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1968 vw beelte semi automatic restoration (Vic)
NoodleSsS - February 4th, 2011 at 06:31 PM

Hello everyone my name is Michael and my father has purchased a 1968 vw beetle with semi automatic gear box, we are looking to restore the car and live in VIC , Melbourne (Western Suburbs).

We have already have pulled the shell off, motor and box out, we have purchased a new floor pan and the car is fully stripped and sanded back sprayed in primer.

Does anyone know some good vw places or know of anyone that would be willing to help with:

1. Rebuilding the motor
2. Rebuilding the gear box (Semi Auto)
3. Cutting the old floor pan out and welding new one in.
4. Re-spraying the car

If anyone could help with prices and places would be of great help.

grumble - February 4th, 2011 at 07:02 PM

BME used to trade under Mr Bug have a good stock of parts and should be able to help you.Alan has supplied me with parts for a lot of years.

Joel - February 4th, 2011 at 07:42 PM

Was the gearbox working ok before you stripped the car?

I'd forget rebuilding the gearbox, most parts for them are no longer availible and they were few and far between to start with.

While the body's off is the easiest time to convert it to manual, being a 68 it probably wont have a clutch cable tube.

Not wanting to upset any of the semi auto enthusists on here but unless you're hell bent on a factory perfect resto, convert to manual.

My best mate had 2 of them and I used to work on 1 at the garage, the performance and fuel economy of them is terrible compared to a manual.

NoodleSsS - February 4th, 2011 at 08:21 PM

My dad was specifically afer a semi auto thats why he bought it so the semi auto stays :)

The semi auto didnt have any problems before we pulled it apart.

Craig Torrens - February 4th, 2011 at 09:21 PM

so why do you need to rebuild the gearbox then ?

NoodleSsS - February 4th, 2011 at 10:17 PM

Just thought because we doing everything else may aswell ? last thing we want is full resto and then the gear box packs it in ?

ctefeh - February 8th, 2011 at 12:47 PM

Michael,
If it isn't broke, don't fix it.
Like most of us who have a semi-auto in Aus (and elsewhere) it's a better idea to have a spare G'box "just in case".

As far as reconditioning goes, you won't ever be able to get a 100% reco job unless you go to super-extrordinary lengths and are prepared to scour the earth for replacement parts.

Best thing is to clean, fill up with decent oil and call it good until it goes south.

I don't know if they are still active, but "Killakornkob" and "Pretty Blue Bug" are/were in Melbourne and from memory their mechanics were at least Semi-Auto savvy.

I see you are on VWAR which is a good place to be.



HTH
Sean aka Volkenstein on VWAR