This Olive, my 1974 Volkswagen Super Beetle L (or 1303 in europe) that I purchased in May 2010.











I'd wanted a VW Beetle as long as I can remember. I even worked at a VW workshop/wreckers part time during my last few years of school. But I never quite got around to getting one.

Around 2009 I started wanting one again. My son was over-induging in Herbie movies, and I think that did it.

But now that I have a young family, it needed to have decent boot space if it was to be a practical daily. 1971-1975 Super Beetles have a Macpherson Strut front end, which meant my daughter's pram would actually fit in the front boot. So that's what I went looking for.

I looked at quite a few ranging from overpriced wrecks to high priced very clean examples that were ready to go. But what I really wanted was a tidy one relatively cheap I could fix up and put on the road with minimal hassle.

This particular 74 Superbug popped up on eBay unreserved with a reasonable starting price. But it was two hours drive away and I certainly wasn't going to buy it without inspecting it first, so I let it slide. When nobody bid on it so I contacted the seller and arranged to inspect it.

The car had been sitting in a shed in the dry western part of the state for the last five years. It presented very well, with only a couple of small rust spots. Underneath was really clean and solid. The drivers side pan had been replaced and the welding was not exactly pretty but it seemed strong enough. Otherwise there was nothing to report, with just dull factory paint under the wings and all the usual rot spots were surprisingly pristine. Inside was not so good. The odometer had quit, the headliner was ripped, the carpets were well worn and the seats had a couple of splits. Other than a shimmy at 80km/h it drove nicely, with plenty of power for a 1600cc bug. Even the tyres were brand new, having been replaced with a view to putting it back on the road.

I really liked this one, but I wasn't completely set on it yet, so I went away and looked at a couple more Beetles. Those examples and the advice I received on here convinced me that this car was the best I would find for the money.

A deal was done and a mate Danny drove me back in his work ute the following weekend to collect it. I topped up the oil and splashed in ten litres of fresh fuel. With Danny following I began the drive home. Cruising at the legal 110km/h limit on the freeway was surprisingly not a problem.

Unfortunately the battery decided to die during the journey, requiring a jump start and a minor traffic jam in the main street of Woodend. Otherwise the trip home was uneventful.

The colour is "Martini Olive" so the family decided she will be called "Olive". It's an odd colour, it looks almost yellow in direct sunlight, but is definitely green any other time. I didn't like the colour much, but it's very period and has grown on me.

The day after I got her home I gave her a thorough inspection. The battery refused to hold a charge, so I replaced it. Left indicators that stopped working when I hit the brakes turned out to be nothing more than a dodgy earth to the tail light. The non-functioning washers worked again when I reconnected all the plumbing properly and pumped up the spare tyre that powers them. The numberplate light had a blown bulb and the rear brakes and handbrake needed work. Otherwise everything mechanical seemed fault-free. Inside it needed a few broken seat knobs etc replaced, but that's about it.

The next week I submitted Olive for an RWC and was completely speechless when she passed. RWC's are very harsh here and passing first try is virtually unheard of.

Despite the fresh certificate, I knew there were still some faults to be sorted. I replaced the handbrake cables and discovered that the rear brake hoses had collapsed internally and were mostly blocked. A new steering damper cured the shimmies and the carby needed a cleanout. The torn headlining was deemed unacceptable, so I splashed out and had a new one fitted along with new window rubbers.

Finally I took Olive to VicRoads for an identity inspection and she was issued with a set of new numberplates. Since then the anonymous plate XSO.801 has been replaced with my personal number BN.874 - my initials and birth month and year. Coincidentally Olive's birth month and year too!

I've had her on the dyno for a tune and she delivered a healthy 44hp at the wheels from her 1600cc's.

Olive's clutch started slipping back in June 2011. So I put her in the shed and took the MR2 out.

One problem with having multiple old cars is that there is no immediate need to fix the broken ones. Then they all break one by one and you end up with an insurmountable load of fixing.

Despite my best intentions, Olive hibernated for the best part of two months. Part of this was due to my son unexpectedly spending a week in hospital right when the clutch failed. I enjoyed fanging around in the MR2, so it made me a bit lazy too.

I removed the lump from the rump. The main seal at the back of the flywheel had gone, so I ordered a new clutch, new seal and various other gaskets that were oozing the black stuff. The fuel lines looked a bit iffy so I replaced them. Then the motor and engine bay was given a good cleanup.



The worst job was chipping away the copious quantities of expanding foam VW Australia inserted at the sides of the engine bay and up into the rear pillars. This rudimentary attempt at adding some extra sound deadening just promotes rust!



Copious quantities of mag wheel cleaner softened it and made the job a little easier. There was a bucketful of this crap in there.



The rust the foam has caused on Olive's rear pillar. I can't really complain, this is basically the only rust on the car.



The lump went back in with minimal swearing and Olive was back in daily service again. The only problem was I forgot VW's need petrol occasionally! The result was a 1km walk with a petrol can. :roll:

Cheers,
Brett.

Olive continued to provide sterling daily service.

The old Solex carb (appeared to be the original) was starting to get worn, with play in the throttle shaft causing an inconsistent idle. It ran okay when hot, but when cold I had a massive flat spot no matter how much I tried to adjust the choke. The final straw was when the needle and seat gave up and the carb began dripping fuel out the throttle shaft. Cleaning the needle and seat didn't help either.

I investigated rebuilding the old carb, but it was cheaper to buy a Chinese replica carb brand new. I bought one on eBay for under $150 Australian delivered to my door and it arrived in ten days. Apart from an extra vacuum port I didn't need it looked almost identical to the old carb and high quality. I fitted it and adjusted it and the car ran worse. I refitted the old carb and managed to extract a partial refund from the eBay seller.

I sourced a properly rebuilt Solex carb out of the USA and that went on. Ahh, much better.

Cheers,

In Nov 2011 Olive disgraced herself on the way home from work. As I pulled up to a roundabout, she spluttered and died, refusing to restart. A mob of angry drivers soon built up behind me before someone actually got out and helped me push her through the busy roundabout and off the road.

I had a quick poke around under the lid and I couldn't see anything obviously wrong. I called the RACV and they told me to expect a 40 minute wait.

I decided to have another poke around and discovered a wire with a broken end near the distributor. Then I found the terminal and matching length of wire still connected to the coil. The wire must have snagged on something and slowly fatigued before it finally snapped. I stripped the two broken ends with my teeth, twisted them together and wrapped them in electrical tape. Olive started up straight away, so I cancelled the breakdown call-out and drove the rest of the way home. A few days later I soldered a new length of wire on and fitted a new terminal. Good as new.

This is why I love driving an old car daily. It might be more likely to break, but if it does, it's more likely to get you home again.

Jan 2012 I use dthe excellent guide I found on this forum to replace the gearshift rod bush. I also replaced the rear gearshift coupler.

September that year I was driving to work and the gearshift felt a bit weird and rattly. I stopped at some lights and select first gear. There was "clang" from the centre tunnel and the gearstick went all floppy. Suddenly I could only select 1st and 2nd gears. I drove through the intersection and pulled over.

I had a fair idea that the problem was at the back where the gearshift rod in the centre tunnel met the gearbox. I pulled up the rear seat base and removed the access cover under the seat. The eight month old (cheap crappy non-genuine) gearshift linkage bush had broken. The two halves of the bush had fallen down into the tunnel somewhere I couldn't get them.

I cut the end off a pencil eraser to the approximate size and put a hole through it with a corkscrew. Then I jammed it into the linkage and held it in with a cable tie. The shift action was surprisingly quite good. I had all gears available again and it got me home no problems.



The eraser is the white bit covered in grease.

Cheers,

September 2013 and I had a bit of a hiccup with Olive. Beetle meets concrete pole. Pole wins.



I took it to a VW specialist for a quote on repairs and claimed on my insurance. Shannons coughed up for the damage without an issue. Brand new rear wing, rechromed s/h bumper, new tail lights and bumper brackets.

Then I decided that since the repairers had to match the paint it was worth getting the rust on the rear pillars and A panel attended to. As usual, it was much worse than it looked and the job snowballed. They found the rear pillars had been filled in the past and there was more rust in the roof gutters. It took months and I was getting a bot concerned about the size of the bill....

Cheers,

I told the repairer I needed Olive back by the beginning of December (2013) as I was going on a month's holiday over Christmas. Reasonable considering I dropped it off in September. I ended up getting her back the day I left - Dec 19th! :o



Still, she came back looking great. The body and paint is excellent. No more rust, new right rear wing, bumper brackets, and genuine tail lights . The rear bar is a re-chromed and straightened original as it's better quality than the new Brazillian and Mexican types.

I had a new exhaust fitted as the old one sounded terrible with a loose baffle. The "specialists" rushed the job and it hung too low. I was not happy. I took it back and they dorked around with it and didn't solve the problem.

Then the engine developed a noise. It sounded so bad I was sure the engine had a loose head. In desperation I took it to my usual exhaust bloke for a check up before pulling the engine. Fortunately he is quite experienced with classics generally and VW's in particular. He found it wasn't a loose head. The muppets who fitted the exhaust had stripped a stud and the exhaust was blowing badly where it meets the head. He replaced the stud and various gaskets, re-bent the exhaust and re-hung it. Now it sounds awesome and does not scrape going in the driveway.

So after months of using the MR2 as a daily, Olive was pressed back in daily service. The sporty exhaust has made her more enjoyable to drive, partly due to the extra power it freed up, but also I like the noise.

I had some time off last week and Olive was due some attention. The front strut inserts have been leaking for some months so they were in dire need of replacement.

After pulling the strut out on each side I found some of the factory applied seam sealer was cracked flaking away. Scraping it back revealed this. Nice clean bare metal. A put a coat of Killrust black paint over the bare bits.



I fitted two inch lowered springs to the struts. The back end had sunk a good deal over the years resulting in the car riding with a nose in the air attitude. The lowered springs were fitted to bring everything back to a decent level again. The idea here was not "slam it".



This is the result. The actual drop was about 1-1.5 inches. It does not look lowered, which is what I wanted.





After a wheel alignment Olive is now handling very nicely. The ride over the moonscape backroads around here has improved a lot too.

I am still considering wheel options for the next little personal touch. Not that there seems to be much choice for an L Bug.

Cheers,

What a great story. Loved the photos. It looks like you've got a really nice car there, hang on to it. Rob.
P.S. I like the stance, not too low.

great read

Bet the young fella loves it

Thanks guys.

Yes, my son loves the car. He is quite a bit bigger now, almost eight. He has Beetles and Kombis on the wall of his bedroom. He likes working with me in the shed, recently helping me rebuild my Moke gearbox.

I still drive Olive daily, but sometimes I get annoyed when people don't respect the "old bomb" in carparks.

Regardless if she comes off daily duties eventually, I have no plans to sell.

Great read, thanks mate!
Nice ride height too.

Good read...filled in some time tonight at work..

Good story. I know what you mean about the 'babyshit green' Martini Olive colour. My 75 L bug is that colour, and it was the only thing I didn't like about the car when I bought it in 1988 as the 3rd owner. I reckoned that I would have it re-sprayed another colour one day. The colour has grown on me a lot since then, and I have had it re-sprayed twice now, and kept the colour. It always seems to look good, and doesn't show the dirt. :-)

I love the colour now and would not change it. It adds to the character of the car. Most people either love it or hate it. It seems there is no in-between.

There is a few bugs in my area that I know of. Ironically one of them is a Martini Olive L bug as well. It has Globe alloys on it and a girl drives it. We give each other a wave when we pass.