Bought this one a while back to replace my 67' that had a bit too much body work for me at the time.

It has had a reasonable home paint job (though they painted over the fender beading grrr!) in the original colour with most of the bodywork being done to a reasonable standard with only a little filler, no rust found in the usual places, though a few bodges like welded up front bumper mounts (snapped off bolts) that I'm currently repairing properly. It retains most of the original interior in very good condition.

The mechanicals have barely been touched over the years and it still had 6v electrics when we purchased it. It's had a new clutch and throw out bearing recently but that's about it recently.

It came with a bunch of new seals and felt channels etc from the previous owner.

We drove it around a bit .. It needs a tie rod end, the front brakes done and a myriad of small things but it's a pretty honest car. Didn't drive nearly as well as my 67' did but the mechanical stuff is what I'm good at anyway.

Here it is just after we bought it and washed it properly :





The motor wasn't in great fettle but I gave it a quick tune up so we could drive it over the summer and then a couple of weeks ago the entire charging system failed completely so I decided to pull it off the road and do some major work.

Out came the motor .. Evidently I 's been leaking from the oil cooler for some time!



The tins were disgusting too.



A lot of scraping scrubbing and degreasing later the motor and tins are finally clean.



I cleaned up the engine bay and did the axle boots too .. New clutch and throttle cables, return Spring and a new apron seal are going in too.





And the original PICT 30/1 got a strip, clean and rebuild. A few threads in the housing stripped and I'm waiting on a tool to helicoil them. I'll have to weld a small patch on the preheat tube on the manifold too. Coffee and scones aid productivity.



So now the motor is clean I am doing the valve clearances and all the seals that need doing and swapping the gen stand over to the altebnator type in readiness for the 12v conversion I'm about to do.

I decided not to repaint the tins yet as I'm going to rebuild the motor in a short while. I'll probably get them powder coated, and sort out some proper cooling vanes and a thermostat while I'm at it. My 67' had it all working and it warmed up and idled noticeably smoother.

Once the motors ready to go back in I'll get the cables done, I've replaced all the fuel lines and stuff as well. I'll do the shift coupler and bushing and replace all the door seals, get the brakes and suspension sorted once this lot of work is done.

Planning on a 2.5" drop all round and a thorough going over of the suspension and brakes.

Interior just needs new carpet mostly .. And will add some additional sound deadening. This is my 3rd beetle and the best yet.

Nice find, be good to see it when you've got it back together how you want.

Sander this is my second 60's beetle and I have to say yours is basically what I want mine to be like mechanically!

I want to build a motor much like yours when I pull the motor next .. Can you tell me where you managed to find 77mm barrels and pistons and did you pay ridiculous money for them?

Cheers mate.

I'll be starting to plan the motor work as soon as this lot of work is done.

Just looking forward to driving it again really!

looks great

Thanks mate. It's going to be really nice once it's done.

Got the busted threads in the carb body helicoiled and back together. Have the whole motor assembled and just about ready to put back in and tune but went to turn over the fan and it's rubbing so the shroud has to come off again. Weird because it span freely off the motor.

Managed to fix up the inlet manifold .. Got a bit of exhaust tubing and cut and formed it to fit over the hole in the pre heat tube (where they all seem to go at the bend) and mig'd and linished it until it looked like this :



Pleased with that .. I have the rest of the motor back together and ready to put back in the car, all assembly was checked and signed off by the dog :



Hit a bit of a snag yesterday though doing the felt channels and door seals .. The window lift channels are rusted through so when the window went back in to the new (tight) felts it busted apart.. Add it to the list of things to do ..

Tidying up a bit of wiring today on the starter and headlights and the motor will go back in on Wednesday.

I replaced the clutch cable, throttle cable with a braided stainless one, cleaned and lined the pedal cluster, replaced the clutch return spring, and every fuel line on the car and the fuel level sender gasket on the tank.

All the body and engine bay seals have been done also.

Trying to do it all once and do it right so it's a reliable cruiser.

Good job mate, cars looking great. Good to see the dog approves!

Cheers mate.

Enthusiasm has been good the past couple of weeks. Today I got all of the wiring tidied up ready for the motor to go back in and the wiper motor armature changed to a 12v one from Das resto, and sorted out the horn wiring.

Got both windows stripped and cleaned just waiting for the new lift channels and seals now ..

If the axle boots are in good condition you need to loosen the clamps and lay the join line over to the horizontal position so it can flex properly. Easier to do it now.
Looks good.
Tony

I did that after the photos thanks

Just finished rewiring the horn and the last of the 12v conversion work and tested it .. And it all works! Bugger! Very satisfied.

Almost finished all of the door seals and just waiting on the lift channels to finish those off.