Going back in time, or how I am re-living my youth! (1971 Beetle)

This reminded me of when my dad bought a used '71 Super Beetle with an auto stick-shift. As we were driving away from where we bought it, with the rear end of the car hopping up and down, I had to keep telling him to take his hand off the shifter after shifting.

I gutted all the ducting for the heater on my '73 super beetle, it had the gas heater which worked way better and man that thing cranked out the heat. One of those cars I wish I still had.

JohnnyCanuck.Comox said:

I gutted all the ducting for the heater on my '73 super beetle, it had the gas heater which worked way better and man that thing cranked out the heat. One of those cars I wish I still had.

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Yes, my previous Beetle ownership was years ago in Connecticut where we had winters and needed heat. I didn't have a gas heater in it though.

Now in south Texas with this one, heat is not the issue but A/C is. I had an old friend that had a late 60's Beetle and he put A/C in it. Worked pretty well if you were on the freeway.

There was a dealer installed A/C option in the day. You would see them come in once in a while, usually removed when the York compressor died.
If you want air you should be able to find remnants of the kits somewhere and make it work.

pdq import repair said:

There was a dealer installed A/C option in the day. You would see them come in once in a while, usually removed when the York compressor died.
If you want air you should be able to find remnants of the kits somewhere and make it work.

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Yesterday, I received the final paperwork from the seller's trust and went to the DMV here and paid for the title transfer to me. Once I get it running well and make sure it will pass an inspection, I'll get it registered for the road.


Once I get further into this car and I if decide to rebuild the engine (or buy a rebuilt longblock), then I would look into finding the parts for an A/C setup. But I have a long way to go before I make that decision.

Looks good! I've always wanted an air-cooled. Every time I'm in Austin I get over to Austin Veedub to look around and daydream about restoration projects.

ezshift5 said:

..............a 1970 Type 1 - with the spare tire psi for the windshield washer - was my grad school buddy.

Calc'd 41 MPG SF to state capitol one time (the #3 exhaust valve finally got me - - - - my bad for being lazy with the .006 feeler gauge...................

Thanks for the memories (B. Hope)

ez

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Spent about 20+ years with Beetles, and loved them! That's real good mpg's, I never got better than low 30's, maybe because I always had it floored LOL. Because, there for a while, I drove 150 miles a day for work, I took special care for the single port engines with the extra hot number 3. I used a set of Scat swivel feet on the rockers, and adjusted them all to .006, and #3 to .008. I also adjusted them everyday, before I went to work, and to make it easier, with the valve cover gaskets, I glues a cork one to the valve cover. It took about 15 minutes, and was well worth it. I only dropped one valve, before I learned the ugly truth, and made sure never to be careless again. Also, because of the heat issues with those cars, I double heli-coiled all the cylinder studs. All these little things made for a much more relaxed trip.

Valve adjustment on the beetle was not because they change so much, in fact they change very little. I recommend 6K intervals. The exhaust valve will start to stretch before they finally break off, so checking the valves you will see the clearance going away as that happens. Then you check them again in a couple thousand miles and if the clearance gone, then it is teardown time.

On healthy engine you would rarely have to adjust them, just run through and check, noting any tight ones. I rebuilt a ton of beetle engines back in the day, never had one that we maintained drop a valve unexpectedly. A good rebuild would go 100K miles or more with good care.

Spurred my memory:

In my 1970 Bus in 1976, the engine swallowed a valve at 45 MPH in top gear on a drive. I didn't notice it until the bus started slowing down. Then I looked in the rear view mirror and saw a trail of smoke. No. 3 piston was mangled and piston ring parts were found in every cylinder and all over the engine. Totally trashed the engine. I stuck in a used engine and was off again.

Work has been progressing slowly on the old gal due to other commitments and the rain we have had. But, I have adjusted the valves, replaced the leaking valve cover gaskets, and made an inspection of various things that have resulted in a new list of items to address. Seems like the person the restored (using the term loosely) the Bug only went about 1/2 the way on each item he touched. I don't know if he was not skilled or just accepted a half-ass fix for all the things he worked on.

To put it in perspective, the wiring is a mess (in general), the seats were rebuilt without the use of the correct formed horsehair pads (he used foam rubber) making them anything but firm like they should be, using a cheap cable pull to open the bonnet rather than using the EXISTING assembly in the glove box and getting the correct cable, etc, etc.

What the above means is that to get this gal road worthy and to correct the half-assed fixes that are currently incorporated into the car will take me twice as long as I had anticipated. No big deal, but I don't like unwinding repairs to have to rewind them correctly, especially since someone already put a lot of work into this car.

The latest projetcs are (some completed):

Re-cable the battery:



Add a "hot start relay" to remove the high amperage load in the Chinese ignition switch during starting;



Install a new Bosch solid state voltage regulator in place of the electro-mechanical unit (which was fried):



Rebuild the windscreen fan blower assembly (currently started):





Next project will be removing the new covers off the seats and installing the correct pads.

Be careful, that is not the correct battery, and not even the correct type. Lots of Beetles burnt to the ground from that due to shorting against the seat frame above.

I'm sure you know this, just a reminder.

Been there done that it seems like a million times. They all seem to be that way, half assed sorta restos. When they are done right people balk at the perceived high price if you want to sell.

MidAmerica has sculpted seat foam instead of horsehair, if you want. Probably others too. I was thinking of doing foam on my 68.

oilhammer said:

Be careful, that is not the correct battery, and not even the correct type. Lots of Beetles burnt to the ground from that due to shorting against the seat frame above.
I'm sure you know this, just a reminder.

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Thanks for the heads up, and I already researched the battery type. This one was in the car when I dragged it home. That's just one of the many 1/2 @$$'d things I have run across. I've ordered a battery hold down clamp and a bunch of other goodies like a shift rod bushing and the shift rod coupling kit that is located at the transmission end of the rod (very sloppy shifter). After that will be assessing whether the "new" fuel line routing is according to the Bentley and if not, replacing it.

On another note, this model was the first ( I think) with the carbon canister for fuel tank vapor control, which, of course, it is without. Does anyone here know of a source for these canisters? Or a suitable replacement? The Samba threads were not that helpful and many Samba members tried all kinds of things including building one and using carbon from other sources. Most gave up on the vapor control system. I'd like to try to bring it back, but if that's not possible, I can plug all the locations at the tank and call it a day.

pdq import repair said:

Been there done that it seems like a million times. They all seem to be that way, half assed sorta restos. When they are done right people balk at the perceived high price if you want to sell.

MidAmerica has sculpted seat foam instead of horsehair, if you want. Probably others too. I was thinking of doing foam on my 68.

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I currently have the seats out and I'll look at what MidAmerica has, thanks!! I was looking at the Wolfsburg West materials. I am just amazed at the large number of vendors who sell parts for these cars. It's also evident that used genuine VW supplied parts are highly sought after since the Chinese aftermarket stuff is not that great.

IIRC, my dad's Beetles had plastic battery covers so the seat springs wouldn't contact the terminals.

I will look and see if I have a vapor canister in the Archives at home. May take me a day or two to find one, but I will look.

The battery should be some sort of common Euro drop-post style. Pretty sure those still spec a 42 type, if that helps. Most catalogs should still be able to look those up.

Group 42 battery is the correct one still.

I might also be able to find a canister, but I will wait till oilhammer exhausts his search. I don't go into the depths of the batcave very often for a couple good reasons.

Back in the day it seemed that everyone took those off as they were perceived as harmful emission controls, but they are actually beneficial unless you enjoy the smell of gas emanating from your car.

pdq import repair said:

Back in the day it seemed that everyone took those off as they were perceived as harmful emission controls, but they are actually beneficial unless you enjoy the smell of gas emanating from your car.

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Over the summer I was behind a nice Olds 442 convertible. It was a pleasure smelling the exhaust from that car. Brought back memories of driving in the 70's and 80's when there were more old/classic carbureted cars on the road, and you smelled the cars. The only time I get that anymore, is attending club racing with the old production cars (which are also becoming rarer).

A couple of quotes,

Typical racer: "I love the smell of Cam2 in the morning"

Roger Barr (Wayne Carini's mechanic) "Right now there are environmentalists who are having a headache and they don't know why" - after getting a barn find Cobra started

The charcoal canister is used for filtering out evaporative emissions, or raw gas smell from evaporating fuel. It has nothing to do with the exhaust smell. Without the canister you might smell raw fuel around the car. It can be very annoying.


I had an old motorhome that had no emission control for evaporative emissions on it at all. When you stopped for the night you would smell the gas venting out of the tank as you slept. I duplicated the VW evap system on it, using all VW parts salvaged from a car I had scrapped, and no more irritating fuel smell.

The exhaust smell you refer to is a combination of many chemicals produced by combustion of fuel. It is nostalgic alright, but I don't advise immersing yourself too much in it.

Oilhammer, pdq, thanks for the offer to see if you have a canister, but I think I'll pass on trying to restore the system as the plastic section in front of the wiper motor is shot and Texas vehicle inspection does not require it with a car this age. I just have to pass a safety inspection. I'll just set the tank vent system like in earlier Bugs a let it go at that. I also understand that the correct grade of charcoal is not an easy find after reading the threads on the Samba.

I'll save my energy and dolllars for the bigger stuff as the list is growing.

Thanks again for the offer!

Heater fan assembly is apart and I will be seeing what it takes to get it back in good condition. Part of this will be to clean up the motor internals. The motor housing is held in by four fasteners that are very special and are designed to handle vibration. Three are broken and here is a good one:



The real question is where can I find suitable replacements?

Here are the case insides. Someone was living in here!!



Motor side:

aja8888 said:

Yesterday, I received the final paperwork from the seller's trust and went to the DMV here and paid for the title transfer to me. Once I get it running well and make sure it will pass an inspection, I'll get it registered for the road.


Once I get further into this car and I if decide to rebuild the engine (or buy a rebuilt longblock), then I would look into finding the parts for an A/C setup. But I have a long way to go before I make that decision.

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Careful where you buy a rebuilt longblock.

I'm pretty sure that the 'Bus Depot' in Pa. sells a lot of Beetle stuff. For sure, they can help you with the Type 1 engine parts, and maybe even a longblock.

Well, I found new vibration mounts for the fan housing and ordered them and a new sealing gasket for the mount against the hood. I also got the two speed fan motor working. Once parts are in, I'll assemble it.

Today was "bad ignition switch" day as I found out one of the previous owners has installed a 1972 Steering column with corresponding steering wheel and associated electrics. No big deal but the 1971 ignition switch I bought will not work as well as the one for 1972 as 1972 it was a different animal. So I ordered the correct 1972 switch and a new lock tumbler as the old one was worn.

Once the new switch is in and wired I can pull my temporary push button start switch. All this should happen next weekend.

I will be pulling the drivers door apart as I hear it was not draining water while the car was in storage. The door panel is also warped and I need to shim the lower door hinge or replace the hinge pins.

Glad I'm retired now or this would be a project that I would not undertake. Seems like everything I touch needs to be redone or was not done during the last refresh.

That is pretty much the story with any older car, especially something collectable. A person will buy it to restore, not really knowing how to and up doing more harm than good. Worse yet pull things apart and loose pieces over time as it sits due to lack of skills of just lost interest. We have had many project cars towed in over the years for us to do something to it, usually "just make it run, I will do the rest." You are lucky if they even have a seat in them. Many are completely gutted and missing parts needed to just make it run.
A true unmolested survivor car is rare indeed and good to find. Your car looks to be in pretty good shape overall for a project car and look how many problems you have found so far. It really is a commitment to bring one back from the brink, but it can be rewarding in both the finished product and the journey there.

pdq import repair said:

That is pretty much the story with any older car, especially something collectable. A person will buy it to restore, not really knowing how to and up doing more harm than good. Worse yet pull things apart and loose pieces over time as it sits due to lack of skills of just lost interest. We have had many project cars towed in over the years for us to do something to it, usually "just make it run, I will do the rest." You are lucky if they even have a seat in them. Many are completely gutted and missing parts needed to just make it run.
A true unmolested survivor car is rare indeed and good to find. Your car looks to be in pretty good shape overall for a project car and look how many problems you have found so far. It really is a commitment to bring one back from the brink, but it can be rewarding in both the finished product and the journey there.

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Yeah, after reading several Samba threads on Beetle restores from a rust bucket, it's quite a time and cost commitment to pull one back to "near" original. One fellow in Texas restored a 72 SB and probably spent $30,000 to make a real nice copy of original. I can't even imagine how many hours were spent by him on his project.

There are many of started threads on restore jobs that just ended up at 10% effort and then they gave up and sold the unassembled mess of parts and rusted panels or they stopped posting progress.

Mine is just going to be a street capable fix up. I see too much "wrong" to make it much more than that. As an example, the rear window channel is showing rust coming out from under the rubber seal, which is original, telling me the PO didn't pull the glass when the car was prepped for painting. It's a shame because he spent a good wad of dough on the two stage paint job. Also, the hood bondo is coming out in areas just like on the right rear fender where sheets of it are separating. So I probably will refinish and repaint these areas.

Parts - The ignition lock tumbler I ordered did not work. The assembly slides into the holder but the spring clip that locks it in place will not keep it in the unit. When I pull the new key out, the whole tumbler cones out in my hand separating it from the Chinese electrical lower half. I am sending this junk back yo JBugs in California for a store credit and going to use the old lock assembly since it still works. I can just deal with it like it is for now unless I can find one of better quality.

So much fun, but it keeps me occupied.

Sad, Jbugs used to be pretty good stuff. The Chinese invasion is a real problem.
I remember the days when the "purists" would scoff at Brazilian parts. I wish I could get those Brazilian parts today. I had pretty good results with most of them, though there were a few duds. Nothing like today however where duds are the norm.

Price is not a guarantee of quality, but it is a good start. Cheap junk is usually that. If we keep complaining and sending stuff back that is inferior maybe the trend will reverse somewhat. I see that starting to happen with out wholesale suppliers.

nice project. don't see many flat glass supers; p sure I've never seen one

here is my 70 std bug. 1600 dual carb dual port heads

bbarbulo said:

nice project. don't see many flat glass supers; p sure I've never seen one

here is my 70 std bug. 1600 dual carb dual port heads

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Nice! I love the two tone paint schemes people put on the Beetles.

Going back together after obtaining new vibration dampers (orange color):

Mystery part.....Bentley has very little on the emissions equipment from 1971 on, and has very few images. Found this bolted to the driver's side rear inner fender well. Looks vacuum operated:





(socket is for holding it level)