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Old 13th July 2019, 01:24   #1
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Another VW Beetle Restoration

The Classic VW Bug

After deciding that I need a Classic VW Bug/Beetle. We start to look for one. In the meantime I go online and try to get some info on the different models and the changes evolved through years.

Got a lot of info over CV videos. Days passed by couldn't find a single car. So we meet an elderly gentleman who once owned a couple of classic cars and classic two wheelers. So he gave us a few pointers who once had/have the bugs. We make a small list as part of our homework.

The next day all excited we start the hunt. When we went around and met the owners we found out most of the cars were sold or scrapped. We just found two owners as per the list who still owned cars and were maintained very well.
One owner even allowed us to see his car and told us we could come on a Sunday for a small drive.

Next day again we continue our hunt to the places where the cars were sold on locally ahead by the owners we met the previous day. We find two cars but both in bad condition and with high price as expected by the present owners. There were a few friends who gave me a few pointers and few brokers who had cars but with a high price expectations.

After a hunt of 2 years we finally get a car. The car was not used for some time. Brakes , Clutch and suspension were done and needed an overhaul, not to forget the battery.

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We didn't want to take a risk so we used a flatbed to get it home. Next day we did some work on the brakes and rear suspension.

We couldn't do much on the clutch as we did not have new set of clutch & friction plates but we notice oil leakage over night from the bell housing, so it was a sign for a new oil seal for sure. In the meanwhile, we decided to work on the brakes, we had to free them first and attend to it to ensure safety. We also raised the suspension a bit as the car was bit lower on the rear which looked really weird.

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So after spending a few hours wrenching. We borrowed a battery from a friend, cleaned the carb, started the car. We all were excited to drive a Beetle for the first time. We were excited like small kids waiting for our turns to drive. Just to be safe we drove it around slowly. Once we were confident we took it for a long drive. We were also happy that we were successful to raise the rear height after a few attempts ourselves.

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Last edited by Rehaan : 20th September 2019 at 12:30. Reason: Please don't use spaces before commas or periods. Thanks!
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Old 13th July 2019, 09:31   #2
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Denting work started, lot of surprises under the paint

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More and more work, the denter started showing attitude and he started delaying our work.

We had to take a lot of patience with the denter. We would spend the whole day and he would not even touch the vehicle. He would work on the present day vehicles giving us an excuse "These vehicles are more important".

Vandalism : one night someone enters the garage and vandalized the vehicles. Luckily my car was not touched (Maybe because my car had no glasses on it and it was not painted). The denter and his team didn't work for the next two days.

After this incident we decided to dismantle the bug in our own premises as It would be more safer. Next day we drove it back and started to dismantle. We working on to take off the body shell of the chassis, We found out something........ jugaad
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The Jugaad: The heater channels were rusted and weak so the nut bolts were not holding the body shell on to the chassis (on both sides). Someone had used a metal sheet in a L shape using self tapping screws.

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As we were dismantling the motor from the clutch housing, we got our doubts cleared there was oil in the housing where the clutch & friction plate supposed to be dry. The oil seal behind the flywheel was done & needed a replacement.


Suspension & Parts list:

As we started with the suspension we were making a list of what needs to be replaced, We noticed one thing the front suspension beam had no provision for the steering damper & no damper on this car.

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Last edited by Rehaan : 20th September 2019 at 12:23. Reason: Please don't use spaces before commas or periods. Thanks!
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Old 15th July 2019, 12:43   #3
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The body shell send back for denting

For the doors we fabricated a frame, it is recommended for convertibles. As the heater channels of this car were rusted and week, we used it on this bug.

Heater channels worked upon

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As the body shell work was getting completed by the denter, we started working out on the floor pan , it had some marine paint, dirt collected over years under the seat frames, not to forget the tunnel we found lot of debris, thrash, leaves, torn paper & what not.

We had to flip the chassis up & down so we could get all the debris out of the tunnel.
Also found some rust spots after getting the chassis to bare metal. Rust around the master cylinder was found, a friend of mine suggested me to replace the napolean hat part, since not available locally. The denter just repaired the same.

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Taking off the marine paint help us to spot a crack that had developed very close to the front beam .The crack was welded

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Last edited by Rehaan : 20th September 2019 at 12:21. Reason: Please don't use spaces before commas or periods. Thanks!
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Old 25th July 2019, 02:48   #4
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Tools

As the oil seal had to be replaced, we had ordered a oil seal & a speedy sleeve (just incase the flywheel needed). Had some washers which we used to place the new seal.

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Some more tools which helped us to align the flywheel , we did use feeler guage.

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We got this socket but couldn't use it as it would not fit over the flywheel so we did have to file some metal off.

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Last edited by Rehaan : 20th September 2019 at 12:19. Reason: Please don't use spaces before commas or periods. Thanks!
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Old 25th July 2019, 04:19   #5
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re: Another VW Beetle Restoration

Clutch

As we wanted to replace with a new clutch plate and bearing. We ordered the same and as we were doing a DIY, we learnt from a video that we needed a clutch slider tool to avoid guesswork.

We had to use the lathe again, and using this tool makes the job way easier.

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Last edited by Rehaan : 20th September 2019 at 12:19. Reason: Please don't use spaces before commas or periods. Thanks!
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Old 1st August 2019, 02:03   #6
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We also made a stand which helped us in sealing it with epoxy coating.

The epoxy we used was Axalta Coating with
a) PU Thinner
b) Epoxy activator
c) DX66 Duxone epoxy Primer

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After a coat of epoxy primer and letting it dry for few days, sealed it with 3M underseal, few pics below:

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Last edited by Rehaan : 20th September 2019 at 12:18. Reason: Please don't use spaces before commas or periods. Thanks!
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Old 9th August 2019, 08:55   #7
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re: Another VW Beetle Restoration

Seats

It was time to work on the seats, so we started to open/tear them apart. We all started sneezing due to the dust accumulated over the years (as we were working indoors first).

We found the original seat upholstery below the seat. Once removed, we used the compressor and blew off the dust. Then sent it for pressure wash as the seat sliding grooves had grease and dirt stains. After letting it dry for a day, we used a good wirebrush on the bare metal and coated it with epoxy primer.

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Last edited by Rehaan : 20th September 2019 at 12:18. Reason: Please don't use spaces before commas or periods. Thanks!
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Old 9th August 2019, 09:46   #8
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re: Another VW Beetle Restoration

Wheel Rims

The wheel rims on the car were in a good shape and not rusted except for the rivets to hold the hub cap clips, we had to source out 1 rim which we found locally.

After stripping off the paint to bare metal, a good coat of epoxy. The inner section was painted black. Outer section painted with 2 shades Cream & Blue. The painter did a good job which involved a lot of masking, patience and skill.

Now it was time to finalize on shade which the car will be finally painted as we had to use the same final shade on the outer rim too. New hub caps clips were riveted later.

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Last edited by Rehaan : 20th September 2019 at 12:18. Reason: Please don't use spaces before commas or periods. Thanks!
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Old 9th August 2019, 10:27   #9
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re: Another VW Beetle Restoration

Paint Shade
It was time to choose the final shade, for rough idea of the shade, we used a scale model (corvette) which saved some time. We got two shades done, the painter painted the two similar shades on two pieces. This helped us to choose the final shade.

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Last edited by Rehaan : 20th September 2019 at 12:17.
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Old 17th September 2019, 10:58   #10
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re: Another VW Beetle Restoration

Note from Moderator

Thanks for sharing this restoration process. Although the journey is not complete, am taking it live since the process needs assistance from our VW specialists.
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Old 20th September 2019, 07:29   #11
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Re: Another VW Beetle Restoration

Good job so far! Post more updates.
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Old 20th September 2019, 17:22   #12
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Re: Another VW Beetle Restoration

A very patient job, kudos to you guys. Please keep updating!
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Old 21st September 2019, 07:47   #13
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Parts were purchased from Wolfsbergwest, Cip1, West coast metric & CB performance.

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NOS Carb & distributor

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Last edited by ajmat : 23rd September 2019 at 12:24.
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Old 21st September 2019, 13:10   #14
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Re: Another VW Beetle Restoration

Are you buying a new harness? Or is the existing wiring in good condition?
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Old 21st September 2019, 13:39   #15
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Re: Another VW Beetle Restoration

That is one interesting to read work flow shared with us. Thanks for taking up such a project on a car like this one. I am excited to see the end of this soon. I am sure it is an herculean task and going to take time. Just a small request, the photos do absolutely no justice to depict what you are doing to the car. I suggest you modernize the photos.
I am also tempted to find myself an old mini cooper and give it a go. All the best for your reincarnating endeavor.
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