First I'll go over some stuff about the car... it's a 1968.. was originally dark red I think. It has 3" wider rear fenders and 2" wider early style front fenders from Innovations. I also got the wider running boards with it but they mount up funny so they're not installed yet. The front beam is adjustable. The front clip, rear clip, front quarters, rear quarters, heater channels, floor pans and frame head base were all replaced along with lots of other misc. patching. The heater channels are the econo kind with no duct tubing in them and the driver's side has already started to rot from the inside. I got one set of low-back seats which work in the seat tacks, one set of high-back seats that don't work in the seat tracks, and one misc. high back-seat that does work in the seat tracks. The stock wheels/tires look funny with the super wide rear fenders. It's something that will have to stay for a while until I can find and fund a pair of wheels (8" wide I guess)
(7-11-02)
It needs a thousand details and some corrosion control. The paint is Dupont, it's a "appliance white" type color. I needed to gather a bunch of engine tin (front tin, doghouse tin, and the tin that goes under the engine) and I took that and the other tin I had and bead-blasted it and primered/painted it. I also bead blasted the intake manifold pieces and the generator stand/oil fill and painted those with some BBQ black. I adjusted the valves and installed an aluminum "santana" degree crankshaft pulley. I spent some time sorting out the wiring under the dash. Still have a problem with the wiper motor, it doesn't "park" and the fuse blows when you ground the switch. I am going to order a new headlight trim ring to replave the rusty one and the headlight bucket seals since they are missing along with a bunch of other misc. stuff from rocky mountain motorworks that I need to finish assembling the engine and hopefully have it back on the road shortly after the stuff comes in.
(7-15-02)
Installed my fuel pump block-off plate since the car has an electric fuel pump on it. turned into a several hour job because the lower portion of the bakelite/whatever fuel pump pushrod guide broke off down in the block, had to create a slide-hammer puller type thing to get it out, and then washed all the bits out of the bottom of the engine and decided to thoroughly clean the bottom of the sump area out, found out that the pickup tube nut had come off of the stud and spent even more time reinstalling that with some locktite, and contunied to flush the engine out with some solvent, then with a couple quarts of 0-40wt Mobil 1.
I spent some time looking at and thinking about the wiper motor wiring, and pulled out the chiltons I have b/c my other manuals are at work. As I studied the flasher switch (two wire) wasn't anything like the one shown in the '68 diagram, as my friend Mike had pointed out. Then I took a look at the wiper wiring colors, and the colors of two wires didn't match up with the '68 model diagram I had. I looked through the manual to find a version with only two wires on the flasher switch and it was all there on the '67 model page, so it looks like the thing has '67 model wiring. Also attached the voltage-regulator but didn't hook it up, ATM it's wired for an alternator.
(9-4-02)
Allright... lots has happened since I last wrote on here. So I finally gathered up all the parts to put the engine all together and running in the car, get it running and it has a rod knock in it. "Good, turn-key but disassembled engine" ended up missing a bunch of parts and had a spun rod bearing, oil light on, smoking... go figure. So I took the engine back out and all apart and found that the missing oil pickup tube nut had caused the puckup to get pushed up a little bit when fitting the oil strainer once and had a hole worn in it where one of the cam lobes was hitting it, thus the cause of the spun rod bearing. My frind Mike brazed the hole and had good stock crank and rod set I could use, I already had all the bearings for when I as going to build the souped-up engine, and I had to buy new piston rings and an oil pump. All the clyinders honed out nicely, and I had to reinstall a couple of the head studs in the block. Today I have the block all together, waiting on the piston rings to arrive to finish with the top end and put the engine back in. I opted to install the Scat C35 cam with new lifters to make life a little more intersting. It should turn out to be a pretty nice engine. the heads were reman units that are in nice shape. Sorted out the wiring on the wipers, even got them to park. Had to repair the park contact in the motor assembly but it should work for a while now. Need to get the engine back together and wire up the voltage regulator, should be good to go... assuming the transmission is good. I haven't actually driven the car yet, it hasn't left the garage except a couple times to wash it/work in the daylight.
(9-23-02)
Got the engine all rebuilt and installed, made sure the valves were set right and the timing was correct after having it idle for a bit. (it does idle with the c35 cam, around 1000 rpm) I finally drove the beetle around this weekend, about 4 times around the block. I didn't have a fuel filter on it so it stated to stall out with some junk in the carb, but it is able to keep up with the engine speed and load. It runs strong (should, rebuilt and all) and has a good power curve with the trick cam. I also hooked up the voltage regulator so it's not just running off of the battery. Need to pickup some axle boots to keep the tranny oil from all leaking out and I should be all set to register it and drive it.
(9-24-02)
Installed the axle boots last night, forgot the tool to remove the trans plug to fill it up. Also picked up some wire termials to hook up the voltage regulator a bit better. Got a fuel filter, didn't have time to install it or pull the carb to clean it out yet. LR tire looks like it has a slow leak, getting soft.
(10-14-02)
I have filled the gear oil, took the car to work, couldn't get it to run right using the stock carb, too restrictive... ended up purchasing a holley bugspray off ebay, rebuilt it, including glass-bead blasting the throttle plate housing and intake manifold and painting it up all nice, got it installed and adjusted. The car runs pretty nice now, fast idle is a bit on the fast side (like 2500rpm) because just a little bit of throttle movement translates into massive engine speed changes. It idles great when it's warm and transitions from WOT high rpms to idle without stalling, but it has a bit of a dead spot on acceleration, probably a combination of the 009 flat spot, lower rpms (not "on" the cam) and maybe the carb too. Now I need to plumb the heater ducting and register it.
(10-27-02)
So it's registered and on the road. I tried out some drill #54 jets and they were too rich, took the original jets which were #56 and made them #55 and it seems to be a happy medium, not too rich and no hesitation. I ran all the heat with carb pre-heater pipe. From the shroud to the heater boxes and from the boxes to the body ducts and out of the body ducts under where the rear seat should be, pointing aimlessly around the rear of the car. I taped it all with aluminum HVAC tape which seems to work well even in the hottest areas right next to the exhaust ports where the pipes connect to the heater boxes. The heater valves are wired open because the car didn't have any of the control levers with it, so I unroll the drivers window (or both, in traffic) to control how hot it is, and believe me, it doesn't take long to cook you out of the car with the windows up on a 50 degree day. I have yet to test it on colder days, which I'm sure won't be a problem but it's october 27th and it was around 65 out today, I'm not complaining. Today I also adjusted the brake shoes. When I first got the car the master cylinder pushrod was way out of adjustment and I adjusted it before driving the car, and I noticed the car had a pull to the left while braking and that the brake pedal travel was pretty far after the pushrod contacted the master cylinder, and it wasn't spongy at all so I decided the slave clyinders were having to move too far to seat the shoes, which was correct. I found that the rears were badly out of adjustment, and I elimintated almost all of the brake pedal free travel. I'm finding that I have to fiddle with the choke and idle on the carb just about every day to keep it where I like it. I think the lock nut may not be tight enough and it backs off as I drive, not really sure or worried about it. It's pretty noisy inside the car, today I redid the noise-reduction in the back of the car starting with a layer of carpet padding over the transmission area and on the firewall area, then a fleece blanket, a thick knit blanket, topped off with my mexican-woven looking blanket all tucked in nice and neat, and it's a lot quieter now than with just two blankets. I also added some extra capreting to the left rear floorpan area and some felt sound insulation to the right rear floorpan area. Performance from the engine is acceptable, but not suprising. For a 1600, it holds it's own. As long as I am in the power range of the cam I have maintained speeds up all hill grades I've come across in the couple days of driving it, in 4th gear the rpm range is around 60 or 65mph, so if I'm in a 40-55 Zone I have to stay in third, and maintain whatever speed doesn't seem like too high an rpm. (no tachometer yet)
(11-12-02)
Okay... done quite a bit to it since the last log. I replaced both the left front wheel bearings, the outter one was cooked. I also repacked the right side, they were okay. Both seals needed to be replaced. Previous owner had set bearings too loose. I replaced both of the rear wheel bearings. The inner races were REALLY on the axles and I ended up having to cut the outter race off in pieces, remove the balls, and attach a holding device to the inner race and pull it off with a puller, and even then it was hard to remove. My friend Mike showed me how to do it with the left side, and I did the right side. I also readjusted all the brakes (and I had to bleed the system since I had the backing plates off the car) and it stops pretty nice now. I also road force balanced all the tires too see where they were at, I have one of them that is a bit out of round and I think it is giving me a bit of noise/vibration at certain speeds. I have driven the car about 1200 miles so far. I am going to do another oil change pretty soon. I had to reinstall the glass-pack on the extractor last night because it was leaking, I turned it to a diffrent position and tightened the 3 flange bolts well, and it stopped leaking. For a while it was really loud to drive around in. The heat still works okay, been a bit warm lately though. The fastest I have had it is around 82mph, maybe like 4000 rpm. I am having some problems with the carb freezing when it is below 35 out but I have a couple plans to impliment, mainly taking a pre-heater pipe off of some of the heated engine cooling air and plumbing it up to the air cleaner to keep the intake warm. This morning I got up an hour early and readjusted the valves, about 5 of them needed slight adjustment, most were a hair loose, one was a bit tight. Rear main oil seal area is seeping, might be the cam plug. I guess it's really an aircooled vw now. Doesn't mark a spot yet, but it probably won't be long. When I drive in the rain water comes in through the seams of the left heater channel where it isn't sealed and some other spots where it's rusty. The quality of the repair piece is only soso but 99% of the problems with it could have been prevented if some seam sealer was applied where bottom part the heater channel meets the rest of it.
(5-2-03)
So, it's been several months since I updated this page.... I've been daily driving every week, I'm up to 10,400 miles on the rebuild... I haven't really had to fix anything on the car yet, I've done several oil changes, adjusted the valves a couple of times, and basically driven it. Today I brought it into the shop since we were out of work and finally installed some rubber grommets between the fuel pump and the front chassis plate, (2 between the pump and chassis and 1 between the chassis and nut under the car) and I can't hear the fuel pump with the car running anymore, which is nice, before you could hear it driving down the road too. I'm getting 20mpg traveling 70mph (~3500rpm) and it doesn't consume much oil... couple of drips under the engine, brake master cylinder leaks out the back slowly, about one pint every 3 weeks... lack the funds to replace it at the moment, so I just keep topping it up. Still get harassed for having stock tires on it, I have chevy 5 lug adapters for the back, so I ask them if they want to give me some wheels/tires I'll change it, but I can't see it from the driver's seat, so it doesn't bug me that much.