rharveland
Samba Member
Joined: May 09, 2017
Posts: 1
Location: Minnesota
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 Posted: Tue May 09, 2017 8:13 am Post subject: "New" project: '71 coupe |
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Hi, new person to the community. Picked up a project ~10 years ago (had 3 boys under 10 so just getting started on fixing it). Thought I'd share a couple pictures with the group.
I was in California for a couple of years in the mid 2000's. Met a guy who had parked this Ghia in his garage many years prior (last tabs were 1990). He found out I was interested in older cars. Said he had an old VW that was in his garage and his wife was asking him to get rid of it so she could park her new Lexus in the garage. Asked if I would be interested in it because he had to make room in his garage. Went to look at it expecting a Beetle and found this.
Well, decided to try to turn it over... Filled the cylinders with oil, let it sit overnight, came back the next day and there was no movement at all. Was moving back to MN a couple weeks later and figured if I couldn't get it running fairly easily, I'd have to pass. So, I thanked him, said I'd have to pass, and asked what his plans were for it. He said he was going to call a junkyard to come get it. That changed my mind. I went and got a tow hitch put on the back of the minivan, rented a tow dolly, and took it off his hands. Towed it back to MN in 2006 and put it in my single-car garage (and promptly let it sit because the kid activities took over free time).
Fast forward to 2016 and my 17 year old son decides that he wants to go to school to become a mechanic after high school. He loves changing brakes, oil, and anything else he can find a YouTube video for. He's never been more happy than when he comes out from under a car covered in grease/oil.
My father-in-law suggests to him that he should try to rebuild an engine. So, I say, why not crack into the VW? It's got to be a simpler engine than a V8.. So, we unbolted the engine and brought it to my indoor workroom (a.k.a. the furnace room  ) to tinker with. Found the reason the engine wouldn't move:
So, rebuild of the engine is going slow but almost there. Hope to have the engine running by the time he graduates from High School in June. On to the engine thread for questions...
++Rob |
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