'73 sedan build thread

[zakuswim]

Thought I'd start a build thread before it's too late

Been toying with the idea of getting a bug ever since I can remember and back in June I finally bought my first!

It's an emarald green metallic 1300 standard with a 1600 DP. Originally this would have had the AB 1300 DP engine but has been upgraded by a prev owner in the past to as41 dual relief.

Far from show condition but it was running and driving and since purchasing I have put almost 1k miles on it! It has it's issues like struggling to idle when warm and cutting out at the lights.

At first I thought this might be a carb setup issue but after rebuilding the solex 32pict3 and spending hours tweaking, I got it to idle when warm. Hurray!

Next was to take off the ol' crusty loud exhaust and J-tubes to replace with some used heater boxes and a new standard double pea shooter set up. Nice!

I noticed that the engine case had been painted blue and after that silver to make it look clean but there was a pretty nasty oil leak coming from the flywheel side of the motor. I wasn't too worried about this and kept a 5L of oil in the frunk to top it up with weekly.

Been watching John Ludwick on the YouTube and he used an old trick with steel wool and acetone to remove spray paint on his AU 1000SP and reveal the original paint. After about 40 mins of scrubbing with the wool, I got down to the original Marina Blau hidden underneath. Good thing this is my favourite beetle colour!

After realising how much scrubbing it would take to do the whole car, I tried to seek other methods and found that using Solvex high performance silicone remover worked much better for larger areas. If anyone has tips for a better product I'm all ears.

The goal is to get every last bit of this green paint removed without touching the original underneath.

I realised I was stung by a previous owner with this car as the replacement panels below the rear windows and the rear luggage tray had been "welded" in with silicone!! This car is going to be a nice project after all

The crank had about 10mm of play back and forth so I assumed the crank seal was most definitely mashed.. Still the motor soldiered on until I noticed that the oil light was coming on most times I hit the brakes, I then decided enough torture was enough and removed the engine to inspect.

[zakuswim]

They weren't lying when they said engine out was a 1 man job. Well 1 bike stand and 1 floor jack..

Everything engine-side looks normal, but a massive pool of engine oil in the gearbox bellhousing..

Gun the clutch and flywheel off and boom there I find the oil leak as suspected.

Not surprisingly the seal has been mashed but more worryingly the flywheel has actually beeen contacting the casing around the main seal due to the massive play in thrust. Lets open the case up and see the damage.

One of the heads has clearly been over torqued and cracked by the head nut.

I found that cylinder #1 has a broken piston ring and has caused mega scoring and pitting in the jugg as well as a cracked piston ready to let go.

One of the ears on piston #2 has completely snapped off and ended in the sump however jugg looks okay.

Cylinder #3 seems to have escaped unscathed and cylinder #4 has some mild pitting.

Both of the heads have 1 spark plug larger than the other and are cracked between the valves.

[zakuswim]

Since the main bearing dowell closest to the flywheel hadn't been able to keep the bearing in its place, the mag case was pretty badly damaged resulting in the crank free play back and forth. I measured the thrust to have worn 2mm out of spec and I havent found an economical route to take about resurecting that case.

Instead I have been collecting parts for a 2180 build for a few months now and I'm nearly ready to start building. I have almost everything except from: heads, intakes and carbs. However I've found a guy about an hour away selling some Los Panchitos that have had extensive flow work by an infamous user of this website. They are 40x35.5, 94mm with 61.5cc chambers which checks out using the CB calculator.

Look at those pieces of art.

The parts list for my 2180 build are:
-1160 White Rhino Aluminum Super Case (92 Bore) STD Deck (8mm Case Savers)
-1154 Super Race Crank - 82mm Stroke VW Journals
-1254 Uni-Tech Performance Rods - 5.400'' VW Journal
-2242 Eagle Racing Camshafts (Clearanced Cam)
-1538 30mm Lightweight Racing Lifters
-1419 Eagle Adjustable Cam Gear
-1278 CB Case Kit
-1590 Maxi 26 Full Flow Oil Pump
-1865 MAHLE Rod Bearings Type-1 STD
-Silverline cam bearings STD
-Silverline Main bearings STD
-AA Barrel & Piston Kit 2180cc 92mm x 82mm (Thick Wall 92 case 94 head)
-Deep Sump 1.5 Litre
-Cut to length push rods
-STD pushrod tubes
-Empi 72 row cooler and fan and inline switch
-remote filter and doghouse bypass (to keep doghouse)

Anyone have any thoughts on the 40/35.5 valve size? Should I go any bigger? The seller also has some Italian Webers (Webortos) for sale and I'm interested in those too since they seem to operate more like the dellortos. Any thoughts are much appreciated.

[Buggeee]

Great write up so far, thank you for sharing the experience. I like the bad attitude of that bug. Those heads do look amazing.

I have had some success removing spray paint down to the original paint using EZ Off oven cleaner.
_________________
Big Time 1988 Vanagon Westy
Release the Krankenwagen! 1966 Sportsmobile Camper
Dr. Kompressor 72 Super Duper
61 Turkis Pile (adopted out)

[zakuswim]

Thanks Buggeee,

You're right about the bad attitude. One of the previous owners has had fun dechroming and has said goodbye to the door trims, licence plate shelter and the fender indicators. But those tail lights have got to go! Can barely see them in the day time and bit of an eyesore. Have got some lenses to go on but looking for the stand-offs and gasket that go between them and the rear fender.

I managed to pick up another as41 case at Beauliea International auto jumble last weekend so I will be picking up a couple of used pistons and jugs for the 1600 and slapping it back together with new main bearings to get me going while I build the 2180.

The heads do have cracks between the valves but I will clean them up and check that there are no cracks between the valve and plug hole before using them.

[rob1983]

Hey so im Rob and im acctually the guy that built this beetle from a shell! I have every picrure of the build step by step if you would be interested in these pics i miss this car so so much selling it was the bigest mistake ive ever made would love to get in co tact with you
Thank you

[Rome]

[MTT3107]

You wrote ‘73 sedan in the thread title….
Something is off here, on the pics of your engine removal, you can see that your bug has a swing axle trans…
And VW stopped putting those in beetles in 1968..

[Bobs67vwagen]

Europe and some other markets around the world still had swing axles after 1968.

[MTT3107]

Yes, I know that in Mexico and Brazil they installed swing axles into the 2000’s….
But Germany and Europe stopped them long before.

[vwuberalles]

Europe got a 1300 bug into the 70s that was swingaxle. They had the early taillights too iirc.
_________________
1973 Superbeetle: 1st car, owned since age 12. Update thread --> https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=9919140#9919140
1967 Kombi: Owned since age 17, Dad's retirement project.
1966 Beetle: My new project. (SOLD) Build thread--> https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=678040