Hi everyone,
I'm proud to announce that I finally became the owner of an Orange 1970 VW Type 3 Fastback! Exactly what I had bee searching for this year This is essentially my first car, although I did share a 1974 L Beetle with my sister when I was learning how to drive.
Anyways, I thought I'd fill you all in on the new car.


Back Story:
So I found this car several months ago on the internet. Then it disappeared and eventually I decided to scout around for info on it and finally found the ad again. I tried to contact the owner, and after much persistence I finally got through. The car was located in Victoria near Phillip Island and had been off the road for around 20 years. The car was re-sprayed a metallic, pearly orange colour with a matte clear-coat. Apart from the paint, which I liked, the interior was very original - which was also an awesome plus! A few weeks later I bought the car sight-unseen (Although I did have a VW specialist from Veeland, Wonthaggi, inspect it for me and eventually service it too) and had it transported up to Sydney. When it arrived, I must say I was suprised by the amount of room in a Type 3!

I then had to get ready to register it, and passing the roadworthy blue slipo required me to fix a few things including some electrical issues - horn, indicators, and installed reverse lights. New seatbelts were installed, and the engine is now running great after a bit of a tune up.


Interior:
The interior needs a bit of a tidy up, especially the headliner which is stained a lot around the edges and has one tear.
Door panels are original and pretty reasonable. The seats clened up well with some 'Kitten' upholtery cleaning foam and scrubbing with a toothbrush. Dash is a little cracked. I'm yet to install pop-out window seals, and looking forward to being able to use them. I NEED to install a sound system too. I've got the carpets ready to install, but am just in the process of rustproofing a section of the floorpan which had been missed by the previous owner.

Exterior:
Paint is in pretty good condition, but I have to fix up some minor rust bubbles on one of the guards. Running 14" hotwires which I'm hoping to paint a custom colour soon - I've already begun stripping the wheel arches, and polishing them up, then hoping to re-spray the 'wires'.

Engine:
Don't know particulary much about engines, but the engine seems pretty original with the original exhaust. Runs nicely and has that nice putting vw sound Not a showpiece though with there being a bit of surface rust on it.


Pictures to come soon!

Here's some more pic's from when I bought it:

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Cleaned up the original windscreen wipers - RHS is before, LHS is after.

Cleaning the seats with 'Kitten' foam vinyl cleaner. Passenger seat has been cleaned in the photo, but was almost as dirty as the driver's seat before. A big improvement!

So the ad said the car was rustproofed with POR15. However, a section of the floorpan hadn't been - supposedly because the soundproofing board was too hard to remove without damaging it. I managed to remove the soundproofing boards from the floor, and while the passenger side was quite pleasing with virtually no rust (just a few spots of surface rust), the driver's side shocked me a little when I lifted it up. There's a lot of surface rust and several small holes - each around the size of 5 cent coins.

What would people recommend doing in this situation - welding a new floorpan section in or using some kind of metal bog? Suggestions?

Fasty's are awesome and way under-rated by most of the VW community, including Type 3 guys. Good choice, they make great daily drivers.

A lot of them rust around the pedals on the pan because of the vents, which often leak water & soak the carpet. I'd try to find a late type 3 that's being wrecked, & cut out a good rust free piece of pan to do a nice cut & butt weld in. It's not really extensive enough to replace with a whole pan half. Check under the battery tray as well. They're usually rusted or poorly repaired there as well.

yeah I reckon too. Fastys are awesome.

my fav is notch obviously and closely followed by fasty. Not a fan of squares. I had one as my first ever car, I do not regret selling it.

Thanks for the advice on the rust DOKA Dave, I'll probably try getting a new pan section welded in as you suggested. Anyone on here know someone who might be wrecking a type 3 or who has a rust free floor pan in Sydney?

Yeah. Love the Fastys, don't fully know why, there's just something about them.

you can guy new pans for type 3.

Hey vlad01, do you know who sells the new pans?
Cheers

The rust holes look very localized. Not like the whole section is thin and gonna fall out but the pic is kinda hard to tell.
If it's real solid except for those couple of holes why not get someone to weld the holes up if the surrounding metal has a bit of strength. You obviously have to drill them out larger but at some point it becomes easier to just weld in a patch panel.
A little pitting is ok once you clean it up and treat it. Just make sure you check the drain tubes from the fresh air boxes aren't blocked. They are rubber tubes about 1" diameter. If the fresh air box doesn't fill up with water it's less likely to leak.

Here's a closer picture of the rust holes. The metal everywhere around the holes seems quite strong - but I have never really dealt with a rusty floorpan before so I don't fully know.

Thanks eXraycer, didn't know about the drain tubes but I will certainly look into that this weekend as water sometimes leaks in under the dash when washing the car. I'll consider welding the holes over if that's a reasonable option.

Yeah on second thoughts, looking at that you might get very frustrated trying to fill those because they're pretty big especially once you grind the edge of the holes back to clean metal . Do yourself a favour and spend a little time trying to source a patch panel cut from a wreck. You might get lucky and find something with no rust in that area. The repair will be a lot more straight forward. I had about 6 smaller holes in my pan that ranged from pin holes to 10mm. I also replaced half the battery tray. About 150x100mm. It's very common. I blew through the pan more than once whilst welding.
Welding over pitted metal is really hard and not recommended. Blows holes real easy. Those three holes on the right look easy to fill but some of those on the left will burn like newspaper.

If you can find a patch consider replacing that front half of your drivers side pan. Cut the existing one out leaving about 20mm around the perimeter to but up to and weld. That way you don't have to weld over any of those stamped patterns.
If you're not concerned with looks you can overlap the patch panel and sit it on the perimeter lip you left and spot weld the perimeter to make it happen quicker but then you need to seam seal really well.

Ok, thanks eXraycer. Sounds like welding in a rust free pan section is the go. If anyone knows of any about or any cars being wrecked with a suitable rust-free pan section, it would be great to hear from you.

Cheers

http://dasrestoparts.com.au/repair-panels-and-sheet-metal/type-3-repair-panel...


there we go.

I bought mine from a kombi parts supplier from Canberra about 5 years ago, for the life of me i can't find anything on google related to VW parts and Canberra. Who ever they were, they were Oz only Klassic fab panel stockists and importers. Even can't find on google klassic fab suppliers in oz other than das restro. Looks like das restro are now the klassic fab stockists.

Anyone know who the kombi/vw supplier was in Canberra and if they even exist anymore?

Thanks vlad01 - I think my best option will be to find a second hand panel off a wrecked type 3, but still good to know the different options available.

The colour is a 'root beer' inspired by gasser rods of the 70s. This car has been around for a couple of years for sale - glad it went to a good home.

Thanks Fastie. Didn't know of the gasser rods inspiration, but glad you mentioned it as it's interesting to know... The colour seems to change quite a bit over a day: the higher the sun is the more coppery the colour seems, but when the sun nears closer to the horizon the colour can really be quite orange.

Here's a pic from last week.
Registered and on the road. Slowly coming together.

Having some fun with the wheels while I wait for parts to arrive

Does anyone know if they ever originally made highback front seats in ivory/off-white? I've been looking to replace the lowback's for a while but with no success. Are there any out there?

Thanks

So there's been a little bit of progress lately:
- New whitewall tyres fitted.
- Hotwire rims are being painted red (only two are done so far - but I think they look really cool already!)
- Wheels realigned after levelling out the suspension (left hand front of the car was sitting a little higher than the rest of the car).

More to come in a couple of weeks.

Just did some light-painting photography with it last night, so here's something fun!

Another shot a bit truer to it's colours at night

Cool Pfeffernus! Sorry for such a late reply!
I'm still trying to source a second hand front drivers side floorpan section.
Anyone know of any Type 3s wrecking around Sydney?

In the meantime, I've now got a pair of highback seats for the front! I've been testing how they fit and am ready to paint the bases and reupholster them (in ivory white) as soon as my holidays come around in a couple of weeks.