10 years on, finally aircooled again

Well 10 years after moving from a super fun 1970 Beetle to a very safe and boring VW Golf (followed by an even safer and equally boring Passat)... i have finally taken the plunge and bought myself a 1960 beetle. Will be slowly working on it, replacing some of the incorrect parts, and adding accessories. Looks like Day of is on the cards this year 🙂 🙂 🙂

Not sure if the Flash trim is original, but i quite like it anyway.

My daily and my newly aquired weekend warrior


My first fill... am i overdoing it with Optimax?


Cant wait to start accessorising this baby 🙂 🙂 🙂


Non VW, but very very cool. Was getting my Unregistered Vehicle Permit, and bumped into this beauty at Vic Roads 😎

Love your bug. Can you post a better pic of the flash.

That van looks insane. Love it.

Nice lookin ride man, and welcome back to air-cooled !!!

👍

Dig the look of the Rossi headlights... does it have the 50/50 tail lights up back ???

Love to know what the insured value is on the Airstream....

😂

I usually use 98 octane, 20c extra over 30 litres is only 6 bucks at the end of the day, about 1 beer at the pub for 300 Klm's of driving. Looks good I've also got a 60.

Sides wrote:Nice lookin ride man, and welcome back to air-cooled !!!

👍

Dig the look of the Rossi headlights... does it have the 50/50 tail lights up back ???

Love to know what the insured value is on the Airstream....

😂

Ye I'm still in two minds about the Rossis, although they are starting to grow on me. No 50/50s. I'll probably go the glass lenses, also have to change the decklid, hence why i didnt post... yet 😉

The Airstream is HUUGE. Biggest caravan i've ever seen, looks like a rocketship hehe. Must be worth a fair bit.

Bizarre wrote:Love your bug. Can you post a better pic of the flash.

That van looks insane. Love it.

Hey, i'll take a better pic when I get a chance (this was one of those artsy angle shots).

Ye the van is tough!

bitemeoz wrote:I usually use 98 octane, 20c extra over 30 litres is only 6 bucks at the end of the day, about 1 beer at the pub for 300 Klm's of driving. Looks good I've also got a 60.

I agree!

Welcome back!

Your car looks solid, and I like the flash too, a lot larger than others I have seen. Nice to be different.

Nickster wrote:Welcome back!

Your car looks solid, and I like the flash too, a lot larger than others I have seen. Nice to be different.

Ye it's freakin huuuge, i think it will suit the accessorised look i want to go for.

Car still not on the road. Fixed up the drums, dropped the beam, took the whole front end apart and now cleaning all the bits n pieces.

Spent hours scrubbing with a wire brush, think i may need to acid dip them to get them back to new, not sure if i want to go chrome, powder coat or just spray them black. I like the idea of chrome on trailer queens, not sure it will really add anything to a weekend warrior.

Heading down to AVWPC this week to talk disc brake kits, suspension and narrowed beams.

Might need to ask some questions re beams on general chit chat. Oh well... while im here, two questions....

1. How narrow can i go with an adjustable beam and still have shocks?

2. Who does these beams? (preferrably in Melbourne)

Cool bug. You should be able to run a 4.5 inch beam easily with shocks, just need to find yourself the correct shock towers. Got a mate who can build you a beam. If you want to run low, grab a pair of drop spindles. I run a 4.5 inch narrowed beam with spindles and 145's - handles surprisingly well.

SunshineKarmann wrote:Cool bug. You should be able to run a 4.5 inch beam easily with shocks, just need to find yourself the correct shock towers. Got a mate who can build you a beam. If you want to run low, grab a pair of drop spindles. I run a 4.5 inch narrowed beam with spindles and 145's - handles surprisingly well.

Well, based on your suggestion and after speaking to afew blokes at Bendigo last week, I finally decided upon the 4.5" narrowed beam as I'm slappin some big ol' Empi 5 Spokes on there. So with the wheels, disks and drop spindles i should fill that guard up quite well 🙂 Re sway bar, we'll be cutting the ends, heating the beam and bend it to shape. Makes sense in theory, hopefully we can pull it off.

At the moment im stripping the beam ready for narrowing, couldnt find the safety glasses or dust mask for the life of me so had to resort to sunnies and a rag... all i need is a Molotov Cocktail and im ready for the streets of Dublin.

Should have some pics of the car with the new stance in the next week or so... to be honest i can't wait to move from the front endas its taken me ages to decide how narrow to go. Fingers crossed it all turns out good.

The beams is ready to get narrowed 🙂 Here we go! 🙂

Fingers crossed the next image i post will be of the new wheels on the car 🙂

cool
the lastest hot vw has a story on beams .
.
http://www.hotvws.com/

.

ian.mezz wrote:cool
the lastest hot vw has a story on beams .
.
http://www.hotvws.com/

.

🙂 Havent seen HOTVWs in ages! (this was my favourite magazine as a teenager) Does anyone know where you can buy these in Melbourne?

Also i recall there was an Australian VW magazine years ago, does that still exists??

Yep, the magazines still exist. Should find Hot VWs and VW Magazine Australia in most decent newsagents as well as a few different Pommie mags as well. You can subscribe to VWMA at www.vwma.net.au.

poe70 wrote:Yep, the magazines still exist. Should find Hot VWs and VW Magazine Australia in most decent newsagents as well as a few different Pommie mags as well. You can subscribe to VWMA at www.vwma.net.au.

Cheers Poe, might just make my way down to the newsagents see if they have anything in stock... it looks like the internet didnt kill the magazines afterall.

Mmmmm Shiny 🙂 Cant wait to get em on the car!! Not long now.

An ingenious new way to move a beetle that has no beam.


Before.


And after.

The shit thing is that after travelling around corners, over speed bumps, all over the place just to get it back home it got damaged in the driveway 🙁

THAT MURPHEY WAS A PIG OF A MAN!

I know the damage is only small, but to be honest i was looking forward to cruising the car for a couple months before i start body work...

And after.

The shit thing is that after travelling around corners, over speed bumps, all over the place just to get it back home it got damaged in the driveway 🙁

THAT MURPHEY WAS A PIG OF A MAN!

I know the damage is only small, but to be honest i was looking forward to cruising the car for a couple months before i start body work...

I'd just leave it man, get abit of patina going on, some rust stains, will look sweet in 6 months 😂

Wont make much of a difference to the amount of body work you have to do so enjoy the car for abit first.

Allbones wrote:

And after.

The shit thing is that after travelling around corners, over speed bumps, all over the place just to get it back home it got damaged in the driveway 🙁

THAT MURPHEY WAS A PIG OF A MAN!

I know the damage is only small, but to be honest i was looking forward to cruising the car for a couple months before i start body work...

I'd just leave it man, get abit of patina going on, some rust stains, will look sweet in 6 months 😂

Wont make much of a difference to the amount of body work you have to do so enjoy the car for abit first.

Ye i suppose, but i am a pedantic bastard and wil probably fix it up before i get the beam back from narrowing... pisses me right off lol

Love the new wheel where and how much

BorisBug wrote:Love the new wheel where and how much

Empi chrome 5 spokes 15" x 5.5" (5x205 lug pattern / wide 5) running 145/65 x15" smart car tyres on the front and 205/65 x 15" on the back.

From memory the wheels came in around $950 including shipping to Melbourne. Got them at www.vollks.com.au and they arrived within a couple days.

Luckily my mate owns a tyre shop so got tyres for dirt cheap,

Looking at the pics of the car when i bought it, it feels like forever. To be honest i couldnt understand why it would take so long for someone to build a car, but now i can see why!

Anyway after 12 weeks im finally rolling again... I think now i will give it a couple months of cruising before i do any major work.

- 4.5" Narrowed beam w/ shock towers, micarta bushings and needle roller bearings (no nolathane here!) by http://skinnedknuckles.com.au/
- New Disk brakes up front
- 2.5" Drop Spindles
- New King/Link Pins, tie-rod ends
- Chrome Empi 5 spokes all round

Hopefully it rides nice... finally got the correct bolts to attach the calipers so we are putting that all in tomorrow and off i go 🙂

^^^ agree. drive that baby

'60s the best year 😉

.. be SO careful with the hood prop! It's so annoying when someone else doesn't know and closes your bonnet without properly unlocking it and creases it 😬

Any pics of inside?

Canni. wrote:'60s the best year 😉

.. be SO careful with the hood prop! It's so annoying when someone else doesn't know and closes your bonnet without properly unlocking it and creases it 😬

Any pics of inside?

I tell ya i think i got pretty close to creasing it myself in the first few weeks haha.

Interior is a work in progress (in other words... it's freakin UGLY). I've purchased the early Porsche 356 seats to replace the highbacks, will be upholstering them in either red or cream leather and rechroming the seat hinges together with a bunch of other bits n pieces.

Here is a more recent pic of the outside... to quote the VW mechanic who had a look at it recently "Thats one hell of a rake" haha. As you can see I'm toying with idea of Eyelids and Rossis, will need a little "convincing" to make it work tho.

Ok well its been a while since i updated this thread, so thought i would add some bits n pieces here.
Saw my engine together today, will be goin in tomorrow. Tinwear powdercoated by Jimmy Bitolas and Engine by Volkshome Automotive in Thomastown. Gearbox is a 1600 unit converted to swing axle. Engine is a 1776 dual port with lightened flywheel, counterweighted eight dowel crankshaft, Engle110 Cam and bunch of other bits n bobs to make it run better. Single carb is temporary only while i run it in, then its an upgrade to Dual Weber IDFs and a sidewinder.

Looking forward to getting it home, clean up the body a little and kill the big black flash with a simple insert (for now). The plan is to cruise it for a couple months, and then take it off the road next year for body off resto and interior. To be honest i am glad i have done it this way. Because I dont have a second car i can cruise on weekends it would be awful if now i had to take the car off the road for another 6 months for body and interior. This way i can enjoy it on a weekend here and there during the good weather, and concentrate on other bits next year (hopefully have it "complete" by DOTVW 2015 🙂 Also gives me a chance to restore some of the cool accessories i have for the next show and tell hehe.

Also here are a couple trinkets i will be adding to the car as i go...

FYI before anyone asks about the car phone... yes its legit... no idea where i am going to fit all this SH# at the moment tho.

Fanfares, Boisch rear aux light and Blaupunkt KV820 Shortwave adapter on their way from Deutschland as we speak.

And how could i forget the beautiful Blaupunkt Capri Picnic radio... Love this baby and of course the Brexton trays 🙂

Still a bunch of must have stuff i will be looking for soon (eg. albert mirror, decklid rack, brexton picnic set, Bambus tray, roof net, Wire storage basket, pop out quarter windows, safari windscreen and of course the piece de resistance a Philips Automignon Record player.

All in good time (and $'s permitting of course).

Hurry up!! Bring Chevaps!!

empi wrote:Hurry up!! Bring Chevaps!!

Soonest i can come is Thursday night? Got a barbie?

The maestro at work.

hrastovica wrote:The maestro at work.

You're doing it all wrong.

You need to use a short thin screwdriver, held in the left hand between thumb and forefinger, and while turning the driver you rest your right hand lightly on top of the generator.

That way, when you get a quick zap from the dizzy leads you jump a mile, smack your head on the engine cover, and graze the inside of your wrist on the spinning belt (just, only just, missing getting your sleeve caught into the belt). The screwdriver normally comes to rest across the shed floor somewhere.

Volksie tune-up 101. It's all in the manual.
🙂

^^That's how you do it 👍^^

I never found MY short thin screwdriver.🙅

modnrod wrote:

hrastovica wrote:The maestro at work.

You're doing it all wrong.

You need to use a short thin screwdriver, held in the left hand between thumb and forefinger, and while turning the driver you rest your right hand lightly on top of the generator.

That way, when you get a quick zap from the dizzy leads you jump a mile, smack your head on the engine cover, and graze the inside of your wrist on the spinning belt (just, only just, missing getting your sleeve caught into the belt). The screwdriver normally comes to rest across the shed floor somewhere.

Volksie tune-up 101. It's all in the manual.
🙂

😂... and if you are really good, you can do the "4 second belt change" using the same short screwdriver, meanwhile permanently imprinting the pulley timing marks into your hand as a sign of allegience to the EMPI brand.

BBQ on stand by

- I just won my first serious trophy (Last years Most Potential doesnt count). In fact, somehow i managed to win 2... didnt see that coming as i didnt even wash the car thinking whats the point since the car is not even finished yet.

- Knocked together some new door cards

- Added racks, luggage and fox tail.

any more pics of the car phone?

Love it!

XXX-1.8T wrote:any more pics of the car phone?

Love it!

I will have pics in a couple weeks when it actually lands in Australia (been collecting a bunch of stuff to send in one go). But you can get a heap of information at the following website:

http://www.oebl.de/A-Netz/Geraete/Geraete.html

In short, Germany had something like a mobile phone network back in the 1950's which operated on the A-Netz radio network (which was eventually switched off and replaced by the B-Netz and C-Netz network). There are two types of devices using this network, Öbl devices and Nöbl devices. Öbl devices could communicate freely with any other devices, where Nöbl devices were a closed network used for communication between a designated group. My specific device is Nöbl device called a Telefunken BEG138 which was used primarily by German companies laying cables (as you can imagine there would be a need for them to communicate with eachother).
Manufacturers of A-Netz devices include: Telefunken; Siemens; Te Ka De; Becker; Lorenz; Philips, Bosch and others, so there was definitely a market for them. Unfortunately most have been snatched up by museums, so i am very lucky to have stumbled upon this (have to say i was searching for a full year to find it, when i actually found it my heart stopped for a few beats).

A lot more common are the military/police issue field telephones (feldtelefon), and also the FuG devices which also would have been mounted in a vehicle, however they were a lot larger and not quite as refined in design as the Öbl devices.
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Telefunken-Fug-7B-1-25-Funkgerat-/311186967087?pt=DE_Handys_Kommunikation_Funktechnik&hash=item4874304a2f

Here are a couple of other pics...

Here are a couple more.

You can see the image of the car boot, which basically would have housed the receiver, transmitter, where the handset is only the control device.

The network had a maximum coverage of 11,000 users which covered most of West Germany in the 1970s.

Here are all the networks in order...

Still have no idea how i am going to fit all this stuff in the car...

Roofrack.
😀

Well i am looking at different types of hinges which would allow me to mount the accessories for show days and detach and fold away for cruising. It shouldn't take me more than a couple mins to mount or unmount all the bibs and bobs. Main reason for the hinge would be to fold away when they arent being used (rather than an ugly old bracket just poking out). Even considering using some strong rare earth magnets, but not 100% confident they would hold on bumpy roads... unlikely.

Sooo many nice accessories there

Ampdub wrote:Sooo many nice accessories there

Not long now! Counting down the days til my delivery arrives, then its a case of finding the space to mount all these goodies 🙂

Here is a snippet of the car running with the new engine... hows that Zoom Tube Exhaust sound!!!

Here they are!!! 🙂 Who wants to help me install these hehe.

Also i learnt today that the carphone is a Telefunken BEG 133/2 (not 138 as i had originally thought). The difference is that the 133/2 has a loudspeaker (lautsprecher) and was used by German Police, not cable layers like the 138. Again, still a Nöble device (private network) running on the German a-netz radio telephone network in the 50's.

Just did my whitewalls and want to give a plug to Westside Autoworks (Whitewalls) for the beautiful job they did on my beetles tyres. Left the car there in Delahey (VIC) and it was done in a couple hours. Call: 0424 955 826

Veeerrryyyy nice ride there.

Yogie

Thanks to EMPI for helping me out around the bug 🙂 The hessian was his idea, i reckon its come up a treat. Something a little different.

👍👍😵😁😁

VVeerryy Nice Ride.... LOVE the hessian!!