Went over and picked it up, finally. Made it to the gas station on 2 year old gas Ran MUCH better with about 10 gallons of fresh premium. The back window rattled a bit, and the tires were sort of bad, but I kept it under 40 and was okay. Am keeping it at my brother's, as he happens to have an empty garage. Waiting on a new accelerator cable, then will deliver the bug, and get it in my garage. I know how you guys like pics, so took a few with my $10 camera, sorry about the quality. Will put the fuchs on when I get the lugs from Jim, the PO. He also is going to give me an original radio and face plate, if I give him the cassette player currently in the car. I can either keep these steelies for free, or get a set of Mahles for $400(Looks like Mom's new bug may be sporting some new alloys soon, ironic that I sell it, and hook up with the wheels I have been looking to get for years.)

A few questions, would it be better to do a thread of the resto progress, or put it on the blog I apparently have here? Does one way eat up less bandwidth, or does it matter.

Also, there is a bit of surface rust on the body, RR fender, and I have been debating whether to get it painted and replace the rubber seals ASAP, or work on the interior first. It seems to make more sense to get the body cleaned up and painted quickly, to prevent any deterioration, and do the seals to keep the water out. Any suggestions?

prewashing, 2 years of dirt and oxidation

another, driver's side

fender rust(that was my brother watering his lawn

sort of two tone paint

the spare, with a bit of damage from a fireman's axe. This was in the attic of PO. House burned, but this was spared, though it did get tossed through a hole in the side of the house at attic level. Other four are close to perfect, and already have yoko ES 100 195-60-15 mounted

QUOTE (Tobra @ Sep 4 2005, 09:37 PM)

A few questions, would it be better to do a thread of the resto progress, or put it on the blog I apparently have here? Does one way eat up less bandwidth, or does it matter. Also, there is a bit of surface rust on the body, RR fender, and I have been debating whether to get it painted and replace the rubber seals ASAP, or work on the interior first. It seems to make more sense to get the body cleaned up and painted quickly, to prevent any deterioration, and do the seals to keep the water out. Any suggestions?

If you do a thread we can follow along with your project and that way if you need a question answered you can put it in the thread.


A $20 tarp solves both problems. Do what you can when $$ is available.

What tarp, this is going in a garage, burned up paint and all. The wife parks her SUV in the driveway

M

QUOTE (Tobra @ Sep 4 2005, 10:03 PM)

What tarp, this is going in a garage, burned up paint and all. The wife parks her SUV in the driveway

Then no worries....unless your garage leaks or your below sea level.

I have high beams, and man alive that brake fluid was dark.

Turns out it was a relay, that my friend, the PO happened to give me along with a lot of other stuff. Disconnected the battery, pulled all the fuses and gently cleaned the fuse block with steel wool. While it was apart, replaced the headlight relay. The old one is a VW part number, 111 something. Will post pic later. Also removed the R tail light lens, which was sort of half-assed siliconed onto the seal, and held together by the seal. It was in three pieces, but went back on pretty good. I really nead to replace the whole assembly; I went ahead and cleaned the contacts, the turn signal is not working, so I just don't signal R turns. Wouldn't want the switch or relay to explode or something.

Replaced a few of the vacuum lines, because I had them, and while I was at it, noticed the whole thing was loose on the throttle body. The fuel lines looked good, but are destined to be changed when I get them. It had a K&N in it already, which explains the filter in the box, and the not too bad one without a box.

Bled the brakes, soft lines look okay. Took it out, for the first time really, because I don't count driving it home when the R rear tire separated and made me wonder why the window was rattling so much(How much is butyl tape anyway?) The yoko ES100's did not disappoint. It has Gas-a-justs in the back, no name black struts in the front, and the front and rear sways.

It ran a lot better after doing the vacuum lines, and I only changed a few big ones and a few little ones. The lines from the distributor were replaced, figured they would be important. It idled better, and pulled a lot more smoothly, wound up to 70 in 4th pretty quickly. Made similar, though louder sounds than a bug. Smelled like an old VW inside, and when you parked it. The road into my bro's house has some slow 90* turns, impressive the G's a 914 can pull. Ran really strong from about 3-4 grand. It was a LOT faster than the bug, amazing what a 50% increase in horsepower can accomplish. Heavy steering, sort of like a 911, only not as much so.

It is still ugly, and it needs a ton of cosmetic stuff, eventually, all the rubber is getting replaced, but there is plenty of other stuff to do; I think I am going to really like this car.

Congratulations.

It really doesn't matter how you post your progress; It's a preference thing really. I can tell you that if you do a progress thread, you'll be better served to post your questions in a seperate thread and then link those threads in your progress thread. BTDT.

FYI - Those rubber brakes lines will deteriorate (rot and swell) on the inside more so than the outside. Just because they look OK on the outside doesn't mean they're good.

I agree with Gint. Replace the brake lines, and the fuel lines (including the little injector lines), and new injector seals. That way you have the peace of mind knowing the car won't go up in flames, and will stop when you want it to stop. Cheap insurance.

BTW, nice start for a project. You can drive it while fixing it up, rather than having it on jackstands.

That is why I got this one. Yeah, I am hip to the old rubber looking not too bad and being bad, had a hose that acted sort of like a check valve on the bug, wheel cylinder would take 30 minutes to release after you pushed the pedal. The rubber fuel lines in the engine compartment on this car are supposed to be less than 5 years old. I replaced every piece of rubber on the old bug, down to the injector seals and the plumbing to them

Have not posted on my progress thread for a while, so will catch some stuff up. Used VW window crank, replaced flasher relay($32 from the bird) with a relay for a '69-'70 VW($9). Put a VW high tone horn from bugformance on the car too, figured it should make some sort of noise($15, like $27 from the bird, they did have the low tone one for $12, so that was a $3 savings over bugformance, so I bought it from them, cheap bastard that I am) Used a $5 paper and foil heater hose instead of the very nice $20 one that is nylon or plastic. They one I took off the car was crumbling, have seen VW heater hoses like that that are in pretty decent shape after a few decades.

Got my bushings in the rear, hooked up the sway bar, helped a lot with handling. Used a vise as a press to get the thing started, then popped it in using a mallet. Used a gear puller to press the end link back on to the sway bar and shock mount. Put a Sacagewea(that must be misspelled) dollar on the bushing, it was just the right size. Beat the heck out of the dollar piece with the threaded part of the gear puller for the bottom bushing, but nary a mark on the bushing.

Did the shift coupler bushings a week or so ago, shifts nice now. This was much easier than I thought it would be. Put the Petronix ignition deal and a bosch blue coil on at the same time, car ran noticeably smoother. Kept the condensor attached, and have the points in the tool kit I keep in the car, I am prepared for it to fail, oh Krusty One.

*Note to self, the holes for the cone screws point the same direction on the shift rod, I am quite practiced and pressing that pin in the coupler

The real reason I am posting today is that I replaced all the fuel lines under the gas tank today, they were, cracked, leaking and starting to disintigrate. Stock fuel pump already relocated under the tank in the Master Cylinder well. They kept the stupid plastic "Y" connection, will replace this with a metal piece eventually, or even better yet, get a pump that only has one inlet and one outlet, like the later 914's, and all the Fuel Injected Super Beetles. Fuel filter was surprisingly clean, lines were mostly not metric, but all were high pressure hoses. It was pretty clean under the tank, dusty, but that is about it, no spider webs even, and they were all up in the master cylinder area. Posted a pic looking from the center of the car looking toward the tire, oops, won't let me post a picture, odd

Going to replace the brake hoses this week, have the parts, and a day to do them and the passenger side mirror install

Pic of fuel pump, good lord I am a friggin idjut

Replaced the starter today with one of the ones for the later 911. Twice as much dough, but I figure why not? It was quite easy to install, all you guys who talk about what a PITA it is must just be bitter about all that sand in your vaginas. Remove air cleaner, top bolt evident when assembly removed. Took off LR wheel to facilitate access.

On removing old starter, I noted that beside the top bolt hole, there is a raised area that prevents the bolt from spinning while you remove the nut from the engine compartment, those clever Bosche engineers. New(rebuilt really) starter does not have this reased area, so used a socket with a few long extensions to clear the body of the starter while my assistant held the nut in engine bay. This would have been a one man job to R&R starter if the new one had the deal to keep the bolt from spinning. I got a good appreciation for how tired the old starter was when I hit the key with the new one, nice.

before

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after

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Have not added anything to this in a while, could not find it, search would not get it for me for some reason.

Here is a before and after refinishing the bumper. Nice shot of the tail pipe I had welded on and the rear valence in black instead to semi iron oxide.

Still need a decent pic of the car with the Fuchs on it, oddly enough put them on the vehicle on 9/14/05 and don't have a photo. Tough to get a pic when you are sitting in it going fast around a corner.

Drained the transmission oil 10 days ago, came out lookin' a bit emulsified, shifts a LOT better after getting that 30 year old mayonaise out of there. Refilled with the Valvoline flavored stuff. Changed the crankcase oil and filter the same time, my oh my was that easy. Valves done before Alpine 500, so they are not due yet.

Need to take some pictures tomorrow.

Finally got all the rubber brake hoses done. The R rear one was quite a pain, the upper fitting took a few weeks of marinating in PB Blaster before it would break loose. Ended up removing the grommet and bottom part of rain tray drain hose to access the little clip holding the soft line in place. It was right there, almost like they planned it that way. Incredible how dark and crappy the brake fluid was when I flushed it all out less than a year ago. Both rear hoses had started to bulge a little, difficult to appreciate in the pics, so here is a shot of the new and old front hoses side by side.

There was a pair of rubber bits on the hose that slide back and forth, found that they help to place the hose away from the suspension bits when moved, I suspect that is what they are intended to do, but don't know.

Gotta go, haven't driven it in 2 weeks and am jonesing.


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Have not added much to this thread in a while. Adjusted the clutch, checked the rear brakes and the clearance is right. Did my first auto cross today in Stockton, it was a hoot. Most fun I ever had for $35. Finally have a decent pic of the car with alloy wheels on it

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Went from 86 seconds to 76 seconds in five runs. Each run was about 2 seconds faster than the one before. I don't know what that means, but I improved every time, so that is good. Can't imagine the tires lasting very long if I keep driving it like this. Kind of fun to slide around a little, even if it slowed me down

Discovered the seat tilts, , so that is what that other lever does, who knew?

Toby,
An improvement of 2 seconds a lap is great. With a proper alignment street tires tend to last a year or more with autocross use. Because they are narrow and you are doing some cornering in anger, they will tend to wear the outside edges first. You roll over onto the side wall and wear the edge.
An alignment that includes negative camber will take away some of the tendency to wear in that way. Corner balancing is relatively cheap and effective as well.
Some people who use their cars daily or nearly so, have a second set of wheels with autocross tires on them to mitigate the wear and get more time on the tires.
This can be a slippery slope. A 914 with a good alignment, good tires, a front sway bar (at least) is all you need to have a good time with a nimble car. Once you start chasing TTOD, the money flows. It is really seat time that means the most. In order to improve your times to yours and the cars optimum, you need to spend lots of time in the seat driving it in anger.
You can spend a half million on a Carrera GT and after you put in your best effort a guy with lots of seat time will better your best in your own car. Moral of the story is drive it. Enter every event you can get to . Better yet, get involved. I could use help with the events.
Sorry I was so little help at that event. I didn't feel well so the best I could do was tow the trailer and set up the course...

Finally fixed the interior light, radio shack female plug crimped on wire, plugged in and voila, let there be light. Does not work when I open passenger door, probably dirty contacts, but don't care much. Put new license plate light on too, one that did not work was crumbling, one that did is crumbling but not corroded, like the driver's side, go figure.

Dropped $200 on a bunch of stuff I don't really need. Nice leather wrapped wheel with brand new rubber spring, won't go on until post painting. Nice steel front lower valence, rocker covers and little cover that goes over the master cylinder well. Picked up a spare transmission, including rear mounts, rear shift rod with coupler and little boot for the firewall too. The wife did not complain too much though. Been driving it a lot, which is good. Need to check my cone screws again, seems a little sloppy shifting
oooh, pretty
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Hey Toby! Where did get all those parts? (not to mention the money)

What do you need Michael?

Went over and got them from my friend Jim, you want to put a 2 liter in your car, I think he has the right one with a fresh top end, he has a lot of stuff