[PAVAN KADAM]

Well, this for a change is not a Restoration thread Its a little hatke (unusual) story.

Long time ago when i was usually driving on office work, i passed via old Airport road, the night was approaching and in those dim lights i saw this Beetle parked on one side of the road. I felt sad as i could not take a close look at the car.

Days passed, almost 5 - 6 years, and i never saw it, But as luck would have it, i was destined to meet this ailing car My cousin wanted to buy a Honda Dio and as usual, all Automobile query in my relatives group leads through me. I went to Haiku Honda - Old Airport road. Something struck me and i met the MD of that company while completing the booking formalities. And to my surprise, he owned that Beetle i had seen years ago. We sat and chatted for a long time and finally he invited me to take a look at his Beetle.

A few weeks later, i was at his residence to take that first Close-up view of that car, all excited. Took a first look at that MAGNIFICENT CAR. The car was all good in every terms, but was ailing from loads of Running issues. Mr Subramanian - OWNER doled out his unending list of woes with the cars maintenance since a long time. I returned promising him to help get rid of all those niggles and issues with his car and make it a RELIABLE car as it should be.


And..... I did return with my mechanic after few weeks. My mechanic found the following issues.

1) Starter not working
2) Carb not tuned well
3) Tappets/valves stuck. Too tight
4) Brakes weak
5) Plugs fouled
6) Points / condencer weak

Overall there were lot of issues by virtue of which mr Subramanian deemed the car impractical to use it the way he wants to.

We began Trouble-shooting each problem, even roped in the electrician in the coming day, went around solving all those minor issues. Finally after 1 week of work, the car was in good running condition.

I found few more missing links

1) Correct Tail pipe's missing
2) Exhaust leakage
3) Damage on the Rear Right fender
4) Little electrical issues
5) Few hoses to the air-filter missing
6) Bad wheel alignment and balancing
7) Too much of paint overspray on so many parts on the car
8) A proper clean-up with the extra dangling wires
9) Fuel guage had error, it showed 4 litres excess

The car came home and i went around doing lot of stuff myslef, drove around in the car, couple of days to office, weekend errands to relatives and overall close to 250 kms in 4 days, Issues sorted out and to this day, the car is in VERY GOOD running order.

[PAVAN KADAM]

Whole of 4 days of work on the car, Car has been just amazing - touchwood.

Putting up some more pics to show to show the kind of originality this car actually is.

[PAVAN KADAM]

Today the Bug went back to its original Master. Close to 300 kms in the last 4 days and never missing a beat. Got each and every aspect of the car thoroughly checked, from the detailing to the blown out fuses, bulbs, missing knobs,Fuel guage error, Starter now working, Wheel balancing & Alignment, Reverse switch botched up,paint over-sprayed unnecessarily, or be it the extra unwanted wires dangling around, etc., etc.,- CHECKED & DELIVERED.

A happy me cant be more than beaming with pride about the way this car turned out to be. Now its with its master, i wish him all the best and hope to see it only every 8 months for its regular service.

[beetle_boy]

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[sanjeevskartha]

Now that is an iconic car. I remember seeing a similar beetle at my native, but in a much worse condition. Its parked(or dumped) on the side of a busy road, its doors are gone and the seats are home to stray dogs. Sad that the owner(if there is one) is ruining an icon like this. Will post a snap once I get to see it again.

[ajay99]

Originally Posted by sanjeevskartha

Now that is an iconic car. I remember seeing a similar beetle at my native, but in a much worse condition. Its parked(or dumped) on the side of a busy road, its doors are gone and the seats are home to stray dogs. Sad that the owner(if there is one) is ruining an icon like this. Will post a snap once I get to see it again.

Where is your native place? I assume it is somwhere in Central Kerala.
Also are you sure it is a Beetle and not a Morris Minor.Because there are few such Morris minors dumped in kerala!

[beetle_boy]

Originally Posted by sanjeevskartha

Now that is an iconic car. I remember seeing a similar beetle at my native, but in a much worse condition. Its parked(or dumped) on the side of a busy road, its doors are gone and the seats are home to stray dogs. Sad that the owner(if there is one) is ruining an icon like this. Will post a snap once I get to see it again.

Sanjeev Please check if the owner wants to let it go i would be interested to get it back on road.

Thanks in Advance
Saleem

[PAVAN KADAM]

I just wonder if i have a GPS location unit in my head where all the VW's keep me connected with them

Couple of months back One Mr Ravichandra and family lovingly picked up a decent 1968 VW Beetle from Kerala. As a matter of fact the same car was in Coimbatore during 2008 - 2010, it came to Bangalore in early 2011 and i had seen this car and made my offer, but things did'nt take off from there and the car went to Kerala when an elderly gentleman made a good enough offer and picked it up to Kollam.

Couple of months later, Ravi went around cajoling this elederly gentleman in selling the car over to him, finally, in late 2012 his luck struck and the gentleman decided to part with this very Beetle. He gets this car over to Bangalore and is tough luck the clutch was burnt, the car was not a good runner, too many rust spots on the floor, lot of black paint overspray on the body, and many more run-time issues.

Couple of months passed by and he could not put this Bug together, somehow by grace of T-BHP he found my number and called for help. Got hold of Pankaj - thebulletboy (T-BHP) and went along. Basically the car was not starting whatever u do. A quick diagnose and i found something wrong with the distributor, opened it up myself and cleaned the points and checked the rotor. We crank again, the car jumps to life. yaay.......! but again there is one more hiccup, its not moving in any damn gears. So the story of a burnt clutch surfaces.

I knew This was the time for a quick BUGSTOP treatment. Took help of Pankaj in procuring parts for this car and started the work.

Work Done:

1) Floor area scraped and new panels welded at few areas
2) 3M Stonechip antirust coating done
3) Brand new Clutch kit replaced
4) Valve settings done
5) Essential Oils changed
6) Replaced the malfunctioning carb
7) Brakes overhauled
8) Few mis-fit fittings got rid of
9) 80% of the car re-sprayed
10) Added a few period correct cosmetic parts
11) A thorough interior re-do
12) Re-winding the non working dynamo
13) Complete electrical check-up

All these work rougly took 3 weeks, but now the car is a damn good daily runner.

[kevinephraim]

Originally Posted by PAVAN KADAM

I just wonder if i have a GPS location unit in my head where all the VW's keep me connected with them

Couple of months back One Mr Ravichandra and family lovingly picked up a decent 1968 VW Beetle from Kerala.
All these work rougly took 3 weeks, but now the car is a damn good daily runner.

Why did you merge the work on a 1968 beetle with a 1972 beetle thread? Two different beetles, should have two different threads.

[PAVAN KADAM]

Originally Posted by kevinephraim

Why did you merge the work on a 1968 beetle with a 1972 beetle thread? Two different beetles, should have two different threads.

Kevin, the idea is to have one thread where i can share a few of my QUICK REFRESHSTORATIONS. A seperate thread for a full fledged restorations should be fine, but there are many such quick fix resto's that i do, i thought i will include them in ONE thread, instead of multiple one's. Though i have sent a request to the moderators to change the title of the thread, lets wait till that happens.

[PAVAN KADAM]

Again, its a case of the right car with the wrong service back-up.

Being a late 50's Beetle, this car looked fabulous everytime i used to see it, but the reality was something else.

1) Originally a 6 Volts, converted to a 12 V using a modern Alternator - I am leaving that as it is, since too much money is spent in the modification few years ago.

2) Car belonged to Mr Subbu ( 1972 SkyBlue Bug featured at the starting of this Thread ) and was in a fantastic shape before being sold off to Mr Ravishankar during 1996, Painted Twice since then and more than 4 lacs being spent, yet yielding mediocre results, Brakes not working, Engine looks like its lost 30 hp out of its 36 hp engine - NOW Trying to Refresh it completely and make it a more daily drive kind of a car.

3) Upholstery and Paint - Upholstery is in tatters, Corrosion on the RHS panels and too much of Rust bubbles on the RHS. BUT, we are not doing that now, will attend to it after Mr Ravi gets to enjoy its drive for a few more days.

[YaeJay]

Just lovely! If only....

Life is all about hope, what say Pavan?

[PAVAN KADAM]

Originally Posted by YaeJay

Just lovely! If only....

Life is all about hope, what say Pavan?

Keep the hopes alive, they are sure to come true some day

Well, 4 days with me, every thing about has been checked for and done,

1) Front Steering overhaul
2) Suspension overhaul
3) Brake overhaul
4) Valve adjustment
5) Wheel balancing
6) Engine tuning
7) Essential oil replacement


Drove this 1100cc 36 hp motor and what a feeling it is , its just heavenly feeling driving a car like this.

[PAVAN KADAM]

Recetly my friend picked up a very Original 1972 Baywindow from Gods Own Country.

The bus was in Plain White with a few dents and a little bodywork, windshield rubbers in tatters, and a little electrical work to be done. Mechanically we just did a quick replacement of oils and a brake overhaul.

All work done in the matter of 10 days.

[PAVAN KADAM]

Car belonged to a Beetle club member, But had been well maintained all these years. One day i called our thebulletboy - Pankaj to check on this car and at the right time he was in a mood of disposing off this Bug. Co-incidentally one of my friend too was in a fray for a Beetle. Things matched up and i took up the car. A big thanks to Pankaj for helping me with this car

1) Essential oils changed
2) Plugs and leads changed
3) Points and condencers and all electrical check-up done
4) Paint touch ups and misc., fitting checked
5) Valve settings was way off- checked and tuned for better running.
6) Re-jetting done on the carb
7) Brakes cleaned up
8) Full rub-down and polishing done

That leaves for tires , which will be changed next week.