Hey all, ive had the car for a month now and figured i may as-well start a build thread where i can record a log of what ive been doing aswell as ask questions and the like. this is my first VW, and car rebuild. ive mucked around with Honda's and i weld and turn bolts for a living so im fairly confident im my ability's but im still quite a rookie.

I saw a square when i was riding my bike and it immediately caught my attention. not knowing what it was (aside from a aicooled vw) and that it was quite a suitable vehicle, a 2 door and plenty of room in the back appealed to me.


My old boss owned a few kombis and had brought a nice splitty only a few months before i left, as only a youngin an not knowing much about these "hippy vans" i thought they were pretty cool. certainly had style being low and slow opposed to these bloody racecar Honda's.


After looking for a bus for some time and being put off by price and condition of those in my budget(even though i wasin't afraid of a bit of rust), and after spotting the square whilst riding, my sights changed and i started to research these "uncommon" ACVW's. it wasin't long after that i spotted one on the forums for what seemed to be quite a good price and i snapped it up.


Ive been recording my progress as journal entries, although not as many photos as i would like i have taken some.



My plans have changed somewhat but will pretty much be a full resto. not original, she may receive a scooby engine one day and i will be throwing in a few creature comforts, but it will be a "proper" build.

So please come say hi, offer some advice or suggestions or just enjoy the build. =)

Ive been keeping a diary of what ive been doing, this is where im up to.

i guess i can start posting my updates here now.


sorry about the huge pics, better then none or some small ones with crap quality?



73 vw type 3 squareback

sun 1/6/14
drove up and looked at the car, took it for a quick spin and contemplated the project. negotiated with the owner and purchased the car.
the previous owner had brought a car that had been rear ended as a donor car, just about everything, 3 out of 4 fenders minus the front/rear suspension/motor/box and a few other bit and pieces were included.

sat 7/06/14
hired a trailer to pick up the car from up the sunshine coast. it was my first time driving with a trailer on for a significant distance,
drive both ways was good until car died 1km from home, sorry dad :/ managed to get it started and babied her home and just managed to get the trailer back. the doors and some small parts fit in the car on the trailer .
that afternoon i performed a compression test 99- 103-103-106 psi starts and runs but rich and a few pops and backfires, gearbox selects all gears.
initial plan was to bring up to scratch and get a rwc, register and then full rebuild, less hassle later on. but pulling it half apart, putting it back together only to strip it down again seems like quite a waste for the benefit gained.
straight up rebuild/resto without rego on the cards. went back up on sunday and picked up some more parts, fenders ect.



fri 13/06/14
got stuck into the car after work throughout the week, pulled front hubs/brakes pistons seem seized and seals are long gone.
removed front fenders and 40yrs of built up dirt and road grime, spotted evidence of (what i thought was) front end repair.
removed rear fenders and front seats carpet ect. removed fuel tank and gave beam a good gurney, still caked in layers of dirt infused grease.

sat 14/06/14
removed doors and all remaining interior minus dash and all glass, broke the windscreen, spewwing.
started at the corner and broke almost immediately, lesson learnt start from the top in the middle almost fell out when i pushed there!!. flat side windows came out nicely when starting at the corner.
removed engine almost unexpectedly and unbolted body from chassis

mon 16/06/14
big night saturday, slept and spent all of sunday in my room. shame really as was ment to be a nice day after a rainy saturday.
cleaned up mess from weekend and measured body mounting points to be quite close to 900mm, the length of most trestles.
height should also be good, aprox 3-400mm above current ride height.

wed 25/06/14
lots of progress.
on friday i built a rear stand out of hardwood fence posts and a sleeper along with some brackets. i strengthened up a old sawhorse for the front.
went out on friday night, was pretty quiet. gotta stop doing this, saturday and $$ wasted.

sunday we lifted the body onto the stands, got a few mates around to help out. micko gave some good guideance as to planning the build.
scraped off the tarboard, little bit of rust in the pan. its pretty good compared to some others ive seen photos of.
brought a 8mm splinedrive bit from mick motors. unbolted front beam from chassis, dropped gearbox and rear suspension.

have come to the conclusion that i have four pieces, the front beam, rear subframe, chassis and body that all need to be fixed repaired ect up to the stage that they are painted and finished
(bar the body/shells topcoat. just needs to be bare and in primer) before they can all be assembled. once assembled then i have a rolling shell that is taking up less space and i can focus on the fitout.
no point wasting time on the little things until later.





thurs 26/06
stripped the rear axle, breaks bearings shocks ect, haven't opened it up though.
fag bearings/blue vw seals on the right and taiwanese on the left

fri 27/06
stopped by custom vee dub for a chat, they seemed quite confident in my ability to do all the work myself.
i had considered getting a mechanic to rebuild the front/rear suspension.
stripped dash and roof lining from body, rear view mirror and boot catch pin, all that's left on the body




tues 1/07/14

on monday i stripped the chassis, only have the fuel hardline left
hit the body with coating thickness gauge, didin't find any bog that i didint know was there although quite a useful tool to do so with. great if you were buying a restored car.
A wire wheel on the grinder worked well for paint removal and left the metal alone.
flap disk loaded with paint and ground metal, spongy wheel was less aggressive to the metal and removed paint well but still need a light touch or it will grind metal. wire wheel seems like the go.
brass brazing found in all 4 boot corners, roof off maybe??





sun 6/07/14

went up the coast yesterday and cut out the rust replacement sections from the donor.
cut plenty extra for patch material. also brought back the seats, bonnet and front bumper along with a few other bits and pieces out of the shell.
thats the last of it.
pulled the steering and hubs off the front beam during the week, it is now in the same boat as the rear suspension.
just realized its been 1 month tomorow.
looking at the donor body, it seems as the suspect brazing and welds are also present. must be factory and not a repair. quite a relief.

Hey nice work! what state are you doing all this in?

*Thanks. im in QLD. i must check out some vw clubs. it would be good to meet some local type 3 enthusiasts.

found almost a inch thick shard of bog along the side here, had lots of rusty scale underneath.




and here's the replacement section i cut out of the donor





rear windowsills replacement section









i drilled out the spot welds on the reinforcement piece to get to the rusted section behind






i also drilled out the welds and cut through the brazing on the rear skirt section to gain access to the air plennum.

might be a bit of a pain to weld back in but makes prep and painting in there possible.









the roof at the rear






a few little holes where the fenders bolt up





the "normal areas"...




someone brazed up a few holes from brake fluid.







all in all it isint too bad rust wize. the rear window is about the worst of it, and a little in the front that i didint take any photos of. there's also a hole under the battery,
and a bit of scale on the lower sections of the pans. she must have been fairly well looked after. i only have a tig welder so my patch fitups will have to be spot on, a mig would be nice addition to the shed but i cannot afford 2 bottles of gas.
i grabbed some silicon bronze filler and will be having a play with that throughout the week, not sure if i will use it for the repairs or not but its something to have a muck around with.
i will be taking it back to bare metal and painting with zinc phosphate 2k epoxy primer and a 2k urethane topcoat.

looks good mate! I have to ask tho.. what conditon is the donor in? the sections you have cut out of it look great! whats so wrong with it to become the donor? or am i missing something it this being done purely because you want to restore the original shell and pan to keep it numbers matching?

the donor was rear ended, and it has a bit of rust here and there, more then this one. previous owner brought the whole car and parted out suspension and drivetrain. he didint have the time to restore this car as planned so sold both the car and donor together.
i cut out all the pieces i need + some, as i dont have the room for a second shell. couldn't care much about keeping it original. i read through your thread properly last night. looks good, wish i had a mig :P
one thing i noticed was the bonnet springs were torsion in yours but coil in both of mine? might have something to do with differences like the fuel filler hole ect.

mine is more similar to a 1968 - 1970 type 3. My parts car is a 73 like yours and there are lots of subtle differences between them the bulkhead doesnt have the big lump in it yours has hence the torsion system and it doesnt have to accommodate the fan to draw air into the cabin. the rest of the differences is mechanical gearing and the AS21 cases with the later injected engines.
if you were in the same state i would let you use my mig. if you need any more parts let me know i'm about done with my parts car. Looking forward to your build good luck!

interesting stuff. it should give me more room to cram stuff under the dash. thanks im sure i will manage fine with the tig. im all good for donor parts, there's heaps here that i dont even think i will use.
i only really need to source new rubbers, bearings and bushes. what state are you in? hope to see that turbo 1900cc running soon. decided on a color?

Very nice! im looking forward to the photos of the welds! Im just about to purchase all my seals $1800 inc shipping from ISP its pricey!
Well i was going to make a turbo motor but i now have a set of gene berg carbs.. I don't think ill run the risk of blowing up a turbo and having the impeller destroying them too!
They are not available any more, ill upload a picture of them on my build later today. anyway it will still be a bit special, there wont be many type 3 1914 motors in australia with berg carbs.
I think im going for a light green its the original color for the car, maybe a white roof? I was also thinking of pairing it with a white type 3 decal down the side.

ouch! i think ill think about trim later :P keep myself distracted with bodywork.
The little ive read about vw's. gene berg seems to make/made? some nice race engine parts. nice find. color scheme sounds great. im still quite undecided on a color/look to achieve, but regardless, its going to be rust free and covered in epoxy. not sure weather to learn to do it myself in acrylic or get it done properly in urethane.


finished welding in the patches on the driver side this arvo. did the small one yesterday and the big one today.

didint take much to set the machine up for the thin metal. (ended up with 27amps longish ramp up and a faster taper off 10lpm gas lenze no7 1.6mm tungsten, 10ish mm tungsten protruding from the shroud)








tried the magnet thing. didint work to well for me. only really well enough for a photo op.









i found it quite usefull move around the patch tacking and using a hammer to get the fitup right.
a few gaps but not bad for my first panelwork. some of it i was able to fuse without filler. great penetration all the way round.








i used the silicon bronze filler up where it met with the original brazing. i could pull the torch away and spread the heat out to let them melt together. worked quite well.






still needs some dolly work but im quite happy with the result. takes alot of time but i think its worth it. i should only need to grind the bead where its going to be seen on the outside of the finished car.

wow i need to start using my tig! Looking really nice! I didnt know cars or anything was painted in polyurethane, ill have to look into it now! Cheers.

picked up a new compressor today, 3 cyl so its nice an quiet and can run my air tools on properly. a nice upgrade from the noisy as buggery direct drive.
the old man sourced a bristle blaster for paint removal duties. should be interesting how it comes out, might need to invest/build in a small sand/soda blaster for those tight, hard to reach places.

every tool has its place, i really like tig for its versatility and neatness.

it feels like it never stops, theres ALOT of work in restoring old cars. spent all day repairing one area.
been researching parts from isp and thinking about interior, leather bmw coupe seats?? will have to do some measurements but i think they will suit nicely.


edit* not sure if these pics are working will suss it out tomorow


two patches i made throughout the week

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/p2ykIVR.jpg?1[/IMG]

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/S94eorz.jpg?1[/IMG]



the area i repaired today

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/XaBKbwp.jpg?1[/IMG]


its where 4 separate sheets meet up


[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/hPkaAzR.jpg?1[/IMG]


[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/7hTPn96.jpg?1[/IMG]


[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/jKuc9O2.jpg?1[/IMG]


[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/arNF1bd.jpg?1[/IMG]


[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/GTggR9M.jpg?1[/IMG]


this weeks tasks, and i might start looking at that rear window sill

[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/oGu6rQv.jpg?1[/IMG]


[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/L3FU4kH.jpg?1[/IMG]

no they are not coming up. but you can copy and paste them to see them in imgur. looks great nice work!

Great to see the old girl get the love she needs.
Good work.
Still got the left overs sitting in the yard.