Yikes! I bought a '74 Super!!

[vamram]

Thanks Buggee! Poor guy's been languishing in the shadow of yellow '73 for almost 4 years now. That's about to change!!!
Hopefully I'll have it on the road by April! I have to sort out a couple of electrical gremlins, replace the MC (with a WCM German one), and a few other things. Stay tuned!!
_________________
Eventually, "we are what we pretend to be.’”
Give peace a chance - Stop Russian-Soviet Aggression!!

'74 Super 9/16 - present, in refurb process.
'73 Super - 6/18 - Present - Daily Driver!
'75 Super Le Grande...waiting it's turn in line behind '74.
Click to view image
Save the Supers!!

[vamram]

Back home to begin work on the car. Looks really good up close.

I have some gripes. I'm not sure what the paint shop did to the wiring, but I no longer have speedo lights (except for the emergency flashers), headlights, parking lights or license plate lights. I'm assuming they cut my FRESHLY TRANSPLANTED front headlights harness to remove the fenders and the license plate light wiring to remove it from the decklid for paint and f'd up the reconnections in reassembly! Who knows what they did to kill the oil and generator lights. I noticed fuse #12 is blown. And the battery was low/dead when I went to move the car into my driveway this morning, after sitting for 10 days. My '73 will start on the first turn of the key even after sitting for 3 weeks. Ugh...

I'll start w/adding the fender beading, new chrome molding, hood seals and running boards so at least I feel like I'm making progress. Then it's off to electrical troubleshooting!! And I want to get it right too. I did on my ' 73 and *never* have electrical issues w/it because of something I connected or spliced badly.
_________________
Eventually, "we are what we pretend to be.’”
Give peace a chance - Stop Russian-Soviet Aggression!!

'74 Super 9/16 - present, in refurb process.
'73 Super - 6/18 - Present - Daily Driver!
'75 Super Le Grande...waiting it's turn in line behind '74.
Click to view image
Save the Supers!!

[Buggeee]

Its stunning!
_________________
1966 Sportsmobile Camper https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0
72 Super Duper http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=672387
(adopted out) 61 Turkis Pile https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=728764

[H2OSB]

That looks incredibly similar to my car. In other words, I love it!

H2OSB
_________________
(o\_i_/o) I'm not a vegetarian because I love animals, I'm a vegetarian because I hate plants.

[Rome]

Hi vam; the '74 looks fabulous in its fresh color! I also like that you chose a "narrow" sport wheel for the front and genuine Sports Bug rims for the rear to even out the front and rear track widths.

Have you figured out how to read the circuit tracks on the '73+ factory wiring diagrams? I never did, but since your '74 only has a few more wires than your '73, you could use a '72 wiring diagram (the "old" layout style) to track your possibly cut/chopped wires on the '74.

[Lost69Convertible]

[vamram]

I know, right?! I absolutely LOVE elephant feet!
_________________
Eventually, "we are what we pretend to be.’”
Give peace a chance - Stop Russian-Soviet Aggression!!

'74 Super 9/16 - present, in refurb process.
'73 Super - 6/18 - Present - Daily Driver!
'75 Super Le Grande...waiting it's turn in line behind '74.
Click to view image
Save the Supers!!

[MACJELLY58]

WOW !!

What else is there to say. You must be so excited. Sorry about the electrical, hopefully something really simple.

[heimlich]

You went all out. Those are OE taillights with the 4 bulbs and grey beading.
_________________
www.vwnos.com [email protected]
Classic Brands. Classic Quality.
Not all parts are made the same. NOS OE/OEM parts made mainly in West Germany, Early Germany, and Early Brazil are where VW produced the best quality parts and best fitting products.
5% Off your order with coupon code: 5%OFF
Restored Distributors Available (<--Click here)

[vamram]

Headliner's as done as it's going to get! I've done 4 headliners previously (well 3 since the last was a redo) and I've no desire to another one any time soon. I kept this one because it's installed well and in very good condition, free of wrinkles. But it had lots of staining/yellowing around the window and frame areas where glue was applied way back when it was installed by a PO.

Here it is prepped for paint. You can see the serious staining at the C-pillar and around the window edges. Driver side was worse and the area around the windshield was really bad.

I gave it a quick wipe down w/alcohol, then used a cuddy white vinyl boat paint. I also painted the visors and b-pillar handholds. I'm happy w/how it turned out, this will give the headliner a few more years of life.

Next up - start tracing and testing wiring to find anything the paint shop didn't connect back together properly and any dead shorts. I already found one, the dome light's ground wire had come loos of its crimp and was just flopping around in the roof.
_________________
Eventually, "we are what we pretend to be.’”
Give peace a chance - Stop Russian-Soviet Aggression!!

'74 Super 9/16 - present, in refurb process.
'73 Super - 6/18 - Present - Daily Driver!
'75 Super Le Grande...waiting it's turn in line behind '74.
Click to view image
Save the Supers!!

[Tim Donahoe]

The headline looks great, Victor.

Tim
_________________
Let's do the Time Warp again!

Richard O'Brien

[Buggeee]

[heimlich]

That's unbelievable how good that paint looks.
_________________
www.vwnos.com [email protected]
Classic Brands. Classic Quality.
Not all parts are made the same. NOS OE/OEM parts made mainly in West Germany, Early Germany, and Early Brazil are where VW produced the best quality parts and best fitting products.
5% Off your order with coupon code: 5%OFF
Restored Distributors Available (<--Click here)

[H2OSB]

Whatever you did to the paint, cut it or wax it, it looks amazing. Me also owning a Marina Blue '74, I can directly compare.

Keep up the fine work.
H2OSB
_________________
(o\_i_/o) I'm not a vegetarian because I love animals, I'm a vegetarian because I hate plants.

[DUNGBTL]

Headliner really looks great!

[vamram]

Thanks for the kind comments Gents! It really does look nice, I don't think anyone seeing it in person would guess it was spray painted.

Now starts the really fun stuff - getting all the electrical connections right and tracing/fixing any dead shorts, incorrectly wired items, etc to hopefully resolve the parasitic drain this car's always had. I also have to repatch a couple of holes on the floors, one behind the batter the other on the driver side at about the same spot. I patched these back in 2016 using fiberglass (documented early on somewhere in this thread I think), since I didn't know how to weld and had no welder. I'll inspect them before I pull the trigger on that, but I think that's where this is headed.
_________________
Eventually, "we are what we pretend to be.’”
Give peace a chance - Stop Russian-Soviet Aggression!!

'74 Super 9/16 - present, in refurb process.
'73 Super - 6/18 - Present - Daily Driver!
'75 Super Le Grande...waiting it's turn in line behind '74.
Click to view image
Save the Supers!!

[vamram]

Puppy Twinkie & big sister Ginger approve of the latest purchase from WCM - all-new shocks and impact strips for the factory bumpers and a few other trinkets from Topline! Thanks girls!

_________________
Eventually, "we are what we pretend to be.’”
Give peace a chance - Stop Russian-Soviet Aggression!!

'74 Super 9/16 - present, in refurb process.
'73 Super - 6/18 - Present - Daily Driver!
'75 Super Le Grande...waiting it's turn in line behind '74.
Click to view image
Save the Supers!!

[Buggeee]

Dog approved! A good day
_________________
1966 Sportsmobile Camper https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0
72 Super Duper http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=672387
(adopted out) 61 Turkis Pile https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=728764

[vamram]

Made some progress today. Assembled and installed the new running boards from WCM, and installed the fender beading on the rear fenders. Running boards were a great fit and quality I think.

Any suggestions about what to do w/the old front bumper? Chrome under the impact strip is peeling and from what I've heard from a local club, getting this rechromed would cost 100s of $$. Painting it black doesn't seem like it would be a good combo w/my Marina Blue.

_________________
Eventually, "we are what we pretend to be.’”
Give peace a chance - Stop Russian-Soviet Aggression!!

'74 Super 9/16 - present, in refurb process.
'73 Super - 6/18 - Present - Daily Driver!
'75 Super Le Grande...waiting it's turn in line behind '74.
Click to view image
Save the Supers!!

[Rome]

You can make improvements on your front bumper with minimal expense. Polish the existing good/unpeeled chrome with 0000-grade steel wool. For the peeled areas, hit them with a brass bristle wire brush, then sand down the rust craters by hand/fingertip using 220 wet grit. Wipe off, let dry, then apply rust converter such as Rust-Mort with an acid brush. If you have some left-over Master Series silver paint, that can be used (2 coats) with a model car brush instead of the rust converter as a base and rust barrier. Apply it right to the edge of the good chrome but don't go beyond.

Find some chrome fingernail polish and give the area 2 coats.

Then give the entire bumper face a good wax job for rain/dew protection. This'll all make the bumper a "20-footer". I did similar work to the junkyard-bought used German bumper on my '77 30 years ago (!) but need to touch up the spots where the rust is coming back.

If you paint the bumpers a satin black, then you could apply a light blue marine vinyl tape in the groove to mimic the style of the '73 Sports Bug bumpers. Hopefully you could find a blue that comes close to the Marina Blue. This would break up the visual "bulkiness" of an all-black bumper, though you'd thereby not use your new rubber center strips. Or, paint them in the same Marina Blue (gloss or satin?) which would look great with the rubber strips you just received. Or paint them a satin silver, along with the rubber strips. They'd resemble some of the Mexico-built Beetle bumpers. But I think that painting is your last resort if the chrome can't be made presentable with my suggestions above.

There's an episode of The History Channel's "Counting Cars" where Ryan the painter tests out a new machine which sprays chrome-like "paint" using a special machine. Used it on the vast amounts of chrome bumpers on a mid '60's Cadillac, with excellent results. Unfortunately the details to prep the bumpers prior to that painting were not shown... I wonder if there's a custom paint shop in your area that has such equipment, as a mid-cost alternative to a rechrome?