Hey all,

My wife and I were finding our 67' Beetle a bit pokey for daily use, and were thinking about a bus, when a nice type 3 squareback came up.

We decided to check it out and once we drove it we decided a type 3 would fit the bill just nicely.

It's been looked after nicely, has a full service history and manuals, has had the paint touched up and is generally straight and mostly rust free (front left inner fender and the cover on the firewall for the fan unit has some small holes, and there's a bubble under the windscreen).

The interior is neat except for the front seat trims which I'm sourcing at the moment to be retrimmed.

It's wearing a set of Cheviots at the moment, though I'd like some standard wheels and hubcaps.

It suffered an engine fire a while back and was repaired properly, though the engine bay still looks awful.

After finding the carbs were stuffed John at the vee dub centre supplied a good used set of German Solex 32PDSIT's for a reasonable price and I rebuilt them, and had a friend help me tune the car.

I also replaced all the fuel lines and filter, did an oil change and tappets, some wiring repairs and a tie rod end.

So far so good .. it runs great!

Needs lots more cleaning, finishing the refurbishment of the interior and I will have those rust area's addressed soon.

This weekend I'm popping a new exhaust on (dual quiet muffler system) and doing the shifter rod bushing/coupler.

Here's some pics!

Very nice clean looking Square there!
Post more pics please!

Thanks mate!

I will post some more after this weekend once I finish replacing the awful "GT" 4 tip exhaust on it at the moment .. I'll give it a tub and a polish and take some pics.

Wouldn't idle this morning so I think I'll be re-wiring/checking the idle jet solenoids this afternoon. I have four of them to choose from so at least I have spares.

Very nice
You need to update your signature too!

Welcome to the Type 3 club lunar_c.
Nice looking Square.
You'll have plenty of room in that wagon area at the back. Storage up front is brilliant, we fit 2 weeks shopping in there plus grog supplies with ours!

Yeah I'm really impressed with how practical it is so far. And just how much nicer it is to drive than an early swing axle beetle, or even my old super beetle.

Sorted out the idle problems - I checked the chokes and idle jet solenoids were getting 12v with the ignition on - yes, but the wiring was a bit crackly so I made a new loom for them.

So 12v, check! And they click with ignition on .. Check .. But still no idle .. So I swap the left one out for a spare I had, and hey presto a perfect idle.

So the old dogma of "if it clicks it works" may not be true ..

So that's fixed! But now my wipers aren't working .. Ahh, gotta love old cars

Got the exhaust changed over today .. It's better but I'm not 100% happy with it. It's still quite loud (sounds like a nice dub, but writing cheques it can't cash as it's still so slow!)

I might make a new muffler section from the collector back with a single outlet on the left with the biggest muffler I can fit under there. Going to put some more sound deadener in the back to see if that helps.

Tomorrow gear shift gets fixed and some more cleaning and repairs.

Nice looking car.

Chalee

Yesterday I took a little side track .. trying to improve the comfort side of things, I decided to fit some sound deadener as the tar board in the rear foot wells had been removed, and then fit the carpets properly (it's a new set but they weren't glued in and they've been cut improperly). It all went well, and there's no rust anywhere! Just lots of seam sealer and old carpet glue.

I used response sound deadener. Seems like a good product (about 3mm foiled backed butyl rubber) and went on easily (I used a paint roller cage). I did the rear foot wells, under the back seat, the inner front wheel arches and along the front bulkhead (don't have many pics because it got so dark so quickly, damn winter) I then glued the carpets down as best I could.

Today I'm going to buy a few more rolls, and do the entire rear end (behind all the trim panels) and re-do my engine hatch lid. I like a quiet car!

Very NICE Square...........Mind if i ask how much you paid for it ?????
Looks to be in great shape

Thanks mate.

So I finished sound deadening the rear end of the car (not under the headliner though) .. though waiting on a sheet of thick dynamat to redo the engine hatch lid with. The cardboard/rubbery original deadener on the top and rear cargo area is in great shape so I've left that and focused on deadening behind the trim on either side of the cargo area and in the tail gate. Relayed the carpet and I'm mostly happy with the interior but for the front door cards (wavy and likely water damaged, will make new backings and attempt to reuse the original vinyl covering as they're in good shape) and I will add sound deadener to inside the front doors while I'm in there in anticipation of adding a simple sound system.

It's made a big difference, though one of the best additions was a thick rubber mat from Clark rubber that I trimmed to fit the cargo area. Then there's just the front seats to retrim and the dash pad to repair and I'll be happy. Here's a few more pics. It's quiet enough for the dog to sleep in now ..

The dog seems to like it. Nice job.

Chalee

Yeah he loves old dubs!

I have now ordered everything to reupholster the front seats and a big sheet of dynamat to re do the engine lid. Will be very excited to finish the interior off properly!

Looks good

Cheers.

It's getting decent economy too after its second tank it's averaging 9.64l/100km in purely city driving with some 80 zone cruising.

Not happy with how it's running though - it feels like the ignition isn't advancing fast enough and it feels strangled until mid throttle, I'm going to investigate that today. Any thoughts on the 009 dizzy vs SVDA on the type 3 1600 TP with twin solexes? I've read it was only an issue with the 34 PICT.

Generally i thought Vacuum advance worked better on the stock engines.. i have a 1776, i'm running 009 with no vacuum...

Redid the sound deadening on the engine lid ..

Original material after the engine bay fire was pretty trashed ..



There were a few spots of surface rust and wrinkled paint from the fire, so I resprayed the lot in VHT paint left over from painting the exhaust.



Which left me a nice clean surface to cover in dynamat .. and a little bit of response butyl rubber deadener I had left over from the floor pans.



Quite a satisfying half a morning job.. and it's a little quieter now (not as big an effect as I thought) but fixing the exhaust leaks made a big difference .. the seals included with the exhaust blew out in half a week so it was leaking from the heads and the collector flange. Fixed that with decent steel crush gaskets now, and made a support bracket for the mufflers.

I also added an electric wash wipe in the original location (mine was missing altogether) and popped a new spray nozzle and line in. What a prick of a job that was. All done now.. two speed wipers and wash wipe, positively modern!

Redid all the heater hoses with 2l Kombi blower fan hose which is the right size (about 63mm) and much tougher than the usual paper/foil stuff. Working heaters are great.

Still having annoying occasional idle issues which I'm still trying to chase down. It'll idle great one day, rock steady .. and then the next, it will run fine but as soon as the revs drop around the idle circuit it runs a bit funny and won't idle. I've checked the chokes and idle solenoids to no avail. Hmm...

Still thinking about putting an SVDA electronic dizzy on it also but waiting until the bank balance recovers from the big seat refurbishing order I did. I love driving this thing though.

Neat work, it looks like you enjoy keeping busy.

I'm a nurse, I don't know what to do with spare time having two old dubs tends to keep that in check..

I'm wondering whether I should put two new idle solenoids on and see if that cures the inconsistent idle.

Hey that's a great suggestion I didn't think of (just changed my filter under the car) .. I'll check that tomorrow when I check the plugs. Legend!

We had issues on the way home on Sunday, can't remember the last time I saw a fuel filter so full of crap. Changed it over, runs great again. 9.6l/100km is about right. We've been getting anywhere from 8.4l/100km higway running back from qld, through to 9.7 around town. Thats with an auto too.
Can you add a photo of the electric washer bottle you've put in. Our original has no lid and I want to change it asap.

Here's a pic of how I popped an electric wash wipe in the factory location. If you search "washer bottle" or "wash wipe kit" you'll find a few different kits, this was from a seller in Victoria and cost me all of $12, make sure you order a vertical bottle if you want to put it in the factory spot. I slightly enlarged the filler cap hole in the sheet metal but 2-3mm with a large half round file so the cap would fit through and make a bracket to bolt the bottle in to one of the fender bolts and it was done.



I'm not sure if yours will stay have the one way valves and stuff .. I replaced all the tubing on mine and when I did this on my beetle I found it wouldn't work with the original valves in place for the pneumatic system.

Very neat!

P.S > you will have to update your signature!

Thanks.
I finally updated my signature :P

Still plagued by inconsistent running despite swapping all the usual things.

Pondering starting fresh with a 1776/1835/1915 .. Want something with a bit more power and torque and has to be reliable and low maintenance.. Anyone have any suggestions?

After mucking around a lot more, I have it running nicely now but still thinking about something bigger as it's still pretty sluggish!

There's a bewildering array of options, and some say my (insert capacity here) has 100k miles on it and never uses a drop of oil, others say I'd never build another (insert capacity here) as the cylinder walls are too thin and they split if left in the sun too long!