Red Beetle Rehab

csstevej said:

“ Anyone ever see or hear of someone pulling a beetle with a beetle? Lol”

Lol look up dweisel member........he has towed a beetle with a beetle......I believe the furthest was from Texas to West Virginia.......

Also get some internal frame rust converter /sealer and spray inside the rocker panels through the plugs on the bottom to help kill or slow down the rust from the inside that you cannot reach.

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Ok, ill look into the rust idea. I haven't heard of that yet. I have a hard time seeing my car rusting, and i can't/won't pay for a professional auto shop to do it as its like at least a grand for anything so i fix all of it myself. I can't repaint with color match suff tho because my green car is faided from being 19yrs old. So i fix it in different ways. I also have a door handle rust fix that I came up with. I may share it in here as well.

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Powder Hound said:

Keep with it!



This is interesting to me as we here in New England suffer from the same rust issues you have there. Anything you find that will show how to forestall and treat rusting will be of great interest.



Great project!



Cheers,



PH

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Ok, most people here (mn) say eh if its gonna rust its gonna rust. But at 242k miles im not about to let the frame rot out before the motor goes. I didn't really want to bondo it, but it'll stop the rust, so i did it. I truck bed lined the whole rocker, and so far it looks good, and is great protection.

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GlowBugTDI said:

...if I can get 45 miles to the gallon ...

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Should get ~51 MPG with the 2001. I used to drive it from Minneapolis to my mother's house in the east (Illinois) side of the St. Louis metro, then back north to Hannibal before I would refuel. i probably could have made it to the truck stop in Wayland just south of the Iowa border but always chickened out in Hannibal.

To get that distance you have to overfill the tank by depressing the air vent button as you top off.

Yep sounds good. I should've said 45+mpg. I get about 43mpg in the glowbug, but i have the home made 2" lift and oversized tires.

BTW. Hope your glad to see it running! Should have the TB done yesterday or today. Just waiting on the call.

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GlowBugTDI said:

Yep sounds good. I should've said 45+mpg. I get about 43mpg in the glowbug, but i have the home made 2" lift and oversized tires.

BTW. Hope your glad to see it running! Should have the TB done yesterday or today. Just waiting on the call.

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I was rather attached to that Beetle, happy to see it getting fixed up. All of my previously retired cars have either been sold to junkyards or donated to the Courage Center (now Courage Kenny Rehabilitation Institute) in Golden Valley.

This one deserved resuscitation.

I got the call. it's ready to be picked up, so im hoping to be able to get it in the morning. if not it will be back Monday and i'll make a short video of it driving. hopefully i can get that actuator to start moving a bit more freely, so that it'll go over 20mph this time. still needs quite a bit, but it's well on it's way!!

It's back. Runs about the same, but will now hit highway speeds (65-70). I think theres a small leak in the vac hoses somwhere. It takes about 20ish seconds to hit 65. I drove it about 15 miles and no weird noises or breakdowns. So woo hoo!

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GlowBugTDI said:

It's back. Runs about the same, but will now hit highway speeds (65-70). I think theres a small leak in the vac hoses somwhere. It takes about 20ish seconds to hit 65. I drove it about 15 miles and no weird noises or breakdowns. So woo hoo!

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I tee'd my gauge into the vacuum line after the check valve with a long hose and had the gauge inside the car.

I went for a ride in the city for a few minutes and more on the highway and glanced at it every few seconds.

At idle it should produce 20 inches for the actuator to be able go go full.
Should be similar on the highway.

Ok good to know.

I have done a bit more digging around all the vacuum parts checked out good, so i did some research, and thanks to csstevej we got it figured out. Bad maf sensor. I threw the one from the glowbug in, and its mechanicaly sound. Now i just need to fix all the cosmetic stuff.

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GlowBugTDI said:

Ok good to know.

I have done a bit more digging around all the vacuum parts checked out good, so i did some research, and thanks to csstevej we got it figured out. Bad maf sensor. I threw the one from the glowbug in, and its mechanicaly sound. Now i just need to fix all the cosmetic stuff.

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Nice!

Did they let you keep the custom plates?

Yep, they let me keep the plates. I have them on there per your request, and like them alot. Here's an updated picture.

I just picked up a southbend stage 2 daily clutch for it. And am planning on getting a tune and pp520's injectors (euro size) for it. Thinking it will increase the hp to about 130hp-145hp and should still get about 45mpg im hoping.

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I had the Southbend stage 2 daily installed by Greengeeker here in my hometown (great guy by the way!), I am now waiting to see if I am able to sell the green beetle. or try and decide if I should just go ahead and buy the injectors. The car is finally starting to become put together. I bought a door card last week and installed it as well I got a few other trim pieces that were needed in the interior.

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Nice going !

Thanks! I am super excited for the final product. I can't wait till my car is tuned!

On another note Something related to the car. I noticed that the passenger side rear bumper area is a little hazy. Its almost as if the clear is sanded with really high grit (probably not what caused it) and just needs to be buffed. So I may do that and add some clear fix pictures.

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As the owner of a Red TDI NB, as well as multiple 88 Olivers, I DIG THIS PIC!

GlowBugTDI said:

Yep, they let me keep the plates. I have them on there per your request, and like them alot. Here's an updated picture.

I just picked up a southbend stage 2 daily clutch for it. And am planning on getting a tune and pp520's injectors (euro size) for it. Thinking it will increase the hp to about 130hp-145hp and should still get about 45mpg im hoping.

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bigsexyTDI said:

As the owner of a Red TDI NB, as well as multiple 88 Olivers, I DIG THIS PIC!

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Haha, yes!! My Parents bought it when i was like 5, and I have been in love with that tractor since! It was my great grandpa's. I always get my yearly school pictures with it, and/or the green beetle.

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Well we have a parasitic draw. Haven't had a chance to look at it the last 2 weeks but I'm hoping to dive into it tomorrow. Hopefully just the batt (yet it shouldn't be as it's only 2yrs i think) otherwise its somewhere on the way to the starter. Turn the key and the car just clicks. Better i fix it now then later i guess.
The giving of blood for life of another lol.

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Lol.......CLEAR !!!!!!!

csstevej said:

Lol.......CLEAR !!!!!!!

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Im Sorry, clear what?

Update: I will have to check again tomorrow to see if the battery is any lower on voltage but I unplugged the CD changer in the back and so far today it hasn't lost any volts.

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Lol looks like paddles that you would use an AED to jumpstart your heart.

Aw, i see lol.

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csstevej said:

Lol looks like paddles that you would use an AED to jumpstart your heart.

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Hahahaha, now that's funny.

This thread is my motivation to put my TDI beetle back together, one day...

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WildChild80 said:

Hahahaha, now that's funny.

This thread is my motivation to put my TDI beetle back together, one day...

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Thanks. I unplugged a couple things in the car and I'm still having a parasitic draw so I'm going to have to start looking into that over the course of these next few weeks.

I didn't know for sure how much this thread would be appreciated, but still wanted to do it anyway. So far there hasn't been anything super interesting or deep like an overhaul or anything, but cosmetically its been a lot. Next on my list is the 1" lift. Ill show how i do this. Should only cost about $30 or less.

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Go with a 2” lift.......looks better.....just my opinion.....

I was thinking about it. I bought the stuff to be able to do the 1" at $30 (same material as the 2"). Otherwise I could just switch it over from the glowbug. I was planning on switching it out anyway just haven't found the time yet. The main reason for going with 1" is I wanted a little bit more clearance so I can run the same tires as I had with the 2 in but I didn't want to lift it too much because I wanted to keep the car fast as I could. Ill think a bit more on it. Maybe i will just go 2". All my buddys have been telling me go 2" or more (which i don't really wanna try). Ive been really happy with the 2" in the glowbug

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All my cars I built and installed a 2” lift kit.

Ok, cool! Ya i love mine

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Update:

First things first i still have the parasitic draw[emoji852]. I went through amd checked all the fuses. The 3 under the hood, and the ones in the drivers dash. I hooked them up to my mulimeter, and read for any voltage, and nothing....So i am still on the search for that.

On another note i took my 2" lift out of the glowbug, and am going to be prepping it for this car(derust and truck bed liner) i also sand blasted and truck bed lined my beetle hitch before going into this car so that it's ready for years of use. I installed it today, and it looks good as ever.

I had been playing around with the idea of installing a 26 in light bar in the lower grill for off-road/night driving. Decided to try it and bought one to put in there. After a bit of experimenting I realized that with how the lights are angled I wasn't going to be able to get ot as bright as I would have liked. It was no brighter than having the brights on. Not really wanting to be "that guy" but since I had a little bit of time on my hands I thought it might be fun to try something different so I attached it to the rack to try it later that night for brightness and oh my goodness!! Not only was it brighter than having the brights on it also gave a wider range of view than I have seen in any other vehicle. Needless to say for functionality it is going to be staying there for a little while longer. I'm also having a print shop make this glow Bug TDI sticker for the rear hatch as I had done with the original glowbug.

As far as the performance build of this car has gone nothing has changed. I'm in the middle of working on getting pp520 for the car and deciding which shop I want to have calibrate and pop test them.

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Decal came a couple days ago, and I installed it tonight after work![emoji16]

I'm hoping to have my pp520's installed on injectors and in the car by the end of August. Can't wait to see the comparison to stock.

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Nice!