Mallee Notch

[NUG637]

front brakes before....

front brakes After....

fitting the new steering dampener bush sucked, had to take the pitman arm back off and get it in the vise to press it in

New front wheel bearings inner and outer and new seals

all new ball joints which were slightly undersized and the clamping bolt bottomed out of the thread before it clamped up tight on the balljoint, was easily fixed but placing another washer under there...

had the old tie rod ends off a beetle i bought which were near new when i removed them off the 6" beam after fitting the 4.5" beam, they still felt nice and tight so put them to good use. and then she went down on all 4 wheels again for the first time in a while

Only the peddle assembly to fit and then its back onto the body

[NUG637]

The last few pieces of the pan puzzle….

[Fasty69Jester]

Top notch work gonna be a heck of a car once you get it together. Gives motivation for me to tear mine down further but one step at a time.
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It's gotta run cool and easy with a little pleasing.


!!RCVDUBS!!

[andybla]

nice looking pan

[NUG637]

Pulled the old girl out of her resting place at mum and dads and dragged her home to her new stable.

10 years of dust and shit had mad her look like a barn find all over again...

With thanks to a few local VW nut jobs (Leroy, Clint and Dibba) they gave me a lift off the trailer back onto the rotisserie at home.

Continued to disassemble the entire dash in prep for a DEEP clean. How's the og gloss paint under dash matt.....

these fresh air boxes are a sucker to get out...

Also this early aussie change over model must have come out with a factory foot high beam switch, check the factory nut serts to take it. It also has a high beam witch on the indicator stalk which the wires were curled up and not fitted to anything? after speaking with another aussie 63/64 change over owner he has the exact same set up with the foot switch being his hi beam switch.

then it was onto water blasting it inside and out to try rid the last of the remaining Mice frames and smell of 20 odd years of mice plague remanence.

Let to dry with the fan on for a few days before i went to town with emptying a few cans of cavity wax into every single pocket i could find.

used this KO66 stuff in the heater channel/sills as it smells like this shit is really gonna work with a mix of Tar, Lanolin and fish oil

then used this cavity wax from the local paint shop for all the internal roof gutter sections, rear quarter pockets, door posts, under dash nooks and crannies.

once happy with the hard to get places the entire underside has had a thick brush coat of ankor wax. not entirely sure on this stuff but i had some left over from the 61 and figured it was probably better then nothing at all..

Pulled one of the fresh air boxes down and gave it a blast... looked ok initially but after a light sand blast a few holes appeared which i zipped up. far from pretty but also not on show. Basically dipped it in POR15 before giving it 2 more top coats of kill rust as the POR15 isn't uv stable but the enamel kill rust is.

other air box to do next.

need to get an ISPwest order together to finish the assembly of these bad boys including a pan seal so we can reunite the two again

[Bobnotch]

Your project is looking better every time you post pics. It looks like you're finding all of the hidden rust, and working on sealing it off so it won't rust again. Good job on that. As you've noticed there's a lot of hidden spots on these cars. You are getting closer to seeing the light at the end of the tunnel though. Keep at it and keep posting pics of your progress. I love seeing the progress.
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Bob 65 Notch S with Sunroof
71 Notch ...aka Krunchy; build pics here;
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=249390 -been busy working
64 T-34 Ghia...aka Wolfie, under construction... http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=412120

[NUG637]

thanks again for the words of encouragement bobnotch

Air box rebuild continued....

Ended up saving myself a small fortune by making the air box seals myself.

Went to clark rubber and bought some EPDM rubber seals, then cut a slot down the middle to a certain depth to fit over the airbox fin and then glued them together with some of the spare wet suit repair glue i had laying around from my winter antics

also pulled apart the air box controls, wire wheels and painted the "friction stays" and greased everything when i put them back together.... working beautifully now but no pictures....

Headliner was next on the hit list...

Managed to grab some OG vw notch sound deading from one of the wrecks we have for the upper roof guuter sections as the original stuff was destroyed with mouse piss.... filled in the gaps with some new deadener like material and used 4mm foam in other areas to help with the liner install.

this $30 steamer from kmart was kindly donated from my wife, she just doesnt know it yet.... this was a game changer for the install... ironed out alot of folds and helped stretch a few of the tricky areas...

Super happy with the Final product

[Braukuche]

Love this build. I just picked up a 63 Notch and this thread is helping me envision what to come.
_________________
Go Reds! Smash state!

Retirement is here!
1956 Ghia
1959 SO-23 Westfalia
1960 double cab
1960 Baja Bug
1963 stretched double cab
1962 Golde sunroof Ghia
1963 356 B coupe
1963 Notchback
1967 21 window less rusty now

[Bobnotch]

The headliner came out beautiful, and improvising the fresh air box seals look good too. While you still have access, I'd replace the windscreen squirter hose, as it looks easy to get to right now, versus later when it fails and the car is back together. Just a thought. You're gaining on it, it won't be too long before the body re-joins the pan.
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Bob 65 Notch S with Sunroof
71 Notch ...aka Krunchy; build pics here;
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=249390 -been busy working
64 T-34 Ghia...aka Wolfie, under construction... http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=412120

[NUG637]

funny you should mention that... its on my list of things to get next time im at the automotive shop

[NUG637]

Wire wheeled and painted all the original hardware in prep for the body to pan marriage

Body back on since 2017 all bolted down using the original hardware

Started stringing in some windows using new ISP west rubber's with the original chrome trim i have been protecting for what feels like the past decade

Just need to get my hands on a front window seal so i can get the front screen in to.

Got some more rubber seals from Clark rubber to start hanging some panels

Used their pinch weld style seal for the rear inner fender beading

Used their 25mm x 3mm rubber for the inner front fender seal. Originally they had some kind of mastic/glue caulking but i recon this will suffice and didn’t interrupt panel fitment

I also cleaned up the original turquoise fender beading. Although a little sunburnt in places and shrunk a little in length it still worked out pretty good and i like it keeps with the original aged theme…

Can you guess which one was cleaned?

Passanger side rear fender beading split years ago during the tear down… i have always kept the pieces in case I couldn’t find a replacement…. Which i havent been able to so im gonna try save it as it fits the car well..

Superglue to the rescue

Glued the broken bits together and have then strong backed these said joins under the top role by glueing a few off cuts over the weakend area. The offcuts were stolen off some of the fender beading that runs inside the guard that you Will never see once fitted. Im hoping this holds it together with next to no visual evidence once fitted

Gonna let it sit over night before i trying fitting and stretching it a little tomorrow…

Wish me luck.

[Bobnotch]

Looks damn good with the body back on the pan.
_________________
Bob 65 Notch S with Sunroof
71 Notch ...aka Krunchy; build pics here;
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=249390 -been busy working
64 T-34 Ghia...aka Wolfie, under construction... http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=412120

[NUG637]

My beading repair worked so i continued to focus on the rear end. Installed new boot lid and engine lid seals. Cleaned and polished some taillight housings and pilfered through a small stash of lenses to use the best of the bunch. Also polished the badges and installed.

Used an old rodders trick on the rear bar of coke and alfoil as it was so tarnished with rust stain coming through the chrome plating, suprised how much chrome still remained. I know this car is an “N’ and shouldn’t have the overriders but i recon they really set off the type 3’s and i bought this set a long time ago so they got a polish and installed

found the early date stamp on the front and rear bumper

been hand polishing the car as i make my way around… and waxing it with a good quality carnauba wax

Im using all ispwest rubbers on the doors apart from the felts. I sourced the felts locally and it’s been a disaster. Far too tight and the short one that runs up the back of the quarter window turned to puss on the first wind up of the window. I can only discribe it as uncured rubber sticking to the window and my hands making a hell of a mess…

New inner scrapers using the original wire clips as the general feedback is they fit and hold better.

New outer scrapers fitted to the original chrome window trim

The bad felts and the mess it left behind.

Have left the glass in until i get some new felts that fit. Have had feed back the felts from Boris at vintage veedub are the correct size and fit nice. He is expecting a new shipment next week so will try him otherwise will do an order with ispwest and will just have to bend over and cop the shipping cost *sweats*

While pulling down the drivers door i was investigating why the door latch wasn’t working… seemed to be seized from the mouse pee and under further inspection the return spring on the door handle had kicked the bucket also… pulled a used one off the wreck and stripped it for its return spring… why not just swap the entire assembly you ask? Maybe cus im getting a little ocd with this car but also cus the original handle was in better condition then the donor i stole the spring from…

Pulling down og door lever

Reassembled with functioning return spring

Assembly of drivers door Will commence when i get the new felts sorted.

The front end got much the same treatment as the back with pulling down all the lights and cleaning and polishing everything before reassembling. A thank you is in order to omr007 for his help fitting the front screen

[Bobnotch]

Yeah, I ran into that door window felt fiasco myself. Somewhere along the line they changed to a rubber felt, and those just make a mess of things. For the car I was working on (a 69 Square) I got a set of cloth felts from Rock Auto and trimmed them to length. Once that happened, I installed them without issue. I ended going thru Rock Auto, after getting rubber felts from CIP (and making a mess trying to use them), and then contacting ISP who was out of the cloth type at the time. Now I make sure I get the cloth style whenever I replace them.
Page 18 of my Krunchy thread has pics of replacing the lower scraper rubber. In that case I used old OE type 3 inner rubber seals, but normally I use t-2 68 on bus inners, and rivet them on to the original type 3 scraper. Those seem to fit better. I've used the bus inners in place of the type 3 inners too, but used the original type 3 wires and cut new slots in the rubber for the wires.
_________________
Bob 65 Notch S with Sunroof
71 Notch ...aka Krunchy; build pics here;
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=249390 -been busy working
64 T-34 Ghia...aka Wolfie, under construction... http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=412120

[Scotty D]

Looking good. All of your time, patience and hard work has paid off.

[NUG637]

Thanks Team!

bobnotch i came across that thread while doing some research, not a bad option but to be fair I've been very happy with everything that's come from ispwest, fitment has been more then acceptable for all their reproduction parts. its the just the exchange rate with the aussie dollar at the moment and the covid shipping prices are next level... but you gotta pay to play...

Had to bite the bullet and be bent over with exchange rate and shipping to get the right felts from ISPwest.... no regrets though.... they fit good and windows function exactly as they should, this is why those bad boys were so tight! ispwest felt on the left, beetle style felt they sell you locally on the right..

the long felt was the same but good German ones fixed all my issues.

Made a start on the interior.... again, due to the mice infestation the original hessian sound deadener under the rear seats had to go... it was putrid, however I did keep it long enough to get a template off it out of some automotive underlay. Keeping stuff for templates or even comparisons for aftermarket parts has paid dividends in this build, so much time saving taking out the guess work.

then spent some time cleaning the rear trim with Dissol and toothbrush... came up impressively good.

see half done - half not for a comparison.

rear seat came up mint!

cut some automotive underlay for the floor as well, had a similar thing in my old oval and it was nice underfoot.

the original floor mats were toast.... I was at clark rubber looking for the automotive underlay and noticed some rubber matt in the corner which looked a little vintage with the smaller studs but in grey, I asked if they had it in black which they didn't but one of their shops 1.5 hours away had a roll and looked like it might be a run out item, so I made the trip the very next day to secure me some and for $50 a meter I'm pretty happy with the outcome for $100

old mats for templates

the new small studded clark rubber mat

templated

fitted

now I was a little nervous as I moved onto the driver's seat, I didn't take any before picture as I got abit consumed wondering which way it might go with abit of the stitching having let go from being rotten. I deiced to peel it off and try restitch it all by hand Infront of the tv for the next 2 nights... there was a 15mm tear in the vinyl along the stitch otherwise the vinyl was in good Knick so I glue laminated an offcut of vinyl to the back of the tear and ran a new stitch through it and through the piping... you wouldn't even know... came out schmick!

the corner that was all split

the guy who upholstered my oval told me to put the seat covers on like you would a condom... roll it down and on as it allows you to adjust any padding and piping as you roll it on... then I dug out my late grandmothers curved needle out of her sewing kit and sewed up the two edges that wrap around and under the metal seat back bits... sometimes I every impress myself

I also used the trusty wet suit glue to reglue the melt joint that had let go between the horizontal joint of the salt and pepper and the white vinyl, it came out good enough but was a little hard to get bang on due to being stretched but still attached at either end.

Once i knew the seat back was useable I cleaned it up with the dissol, another half-cleaned, half not pic for amusement. this shit is awesome!

[Braukuche]

You hit the lottery on that interior. I can’t believe you were able to clean the cloth like that! Fantastic.
_________________
Go Reds! Smash state!

Retirement is here!
1956 Ghia
1959 SO-23 Westfalia
1960 double cab
1960 Baja Bug
1963 stretched double cab
1962 Golde sunroof Ghia
1963 356 B coupe
1963 Notchback
1967 21 window less rusty now

[Bobnotch]

[NUG637]

Yeah pretty happy with how it’s coming up!

I think you will find the aussie ckd cars are abit different to what you guys got. The way I understand it is This being a 63/64 ckd car the salt and pepper is actually vinyl but the early German imports all had the cloth interior. There is even differences in the salt and pepper vinyl through the years here in aus. Again I’m not completely over it but the earlier salt and pepper vinyl was textured with abit of a weave pattern but the later salt and pepper was just a print on smooth vynil.

Either way it makes it easier to clean!

[NUG637]

Passenger side was a little more worse for wear...

the back had torn through the previous stitch so glue laminated a piece of vinyl to the back and then hand sowed through it to give it some guts but still looked like it had never torn through the vinyl

Ta-Da!

Salt and Pepper goodness!

more cleaning

then came the steering wheel saga... didn't relise but when i came to fit an unbroken horn ring... 2 out of the three horn ring threads where stripped... after a few failed attends of tapping jb weld, i came up with the idea of an oversized grub screw with the right thread cut it in to take the horn ring screws.... so drilled out the steering wheel and taped it for an M8 guard bolt. Then tapped the end of the guard bolt with the 3.5mm x 0.6mm thread to take the horn ring screws.... trim the guard bolt down to the righ size and threaded it in... worked a treat!

Note the vw kangaroos in the steering wheel... this is why i persisted with the early wheel.

With all that said and done... its inspection time for this bad boy.... Decisions, decisions.....