My european 67' budget build

[NorBullitt]

Hi

After beeing away from the VW world for a few years,
a 67 project ended up in my garage last year.

Its belonged to a colleague of mine for the last 10 years,
but between other projects it did not progress much.
One day he mentioned that it might be time to let it go.



I wasn't looking for a project, but half jokingly I offered him the 1500$ he paid for it 10 years ago, knowing that prices have risen.
To my big suprise he accepted.

The car was fairly complete, but dissasembled.

Rust-wise, it is quite good. One rear bumper mount need replacing,
along with the rear portion of the heater chanels.
Theres also some fender mounts, seatbelt mounts and a few spot of surface rust. Im sure more will be discovered, but so far its not terrifying.

My plans are to do a body off restoration, but it will be slow and on a budget.

So far I have removed the engine, to paint the tinware, do a bit of engine maintenance and tend to some surface rust in the engine bay.

And also stumbled onto some foosh wheels (fuchs replica) in 5x205, that I could not resist buying:

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1967 Bug (euro)

[NorBullitt]

Todays work; got the engine bay painted.

Im thinking of repainting the car i L87 pearl white,
rather than the original fontana grey.

The color is not correct to a 67, but I happen to like that color better.
So the engine bay got painted as a test.
Might do a panel as well before deciding, but so far Im happy with it.

This car did not have a hazard switch originaly. But I managed to obtain a correct 67 hazard switch and installed it in the dash.

Also, someone had installed a steering lock ignition switch.
The original ignition switch was disconnected but left in the dash.
That did look quite silly. Pondering wath to replace it with, I thought a vintage push button starter would be kinda cool:

The switch is from a 50's Ford F-100, and was almost a perfect fit after some grinding.
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1967 Bug (euro)

[NorBullitt]

Have also started tearing down the engine.
Theres was some major oil leaks, far beyond dripping or the car marking its territory.
Seems the pushrod tubes might be the largest source.

Also discovered the engine is not the orignial 1300,
but a 1200 instead. The original plan was to upgrade
the 1300 to a 1500, but now Im not sure what to do.

Maybe I'll just service the 1200 and use it to start with.
Dont seem to be much end float, so it would be a shame to scrap a perfectly good crank.
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1967 Bug (euro)

[angus1967]

Following your build.
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1966 1600cc dual port. dual frd34's

[Rome]

Nice going to pursue the '67, which almost literally fell into your lap. Having such a solid car in Scandinavia must be almost as rare as for us here in the NorthEast USA, because salt is used on roads in winter to melt snow and ice.

I first thought your '67 was a Standard version with the 1200cc engine, but then I saw the chrome strip on the glovebox so that it's not likely a Standard. Since European '67s still kept the 6V systems (US models got 12V as standard equipment), having an engine with the smaller diameter 6V flywheel is much more of a possibility than in the USA. Is the 1200 engine in your car based on an original 40hp (34 DIN hp) engine case, or a later replacement universal case? Do your cylinder heads have the rectangular pedestals where the rocker arm shafts sit, or are they round?

You could install 83mm big bore pistons and cylinders and make the engine 1385cc. Then you could find 1300 single-port heads which fit onto the big-bore cylinders without machine work. That enables fitting some new dual single-throat carb kits such as Solex 34PDSIT, or Weber 34ICT. Does Norway's motor vehicle laws allow such obvious modifications to engines?

30 years ago I bought a '65 Beetle rolling shell project locally that had been repainted its original factory color Fontana Grey. I liked that color because it was so understated, but I never finished the car. Sold it to a co-worker who assembled it and drove it at least a year to work, then kept it a few more years for his oldest son. However, I have a '64 Karmann Ghia that is L87 Pearl White, which is a very "warm" color compared to the "cold" Fontana Grey. Since '67 Beetles had Lotus White that is quite close in appearance to Pearl White, I think you can still make the car look like Pearl was a proper color for the model year.

[NorBullitt]