This old car just became priority ONE.

I got the engine mostly together tonight. Shoot, I even found a set of new platinum plugs inside it. (BOSCH, naturally...)

I-B - BUGGIN'!!!!!

I just luv these funky old things.

That thing will save me the money to change G1 forever....

 

My brother's about got everything mechanical done with his '68.......Now just re-doing the body and new fabric for the interior........They sure as hell are fun to drive though....I'm looking for one myself.....

p.s. He's a bigwig on thesamba.com site.....spends a lot of time there....

 

Plug wires, cap and rotor acquired, throw out bearing on order and will have monday.

Old bearing is good enough to try it in the neighborhood and see if everything works (MAYBE TOMORROW?).

It's just a few hours away from driving, but the brake shoes have to be replaced THIS WEEK. It can't go anywhere without them - period. I'll look at the back ones and see if I can get by with front replacement only for just a little while.

Believe it or not - I plan to epoxy the old liner back onto the curb side brake shoe for test purposes.

 

CONFIRMATION RECIEVED:

The little yellow bug I found is in fact a late 71 flat windowed SUPER BEETLE!

Now I know for sure what I have, they only made them like that for about two years.

 

I don't know if Tennessee is the same as North Carolina.....But vehicles over 35 years old DO NOT need an inspection done.......

 

We don't have inspections in much of Tn. If you live in the city of Memphis you must get a inspection. I don't know it antique cars are exempt

 

As of last night, I found that the nice people I got the bug from had no idea what was being done to it (which I suspected), and that the man who did work on it for them was a complete DOPE! (Which was implied by how filthy everything was).

The oil filter was plugged solid, three out of four pistons had stuck rings stuffed with garbage, and there is evidense of rust on the crank - what I can see of it. There was no ridge ring... There was rust on the piston top of number four, and it's cylinder upper chamber. There was no notch at the point where EVERYONE pries the cases apart - so this case is original and has never been split.

As opposed to bearings - this sap sucker was going to put new jugs and slugs in it and send it down the road. With a slight detour to the backyard where it got water inside the engine...

After attempting to run a few quarts of light oil through it last evening to flush it, I ended up being in the shop with it until 11:45 tearing off all the sheet metal and stuff until I got it down to a pistonless shortblock.

This engine would not have gone to Olive Branch and back!

Tonight I will continue the strip down, and depending on how big my check is on friday either G1 will have a tranny, or Roy Rogers will have all my money.

 

UPDATE

At this point, I have ripped it all the way down, bought John Muirs book(*) and determined that although it is a fine read - it has no organisation or tech info that is useful, but the cartoons are nice, and the historic info is excellent. My mid seventies CHILTON is much better, and the one Haynes manual I have ever seen to have good info is about air cooled VW. They don't seem to have left the important stuff out for a change....

I was impressed to find not only point gap measures, but DWELL ANGLES in the book!

A Haynes provided the journal sizes that told me it was cut to ten under. The cam is just plain SPUNGED!

(That's "OGRE" for slap wore out)

I think it will ride with a standard bearing pack - and that's another point. Roy Rogers rep said that he had never sold a set of cam bearings that were ten under. This cam read almost exactly ten thousandths under with my mike....

Who the heck did that? Or is the cam that damn old? I dunno....

I went in with a buddy to buy a pair of old baja'd cars - one is a seventy - for $75 each. We dragged one back today, will drag another tomorrow, and swing by my place of work WITH DIRE APOLOGIES to grab my gear puller from my toolbox. I need it to grab the gears off the front of the crank and replace a main bearing.

I hate having to grovel like this.

But the ride is over - I'll be driving a BUG after the fourth of july, or out of a job.


* Is it possible that you have to be STONED to get anything useful from it? It WAS from back in those days...

PS: The theme of this car has been decided. It will be "Der SHREKWAGEN", and basic green everywhere.

 

Sounds like your having too much fun with that lil bug.
My first memory of one was when our pee wee baseball coach picked up the whole team (we all went to the same school) in his bug.....must have been mid 60's. Wish I had a pix of that.
The second contact with one was my first outing with friends....who got drunk... and you know who had to drive their car home....my first time ever both as designated driver and driving a clutch.
Have Fun!

 

I've got it all now - just need to put it together.

Since it's cooler at night, it looks like an all-nighter.

We got the other baja back to the place around 3 this afternoon, any stray parts I need will come from the two hard cases.

 

I'm getting so used to this it's no longer frustrating - it's amusing.

Despite the grundgy appearance of this engine, and all the crud inside, it appears that it was rebuilt with new bearings cut ten thousandths under, minor damage to one of them has ocurred, and the case was cut ten thousandths OVER...

I now have no choice but to put the old bearings in it, since it's a holiday. I've cleaned everything up and got a new oil filter. I THINK IT WILL RUN.

No idea how long - so the engine out of the donor bug has to be ripped down right away and gone through.

Final analysis: It was rebuilt, but was trashed by the folks it was built for by leaving it unprotected while they dragged their heels about putting it all back together.

Damn shame, seems pretty stupid - but not the first time or the last I ever heard of such a thing. I'LL get it running, now that it's mine.

Like a Harley or an RV, the only way you keep a VW going is by running it. If they sit, it's almost as if they get unhappy...

Future reference: I need a table of case saddle sizes for bearings.

 

Footnote: I suddenly realised what "UBU" was in German- "DBD" (Du Bist Du). Doesn't work nearly as well, unless you happen to be VERY LOUD...

I need daylight for the rest of this, I can't see what I need to outside.

 

i like them bugs too and with the way gas is now mine was a super with a flat windshield bad abt having front end shimmes mine was okay till xwife hit a big limb that fell off log trk

 

Prolly sumpin bent - might need new bushings. Kits for that are dirt cheap, just need a bit of know-how.

 

VEE-E DAY!!!


The engine is as complete as I can make it right now. The only thing left is to put on the new clutch throw out bearing, and mount it tomorrow.

I'll turn it over with the coil disconnected twice, long enough for pressure to come up in the oil system.

AND THEN IT'S TEST AND TUNE TIME.......

I'd forgotten a lot about these machines, I've re-learned it ALL. Tomorrow is the point of GO-NO GO. It works or it don't.