside for two bulbs(or I haven't seen any).

One of the last things that I've wanted to mention is that I've got a original roof rack but I'm still not sure if it's going on the bug because it's a ragtop beetle(forgot to take a pic ).As soon as the fenders are painted I'll put some pics .
_________________
1963 Ragtop Beetle

[Joseph DR]

I love that color and think this bug is in good hands. Great find!
_________________
1964 Beetle

[grandpa pete]

Why do you think you need two connections for the backup light ? ....battery in on the wire / ground out on the vehicle metal is how the circuit works with one bulb .
_________________
63 two fold rag
66 sedan delivery Type 6

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=569619&highlight=sedan+delivery