My 1969 Restoration

[zmichael84]

Hello again! Well, after finishing a Baja last year (https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=689005&highlight=) I thought that old VW's weren't for me. But, last week my wife suggested I get another project (I must've been annoying her and this was her way to get me to spend more time in the garage). I searched through craigslist for something fun to tinker with this summer and came across a 69 Bug, complete, original, one-family car, "ran when parked" and sitting in a garage since 1992. I went to look at it without much excitement to go back to these cars.... and... well... now I have a new project.

My dog is ready for a ride

The negatives so far is that it's been repainted from green to blue at some point (coincidently, same as my Baja before it went white), and had some accident damage in the front that was repaired. I don't think I'm going to be able to salvage the headliner either.

Having done the Baja gave me a lot of good experience and knowledge to be used on this car. It's exciting to start with a mostly complete car. My plan for this one will be to clean/restore and re-use as many parts as possible. I'll try to do a better job of updating this thread as I go.

[zmichael84]

Yesterday I pulled the fuel tank and got it cleaned out. Nothing quite like the smell of 25 year old gas... I also got the carb disassembled and currently soaking in cleaner. Placed an order with jbugs for fuel and ignition parts, so while waiting on parts to show up, I decided to see how well the chrome would clean up. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves..

Here's what I used, plus some elbow grease:

I'm hoping to try to start it next weekend.

[johneliot]

My favorite year. It'll be a beauty when your done.
_________________
John

There is no distinctly American criminal class - except Congress.
Mark Twain

69 bug - "The Grey Ghost"

[Big Bull Shooter]

I'll be following this thread - I picked up a 69 last week. Nice work on the chrome!

[Dark Earth]

[Sarge11B]

Can't wait to see your progress. I'm restoring a 69 too.

[zmichael84]

Made some progress this weekend (good and bad). All of my replacement fuel and ignition parts came in so I finished up on cleaning and rebuilding the carb.

Installed a new battery, new fuel lines, plugs, wires, cap, rotor, (Would have done points, but I ordered the wrong part), primed the pump and decided to see if I could get it to start.

And, it started and ran for a few seconds! But, it shut off and I could only get it to fire with starting fluid. I suspected the pump, but upon inspection of the carb, I noticed the little brass injection tube was missing! Maybe I didn't have it seated well enough? Obviously I guess. I suspected it was swallowed by the intake. I tried to locate and retrieve it to no avail.

Frustrated, I decided to move onto stripping the interior to see what rust was waiting for me. Given my current mood, I expected the worst. Also, having spent much of the week reading through other member's rebuilds and seeing the extent of rust repairs many of you deal with, I was feeling less than optimistic.

Here we go...

Stripping all that tar board is a terrible job. Heat gun proved beneficial. No significant rust on the driver/passenger foot wells. Heater channels and door jams look great.

Rear luggage tray and seat area look great!

Battery tray is decent, but found a hole under the passenger seat.

Driver seat is decent, a couple small holes.

Headliner sucks, unfortunately. Not looking forward to this job.

So, feeling a little bit better, although not happy with the rust hole, I went back to the engine. I had planned on dropping it anyway to at least get it cleaned up and replace all the seals and gaskets. Might as well drop it now, I guess.

Disassembled the motor and removed the heads under the watchful eye of my supervisor.

Ended up finding the injector tube from the carb in one of the heads before it made it to the valves, so that's good.

And, how she sits for now.

I need to figure out what I want to do with the motor, but I'm leaning towards dropping it off at a machine shop to be cleaned up, gone through, and freshened up. Also need to find someone local to weld in patches in the floors. Hopefully it can be done in a couple small areas and I don't need to splice in all new pan sections. We'll see. Anybody know any good welders in the SoCal area?

[Rome]

It shouldn't take long at all to get the Beetle going again, since you are starting with such a solid car.

Please note that your taillamps are at different heights on the rear fenders- you can see how the left one's bottom edge is further down compared to the kink in the fender. Right one appears to be correct height. You can redrill the mounting holes in the left fender to bring the left taillamp up to match the right taillamp. Also, your taillamp housings are chrome plated, which were an accessory back in the late '60's. Hope they clean up as well as your headlamp rings.

[Pruneman99]

Wow what a great wife! Car looks pretty good too

[zmichael84]

[zmichael84]

Well, the local machine shop I had used in the past no longer does stock rebuilds; they're more of a performance engine shop. They offered to inspect things for me and help with part selection for when I rebuild myself, so that's nice. I think what I've decided to do for now is just clean it up as it sits and install new seals and gaskets and put it back in. I've got enough other things to work on in the meantime.

I have the following questions for the community though:

1) Can the engine compartment seals (the one around the apron and the one at the firewall) be installed after the engine is in, or should I replace them before re-installing the motor?

2) Can I use a large bore brake master cylinder with drum brakes? My MC sat empty and is and pretty corroded inside so I'm going to replace it, but I'm undecided if I'm keeping drums up front or going to transition to disc brakes. I don't want to have to replace it twice if I end up going that route at some point in the future.

3) Recommendations on my floor repair? I do not own a welder nor can I justify the cost and space for something I wouldn't use much. That, and I'm not very good or interested in welding. So, I'm going to have to get a mobile guy to weld it. I know they make all the floor patch panels, but they seem a bit overkill to me for my situation. The metal around the holes is solid, I've punched through as much as I could so I'm pretty confident in the integrity of the floor, even under the battery is sturdy. I plan on coating it all in POR when I'm done. Can these holes simply be filled with a small patch, or would the recommendation be to replace the large sections?

That's all for now. Thanks in advance for the help!

[zmichael84]

Sorry, I've been slacking with the updates. We've been on vacation and had some other things going on that I haven't had much time to tinker with the car. But, I did make some progress...

Continued cleaning up the engine. I have a new seal kit for it, just need to decide on clutch kit and muffler. A little more cleaning, and it'll be ready to go back in.

I went with the large bore MC and got it installed with new lines to the reservoir. I had a mild "oh crap" moment when I realized my MC had a third brake switch in the middle, I thought I ordered the wrong part! (well, I kinda did, but it'll work just fine) A little research and it's just for the idiot light to tell if you lose half your brakes. (A 68/69 "feature")
(http://www.superbeetles.com/Tech_talk/feb2.htm)

I was also able to re-install the fuel tank since there doesn't appear to be any work to be done below it at this time (knock on wood).

Next I moved onto the floors. Decided to order a new pan quarter from jbugs and found a local mobile welder to cut the old out and weld the new in. Also had him patch the other side.

Not the "prettiest" job, but I'll be covered. Function > Form, I guess. Now I just need to decide on how to coat it... POR, Loctite, Rust-Oleum, so many options...

I did get the two engine compartment seals, so most likely finishing and re-installing the engine will be the next project. That or the headliner.

[Frank Bassman]

I really really really really REALLY like those center caps.

Car is a great candidate for fixing!

-Frank

[Rome]

Would that engine shop you mentioned at least be able to check and partly rebuild your cylinder heads? The most prudent work would be to replace all 4 exhaust valves, clean the head and combustion chambers, check the valve guides for wear, and check the intake valves. Many times the intake valves can be reused, but they should be lapped onto the seats. If you have a few extra bucks, ask if the shop can perform a 3-angle valve job to all valves. This provides slightly better flow into/out of the combustion chambers.

Remove all of the pushrod tubes prior to assembly and stretch them slightly by carefully gripping the outer ends (careful- the ends are very sharp and can cut your finger) and pulling them apart. There is a specification of the total stretched length between the outer ends of the bellows in the repair manuals. When installing the tubes just before you fit the heads, rotate the tubes so that the seam that goes along the long side faces upward. Also best to replace the pushrod tube seals on each end with the white/cream-colored ones like those already on there.

And you must follow the proper tightening torque sequence for the nuts that fasten the head to the engine studs. The sequence and incremental torque values are listed in VW repair manuals.

[ashman40]

[joey1320]

Can't lie, those welds look like my drunk uncle made them

Great project. Car looks like a perfect resto candidate.
_________________
**1971 Super Project
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0

[zmichael84]

Another weekend down; another weekend spent in the garage.

I opted (against better judgement, probably) to not rebuild the engine. I've done engines before, but never a VW aircooled, so I'm hesitant to do it myself. I might in the future when the time comes, but I'm banking on the fact I've got some run time left in this thing. Also, where does it stop? Projects like that are so difficult to gauge sometimes. So, as punishment for this decision, I am painstakingly scrubbing everything by hand. Going through lots of engine degreaser, brake parts cleaner, glove, brushes, and scotch brite pads in the process. Everything is looking good so far, and I'm digging the outcome. I even spent some time with dental picks to get at the hard-to-reach areas.

1-2 cylinders

3-4 cylinders

Cylinder walls look great, pistons are good (mild carbon build up), heads seem fine, no visible cracks. Forgot to take head pics (d'oh).

Slowly coming back together. (I need a parts washer....)

I also decided to go the POR-15 route. I did one coat on the floor pans, followed by seam sealer on the welds, then another coat of POR. I used two 4-oz cans to do the inside. I still have to do the underside.

I also ordered a bunch of color samples for the interior. My wife, the artist of the family, is in charge of picking the interior colors. Right now we (she) are/is leaning towards off-white headliner, oatmeal carpet, saddle basket weave seats and saddle vinyl door panels. I'll be excited to see it come together!

That's all for now. I have evenings available this week, so my hope is to get the engine 100% back together and (fingers crossed) installed and running next weekend. Clutch kit and muffler should be in by then.

[zmichael84]

[zmichael84]

Yup, old seal was leaking

Ah, new

Old vs. New Clutch

I got the flywheel cleaned up and installed along with the new clutch. I didn't replace the pilot bearing in the gland nut because I wasn't 100% certain it was replaceable... I tried lightly tapping it from the threaded side to no avail. I just greased it and left it alone.

Tonight I'll be cleaning up the oil cooler and tin, and hopefully have the engine ready to go back in tomorrow night.

[VW_Jimbo]

Does it spin smooth? Stick your pinky finger in there, to feel it. If it is rough or not moving you will need to change it out.
_________________
Jimbo

There is never enough time to do it right the first time, but all the time necessary the second time!