1963 Ragtop Restoration

[67ctbug]

I'm back in the Beetle forum with a new resto! My '67 is done for now officially, minor maintenance things are all that really need done to it for now. After a few short trips into the Bay forum and a quick Mopar restoration I'm back to another beetle (I haven't forgotten my bus though). To start we need to take a trip back in time...

Before I got my '67 my sights were set on a '63 rag that was on the local Craigslist. Before we were able to get a chance to look at it though, it was sold. This was in 2015, here's a screenshot of the original ad.

Years go by, I restore my '67 and am happy My good friend is a bigger VW collector than me. We're hanging around the shop one evening and he's telling me about a red '63 rag he was going to look at and asked if I'd like to join. Of course I do.
So, we go on the short trip to see the red car. A very solid example that just needs to be fine tuned and put together. Hardly any rust to repair, mostly straightening and plastic work. The owner is a big VW guy, he didn't just have it to have it. We all get talking and he says he actually has another '63 ragtop at his shop that he was going to turn into a Herbie. That's the reason he had the two car in the first place. The red one was deemed too nice to Herbie though, and he found a done car so the white car just sat at the shop. We asked if it was for sale and it was so we decided to go down to his shop, it's about 8:30 PM to put this in perspective, pitch black out.

On our trip over I joke to my buddy that maybe it's the ragtop that got away from me those years ago.

We arrive and behind the building wrapped in tarps is a bug and a ghia. I've had the photo of the Craigslist ad on my phone for YEARS so I pull it out and we start to uncover the tarps. The minute the passenger side came off, I saw the rust stains. Perfect match. It was the car. Just as it was seven years ago, sitting there waiting for me. A deal is made and it's mine.

Now we are here at present day. I have the car at our shop and have started tear down. The car is in amazing shape in my opinion. Body tags are in place, original interior panels are in fine shape, passenger pan appears extremely solid, unfortunately the driver side didn't fare as well. Original grease pencil denoting M-codes in the trunk are there as well as what remains of the red ragtop cover, more on that later. Here are some pictures-

Pick up

Original red rag cover, I have no reason to believe this was ever replaced.

Original interior and pop-outs (I despise pop-outs but they'll stay for originality )

M-codes and the original paint sticker still in the trunk.

So on the red rag, you can see in the M-code photos an assortment of numbers.
47 / 93
23
ROT

47 and 93 I have no clue. 23 and Rot I have my theory. 23 is a condensed call out for the rag cover. All of the rag cover codes are 6xx. 623 is a Ruby Red cover and 627 is a Pearl White cover. Drop the 6 and there you go. Rot is German for red, I figure that's for the red interior which is the secondary option compared to standard grey.

The engine is where funny things start happening. It's a VW re-manufactured block from about 1969 based on the numbers, a 1200. Some-one got creative later on though and it sports a dual port intake center section connected to the SP intake outer section with radiator hose or something Runs like a top though surprisingly.

I've yet to pull the door cards to see if any M-codes are behind there, but that is where I am as of now. I've got it running and am starting to get ready for metal work. Just wanted to introduce my new project through a lengthy first post, current schedule has it at Terryville, but you know how that goes.
_________________
'67 Beetle L41
'74 Westfalia
'69 Plymouth "Adam-12"
'63 Ragtop
'73 914
'72 Dodge Wrecker
Go Cubs!
World Series Champions 2016

[glutamodo]

Some comments and questions. Mostly about the sunroof.

An L87 Perlweiss model equipped with a factory installed sunroof would have been built at the factory with a matching off-white vinyl sunroof cover. Not red.
Now, what the underside of those PVC tops looked like I don't know, as the original tops on my two Pearl White Ragtops were long gone before I got them.

So does the sunroof's headliner still have the two steel rods in it? You might call them bows but they don't really work like normal hardtop headliner tensioning bows do. You almost never see these, and I had to go with some steel welding rods that I painted to prevent rusting, in the headliners I installed into my ragtop Beetles.

You don't like popouts? I don't often drive my ragtop bugs any more, but I used to, and all over the country. I racked up over 700K miles on them. And I would run with the sunroof open whenever the weather even slightly allowed it. And I learned really early on about "buffeting" from wind at highway speeds. This is a harmonic pulsation from the wind on the open sunroof and it's like the car is screaming "WOW WOW WOW WOW" rapidly. Very annoying.

So what did I do about it? Well, I installed some popouts a friend sold from off of a 64 he was parting out. Even having only one of them open will help immensely in reducing or eliminating this from happening. That was on my 62. I never did put popouts on my Baja bug though. On a Baja the overall body shape is a little different so the buffeting effect is not quite the same. Still, it happens when the wind is blowing the right way and I have the top open, just not quite as bad.

So if you plan to actually drive the car at highway speeds with the top open, you might be glad to have pop out rear windows. Also, the 64/older popouts are so much more rare than the 65/newer. Myself, I'd be more than happy to have them on there.
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Andy T.

"What is Glutamodo, Horror of Toyko, besides total, fiendish, quality-a-you brain!"

[67ctbug]

I'm going to respectfully disagree about the sunroof. While I do agree that as standard, a car would have a matched sunroof, I have no doubts that certain special requests slipped through, not unlike getting cloth seats in a USA bound car. The remains of my cover are heat seamed exactly as NOS samples appear in the sunroof thread and there is no sign of it ever being removed, I will get out to the shop this week to check on the bows. I don't think non-sewn covers have been available aftermarket until recently so maybe it was bought at the dealer if it wasn't factory, but I doubt it. I'll also mention that the headliner in the car is near perfect with no signs of tampering. I would find it odd for a car sporting such originality down to the radio and carpet/mats would get a replacement cover, but who knows.

Yes, I absolutely hate pop-outs. Not their function, I totally understand it. They have a purpose and they serve it well, but they look so out of place in my opinion. Every single piece of trim on the car is a single strip... until you get to the pop-outs which are a double bump. I can't stand it. If it was one solid piece of trim, I'd have no issue. I did check some of the grease pencil codes out and one of them is a code for the pop-outs, so they appear to have been put on at the factory.
_________________
'67 Beetle L41
'74 Westfalia
'69 Plymouth "Adam-12"
'63 Ragtop
'73 914
'72 Dodge Wrecker
Go Cubs!
World Series Champions 2016

[my59]

You want to trade the pop outs and hardware for my fixed rear side windows and trim, we can talk.
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my59: Well son, my grandfather died before I got to drive it, so does that answer your question?
our79: sunroof bus w/camper interior and 2.0 FI
Other:'12 Jetta, '77 Benz 300D, and a 74 MG Midget.

[mukluk]

Congrats on finally bagging the "one that got away", looks like a good project. I'm not sure on the 47 code, but 93 is the code for hinged/popout rear quarter windows.

Just a theory for the red sunroof on your white car, but it's possible at some point many years ago the entire sliding assembly was swapped out from a red car.
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1960 Ragtop w/Semaphores "Inga"

[67ctbug]

[glutamodo]

Thanks for the update about the bow-rods! Cool to see one so original to still have them.

I never ordered a birth certificate for my 62. Maybe I should, because it has some features I wonder if there were from the beginning. Like ventshades, plus seat belts as depicted in the owner's manual, and a locking decklid lock the same as the door/ignition key.

Really, when I bought the car in 89, the only things that were not stock were that the hood had been replaced, the car repainted a too-bright white, and the headliner center section was gone and the sunroof top was a cheap black PVC replacement. I longed to get the top better, or right. Getting a Sewfine canvas top (only available in black at that time) Later gettting a horribly fitting (which I reworked until it was usable) tan canvas top, then I found that Sewfine was offering an expensive off-white canvas top, which ended up being exactly what I wanted. That took 25 years of my life.

Now I met up with someone else with a 63 Pearl White Bug back in the early 90s. Actually, he found me. Anyway, his car was very original and I don't know if his top had been replaced, but I took a picture of it at the time. You can see my car sitting on the other side.

( Hah, this also is a nice side-by-side of what stock vs popouts look like as per the discussion above.)

Here is a nice factory advertisement showing the stock Pearl White vinyl Sunroof top. The lighting and/or camera exposure seems to be muted here, because the tan running boards show up very dark.

Now, it's not exactly the same color as the body, but that could be the lighting. The CANVAS top I have on my 62 now is pretty good, but it depends on the lighting. A link I put in above shows it in full sunlight and it matches. But in muted lighting and slightly wet, it looks much different, and in moonlight as well:

First night shot, moonlit, it looks spot on:

Second long-exposure moonlit shot - totally does not:

And that damp-top image of this same off-white canvas top, which ironically looks fairly close to what was seen in that Bug/Bus advertisement I posted above.

_________________
Andy T.

"What is Glutamodo, Horror of Toyko, besides total, fiendish, quality-a-you brain!"

[henry roberts]

Are the pics taken in your workshop? If so, I had been wondering about your samba handle for a while. I figured you must have one.

It may not fit with your originality thing, but in the past I have considered painting the inside hump on my popout frame with a rubberised trim paint to make them match the other windows.

[EMPIImp69]

I watch all your Dubwerks videos with Jason (5150mxVW) including the one for this Rag. Love the vids, look forward to seeing this build.
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1963 Ragtop Bug
1966 Vert Bug

Check out my ads, Thanks!

[henry roberts]

I was thinking you were Jason. I will have to watch some more of your vids so I can read your posts in your voice.

[MuzzcoVW]

[67ctbug]

[Rome]

Congrat's on getting a 2nd chance on the '63 that got away from you years ago!

When you are stripping down the car, take extra, extra care to remove the engine compartment insulation panels. The one you see here- the factory original "knobby" type- is rare to find without tears. Repro panels are nowhere close to this design. I hope the right side panel, and the large one on the firewall are still usable. Once you have them off, you can gently clean them with a mist of SimpleGreen, let it run off, gentle mist of water, lay them down and let dry. I would first not scrub them; let the SG do its work.

[toxicavenger70]

[67ctbug]

Rome good thing you said that, I planned on tossing it LOL.
Got out to the shop today and was able to get the dashboard torn down and get all of the door cards off. Rear seat got out too. The fronts are stuck to the floors
I found two more sets of numbers; 111 on the passenger door and 176 on the passenger quarter, no clue.

Hopefully this weekend I can get it down to vin verification so I can register it and get the body off. Also, my car is April ‘63. After some research my weird ragtop rails aren’t weird anymore! They’re one piece rails and are properly marked.

Radio is in near perfect shape, date coded, and still has the cardboard covering the transistor!

_________________
'67 Beetle L41
'74 Westfalia
'69 Plymouth "Adam-12"
'63 Ragtop
'73 914
'72 Dodge Wrecker
Go Cubs!
World Series Champions 2016

[67ctbug]

Got the vin verification today. After that I started tearing into the car and well…

Split the body and chassis. All but two bolts came out with no issues. The original pan gasket was like glue Time to redo the chassis.
_________________
'67 Beetle L41
'74 Westfalia
'69 Plymouth "Adam-12"
'63 Ragtop
'73 914
'72 Dodge Wrecker
Go Cubs!
World Series Champions 2016

[pastellgreen]

Looks like a nice project.
I love pearl white beetles and owned some, all original cars. The sunroof cover has matching colours to the body paint, so does pearl white. The covers have the same colour on top as on the underside, the material itself is solid coloured.
It is not my right to make suggestions, personally I would love to see a light patina stock resto without slamming. But of course that is your decision. To me the wheels appear to have the original two tone paint?

[67ctbug]

I don't do patina Full stock is my thing, down to bias tires. I do have some leeway with things but rarely on body and paint. The wheels are more silver in my opinion, like they were painted in the past.

If you guys are interested in following along in video, I am covering this car on YouTube too.
Here's the newest video in the series.

Link

_________________
'67 Beetle L41
'74 Westfalia
'69 Plymouth "Adam-12"
'63 Ragtop
'73 914
'72 Dodge Wrecker
Go Cubs!
World Series Champions 2016

[Pruneman99]

Dual relief engine case. I think that case is later than you think.

[pastellgreen]