1966 Beetle rebuild. In way over my head.

[buzzlatka]

Bought a friend's 1966 vw bug. It was sitting in a garage and driven periodically around the neighborhood in the last few years. In previous years it was towed behind an RV and had a hitch welded underneath the front bumper as well as provisions for holding a canoe on the roof. It has wider rear tires and diamond plate welded to the rear fenders for the wider tires. The motor was upgraded to a 67 1500cc with 12V. The lights, relays, and wiper motor were never upgraded to 12v.

We bought it for my 15 year old son as his first car and a learning project.
I have worked on cars, but never bugs. I bought it cheap and figured I could put some hard work in and a few grand and he could have a car to drive around.

Well.......the project has gotten a lot more involved. Every time I dig a little more I removed and decide to replace something else. And i am always looking at this forum for help. I finally decided to post some photos and ask questions.

[buzzlatka]

Engine was running, but exhaust had leaks and tins missing. Decided to pull motor and purchased new tins.

I have a firend who will paint it for us, so we are going to pull the windows in order to do it right. I have already pulled the fenders and lids.

I was going to leave the interior, but the more we looked, the more mice crap we found. So we pulled the interior.

I have left the headliner but have a question. Would it be easier to just rip the old headliner out when removing windows? Or can I salvage the old headliner with window removal and install.

Thanks
Steve

[buzzlatka]

The shifter linkage joint is in view in this photo on the hump. Is there supposed to be a cover over that?

[61SNRF]

If you are going to be replacing the window seals some people will use a razor knife to cut about 1/4" off the edges of the seals and leave them in place until the paint is done. This way it keeps the dust and water from sanding out of the car and you won't have so much window opening to mask off either.
Once it's painted now you can pull the windows and install with new seals.

Yes there should be a cover over the shift coupler.

Best wishes and have fun.
_________________
-Bruce

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

[marknmelcom]

That looks like a fairly solid car you and your son have there. From all the pictures I see, the hacks can be undone. You are going to need to go through it well, as there is over 56 years of modifications to be inspected/corrected.

You are smart to ensure the cooling tin is in place and correct. Replace motor mounts when the engine is out. Same for engine bay seals, main seal/clutch disc/release bearing too. Check your transmission fluid too.

I bought a '67 last year. It was solid (much like yours), and was well worth the time and energy to make right, but it's not a cheap project.

The rear tire/fender issue can probably be solved pretty easy. Hit up a swap meet in your area. You can probably come up with something.

Yes, on the top of the tunnel, there is a trap door covering the shift linkage. Here is a pic from the classifieds here (not mine) on thesamba.

/Mark
_________________
'67 Beetle - 'Winnie'
'75 Std. Beetle - 'George'
'13 Golf coupe - 'Bitter Bunny'
'15 Tiguan 4mo - 'Tig'

[mikec4193]

Love seeing the younger folks getting into the hobby...

Remember one bite at a time..

Thanks for sharing your journey.

MikeC
_________________
Dad bought his first Beetle on Dec 17, 1953.

[racerock]

Looks like a good core and project as mentioned above. From my viewpoint my main recommendation would be to spend a day or so with your sun to build out a project schedule and budget aligned with subsystems and overall.

Group the efforts within the categories and timeline associated with disassembly, rework and then reassembly.

Keeping it away from PMI, PMP MS Project and keeping it fun... suggest this to align goals, what matters most for your son, keeping the end of the tunnel in site and keep him involved and actually driving it when you both expect (expect early in the project is my reference as you have already dove in head first...)

I say this as there are two projects for 15 year old father son that I know of. One of which I actually gave to my family friend for his son. Neither of the projects were completed when the son was 16. Technically the one I donated was not finished 10 years later as it ended up being way more than a really good daily driver for high school...

One example is the headliner you asked about. Get feedback from your son. does it matter to him? heck he may actually like the patina of some things...
Changing a headliner alone impacts cost and schedule both. add to the "while we are in here" factor and it may add to a long list of cost and schedule impacts that totally change the journey from a fun father son first driver project to something way different than your 15 year old imagined.

I must say that the above suggestion of trimming the outside edge of the gaskets to allow the glass to stay in while doing body work is awesome... I have to keep that in mind - - I have a 240z in my pipeline...

[Lingwendil]

Not bad at all as a starting point! Love the color, you guys staying blue or going something else?
_________________
73 super beetle thread http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=649622 Back on the Road!

Modify your Kadrons for SVDA http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=8115884#8115884

Cast iron VJU4BR8 SVDA reference thread- https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0

Need replacement filters for original Kadron aircleaners? WIX #42087 is a perfect fit, as is Napa Gold #2087!

[buzzlatka]

So the beginning plan was do as little as possible and be done.

A friend has a body shop and offered to do a Saturday paint job in the original color. That is what started us down the rabbit hole.
Since we are painting we have decided to pull the fenders, all lights and hardware, and windows. The door window scrapers are trashed so this is a good thing, but adds time and money.

We are going to power wash and media blast the car and fenders. (selective media blast on the car) I am painting the underside of the fenders with a rattle can, and hitting just the rust spots on the underside of both lids with a rattle can.

My son wants to keep the wide rear tires and diamond plate fender extensions. It gives it a mad max look. We are going to cut most of the iron off the front bumper, but leave the vertical tubes, again mad max.

The front trunk was held down by a rubber strap and a welded piece to the trunk lid. We got lucky and were able to get the trunk handle and latch reinstalled.

The front trunk had lots of rust so we cleaned it out and are going to paint it black with POR-15.

Because the trunk was a mess we pulled the electrical and bought a new harness. The speedo was locked up and apparently not original so we got an original one.

The engine was running. We rebuilt the carb and put on an air filter instead of the oil bath. Then we decided to pull the whole engine and do new tins/heater/exhaust. The heat lines were all disconnected. I have pulled every rubber seal in both engine and trunk and bought new ones. Same with tar board.

The interior was going to be untouched, but then we started pulling carpets and pads and kept going. We are going to re upholster the seats with new pads to get ride of the original stuffing that is falling everywhere. Last night I was planning on the headliner, but based on posts and talking to my son, we are going to leave that alone. We may try to re use the existing door panels. That will save some money and time.

61snrf, I like the idea of trimming the seals.

Mark, thanks for the suggestions, I will start researching your recommendations.

[Dusty1]

"1966 Beetle rebuild. In way over my head."

[Dusty1]

On paint and bodywork:

Paint and bodywork is "garbage in, garbage out".

Painting it is the easy part. Prep is what takes time.

That's why the "patina" look is a so popular. Why paint a car now when it's going to get in the way of a restoration, later?

Many "restorers" don't understand VW paint. There is no modern equivalent to the original lead based primer. That's why 60 year old primer hangs on so well.

For comparison look at Ford base / clear paint jobs from the early '90s. A little sunshine, a few washes... The clearcoat fails followed by the color coat. At least the OEM primer was o.k..

Two quick 'n' dirty paint jobs are definitely not better than one. Your '66 has one quick 'n' dirty paint job already.

Wet sanding through the quick 'n' dirty paint may reveal relatively pristine original paint underneath. That would be an outstanding '66 if had presentable original paint.


I'm tyin' to get a handle on the color. It's likely original L360 Sea Blue oversprayed with...

I keep thinkin' it's a '74 convertible color.

[marknmelcom]

[rcroane]

Here's a link to a shift coupler cover in the classifieds......


https://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=2495782
_________________
'65 Sunroof Bug

[61SNRF]

Just to offer my opinion on this project.

First car for a 15yo? He will no doubt want to modify the #&%@ out of it and make it look better, go faster, with a sound system, with Bluetooth, push to start/stop and so on.
Yes it can all be done but not all are practical, easy or cheap.
(They are still rebuilding the original B52's but at a cost only the Gov can afford!)

Many who have gone down this same road with their teens ask about safety upgrades. Bottom line is if you want a safe car for them to learn on make a better choice.

I would say as learning experience suggest he read and research every change and mod he has planned, and read up on the car and it's history. There is a veritable TON of info right here on The Samba all but a few mouse clicks away!
That and a few hundred YouTube videos should be a good primer.
_________________
-Bruce

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

[Dusty1]

[buzzlatka]

No roll cage or 20 point seatbelt harnesses

Today we worked on getting the tar board off the floor, started taking the engine tins and accesories off. We also removed front brake lines and master cylinder. And we removed the home made hitch towing mechanism from the front bumper.

I also blasted some of the smaller parts in prep for paint.

Thank you for the suggestions. New clutch, bearing , tranny mounts, clutch cables, heater box cables, and other small odds and ends are on order.

Paint is 2 weeks away so we are going to work on media blasting the bug in prep for paint. I will hit the floor and front trunk with some POR 15, nothing else.

I ordered the shift coupler cover from the link provided.

One more question. The heater tubes come up into the front trunk from the corners near the trunk mounts. It looks like the original tubing comes up to a fork, and then continues to defog and heat. The tubes look ok as best I can tell to the fork, and then they were cut. Is there a way to access that area where the tubes come up?

Please keep the suggestions coming. Here are a few pics. The original color as best I can tell was the sea blue. We are going to keep that color.

[rcroane]

"Paint is 2 weeks away so we are going to work on media blasting the bug in prep for paint. I will hit the floor and front trunk with some POR 15, nothing else."

Are you going to repair any of the rust.....like the battery tray for starters?
_________________
'65 Sunroof Bug

[Dusty1]

[gt1953]

One item at a time. Try not to tackle all of it. For example tackle the brakes front to back. Then move to another system. Take your time!!
Me i would attempt t make that car as close to stock as you an get it. Worth more that way.
_________________
Volkswagen: We tune what we drive.
Numbers Matching VW's are getting harder to find. Source out the most Stock vehicle and keep that way. You will be glad you did.

72 type 1
72 Squareback
({59 Euro bug, 62, 63, 67, 68, 69, 73 type ones 68 & 69 type two, 68 Ghia all sold})

[rcooled]