Hey All.
Guess its time to share my drain on the finances.
Bought her off Ebay last year but as we were moving interstate i've been putting off doing anything major to her until now.
There is a bit of rust hiding underneath it all. New floor pans are in order as are new heater channels. A piller on passenger side isnt too healthy either. BIG job ahead!!
here a few piccies to date. Pulled out all the glass and head liner. Bonnet and deck lid are off and tank is out (managed to spill a bit of fuel to! mmm fumes!)
Hope to drop the engine out in the next few weeks and then seperate the pan and body

[ Edited on 28-9-2006 by Proud_Dad ]

[ Edited on 9-1-2007 by Proud_Dad ]

and some more

Good stuff mate - have fun! :thumb

could be a massive resto then!

goodluck and hope to see picture progress!

nick

yeah good luck mate (Y).

i know what its like to be doing a 71super with bad rust :p.

and im not having fun..but will be well worth it in the end.

Maybe i should keep a picture diary too.

Anthony

Cheers fellas, reackon i'll need a bit o luck.
Dass, reading your thread was pretty motivating. hoping i'll be able to pull of something half as decent as yours

Anthony (or anyone for that matter), seeing as you're going thru the same thing is there any tricky bits to keep and eye out for or some special bits be extra careful on when taking everything out?

Bag and tag EVERYTHING! I'm guilty of sometimes not doing this...


'Glad' cliplock sandwhich bags are the go - from the supermarket. Identify each bag (eg: Front left guard, front right guard, bonnet and bootlid) and line 'em all up in waterproof wax boxes from the fruitmarket...

i second what vwcool says as im just about finished my 72 sbug project is extremely helpful when putting back together a couple of months later. look very closely at the rear turret and the area at the bottom of the windscreen.

Bit more progress stripping out the beetle.
Not as exciting as some of the restorations going on but gotta start somewhere.
Having fun working out some of the wiring the previous owner put in.
Also found a bit (more like a lot) of rust in the wheel well that they had covered with fibreglass and silicon. Not suprisingly it didnt help and left me with more work to be done!
fuel tanks out with a bit of effort and a bit of fuel on the floor. I knew i shouldnt trust the VW fuel gauge. but even when it said it was nearly empty the tank was nearly half full!

nice work, cool to see another vw getting back on the road in newcastle

give us a u2u if you need any parts or pannel as i have a wreaked 72 which has some of the pannels intacked

Cheers barls, might have to take you up on that offer see how it goes. Hope to have the body off the pan in the next few weeks, work permitting.

Thanks VWFOOL hopefully it wont take to long to have her up and running. miss having "my" car! :thumb

A bit of an update. Not much has been done since last time posted as i had to make a trip over to WA for my brothers wedding. Good holiday but time away meant no time on the beetle and if anyone has seen the price of airplane tickets to WA....well no money left for the beetle.

Have dropped the engine out though. Wasnt as hard as I thought. Only trouble came when it was time to get her out from under the car. couldnt get the beetle high enough. Also started working on getting ready to seperate the body and pan. I think I brought a few dozen red backs from SA with me to! Everytime I put my hand into a crevice I find a web and on closer inspection find I've dodged another spider bite just. Killed at leat a dozen so far! This hobby isnt without its hazards!

Really enjoying pulling her apart. I'm learning more and more of how this beasty works this way. Hopefully I remember how to put it back together again. What does everyone use to mount their engines whilst not in the car. Any home made setups floating round out there? Could use some ideas.

I agree... GO THE SUPERS!!!
-Staggers.

Hope I'm not too late, but my advice is to leave the body on the pan (for now) to fix the body. Keeps it mobile (sorta) and takes up half the storage room. Get the body almost ready for paint (rust, straightening, doors hung properly, basics of trim sorted out etc) before taking it off the pan for new pan halves/restoration

[ Edited on 13-6-2006 by VWCOOL ]

Think i need to go a removable apron! make it much more easier! the engine is now sitting on an shopping trolley to make it easy to more around the garage. wish i had a better setup to make it sit more stable on there.

Thanks for all the advice, VWCOOL, like the idea of leaving her together, can i do heater channels together. I've really been holding back seperating the body untill i can at least get a jig welded in place between the a and b pillars as the passenger side heater channel is all but gone. dont like the idea of moving it but thought i might be the best way to replace it.

Got a mate a work whos dad has a 72 super i might be able to pic up for parts. story goes apparently that he dad rear ended it at the lights and pushed it into the car in front. instead of paying insurance he just bought the car off the girl. could be a cheap alternative!!

ohhh rusty sills.... although possible, it's simply not worth fixing rusty sills when you can buy complete cars/shells for not much more than beer money. Do a body swap instead - even if you have to fix front and rear crash damage - that is far easier than sills/door alignment

[ Edited on 14-6-2006 by VWCOOL ]

Yeah i'm hoping, (all being well, i havent seen this other car yet) that i can transplant the good ends off this beetle onto the crashed one... see how it goes.
Besides that....... anyone selling a 71 Sbug shell??:thumb

i got a 72 but i dont think its any good for what you want as it has nothing above the window sills

Its been a long time since I put an update here and I would love to show everyone lots of pics of my progress, perhaps even a nearly completed..... anything. But its is not so. I've been so busy with going away with work and homework that i'm supposed to be doing I've hardly go out to the shed at all.

The engine is all but crank and case at the moment. Want to seperater the case and get it cleaned up along with the other parts before i think about what i'm going to do with it. Hit a bit of a obstacle not having the right tools to remove the flywheel and pulley bolts. but we'll get there. Also need to get the valve springs out but again no tools. Want to get the heads cleaned up when they're out.

So heres what else I have been doing. I freed the body from the pan(still sitting on the pan untill space is made), got all those annoying bolts along the bottom out finally. Some were real buggers, rusted in, some were snapped off and are still in there. I've got 3 hinge pins and one door off. The last one is soooo close to being out but wont budge that last little bit.

The front suspension is all out and I'm hoping to work on rebuilding the whole lot and the steering when the body is off. Only had a little trouble with one BUGGER of a bolt that wouldnt come out. so it got cut out. Seems like a little bit of rust in the bottom of the strut, top of the ball joint. Is this normal wear and tear?

I've come to the conclusion that this body is past the point were i can do anything with it. There is just too much rust to be worth fixing it. So i'm going to get the body off, salvage anything worth while and concentrate on the pan and running gear in the mean time.

Which brings me to my next question. what should i salvage from this body. Take to it with the grinder and cut out any panel that is straight and rust free in case i can weld it onto another body? or just leave it to die and slow rusty death?

Proud_Dad,
Save the bonnet, taillights if they are OK (Complete assemblies) . 71-72 SB's are panel orphans in this regard. And the bumper bar rubber thingies in the front apron(?) or guards. Check the guard part No's as they may be 71-72 orphans as well (but easier to fix than a bonnet!).
Not sure about Aus models, but the seat rails may be specific too. Save your glass. I would reckon anything electrical is worth having as well, but that's just me.
Struts too! Again complete, and if your steering box is good, save that. They are exxy to replace.

I chopped a rusted out '70 bug body for patch panels for my SB when the time comes!

I'm sure I've forgotten something:puke

Ctefeh

[ Edited on 25/9/2006 by ctefeh ]

Don't be concerned about killing anything - that shell is already dead!

Okay the angle grinder is my new friend!

I finished taking the doors off, and then after a lot (and i mean a lot of hesitation) i got the body off in a less conventional means. It almost hurt me to do it and it had to keep reminding myself that the body was beyond repair... and thats all we shall say about that. Either way, the body is off and now i've got the pan exposed and ready for some work. Gotta say i'm pretty pumped.

Was going to buy some new pans this week but the wife insisted on a anniversary instead and a dishwasher took preference. so maybe in a few weeks new pans will be bought and a welder sourced. anyways here are some pics to date.

The only problem i'm facing now is that I need a 36mm socket to get the rear discs off, need it for the engine to so a trip to bunnings or repco is in order i think come pay day.

Questions for all those in the know. Firstly i was considering rolling the pan outside and hit the rear end with a hose to get all the crap off. But after thinking about it, i'm thinking it would be a bad idea. seeing as the tranny is still in and i cant see how getting water in that would be a good idea. And also i cant see how having water trapped in the centre tunnel could be good either. Thoughts any one?

Secondly this piece of the pan has a couple of brackets underneath that i dont know what they're for? I'm thinking maybe that carbon filter i'm reading about in the bently but never seen. I know it said its usually under the fender but the tube from the condensor tube (if thats what its called) trailed off down this direction (its been cut). Anyway, if someone could shed some light on this for me i'ld be gratefull. either way, i'm thinking perfect mounting spot for a cpl of airhorns one day :P

the problem with alot of manuals is they cover overseas models which have alot of differnt pollution crap which doesnt apply to us like charcoal canisters
they were only fitted to the last 76 beetles in aus and yes were under the back driverside gaurds
i guess ur talking about the breather hose from the fuel tank
it connects to a solid line below the windscreen and then runs under the car and thats were it ends so urs probably isnt cut
that hunk of metal is just the reinforcing fitted to strutbug frame heads
the brackets on them are just for mounting the old factory style A/C condensers to

-Joel

Joel

Cheers mate, solves that question!

Hey Alll

Its been a long time since I've updated this thread and I would like to show you all the amazing amount of work I've done but unfortunatly it hasnt been so. the busy season kept me too busy and its only been recently that i've managed to get out and do some work.

Before i started to pull her apart I took her for one last burn round the base back in Adelaide. Found some mud, cut it up did some doughies, all good fun and even though i gave her a wash after I didnt do a good enough job and consewently i've been dealing with some mud that has set like concrete round the the tranny.

The bolts round the driveshaft and the CV joints were a lot of fun to get off. some of them i managed to round out. But a return of the trust anglegrinder and air chisel made short work of that.
with the Tranny out I had to get working on those rear axle nuts that have been giving me troub;e. So again out came the anglegrinder and the airchisel, and about 5 minutes later, both drums were off.

Also started cleaning up the case to which has been a lot of work. A mixture of degreaser and white spirits has been giving some good results plus the wire brush to shift the stubborn guink. Still I'm not entirely happy with the finish, I want more shine!!!

and these