'71 Super Beetle

This is "Olivia", my 11/71 Super Beetle:





I spent a few months looking for a good $5k project/hobby/weekend car and while I cast the net far and wide, as I was keen on something older and fairly simple which was both big enough to fit me inside and small enough to fit in the spare side of my garage, old VWs kept coming up in my search. So in late March I bought this particular example which is generally in good order but needing a small amount of TLC - just perfect for what I wanted to do. It's actually the first car I've owned that isn't a Holden 🙂

To date I've brought the paint back from borderline chalky to nice and shiny with a good polish and wax, managed to get most (but not all) of the surface rust off the bumpers, and replaced a rusty and noisy muffler with a new one including neat looking chrome tips.

Most recently I've been attacking underbody surface rust, so we've gone from this...



...via some wire brush, rust converter and KBS Rust Seal work to this:



Which brings us neatly up to date. I have a long list of minor jobs to do so looking forward to getting stuck in and of course driving it around 🙂

Very nice! It puts the VE to shame 😉 congrats on your bug. It's coming along nicely👍

g'day and welcome

Nice looking beetle
Should provide you with hours of fun

Hi

Nice bug, al foil and WD40 bring bumpers up nice.

Steve

Isola wrote:Very nice! It puts the VE to shame 😉 congrats on your bug. It's coming along nicely👍

The VE is still very much my baby, have had it from new and still love it 6 years and 170,000km later. Best purchase I've ever made 🙂 But I'm really enjoying the bug, it's good fun to drive and so simple to work on and play with and I'm enjoying how well it seems to be coming along, so thanks 🙂

1303Steve wrote:Hi

Nice bug, al foil and WD40 bring bumpers up nice.

Steve

How does that work? Spray on WD40 and scrub with aluminium foil? I had good results with Autosol but my bumpers seem to be rusting from the inside out so I don't know if it will be possible to get it all off.

Hi

Just use the al foil as a scrubber and the WD 40 as a lube, I use Gibbs Brand which is similar to WD 40.

The headlight rings on my sons bug started to rust and this brought them up really good.

Steve

Thanks, will give that a go.

Passed its ACT rego inspection this afternoon - so ready for new number plates. Hooray!

Nice ride and I sprayed aluminium heat paint on the inside of my bumpers and yep the wd40 is a goer👍

Yep silver on the inside is the plan for my bumpers too 🙂

Some progress. Incremental, but progress all the same. One of the things I was keen to do was take it to a car show or two, and with German Autofest coming up here in Canberra on 22 September I'd better get cracking. I need to clean up and straighten the bumpers, and repaint some of the black bits on it which are starting to chip and peel. Went to get some supplies and was trying to decide which dolly I needed when I saw a kit with three hammers and four dollies for $36 - quality isn't top notch but it'll do.

Again with this car, if something is held on with say 3 bolts, 3 different sized spanners will be required. The front bumper was a combination of 12, 13 and 14mm. And whoever had it off previously had sheared off one of the bolts, which was enough to prevent bumper removal with every other bolt undone. The last bolt on the passenger side also retains the horn, and its enough to not be able to get a ratchet in there. Anyway, off it came in the end.



Rear was more difficult. I broke the first bolt I tried to undo, and the other two wouldn't budge. Not wanting to break off all three and have a real problem, I separated the bumper from the mounting bracket instead. Not ideal as I want to paint the brackets, so that will need to be worked out. Surprisingly, the other side undid easily and here we are:





Started on the clean-up of the bumpers. Basically they need a couple of dents beaten out, some surface rust removed, and a repaint of the inner surface which isn't chromed (my bumpers appear to be cheap Brazilian knockoffs, not genuine VW items). If I can't make them look decent then another set of cheap knockoffs is about $340 for the pair and will no doubt outlive my ownership of the car so I'm not too worried about ruining these ones through amateur incompetence.

I don't recommend the plastic saw horses by the way, which saw the bumpers hit the grass a couple of times. Still, in the absence of a proper panel stand or a workbench that isn't actually a repurposed desk, that's what I've got.

(I suspect also that the people across the street wondered what the go was with the dulcet sounds of home panelbeating wafting across suburbia on a Sunday morning, but they'll live).



We'll see whether these can be salvaged, but anything I do has got to be an improvement on this. Plan is to get that rust out of there and spray the inside silver. The mounting brackets will be resprayed black. The brackets separated from the bumpers easily enough, but I still have one of the mounting brackets stuck fast on the car; got one of the two bolts out but there is one that just isn't moving - need to get some penetrating oil and try that, I'm still on WD40 at the moment. Problem is that if I break another bolt, there will only be one bolt holding the bumper on that side of the car...



I tried the WD40 and aluminium foil idea. (This is the before shot). Yeah, kinda works, but no better than metal polish which I used to clean the top side of the bumpers not long after I got the car home.



I didn't get a before shot of the kinks in the front bumper which I successfully managed to hammer out (although you may be able to see them in the earlier photos) - damage was consistent with someone nudging the front corner of the car into something. I need to deal with the smaller dents as above, which look like being harder work (especially without a proper stand or work surface to use for hammer and dollying). Then I need to replace that black tape, which as far as I can tell is just electrical tape or something very much like it.

Separately, I mentioned on another forum I'm a member of that I get out of this car and I don't feel right - a bit agitated, like a sensory overload. I don't know if its the noise (I can't do nightclubs because the noise and lights and people are all a bit much), or that I'm not relaxed driving it (thanks to other drivers and being vulnerable), or maybe there's fumes getting in (windows always open for this reason) but 10-15 minutes at a time is about it before I want to get out of it. In the midst of all the discussion on this point, someone suggested to me that apart from having to be more switched on all the time than you do in a modern car, I might have an issue with fumes getting into the cabin somewhere. This, I thought, warranted investigation.

If I'm looking at this system the right way, I think I have some answers:



Looking at the exploded view above, as I understand it the way the heater system works is that fresh air comes in through pipe J, passes through those egg-shaped extensions on the muffler (which envelop the exhaust outlets for the rearmost pair of cylinders), through where clamp E is located, through blue heat exhanger B, and then heads towards the cabin, now warm, through pipe A.

On my car, the area around clamp E actually looks like the exploded view:





That's the driver's side where there is no connection at all between the two parts of the system and an air gap of 2-3cm betwen the parts. On the passenger side, the two halves are touching but not correctly aligned so there's an overlap of about 1-1.5cm. That's a new muffler so I'm not very impressed with that being the case.

If I've understood this system correctly, this may mean that what I've actually got is a couple of pipes which are directly transmitting engine noise, and possibly fumes, into the cabin. It's kind of like those recent cars which have the pipe through the firewall to pipe in engine sound, but bad.

What I'm not yet clear on is what the story is with the ventilation system when you don't want heat, so it could be that keeping the heater valve closed deals with the problem, but my next step might be to try and block off those pipes at the engine end and see if there's any difference.

Plausible?

More progress on repainting things:

you are better off getting the heating system working properly

When the heat is off the air is waited at "B"

The problem will also be the rubbish joints at "F"

If they are leaking (and they WILL be) then there is a venturi effect that sucks the exhaust into the heater system and into the car.

Best answer is to flange "F" and connect all the other pipes as normal

Thanks, I'll go back and have another look at those joints.

On another note, got the cold start system partially working properly this weekend - the stepped cam wasn't lining up properly with the pin which was part of the problem; but it seems like there's something wrong with the mechanism that triggers it in the first place.

have a look here

http://www.vw-resource.com/

There is a lot of things that could be binding or mucked up on a carb

Work proceeds on making this car presentable for German Auto Display on the 22nd. Some new parts arrived:



Not that happy with the repainting results I'm getting so far though. Here's an example:



Will redo tomorrow and see how I go. I could just take it somewhere for painting but I'd prefer the satisfaction of doing it myself.

Hi

That looks like fish eyes caused by silicone on the surface, better prep is needed.

See you in Canberra.

Steve

Yep, have had the same answer in a few places now - looks like bad prep was my problem. I'll do them again tomorrow, properly this time!

Second attempt with the black paint:





Better but I'm not happy yet. Had some problems with runs this time. Worked out a better technique halfway through but by then I'd already messed it up a bit. I'll see how they look tomorrow and see if some polishing will help, but at the moment I'm thinking of having a third go at it if I have time between now and the 22nd. (My wife thinks hey look fine, but the best I can say is that they're better than when I bought it).

Inside of the bumpers went well though:



Unfortunately this badge broke while I was wiping off the grease and wax remover (yeah, I can't explain it either):



But fixed easily enough, and it felt like progress to be putting something back on the car rather than removing it!



To do before the show: finish polishing bumpers and replace black tape bumper trim, and reattach everything I've repainted. Needs an oil change and fan belt replacement soon but that can wait a few more weeks.

Hi

Looking a bit better, black bits go well with that colour, have you thought about painting the chrome strips? Or you can remove the clips and put a 1/4 black pinstripe to cover the holes.

Steve

Hey Marco, Your car looks great. Nice work. We have the same model in the same colour and are also in Canberra. Ours is much more of a project though (normal rust, dead motor etc). Seeing yours is inspiring. Hopefully we can get along to the car show on the 22nd and see yours in person and maybe even have a chat.
Cheers,
James

1303Steve wrote:Hi

Looking a bit better, black bits go well with that colour, have you thought about painting the chrome strips? Or you can remove the clips and put a 1/4 black pinstripe to cover the holes.

Steve

Do you mean the chrome strips up the centre of the bonnet and along the doors? They're already black (but hard to tell from the photos I've posted). A previous owner somewhere along the line did the strips, headlight and indicator trims, wipers and mirrors in black so all I'm doing is touching up what looks like 20+ year old work.

I was undecided about leaving it black or going back to chrome when I bought it, but I've decided to leave it at is - it's been that way for so long, including the wheels, that I think it has a bit of a "retro-mod" feel to it now; kind of like what you'd be doing if you were hotting up your bug in the early 80s. I think it's now an essential part of the character of this particular car, basically, and worth preserving for that reason.

FinallyGotADub wrote:Hey Marco, Your car looks great. Nice work. We have the same model in the same colour and are also in Canberra. Ours is much more of a project though (normal rust, dead motor etc). Seeing yours is inspiring. Hopefully we can get along to the car show on the 22nd and see yours in person and maybe even have a chat.
Cheers,
James

I didn't think this car would be inspiring anything so that's nice to hear 🙂 By all means come by and say hello, I'll be around.

I know of/have seen three others in this colour in Canberra: one that's currently for sale on Gumtree, one standard looking one that surprised me when it appeared at my local shops one day, and another one that I've been which appears slightly modded and has child seats in the back (I'd like to see that car up close to see how they got the anchor points in; my kids can't ride in mine).

I'm going to have one final attempt at the headlight and indicator trims this weekend, otherwise they'll go on as is - show is next weekend so I'm out of time.

Meanwhile, the bumpers are just about done. Managed to beat out some parking dents so they're almost straight, and they're about as shiny as they're going to get - the rear is too rusty to be fully resurrected but they will do for the moment.

So because it's Friday night and I'm a party animal, I'm retrimming the bumpers (with, yes, electrical tape)...



I don't really have the patience or the precision for this sort of thing, but it turned out well:



They can go back on the car tomorrow and then we're nearly done for the time being 🙂

Anyway, close to finishing this today but not quite there. I had hoped to actually take it out for a drive but that didn't quite work out. Read on for a Tale of Woe...ish.

But first: I had this Matchbox Beetle when I was a kid and it turned up disassembled a few years back; my Mum's hobby, nay, mission in life is throwing stuff out that you want to keep, so some of the disassembled bits are gone but I found a use for what was left:



But enough of that. Started out well enough with the bumpers reattached to their brackets, but had to enlarge one of the holes in the bumper as it seems my home bumper straightening caused the holes to no longer line up. (In hindsight I needed to bend the bumper back to its original shape - I merely hammered the kinked area flat). Still, so far so good:



The horn attaches to one of the front brackets and I'd left it dangling in place by its wiring; it fell off with a slightly alarming thud when I was moving the car around last week. Reattached and reconnected it and...no sound.

Swapped the connectors around in case it made a difference. Still no sound. Pondered whether I should have disconnected the battery first. Further pondered whether a car battery has enough voltage to harm you. This is ponderous, man. Really ponderous. (Ten internets to you if you know the reference).

Made sure everything was attached properly, swapped sides again, peered intently at the horn in case some obvious problem jumped out at me (optimistic, I grant you, given I don't know how it works...) - not a peep. Or, should I say, not a beep.

Hmm. Irritation level going up several notches. Decide not an essential component for a quick drive this arvo. Move on.

When I was taking the indicator bulbs out last week, this happened:



Because I'm an idiot, I assumed that it would either be a screw or bayonet bulb and twisted. In fact it was a bayonet bulb, but not inserted properly so they came out very easily when I merely...pulled straight up :facepalm: On the upside, I now have a set of six nice new pliers that I bought to extract the broken bit. (This project is proving great for acquiring new tools and learning new ways to use existing ones).

But now the new orange bulbs won't go in. Why not? I put on my most serious "inspecting things" face and compare and contrast the two bulbs like a HSC essay. The pins on the new bulb are in the ten to two rather than quarter to three position. Thats novel. Well there's nothing for it, one of those pins will have to go. I've never filed a lightbulb before today...but it worked. (Is that likely to be harmful? I can't see why it would be).

New clear indicators look good, I reckon:



It looks like the headlights are done in that pic too but...they're not.

The backstory is that I'm not mechanically minded, and I struggle with fiddly jobs especially - my fingers just aren't that agile. I knew when I took the headlights out that I'd have trouble getting them back together, and I was right. The shop manual isn't much help ("reassembly is the reverse of the disassembly procedure" when the disassembly procedure is only scantly explained reminds me of Year 11 maths, where you had an x and a y and some numbers, something you didn't understand happened but apparently everyone else got it, and the answer was 42) and by this point I was rushing to get finished, like an American Hotrod episode where the unveiling is tomorrow and the car's only just come back from the paint shop and Gabe needs half a day to do the interior. I could feel my inner Duane coming out.

Damned if I could get them back together. I can get the trim ring to hold the glass in place so it doesn't fall out, but the light assembly isn't otherwise held down in any way. I've obviously done something wrong. But by this point the neighbour's cat, and possibly their kids, have expanded the profanity section of their vocabulary, and suddenly I'm channeling my father, who is a bit of a tool chucker when frustrated. Memories of hunting around in a garden bed looking for a thrown screwdriver after an unsuccessful lightbulb change in his VP come back to me. It's now 5:45, it's getting dark, I don't want to also have to go looking for a Philips head amongst the springtime blooms...I give up.

Grumpy and frustrated, I briefly consider leaving the Beetle outside just to spite it, but drive it in anyway. Out of sheer, unbridled optimism I try the horn again.

"Beep" comes the cheerful response.

Well, at least that's something. Maybe the horn only works with the ignition on?

I'll try the headlights again tomorrow. I think now i can visualise what is needed to hold the glass in place, now that I'm past the point of attempting distance records for tools. There's a slim possibility that someone, somewhere, has done this job before on one of the other 21,529,463 Beetles built since 1938 too, I suspect...

Marco_VESS wrote:But first: I had this Matchbox Beetle when I was a kid and it turned up disassembled a few years back; my Mum's hobby, nay, mission in life is throwing stuff out that you want to keep, so some of the disassembled bits are gone but I found a use for what was left:

Sorry to derail your thread slightly but that picture just tripped me out somewhat....

My bug keys have the almost the same keyring but more weirdly I have the exact same Beetle matchbox sitting on my desk that I've had for 25+ years




yes the horn only works with ignition on.
Oh and yes I also get the 2NU reference.

That song always was a little disturbing 😂

Maybe the horn only works with the ignition on?

correct 👍

Marco_VESS wrote:
but the light assembly isn't otherwise held down in any way.

When you look at the light there are 3 phillip head screws
the diagonal 2 are for adjusting the headlingt to shine up or down

The other should go a 6 o'clock
There is a tab at the bottom of the headlight and you need to put the screw into that tab.

When doing this - you first "screw" the assembly onto the bucket.
There are 2 mating lips at 12 o'clock on the chrome ring and the bucket.
That holds the light in place.

The screw at the bottom locks it in place.

You can see in your pic above that the locking screw is not at 6 o'clock. More 5.30

I have had the tab rust away
You then need to make something up.

I can send some pics if that doesnr make sense

Hi

I have a roll of bumper tape, I could bring some down to you at the German Autofest. Its like wide pinstripe. You mightl find that the electrical tape will wilt in summer.

The headlights on Aussies cars are different to US cars, they are the same as European cars so US sites wont help with reassembly.

You can buy bulbs from Narva with the correct pins for your bases.

Steve

I've got the same offset pin bulbs in my rear blinkers, I just filed down one of the pins.
They have been in about 7 years now.


THose old 3 screw headlights are prick to get back together, getting those metal clips that hold the chrome ring to the plastic bezel up around the top is a nightmare.

I used to use a small a screwdriver through the hole of the clip to lever it up into place.


You can get new semi sealed headlights that bolt straight in pretty cheap,
I got the shits with my original 3 screw headlights and replaced them with semi sealeds about 13 years ago and never looked back.

My issue turned out to be that one of the little prongs that the adjusting screw went though was missing. Also realised this morning that this would be far easier to do with the headlights disconnected, so did that and got them nicely reassembled on my dining table! So now it's all reassembled and good to go. Just need a service and a new fan belt and we're all set for summer cruising and car shows!

It doesn't really look any different to the day I bought it, but it feels good to know I've improved it. A couple of photos out and about today:







Had the usual stream of idiots desperate to beat me into Form One Lane merges etc but much more relaxed out and about today. This was, in part, enforced by a flat to the floor in top gear maximum of 70km/h (40mph or so). Tank was nearly empty this morning and while I thought at first I might just be running out of fuel when it started chugging a bit, it persisted after a refill. I'm guessing some crap from the bottom of the tank has blocked the fuel filter - hopefully I can sort it one night this week or Saturday morning, as there is a VW cruise Saturday arvo ahead of German Auto Display on Sunday. (It's OK at lower RPM but seems to hit a wall halfway up the rev range, so I'm thinking fuel starvation problem - any other suggestions?)

1303Steve wrote:Hi

I have a roll of bumper tape, I could bring some down to you at the German Autofest. Its like wide pinstripe. You mightl find that the electrical tape will wilt in summer.

The headlights on Aussies cars are different to US cars, they are the same as European cars so US sites wont help with reassembly.

You can buy bulbs from Narva with the correct pins for your bases.

Steve

Appreciate the offer but no need on the tape - it's cheap and relatively easy to just re-do if summer causes problems.

I may chase down the correct bulb at some point by my filed down ones appear to be working well!

Looking excellent Marco! Well done. Where did you take those photos? It looks like Pine Island??

My good mate Bruce will be leading the cruise tomorrow. He has a white Beetle that he calls "Otto" that he said he'd be driving.

We are still hoping to get along to the show on Sunday.

James

It was Pine Island, well spotted! Car behaved itself on the cruise today - thought I might need to pull out when it looked like dying on a test run this morning but then it all came good and stayed that way for the day.

Show day today - German Auto Display. To give myself something to do all day I volunteered to help marshal the VWs into position, which was actually pretty good as I got to check everything out as it came in and chat with some of the blokes who have been doing the car show thing for a while. (I think I've been to every car show in Canberra except the French one, but it was the first time I'd entered one). Good crowd, these VW types - in general everyone was relaxed and friendly and had a good day.

My kids thought it was the Best Thing Ever to be able to go to a car show and actually sit in one of the cars (because we own it, but still...)

My car was by no means a show shopper (well duh!) but still fun to see people checking the car out and a few people taking photos, poking their head inside etc. So yeah, a good day.

How would I describe yesterday's efforts.....perhaps like this:



Steel bumpers are tough. Steel bumpers are sturdy. Steel bumpers don't flinch when you hit them. Steel bumpers are as good as useless when you miss the bumper and collect the panel instead 🙁

I'd taken the bug out for a drive earlier today and when a planned second trip had to be canned because of Hailstorm Out Of Nowhere, I decided to put it back in the garage for the day. My 6 and 3 year old kids jumped in for the ride.

To understand what happened next, you need to know that I have space for this car in my garage that is only very slightly larger than the car itself, which requires some precision and concentration when reversing into the garage. Instead of precision and concentration, today I had a 3 year old helping me steer and a 6 year old who'd found the logbook in the glovebox and was asking me what it was all about. I knew my entry angle was a bit off, so after I'd reversed a little bit, all the while talking to the boys and answering questions while Mr 3 did his best to stop the steering wheel from turning, I went forward again to straighten up for another go. Goodo, except that I could only go a very short distance forward because I was....stuck? How?

Without hearing or feeling anything (noisy rear engined car remember), I'd managed to collect the side of my garage door opening with the rear mudguard, and then in coming forwards again the corner of the bumper had become snagged on the same door opening, like so:







In snagging the corner of the bumper, it had moved the bumper out of alignment and as I was in a hurry to get the car inside, my options seemed to be to try and move the car sideways or take the bumper off. I took the bumper off.

Damage not as bad as first thought once I had it back in the garage and could take a proper look:



...but still, frankly, embarrassing. Not annoyed or angry or anything like that, just felt like a bit of a dick really. However, as my 6 year old has been asking me about times I'd bent cars only last week, he was delighted to be told he'd just been a participant in bending some panel work....kids! 🙂

Ah well. No big deal really, and hey, I wanted a project and now I have something to get stuck into. I don't know if the panel is worth fixing - I think it's beyond my meagre panelbeating skills, and my experience with panel shops in the past has been its cheaper to get them to paint a replacement panel than to beat a bent one back into shape and then paint it (which this needs, the paint is cracked and flaking off where I hit it).

Took the panel off late tonight and as suspected, nothing beyond superficial damage. (Bonus: looks more like a project car now). It's not very thick metal, a Beetle mudguard, so probably no surprise that a fairly slow reversing hit was enough to bend it.



Anyway, I'll get this sorted one way or another and I think I need to give myself just a little more room to park this car and maybe stick to driving it in nose first. Will get some prices on replacement panels vs repair and go from there.

Long post for a minor shunt but maybe someone will get some amusement at my expense 🙂

Good news on that panel: can be repaired rather than replaced, so it's been dropped off with a bloke who is, by reputation, handy with panel work on older cars and should be all sorted within a week of so.

No laughing matter, glad you can get it fixed OK and everyone is OK

More self inflicted issues. Turns out when you put your battery in the wrong way around, it lets the magic smoke out of your voltage regulator

I have no idea why I didn't check more carefully. I'd sat the battery in its spot a few weeks ago without reconnecting it (and the wrong way around, for some unknown reason) and when I went to reconnect it, I assumed it was correct. You would think the fact that I had trouble getting the clamp onto the terminal might have been a clue to stop and check, but no. If nothing else, for the rest of eternity I will know that earth straps go on negative terminals...

All I can say is that it was early in the morning and I'm not a morning person. And I'm a bit of a numpty.

Thinking about this some more: this car already had a faulty generator and now a faulty voltage regulator too.

Alternator conversion time? I'm sure I've read somewhere that the alternator conversion eliminates the need for the voltage regulator?

OK now I'm confused. The voltage regulator I blew up is one of these:


I also have another one, which was replaced earlier, which looks the same as that but has an extra wire coming out of it and different connectors (more of a 'prong' type than the screw type pictured there). When I search the part number for the one I fried, they seem to go for $225. Ouch.

But if I just search the VW parts sites for a voltage regulator for a 12v Beetle with a generator, I get this part:


...which sells for a much more pleasant sounding $63.50, but has the same type of 'prong' connectors as the older one out of my car. So it looks like when the voltage regulator was last replaced, someone changed the connectors to suit the newer Bosch regulator with the screw-in connectors. I'm guessing I'd need to change them back again if I want to use the cheaper regulator?

Electrical stuff, ugh...this is a complete mystery world to me, might as well be rocket science.

Check your samba thread, I left a more long winded answer there, but long story short, screw style terminals= 6volt, spade style 12volt and the flat ones are just the new solid state version.

Thanks 🙂

Repaired panel is back from the panel beater and looks excellent, they've done a great job of it. Classic Garage Bodyworks in Fyshwick, ACT for anyone local to the area. Back on the car now:

As of yesterday I've owned this car for a year - who'd have thought!

Just some fiddling about with the little stuff this weekend. I noticed when I bought the car that a few of the rubber seals were shot, like so:







...and I'd been meaning to get on to it, but when this sort of thing started happening my anti-untidy-car gene cried "enough!":



So I ordered new bonnet and decklid seals ($15 and $11 respectively, I love the price of parts for this car!) and set to work yesterday. The seals themselves are held in by a metal lip that goes around the boot/engine bay, and a how-to video I watched suggested I might need to lever up on the lip itself to release the seal. No problem at all with the engine bay seal - old one came off easily and the new one went in just as easily:



Boot seal wasn't quite as easy, and the screwdriver was needed to pry the lip up a little to release the seal - I must admit I cringed having to do this in such an untidy way:



...and you can see some evidence of the problem I discovered (that I forgot to snap a pic of) when I lifted the seal off, which is that it traps moisture. There's a little bit of rust all the way around the lip which needs a cleanup before I'll be happy to put the new seal on. It's not serious, but there's all these minor spots of rust everywhere you look around this car. Seems a shame to allow a car which has survived 42 years of regular use to slowly succumb to minor rust like this, so I think better to stop it than ignore it.

Anyway, the bonnet seal came off in one tidy piece in the end.



I think I'll order new seals for the front indicators and number plate light, and maybe both doors as well - all of them are either UV damaged or torn, and detract from what is now a far tidier car than the one I drove home a year ago.

And so it came to pass that it was time to move on. When I pulled this car out of the garage last month and realised I hadn't driven it since May, and I felt like I'd done everything to it that I could, or wanted to, do I knew it was time to sell.

Fortunately I've found an enthusiastic buyer who knows Beetles well and I'm confident will give it a good home. He's picking it up tomorrow.

It's been fun. I'm going to miss this car.