The Bug (reborn)! 1974 Canadian Standard Beetle

[Ktmb]

I've been lurking on the forums for a while but haven't posted anything because I haven't gotten enough work done on the car to justify it.

But I spent the last two weeks grinding off paint and shearing through rusty bolts and if that doesn't cut it I don't know what does!

My parents bought me this car back in...2006-7? or so as a daily driver so I could get back and forth to my early morning band practices. It had been partially restored with new pans and paint and ran really well having never sat around. It needed some basic maintenance including new brakes. We had the drums refinished and then couldn't for the life of us figure out how to put them back together. We know now the backing plates on the front were installed upside down!

The paint looked like it was applied with a roller but it wasn't rusty so a couple of years later I got it redone to something much prettier. A local guy cut me a really good deal by just taping it up and not pulling the fenders or anything which was great for my starving student budget.

Eventually the clutch started slipping (entirely my fault from learning on it, I'll admit!) So that got swapped out.

I drove it in all the provinces BC-ON and then it sat for a few years in my parents garage. That's where it is now.

Every province has different safety standards so we did whatever patch jobs were needed to pass. We could usually get all the electrical circuits and windshield washer/spare tire system working at once for about a day, tops, so there was a lot of careful timing involved.

The paint needs to be redone as there's rust popping up in all the usual places and since I never want to repaint it again, I'm going to get it done right. As I'm ripping everything apart anyway, we plan on doing a couple upgrades along the way so it can be my new daily driver in the big TO.

To-do list (in no particular order):

1) install the dual carb kit from AC.net so I can "safely" drive it down the 401.
2) install a stereo system. This was the basic basic model and never came with a radio or anything
3) fix the rear defroster. Canada is cold and it would be nice if it worked
4) re run all the air hoses for the heat/fresh air system. Because Canada is cold. We are missing half of them and the other half are useless at best
7) install the new wiring harness we have. There are so many shorts and strange junction boxes in the old wiring we are just going to start fresh. Note the orange safety glove in the trunk. It's keeping a bunch of wire ends from grounding on the frame.
replace the front seats with something beefier to balance out the lack of airbags etc for the 401.
9) electrify the washer fluid. I have the best switch ever to put in the dash. It's going to be amazing.

In progress list:

1) strip all the paint and repair all the dings and dents and rust holes

2) inspect/clean and paint/protect everything we expose as we go

Done list:

1) disc brake conversion on the front (need to get spacers though the calipers rub on the stock rims)

I've discovered that the front left fender and front apron have been replaced by the PO. I think they might have come off a parts car he had sitting beside it that may have been a 71 or so. The welds aren't pretty but they are strong. The original paint was bright red (African red maybe?) and the interior was either a middle grey or black. Both are in there and I don't know what came from what car.
The middle paint colour was the exact same shade of red/orange as a pencil crayon I had as a kid. It didn't look good in any light.
It looked even worse after I got the outside painted a darker cherry red and it clashed with the inside of the doors and trunk.

This is what it looked like before I started ripping it apart. If you looked closely you could see the rust bubbling up but it looked fine from a distance!

3 layers of paint and their respective primers did a good job of hiding holes like this. All the posts/structure are sound so we are just going to use non- welding fixes.

Mesh for strength plus some reinforcing on the inside around the holes.

The lights had been leaking or had condensation for years so I've cleaned and painted them and will replace all the seals.

Disc brake conversion (haven't ordered the new shocks yet I'm still deciding what to go with) and tidied up the bars. All the joints etc are sound and in good shape under some mild rust pitting that's been treated now.

All 4 bumper shocks were pitted but not compressed as far as I can tell. They all match anyway.

Most of the metal is in great shape. There were some large bondo patches I sanded off to reveal... Minor dents.

All the layers visible together. This is before I invested in a large can of heavy duty paint stripper.

The original stickers are intact and I'll do my best to save them!


She looks rougher than when I started but I have faith it'll be worth it in the end.

[Buggeee]

Keep up the good work its going to be worth it in the end! I stripped the paint off of mine as well, to bare metal like that. A body-man friend suggested that I spray the bare metal with a self etching primer to keep it from flash rusting, which may happen in a matter of days depending on the weather. It will start to get a faint golden hue to it, which is a bit scary. I washed off the paint stripper residue with dawn dish soap and water. Then dried it and I went over all of the metal with scotch brite pads (green scouring pads) to prepare the surface and then I got about 5 cans of rustoleum rattle can self etching primer (its kind of a flat green look to it) and gave it a quick coat to preserve it until I had time to do the body work more completely. The self-etching primer seals out moisture. The gray rattle can primer does not seal out moisture, as it is not like the epoxy primer people shoot with an air compressor. Of course, if you shoot it with proper two part epoxy primer that would be good too, but I dd not have an air compressor.
_________________
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

[Ktmb]

My parents have an air compressor but there's no good way to get a dust free environment where it is or I would have no problem buying painting equipment and learning how to do it.
(I might learn how to weld as it is; there are a couple little cracks that need repairing).

I coated everything with rust killer (brand name) which should protect it until I can get back out there. It says it also works as a paintable primer but I don't know if it would seal out moisture. Luckily Alberta this time of year is very, very dry.
I went with that instead of a primer because I didn't know what the next step was and figured if I'm going to have to sand it back off again... Might as well have treated any rust in the meantime.

The whole underside of the car was coated in rubberized undercoating which besides taking hours to remove, allowed surface rust to spread on the underside of all the fenders.

Next time I'm working on it I'll definitely do what you did though and properly clean it and then find an etching primer. It might have to sit for a few months or get moved (I'm losing my garage) and I want it to survive the ordeal!

[Ktmb]

I've still got a lot of tear down to do but I've finally managed to start resembling a few pieces.

I pulled the old wiring harness and ran the new one through the channels. I plan to just bag and tape it where it comes out the front to get it painted.

I'm still debating dropping the engine for the paint.
It ran well when I parked it and I'm worried that if I pull and then reinstall the engine it might not run so well, if at all. On the flip side, I'm only planning on painting it once and it would be a shame to pull all the windows/wires/interior and leave the engine bay old and rusty.

Looking a bit like a buggy without all the pretty bits!

New shiny wires that are all in one piece, not wrapped in a pound of tape, melted, broken or otherwise hazardous!

Rear shocks are on order but the front end is pretty much done. We had some issues bleeding the new front discs but the system has at least been flushed and is now closed up and all clean. On my next trip I'm going to finish installing new soft hoses where applicable.

All the steering and struts are cleaned and painted. The fuel tank has a pin hole (just one I suppose I should be grateful!) I was using a rust converting and cleaning compound but it wasn't as effective as I was hoping so I'm just going to take it to a radiator repair shop and get it welded, cleaned and sealed all at once and be done with it.

(That's the old wiring harness-it was cracked, split, and spray foamed into place)
The floorboards were replaced by the previous owner (about 10-15 years ago now) and I'm thinking that's the remnants of a POR type product. It's failed and trapped enough moisture that there's surface rust under it and it's flaking and peeling something terrible. That'll be a project way down the line to fix though.

I'm hoping that after my next trip it'll be ready to go get painted... But the budget is a little restrictive right now so I might do all the work I can on it and delay the biggest single expense a little while longer.

[Ktmb]

Once I got 90% of the old paint off, I found a local paint and body shop that was A-well rated and respected and B-willing to take on the daunting project of working on what little car I had left.

After some close inspection they think the previous owner had repaired front end collision damage by replacing the front clip and left fender. The hood was very carefully straightened by someone who knows metal and the small dings around the handle are the only remaining indication it was ever crumpled.

The front clip didn't really have enough metal to save it like I was hoping, plus the weld holding it on was starting to separate so I ordered a new one off California Imports and we started the long and very, very expensive process of repairing the rust damage.

The engine bay was pretty rusty as well and failed the screwdriver test in most of the structurally important places. Hours of custom weld patches brought it back up to snuff though!

(I sprayed rust killer on any bare metal I uncovered since it's usually a few months in between visits so the grey is covering a lot of the rust).

Born in the summer of 73, she's a strange mix of bits and pieces but she's mine!

I had a lot of company but not a lot of help in the cold winter months.

We ended up dropping the engine to do the engine bay properly. As feared, it no longer runs after chucking it back in to prepare for the move. It cranks freely so it isn't seized up and I think we just need to work on the spark/getting the wiring harness hooked up properly and go from there.

I was originally going to get the bumpers rechromed while it was still in Alberta (it's still legal to do the environmentally horrific triple chrome process there) but time and money have run out. That's a project for another day (year) now.

[Ktmb]

Once we got the bones to the shop, they started cutting, welding, straightening....then more cutting, more welding, and more straightening...

The back left fender couldn't be saved. I was willing to try but there just wasn't enough metal left to work with once I ground through all the old bondo. A hole had been patched (with an old cut up piece of garden hose to fake the rim) and it had failed and gotten wet years ago. A hole the size of a dime was now bigger than my fist and cracked halfway up to the tail light to boot.

The shiny new replacement fender was half the weight and very sad looking in comparison but it'll have to do. I didn't take any pictures of it to hide my shame.

The PO had cut out the rusted corned and welded a patch in... And then used about an inch of filler to level it. We welded in a new quarter panel patch and then did a custom patch on the rusted running board bolt hole on the fender. Nice and flat and strong!

Since everything was getting fixed anyway, I decided to get all the small holes professionally fixed and welded instead of patched.

The engine bay after all the custom welding work to replace the rusted out structural beams. Carb windows are cut in and just big enough to fit a hand holding a wrench!
Well...big enough to fit my hand anyway.

She really does look a little sad but this is the turning point. No more tear down!

Primer sure does look nice! The shop was great at sending me photos (and I suppose I was great at funding their vacations for the next 2 years) so the work was able to progress without me being in town.

Super sparkly dark turquoise inside the cab, engine bay, fuel door and front hood.

Dark super sparkly grey that ranges from bright silver in the sun to near black in the shade.
I asked for extra flake. They did not disappoint. The only downside is how hard it is to get a good picture of the colour!

Paint complete! Pick up day was very exciting and the shop was very kind in using their trailer to bring it home for me.

The front fenders don't line up. They did in the shop. Yes its the right fender. Yes the bolt holes are lined up...Yes I'm going to take them off and rebolt them starting from the front so they line up. I just really wanted to get them safely on the car for transport and get the beading in so I could see what it looked like.

She's starting to look like a car again!
(the lights are just sitting in place I'm not at all ashamed I dressed her up for the picture!)

My parents are moving across the country in a few weeks so it's going into their uhaul and coming to the big city by the end of the month! I'm excited to finally have it near enough I can work on it daily.

Now to buy tools....Alllllll the tools!

[kirk1015]

Looks awesome, Fantastic work. That color reminds me of a color VW currently
uses called "Platinum Grey Metallic". Though it maybe a shade darker.
_________________
Jim Douglas....I am Not.

[Ktmb]

I looked up a few pictures. I'd say it's close, but mine's a little less blue.
I don't think it's even a VW colour. They had a couple hundred different paint cards for all the brands and then we just added more flake to sparkle it up.

Thanks!

[Ktmb]

She's finally home! I hesitate to call Toronto home but if the bug is here and I'm here... It's home enough.

It turns out bugs fit very happily into U-Haul trucks. An engine would've helped get it up the ramp (or so I'm told I wasn't home!)...
But with the brakes hooked up it came down very nicely!

After work I spent a while opening boxes and trying to figure out where to start. I don't have very many tools here and I don't want racoons to take up residence inside it, so windows it is! I didn't actually get to the install though because the headliner was pulled out of the corner during demo and needed resticking. For lack of clamps, I found some paperclips. I shall reconvene tomorrow!

(I have a pop-up garage in the mail so the tarp/cover/blanket combo is just to protect it from thunderstorms until then).

[Ktmb]

Today: the long awaited day! We tried starting the car.


That's a lie. We got it to start successfully (yesterday) for the first time after trying a good couple of weeks on and off.

But it started!

And it even sounded good.

It ran for about thirty seconds. That's about all the gas I had available at the time.

I ended up replacing the ignition coil, electronic ignition (now they match instead of being the exact ones the manufacturer says NOT to put together....) plus the distributer cap (it was pretty worn), spark plug wires (one of them kept failing the continuity test... Plus it was ollllllldddddd!).

I then started the long process of charging my battery enough to try to start it so we could troubleshoot why it did everything except....work.

The starter motor worked great. (It should- I remember doing without for 2 weeks once upon a time before I could get a new one in)

We had power at all the places that wanted it, and none where it didn't.

The spark at the plug was a bright happy blue.

So why wouldn't it start?

And why did it smell oh so strongly of gas when we tried?

Well you see, we were feeding fuel directly into the carb. My fuel pump is maybe bueno maybe toast. Either way it needed priming having been empty a good while. We watched alllll the videos about bench starting engines and thought it was fairly straight forward. Chuck some gas in and away she goes!

Not quite.

We were of course putting the gas into the wrong spot (not the "carb throat" as I know now but rather the big space around it).

The oil dipstick smelled like fuel.
The sparkplugs smelled like fuel.
It all smelled like fuel.

Of course it didn't start. Why should it when we'd poured the bug equivalent of Niagara falls of gasoline into the poor thing.

After an oil change and a spark plugs out airing/manual cranking or two....

We put the gas in the right spot.

Who would've thought doing it the right way would actually work?

[74 standard]

Great to see another Canadian '74 rebuild. Congrats and keep it up!

[Ktmb]

This little piece of carpet gave me no end of grief for a while. The metal flange had been bent down just enough the rubber wouldn't slip in, but you couldn't see it just by looking at it.

The solution was using my trusty flat ended spoon wrapped in greasy paper towel from the engine bay to carefully lift the flange. After getting the rubber in and glueing it down I stepped on the flange to bend it back into place, locking the rubber in.

The side carpet originally came to the door pillar but I'm loving the blue too much to hide it so I cut it back to the curve of the wheel well where the metal starts getting rough.

Carpet complete!

I probably shouldn't have inhaled all the glue fumes in an enclosed non-ventilated area but it's raining.

[Tim Donahoe]

The carpet looks great.

Tim
_________________
Let's do the Time Warp again!

Richard O'Brien

[Ktmb]

That's after dinner with the floor mats and sound deadener back in. It needs a good clean (everything does) but right now the focus is getting it back on the road.

[Ktmb]

The appraiser is coming by tomorrow.

Fingers crossed I can find an insurance provider who will actually let me drive it, AND not buy a second car to do it.

Motorcycles just don't quite seem to cut it.

I had one old dim bulb and one old bright bulb...so I upgraded the headlights.

Steel wool in 0000 fineness took off all the old glue rust and crap from the chrome and made it presentable again. You can still see all the dings and scratches but boy is it shiny!

I even polished the floor mats. That didn't go so well. They are not pretty but they work.

The headliner is worse for wear around the back window. We had such a hard time getting the new seal on I had to pull the headliner back in spots to do it. I guess I could try poking it under the edge of the seal but it really doesn't seem like there's enough space.

Nice door.

Less nice door. There's something off with the window crank gear. It only fits this chunky old winder and not the new one. But the chunky one fits both sides.
I dunno.

Fingers crossed the appraiser says it's not one big pile of failure!

[74 standard]

Another Canadian 74 here. I was really happy with what the appraiser came back with on mine. About 2k less than I have in it which is way better than I had hoped. I received an agreement from my insurance company with their accepted value (around 20k), a bit less than the appraisal but still ok. I don’t have any mileage restrictions that I saw. But I do have other cars with them so they know it’s not my primary vehicle.

[Ktmb]

Wow that looks amazing!

I think that's the original colour of mine as well. I think it's to see them better when it's snowing.

I'm in Ontario (for now) and I haven't had any luck yet with insurance for anything. Why can't they believe I have a motorcycle and an old bug and absolutely nothing practical?!