1971 Super Beetle - Total Newbie Restoration

[EvanAskins]

Hey ya'll!

About a year ago, I purchased a '71 Super Beetle as an engagment gift to my now wife.

I was never a fan of classic VW, but my wife was so in love with them that I knew it'd make a great gift. (She even has a tatoo of one.)

But once I got it home, I realised that I was in for a wild ride...I'm not new to working on cars, as I've replaced water pumps, alternators, brakes, etc on newer cars, but I definetely have never done the work that I'm about to do.

As I've been working on it, (it sat for about a year before we bought a house and moved it to the garage) I quickly fell in love with how simple everything is.

That being said, there is a lot of body work that needs to be done, and I have never even touched a welder before. I have a lot to learn, but I am super excited to one day take my wife to some of the local VW meets in the Tampa Bay area.

I'm very excited for the work ahead! Expect quite a few newbie questions from me in the near future.

[Zundfolge1432]

I hate rust and usually it’s not localized. I would immediately look the entire car over for rust and determine if it makes sense to try and repair. Anything can be fixed but you gotta balance the time, potentially hundreds of hours with cost parts supplies and labor. It doesn’t have to make economic sense as there are many cars running around that owners have gone overboard restoring to the point they have spent 25k for a car that is worth 8 to 10k on a good day. Who knows when but super beetles might be worth serious coin some day if you stay around a few years.

[EvanAskins]

[oprn]

Welcome! That is the same year and color my SB was! If that is the worst rust on that car then it is pretty cherry for it's age. Absolutely it is worth fixing up!

Keep us posted please.
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Our cars get old, we get old but driving an old VW never gets old!

[EvanAskins]

[67rustavenger]

[Abscate]

Ask a mod to bump your thread over to super Beetlr world

And a spouse who likes any VW as an engagement gift is awesome …
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.ssS!

[EverettB]

Moved!
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[omegared]

If you're looking for VW shows or swap meets in the Tampa Bay area there is a pretty decent one in Dade City called The Bug Jam. I'm not sure what time of year it is but I'm sure the internet does.
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Volkswagens don't like trees, make all necessary efforts to keep your VW from meeting one.

1966 Bus
1976 Bus
1971 Standard Beetle

[EvanAskins]

So I got the engine out an onto a stand! The harbor freight stand only let me attached the top two mounts, so I wont be able to split the case until I get a hold of a VW adaptor.

That being said, I found out that this engine isn't the original! It's an AJ model that was originally FI. (A previous owner did a carb conversion.) My question is, whats with the extra port on the top of the intake manifold? I can't find anything like it, and I'm considering just buying a new dual port intake manifold...any suggestions?

[omegared]

"My question is, whats with the extra port on the top of the intake manifold?"

Had one of these manifolds on a '76 bus. If I remember correctly it is a vacuum line port that runs to the vacuum assist brakes. If not using vacuum assist brakes it can jus be plugged.
_________________
Volkswagens don't like trees, make all necessary efforts to keep your VW from meeting one.

1966 Bus
1976 Bus
1971 Standard Beetle

[Zundfolge1432]

Exhaust gas recirculation. It would have had a small pipe going to muffler. The tube on the left side was vacuum port for distributor. Autostik cars had a huge vacuum port in addition to that.

[tpinthepack]

Small world, I recognize the apartment building, my son used to live there off US 19 in Clearwater. There is plenty of VW enthusiasts in this area, good luck.
Tony
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TP in the Pack (I am a cyclist)
1968 Manx N.O.S. w/ Barrett Chassis
1960 Single Cab 1914 w/ 40 DLRA's
1990 Vanagon DOKA
1972 Super Beetle
1979 Super Beetle Convertible
2011 Porsche Cayenne

[EvanAskins]

Got the body off the pan. I'm starting to wonder how I'm going to store all these pieces I'm removing before the rebuild!

[T1SuperNoob]

[agramer1966]

[EvanAskins]

Getting the chassis completely torn apart. Removing all the "fixes" the last owner did has been helpful in showing me what NOT to do (They welded the floor pans in with about 5 giant welds that were largely not doing anything.)

...Does anyone have a good machine shop in the tampa bay area that will work on these engines? I've called 10+ shops and no one will touch my engine with a ten foot pole. I'm not expecting much work needs to be done, but it would be nice to have a shop in my pocket just in case.

[OldSchoolVW's]

These folks will probably be able to help or point you to where you can get the needed work done:

https://www.facebook.com/olsensvw/
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Tom

"Following distance is proportional to IQ."

"If you don't do it this year, you'll be one year older when you do." Warren Miller

"But I also have to say, for the umpty-umpth time, that life isn't fair. It's just fairer than death, that's all." William Goldman

'63 Beetle Sedan
'69 Beetle Sunroof
'70 Beetle Sedan
'73 Type 3 Fastback

[Chinaclipper]

[EvanAskins]