1973 Fastback

[nicnmike]

Hi! Long-time lurker here. Finally purchased my first air cooled VW. It's meant to be a project for my son and I to work on. I actually haven't even seen it in person yet. My brother went out and looked at it and said it looked nicer in person than it did in the pictures (so that's good). I'm driving up this weekend to pick it up. I've rebuilt engines and do about 95% of most of my own vehicle repairs, so I feel confident in my ability to get it going.

I was told the engine was rebuilt and running 10 years ago. I know I'm probably going to have to replace all the pans and more than likely the heater channels. My brother said the chassis looks solid and the body looks mostly solid with only a few patches that will need to be addressed.

I uploaded the images from the ad to a gallery:

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_search.php?search_author=nicnmike

One immediate question I have is if this thing has an AC unit:

Looking forward to working on it and "bugging" you all with questions!

-Mike

[Max Welton]

Sure looks like an AC compressor. Look for the rest of the system. Follow the hoses.

Max
_________________
1967 Type-3 Fastback
Under the Knife https://shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=151582
Home Stretch https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=767836

[Bobnotch]

[rosevillain]

The compressor and the under dash unit are there. If the pulley that drives the compressor is there, the rest of the stuff can be figured out. I'd be stoked to have the a/c parts that I can see in that car. Have fun.

[nicnmike]

Thanks for the replies. I like the idea of swapping in a more efficient compressor. Just having all to brackets and under the dash components should make it an easier process.

Next steps are spending hours combing through the forums and making a parts and to do list.

I'll post more pictures once I get it home.

[Mike Fisher]

Check that your MPS holds vacuum.
Unbolt your injectors and watch their spray patterns.
We have lots of FI parts gathering dust.
_________________
69 FI/AT square Daily Driver
66 sunroof,67,70,71,71,71AT,72,72AT,73 Parts
two 57 oval ragtops sold
'68 Karmann Ghia sold

Society is like stew. If you don't keep it stirred up you end up with a lot of scum on the top! - Russ_Wolfe/Edward Abbey

[nicnmike]

Finally had some time to work on the car. All in all, it doesn't look like it's been worked on very much. It will need extensive body work done: floors, rust patches, new window seals, etc.

The fuel tank isn't rusty, but sat for awhile, so there's some slugy gunk that needs to be cleaned out. Then clean the fuel lines by disconnecting them from all the components and flush them with compressed air and fresh gas. then pull the injectors and clean them up.

I have a brake bleeder I can use to test vacuum on some of the components. I don't imagine I need to pull too much vacuum, right? Maybe just a few lbs?

I found a few posts listing components to check with a multimeter, so I'll do that too.

I noticed my distributor doesn't have a vacuum advance on it, so that's a bummer.

All in all, it doesn't look like it's been worked on very much. It will need extensive body work done: floors, rust patches, new window seals, etc.

I read somewhere that when repairing the metal under where the windshield wipers are, you could fabricate a piece that's removable to keep the area clean. Does anyone know of a build, or link that gives an example of one?

Finally, my lazy question: what is this weird button thing on the hub cover?

[gtixpress]

[nicnmike]

Did some googling last night to figure this one out. This car is a little costly for the, "just replace everything" route. Hence the extra effort on the calipers.
Other news: I got it titled this morning! And ordered a bunch of fuel stuff to try to get it running. Now that it's titled, I'll start dismantling and ordering all the other stuff (pans, all the seals, lines, hoses, bushings, etc...).