Okay so ive been meaning to start this thing for a while! Im doing my first build, a 68 beetle. My ideas are constantly evolving but im pretty set on a relatively standard style car, just lowered a bit and with a few little mods.

I purchased the car about a year ago as an acid dipped and etch primed body and a fully painted pan, and used my old daily as a donor (body was far too much work) which has a 1600tp and solid gearbox.

I then did bit and pieces to the pan, whilst working stupid hours and saving for paint and body, which has recently been completed by Dave Short at Kombi Kapers in East Maitland- top bloke and a great job for the price


this is the car how i purchased it in etch prime



this is how it looks a couple of weeks ago! done in Azure Blue aka the worst colour to photograph as it always looks different



this is probably closer to how the colour actually looks



here is my engine. bit different at the moment, now has a CSP bell crank linkage and a vintage speed exhaust- will update the photo very soon. carburettors are dellorto drla40s set up as per an article in volksworld a while ago. not sure how they will go, but im gonna give them a good try.


plans at the moment is to get the guards and everything bolted up, run some wiring, adjust the ride height by fitting my new cb spindles and lowering the back a notch.


just thought i would share my car, as im sure in the coming months i will run into many issues and you guys have already helped me out heaps. such a good place to go for info!

EXCELLENT JOB..

GREAT CAR AND A DIFFERENT COLOUR...

Engine looks great too...

Congratulations....

its a BIG job still ahead of You...

well worth it once its all done...

cheers

LEE

Nice - love the colour!

Glad to see you ditched the hex bar for the CSP

Yeah Azure Blue is my fav vw colour Lee, I think it's a 52 beetle colour?

Yeah CSP make some serious quality stuff huh! I would love to buy there whole catalogue and fit it to my car but it just doesn't fit the budget haha

Okay so I snapped a couple of shots of the engine today with the Vintage speed exhaust and the CSP linkage fitted. I got the IDF style from vw heritage and it fitted perfectly onto my DRLAs so that's a win!

Looking good. Will like to see it when you get it all together.

Ay dont suppose you wanna part with the hex bar linkage and air cleaner bases and tops? Need the alloy type like pictured in first engine pic for porsche fan conversion.

Empi, how much are they worth? I would have to get enough to replace them with the other style..

Got a few hours on the car today, finished fitting up guards, still need to play with the beading a bit but.

Hoping to spend the coming Saturday running a heap of wiring with a mate, will post more then

Good job Mickya, it looks great.
I've also done all this on a -68, but mine looks quite different from yours.

What was the reason for getting rid of the Original Carb linkage? 2nd one that you have fitted does look neat

I guess I just thought these ones looked a lot cleaner and I had heard good things about them. Apparently hold their sync alot better too!

like the colour! looking forward to seeing that motor slotted in.

Been a while! Have had to move the location of the build, so that was a pain. But ive caught on again and have been spending alot of time at my dads where it now resides. Hopefully the next time it moves will be under its own steam to get a blue slip!

Still going on with the wiring, but there is less and less free wires so thats a good sign! Also got around to putting the car up on stands and doing all the pan bolts! Ive all but completely connected the brake too, however Boris told me half a meter of the blue hose would be enough, that is not the case, so i will have to call him again! Also got my new steering wheel and indicator switch in, looks the goods and feels very nice!

Ive run into a bit of trouble in regards to my passenger door. One of the hinges is frozen, ive tried wd40 and punches and what not but the thing is stuck. Im think maybe drilling it out and finding a new pin?






I will hopefully be taking my engine out to stick on my mates dads shooting buggy soon as well, much easier to tune in the Dells and get everything sorted before i put it in the confined Beetle engine bay! However im resisting temptation to get Rod Penrose to build me something, however i might just wait till after rego (hopefully by summer if all goes to plan!)

Looks great.

You might find your missing some of the steel pipes for the remote res. 1/2 a meter should be plenty

Mat, i had four pipes? Maybe i got "repro'd" and theyre significantly shorter? ill take a photo this week...

Four's good, maybe just short at one end

yeah, its a pain. Only thing stopping me from have the brakes ready to be bled!

How do you reckon I attack the removal of this door hinge pin? Is there a tool, or should i just drill it out and get a new pin?

I've done probably a dozen or so but back in the 90's using hammers and drifts, always difficult, definately pre-paint. Any tool is going to at least damage the paint on the actual hinge body. There is a VW tool that someone has, Maybe Club VW Sydney? That's the way I'd recommend. New or oversize pins available. Try Vintage

Okay, so big progress! Got the frozen hinge moving, decided id try a bit of impact velocity and use of levers, and eventually got it moving the slightest. Kept at it and now its moving quite nicely! Also stripped and primed my wheels in todays amazing weather! Hopefully finish the wheels and get the door on tomoro! Will post some pics then

Anyone know where I can get an outer frame for a vent window? Like the black one in the picture below. Posted a ad in parts a little while ago, but no help was found..

OKay so wheels were somewhat of a success. Only thing is the beauty rings fit like rubbish. Really loose...

looking great my first car was a 67 beetle and we painted it almost identically. I am interest on how you like the vintage exhaust i am considering one for my engine build

Paul, hopefully get the engine running next weekend, I'll get a video and upload hopefully

Okay, so after a solid year of basically zero work, I have a new place and finally have my car with me. The shed sucks but the cold winter nights will soon turn into summer days and hopefully my beetle will be rolling.

Been working on the wiring, which im still struggling with, but im definately making progress.

Discovered this today though, my emergency light switch is too small for the hole in the dash. Anyone have any ideas what the p/o has done here? Is there a switch that will fit nicely?

Hi

I would say some one has fitted a cigarette lighter plug there..
lots of different types..

I would put another one back there and put the emergency switch on the other side of the ash tray...

Did You make the radio slot larger to fit the standard DIN Radio CD player?

Those aren't beauty rings they are chrome inserts, and the originals [I had back in the late 60s] used to chew into the rim and take the paint off at the same time... and were very difficult to get off.. lol

You may have to bend all the bits so they will bite into the wheel rim and take all the paint off...

LEE

That's a pretty good idea Lee. It will be super handy, as long as I can make it look half decent.

Make sure you buy a quality cigarette lighter though if you go this way. Or get an alloy washer turned down to suit the problem hole and the flasher too... It would be a bit of stuffing around but could look very neat and nearly factory