Introducing Bertie, my 1965 Beetle.

Got into air cooled a year ago, bought a Kombi, but never really got started on it, always felt I should have bought a beetle in the first place, so when I found this one on the forum for sale, sold the Kombi and bought this.

Yes it needs some work, don't they all, but felt the price was right.

What is needs is some good rust repair in the floor and left hand heater channel, and some paint (maybe), otherwise just general mechanical updates and I'm happy!

Only picked it up today, drove home a treat, although looks like a good oil leak from one of the valve covers. Will wash the engine and car tomorrow and go from there.....

Looks like a solid starting point. Now get stuck into it and post the progress!

Ok, day 1 and first surprise....and it may be a pleasant one....

Tried cleaning up the build plate under the spare wheel, from what I can see it is mainly blank, couldn't find a build year, and the chassis number seems to be blank..just some tyre pressures etc on the plate.

So go back to under the seat on the tunnel and clean that up and the first numbers are 195....does that mean I have a 1965 model??

On that, what dictates the build of a car with the bodies and chassis easily exchangable?? Should there be more information on my plate ( I still have to clean some more old paint off it)?

looks like a really nice project I think the rear spoiler could go though

Yeah that's coming off very shortly, meant to do it today, but got side tracked trying to find the chassis / build details..

Thats a nice bug dude , i'm a sucker for black rims as well. I'd just fix the major rust and drive that bad boy.

check out my thread called "chasis" and there is a link on there that will give you vin and dates.

Thanks Tar76, I looked at that link, but it didn't make any sense to me as there were no numbers starting with 195?

My chassis number is 195 211 900....can anyone help me with this please???

Also where on a 1600 do I find the engine number?

Thanks sander288 for providing this link http://www.clubvw.org.au/vwchassis 

Can confirm my 1967 Beetle I bought is now a 1965 model

Very nice start! Good stuff.

Great project you've got there

I hope so, very first beetle, so running blind, but loving it.

Enjoy,looks like a good start.

Nice, I like it! Looks like it's got plenty of potential

Thanks for all the compliments guys, I am very happy with it as a start...now the photo's you didn't want to see haha...

The front hatch area, which will get a general paint and tidy up..



The engine compartment..new fuel lines on the way for the first point of call!! Can anyone tell me why people block those tubes each side of the motor??



The worst of the rust I have found, which in my opinion isn't that bad, rest of the floor looks pretty good to me..

The interior....have new door cards already, although they probably won't get fitted for quite some time yet, will re-upholster the seats to match..



The back, the seat base is in the shed...I can see the side top mounts for seat belts, but where does the base mount too??

lots of hot soapy water, degreaser, tooth brushes, some new carpet, polish and some hub caps and she will look great! congrats on the purchase

"Can anyone tell me why people block those tubes each side of the motor??"

Those holes used to feed warm air via flexi hoses through the heater channels ont to your feet and up to demist the windscreen.

A poorly sealed engine, bay area and perished hoses can send exhaust fumes into the cabin, that is why they sometimes get blanked off ( if you look underneath kind of under the rear bench seat area you will probably find some old rags stuffed into the back of the heater channels.)

At least this engine has no holes in the crankcase

Dave

Invested in some new seat covers.....



Other new parts coming in the mail:

- fuel hose and filters.
- rocker cover gaskets.
- hood locking pin.
- car cover.

You will get the sack for that. lol

congrats on the buy ,,
looks like a good starting point .

any one know what the colour is called ? .
can see it more on / in the interior .

I would love to know the official colour code for repainting in the future....

looks the same as my first beetle colour .
but i never knew the colours name .

Hey bud I got mint condition chassis floor pan no rust 65 model if interested call baz Logan village 0417629025

Hey bud I got mint condition chassis floor pan no rust 65 model if interested call baz Logan village 0417629025

Looks like Beryl Green to me

Well after 14 months since I actually purchased this project, better late than never to start doing some work on it. Pulled out the old non VW stereo, pulled out the passenger and rear seats, underneath looks pretty good imo, only light surface rust mostly, heaps of carpet glue to remove though. That will keep me busy stripping it all back and getting some rust opinions...

Good to see you back into it!