I came into possession of a 1973 L Bug for my first car on the 15/5/2011. I called her Zelda after the very first Nintendo 64 game that I ever played... Then, when I found out that Zelda was a German name, it was confirmed that that is what she would be called.

Like every build thread, let's get some photos up on here! I took the following photos the day I got her.





Then of course, here are some photos of her engine. Very dirty when I first got her and she's missing her tinware as well. If anyone knows of where I can grab a dress kit for her, someone tell me!



I also went interior photo crazy. I wanted to find every little nook and cranny that was either dodgy looking or just looked in dire need of fixing.



I also noticed that the roof lining is very dodgy. Seems the last owner or some previous owner has tried to redo it and has forgotten to put the interior light back in!

I also found and took a photo of the uncovered wires under the dash. Previous owner installed a little sound system, so this could be the cause.



Like I said, the sound system is very dodgy looking. Currently it is lying flat instead of upwards.



There isn't much else to say other than last Friday, her exhaust fell off. Was very loud to say the least. She's currently having a sleep over at GHR Motors and I'll hopefully be picking her up tomorrow evening!

I'm thinking the first thing I do to tidy her up is clean up the interior. So, in other words, replace the head unit, clean up the roof lining, replace the padded dash with one that isn't cracked (images coming soon) and get myself a nice looking parcel shelf for the rear, mounting speakers and grabbing a subwoofer to shove in a box underneath.

I'm also thinking about going back to stock rims. If anyone could send me the details about the exact hubcaps and sizes, including width (my front tires seem to rub on the guard when at full lock), I'll get around to going stock as soon as possible...

One last thing, you may have all noticed that the rear taillights aren't, well, stock to say the least. Seems at some stage she had the rear fenders and rear bumper replaced with some sort of LH Torana kit. Want to replace them soon...

After a few days without her, she's back in my possession!

The guys over at GHR Motors definitely took care of me and Zelda, so did those at Carline motors. Carline did the exhaust and GHR looked after her for me.

I'll have some photos of the new exhaust below when it gets lighter, probably tomorrow morning. Definitely sounds tinnier and such.

Albeit, driving home, every time I took my foot off the accelerator, the engine died. Was very odd...

pics of wheel/guard touching on lock? looking at size & estimated offset, im gueessing 14x6 +30ish they shouldnt be rubbing anywhere, might be worth looking into incase anything else is rubbing

Must mention quickly, while driving home and at prime time where Zelda would be nice and warm, she kept dying as soon as I took my foot off the accelerator.
I would be assuming this is due to the increased back pressure now from the new exhaust and in turn it'd need a nice little tune up.

So, I'm thinking I'll go out and grab myself a timing gun and get a mate of mine to help me tune her. Seems her idle is way too low to keep up with the new exhaust.

Will report back tomorrow evening!

As promised, I've got some photos of the new exhaust. Unfortunately didn't take any photos of the old one so can't do a compare shot.





Seems that due to the new exhaust, the timing seems to be off. I called GHR Motors, they said that it could be some dirt in the idle jets. I'm going to try and fix myself tonight with a couple of mates, will be sure to grab photos and such of everything.

Here's another picture, took it late last night, shows the welding done by Carline in case the exhaust wants to full off again.

What makes you think the timing is off?

swapping the exhaust wont have an effect on the timing, escpecially when its the same header just with a new muffler fitted.

If it's running like a hairy goat like they have said it's probably blocked up the idle jet.

This afternoon was crazy. This is going to be big, so we'll start at the very beginning.

First, I drove a mate back to his place and we took a look at Zelda with everyone. This is what we were faced with, Zelda's 1500 single port engine, that enjoyed idling out and stalling as soon as my foot was off the accelerator.



Us being us, we wanted to get to the source straight away. We knew it was something going wrong with the carby, but we didn't exactly know what. So, it was time to get our hands dirty and start pulling her apart.

We took off the air filter, and I got the shock of my life, found the hard way that my air filter isn't an air filter, it's a Oil Bath Aircleaner. (When I got home, my mate found this article, great read.)





Next, we went at the carby with some carby cleaner that a mate had stored away in his garage. We applied per the instructions on the can below. This here, didn't work, it kept idling out and it just would not continue to idle. We were running out of ideas.





Then, we figured that the automatic choke was being weird. Gay we said. So we decided to tinker with it. Realising that the thread was too little, we decided to make the accelerator cable shorter and in turn keep the thread on the lowest cog on the butterfly valve, as it seems that the butterfly valve is worn out a little. (Maybe it is called a throttle valve, I don't know).

The little thread.


So currently the setup looks like the following.


And then, after we thought everything was going fine, and she was idling veryveryvery high, she conked while I was driving home. I freaked out, smacked her dash and started her back up. As I got home, I thought it best I call Siggi from GHR Motors. But it was 5:30pm and it was a bit of a long shot.

He answered, and to my relief, he knew what was going wrong.

After explaining what was going wrong and deciding that it was the automatic choke, I found that the connection from the negative solenoid to the alternator had come dislodged.



As you can see above, they are all connected now and she's idling fine. I'm going to take her for a full test drive in a few hours once I've got the idle re-adjusted.

I'm just happy that she's idling now, was really freaky driving her with some mad heel toe action at the lights!

Thought I'd add this. While the Oil Aircleaner was off, we wanted to catch all the leaks. So, being German and all, we did the following.

Looks like you guys are learning a lot! Turning an oil bath air cleaner upside down is definitely a trick for beginners. Usually you first realise when you go to put it back on and there is a huge puddle around it on the floor! If you didn't know, you guys did well to put it down the right way up!

There are a couple of tips I can give, hopefully they will help out.

First things first, keep the Hotwires. The car will handle a LOT worse on stock rims and tyres, and those skinny tyres are expensive. Not to mention that a 4" wide rim will look completely lost inside those wide fiberglass guards on the rear! Take off your front wheels, get an angle grinder and trim down the splash shields on the brakes. They do not need to be as oversized as they are, if you cut about a centimetre off the radius all the way around then your wheels will fit properly and everything will be good again! I personally did this on my Superbug, and although it was nerve-wracking, the results are definitely worth it.

Secondly, what tinware are you missing? You seem to have all of the important bits on there. The only thing which you need which isn't shown in the photos is the lower cylinder tins (air deflectors), which sit between the cylinders on the underside of the engine. All of the stuff which you have up top seems to be fairly complete, so I assume that those will probably be on there as well.

Ah, right. So you mean the one towards the front of the car, between the fan housing and the firewall? If you can find one then by all means put it on, but they're really not all that important in my opinion. You already have all of the major ones which are needed for cooling. I'll have a look through my shed on the weekend and see if I have a spare one of those tins, I'm pretty sure I do. If I find one then you can have it for free.

With the wheels, you can go for stockies if that's what floats your boat. Don't forget that you need them in 4x130mm stud pattern though, not wide 5! I was browsing the forum and noticed that you were expressing interest in some wide 5 rims I believe? 4 stud stock rims are pretty common though, so you'll easily find a set very cheap. A couple of years ago I picked up a set of four with tyres which held air for free at the end of a Day of the VW show.

Oh, so you want the piece of tinware which covers the crank pulley bolt? Bugs did originally have a piece of tinware there, which sort of arches upwards to cover most of the crank pulley. I've only seen them on a handful of cars. They've almost always been thrown away by a mechanic at some point, as they do absolutely nothing and can sometimes get in the way if you're trying to set the timing or change a fan belt. If you wanted one I reckon they'd be pretty hard to find. If you want your car to be restored period-correct then you have bigger issues though! For starters it should have a 1600cc twin port, as none of the Superbugs came with single-port engines in Australia. The engine you have looks like it's from a '68-'71 1500 bug.

Wide 15" steel rims are extremely rare. The more popular size back in the day was 14". People used to take their stock wheels and separate the centres from the rim. Then they would get a wide 14" rim, usually 14x6", either aftermarket or from a Holden or similar. Then turn down the VW wheel centre on a lathe until it fits into the 14" rim, and weld it on. This is what I have on my car, a set of widened 14" rims which were made back in the '70s or similar.



If you want 15x7" rims in 4 stud, I would suggest that you'll probably have to get them made especially for you. I'm not sure what it would cost, but there should be a couple of places around Adelaide that could do it. All you need is a half-decent machinist with a wheel lathe and a welder. You also need a set of stock rims to use their centres. One day I'm planning on doing this so that I can upgrade to 15x6" and choose my own offset, but for now the 14x6"s will do.

By the way, stock rims are either 15x4" or 15x4.5", not 5". They'll take a 165/80R15 tyre but not much wider. I have a strong feeling that a 165mm wide tyre will look quite silly with those wide guards on the back of your car!

Now that is an epic amount of information.

Yeah, I figured that my engine was from an older 1500 bug, but because I want to turn Zelda into a nice little sleeper car, the engine will most likely disappear and I nice little 1916cc with a dual carb setup would suit her nicely. I just want her to look stock on the outside and interior (meaning I have to ge rid of the sport style bucket seats with the original, I am pretty sure they're the ones with the headrest on the front seats too).

As for the wheels, it looks like I'll be looking for some 14x5's for the front and I could probably get, with the current rear guards, 14x8's on there. But, because I'll be replacing the rear guards with stock ones, I found someone that said he has rear ones up at his farm, so hopefully grabbing left and rit and a new bumper as well.

The aim is to put them on as soon as possible during the holidays and then have her up and running for back to school. Once I have enough cash for the 1916cc dual carb setup, I'll grab me some pea shooters and new extractors. Then, she'll get a new coat of paint and sit at the original height. I'm fair sure only the drop spindles have been changed, so will just grab ones with the stock (offset?).

Damn, just realized how much I truly am learning about this!

God damn that engine's a bitza.

You got an early 68 1500 bottom end, 70s 1300 twinport carby, 71 onwards generator, vacuum only distributor and an early 60s 1200 aircleaner


The upper pulley tin is the only piece of tinware that is fine to leave off, even VW stopped fitting them in 72.

The 31pict3 carbs are abit more tricky to tune than earlier ones.
The screw on the throttle arm is not used for setting idle or anything it should be all the way out and only just touching the fast idle cam.
It's only there to stop the butterfly jamming shut.

Idle is set on these pict3 carbs using the mixture screw and air bypass screw on the left side.

That front end is at stock height, it just looks a bit lower cos of the smaller diameter wheels and tyres plus the springs have probably sagged abit with age.
Dropped spindles dont exist for struts cars, only way to lower them is to lower the spring either by adjustable struts or rewelding the spring cup.
Cut springs = ghetto dangerous mod.

So in other words Joel, time for a new engine that actually matches...?
LOL

Once again, a lot of great information and a lot of learning done on my part, I must thank you and everyone else on this forum for their kindness and actually explaining stuff, have a few friends on other forums that seem to only receive hate. Always good to find a group of people that are actually willing to help!

I heard stories of my Dad cutting springs in his Cortina, definitely something I will not do in Zelda.

As for the front wheels, this weekend I should be able to pick up some nice hubcaps and I'm hoping by the end of next week I'll have gotten rid of the hotwires and have me some nice hubcap action going on!

The rear wheels may be a little trickier, depending on whether or not I can source some fatter 15's, I may be in for a shock and have to run my hotwires on the rear and steelies on the front. But. I shall pray a little and hope that I can source these fatter 15's. However, if I do go back to original spec rear guards, what are the fattest rears that I should get? Currently with the flare, I reckon I could probably fit 15x8's in there easily, but as I am in the position to buy original rear guards, I want to cater for both if necessary...

You'll find the VW bunch is a very tight knit crew with very few drop kicks.
I've spent alot of years in Ford, Toyota and Mazda circles and it's pretty much all about outdoing each other and how much money you waste on your car trying to do that.

That engine isn't a bad combo of parts, they will all work pretty well together, I wouldn't worry about it too much just enjoy the fuel economy it will give.

Your best bet if you're going back to stock steelies is find some stock rear guards to replace those Carerra Torana ones.

Steelies will look right at home then.
All beetle rear guards fit, just depends whether you want the correct elephants feet tail lights or not.
You can fit upto 7" but You gotta get the offset right to prevent rubbing.

Aha, yeah, I've noticed that everyone loves each other. Massive pun, and lame joke, but it's cos of all the Lovebugs around

Yeah, fuel economy is great in her, albeit I did pay for a bloody 1600cc dual port, obviously the bloke didn't know what he was talking about.

I've got some stock guards coming, I'll have to text the bloke about whether or not they're for elephant feet lights or not. How hard will it be to replace the current rear guards? I took a peek and it only seems to be a few bolts and the seal... Electrics may be good fun to play with however!

Alright, I'll grab some 7" ones and will have to do some research on what the correct offset would have to be as well.

With all good intentions, went hunting through Zelda to find everything I could about her.
Will upload images about it all ASAP.

So, as promised, here's another lot of photos that I took yesterday. I hadn't actually looked at the battery and under the rear seat during the day, so I decided it was time to pull her out and see what was going on. It is bloody dirty, and I'm thinking about taking a vacuum cleaner to her. The battery also needs to be anodised, and it seems that the negative and positive connections are starting to rust.



I then took a look at the right hand side of the battery, and there is this BOSCH thing that I currently have no idea what it does? Nor do I understand what the shit is that is covering the heater pipes. I'll probably take them off and there will be rust right through them...



I then decided to start her up and let her sit for a bit, I think it was a major mistake as I ruined a fence by doing so as below. I don't know what it is spitting out, but I don't think it is fuel...



I decided to take a look at this choke issue again, and I'm not sure if this is where it is supposed to be sitting?



I'm also wondering as to why my fans nor heater works. Does anyone else have a padded dash that knows how to work the heater or even just the fans for that matter... I'm assuming it has something to do with the two levers beside the handbrake?





I then realised that maybe I'm missing some stuff as I pulled out a page of which I had in the manual and it stated that there should be a switch for a demister on the back window, but as you can see below, there definitely isn't one there...



And I'm curious as to what the hell this could have been used for?

That's the voltage regulator under the backseat.

Fence artwork is just condensation mixing with the soot and shit in the muffler, nothing to panic about

If the choke is working when you first open the throttle it should spring shut,
there are alignment marks on the choke unit itself and the carb body which need to be lined up.
If they arent the choke wont come on as strong as it;s supposed to.

The heaters only work off the engine fan, the right lever opens the heaterboxes up and the left one just opens and closes the back footwell heaters, thats if all the cables are still good

All the electric fan does is blow fresh outside air through the vents above the radio or the windscreen defrost depending on how you have the knobs set.

Nothing missing from your dash, aus never got heated back windows, foglights or gas heaters which is what the blanks are for next to the hazard.
Big sqaure blank is for the clock which we never got either.

Other spots were for handbrake and brake fail warning liights etc.

Joel, you are full of information, it is almost scary!

How would I be cleaning the soot and the other shit out of the muffler? Glad it doesn't mean she'll blow up!

The choke is working perfectly fine, so I won't be panicking about this. I'll take her to GHR some day after work/school next week and see what they say about her engine though, just to make sure everything is working.

I'm thinking the cables don't work at all, the heaters aren't seem to be working and that is kind of disappoint. Might have to ask GHR as to how much it'd cost to fix, I remember seeing a receipt from the previous owner mentioning something about the heaters, may have to check exactly what it said...

Ah, thanks Joel, least I now know where there is a decent spot for where I want to mount a clock, maybe even a tachometer. I haven't seen much crazy stuff done with a padded dash, seems all the good mods are with metal ones. Only sweet mod I have seen is your own mod :P

I may have to take photos of the cracks in the dash. Not good at all, they're terrible and run all the way across the top near the windscreen.
Might keep the current carpet piece on it.

Once the stock wheels are on her and she's got the normal rear fenders on her, I might look at selling her and buying an older bug with a metal dash.
It is definitely a possibility...

I might keep her and grab another one anyway :P

Found the exact picture that I was looking at the other day when I decided I wanted to have stock hubcaps.

Can anyone tell me what I have to do to get the wheels below for my own?



Obviously mine would be painted gloss black. But want the white wall insert(?).

It's not easy to get early 6 volt bug wheels on to later bugs and you can make later wheels look very similar anyway with early hubcaps, some paint and whitewalls




Even late model wheels with stock hubcaps, white walls and chrome beauty rings doesn't look half bad