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1974 Super Beetle

"Blue Rocket"

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March 2008
February 2008
January 2008
May 2004
August 2003
June 2003
February 2003



Our Other Volkswagen

March 2008

And it's almost done.  It went in to the shop today for a tune-up, basically taking it out of "air-care" tune and in to daily driver tune.  We mounted aftermarket '67 bumpers instead of the stock shock mounts.  We used some mounts from California Imports that drops under the fender and up so  I will have to fill the stock fender holes with something.  We also replaced the door seals, the window felts and chrome, the vent window seals, one vent window latch and used the "easy" method of re-installing the vent window glass.  I wired in a 12 volt accessory plug for the GPS in the new console, and put in a classic VDO clock.  A new windshield (USE A GERMAN SEAL!!!),  hood seal, and replacing the "elephant foot" rear lamps rounded out the work.  And here he is:

February 2008

The paint is done, the fenders are back on and we will install some "old school" bumpers in the future.  It's not a restoration so we're having a bit of fun; stainless running boards, chrome handle guards, and 60's bumpers ought to make it stand out in a crowd.  The next few days should see it back together and running.  We'll see you on the streets!

January 2008

  

The car has been driven on and off for the last 3 years but we will now need it as a daily driver.  The plan is to paint the sides, under the chrome trim, white.  That will give it a relatively good look, classic, and get rid of the primer.  At the same time we have remove the door windows to replace the seal, scrapers, and trim.  We also found a new hole on the left side wheel well, nicely covered by the undercoat.  That will be fixed, too

  May, 2004

Since last summer's repairs we have put in two new floor pans and two new panels where the front bumper attaches.  The problem now is that the engine is crap!  The nice people who "fixed" it last year didn't put a very good head on, it won't torque properly, the valves are damaged and it "pops" at idle.  My favourite swiss-german mechanic agreed to work on the bug (a real drop from his usual Porsches) and we'll get the engine rebuilt soon. 

On the upside, we put in new upholstery ourselves, and although it isn't perfect it is pretty darn nice.  We have a good used dash and a correct radio as well.  This thing might look good in a year or two.

August, 2003

It cost us. The frame head was replaced along with the heater channels and the quarter panels. $1600 in labour, the parts weren't too bad, I guess. You can see where the old repairs were done, or not.  The quarter panels pulled off because they weren't welded. The heater channels were filled with foam, where not filled with rust, and one of the strut towers had been "repaired" with fibre glass; a structural piece! Still, it was done and done.  What scared me the most was the holes in the package tray where we could see the axle through! Those were the easiest to fix, it seems.

See the Axle?	A quarter panel shouldn't peel off like that, should it?
Foam can fix anything, honest . . .	That's better, it's actually welded!
And with some primer it looks pretty good.

June, 2003

All rather simple stuff.  We began to dream a bit.  We had planned a vacation into the interior of British Columbia and hoped to take the little Beetle.  That's a long trip though, and we wanted to see if it was up to the task so we took a jaunt over to Vancouver Island.  Well, that didn't go too well.  The timing was bad, and it looked to be running on 3 cylinders (maybe 2).  We limped it home after some help from from a mechanic in Brentwood Bay.  I knew we had some work to do.

We purchased a new distributor cap, rotor, points and condenser, plug wires, and Bosch platinum spark plugs.  The install went fine until I realized the wiring to our coil wasn't regulation.  Some diligent reading and I still didn't get it.  And stupid me, I couldn't remember how it came off.  Well, turns out the distributor had been "upgraded" to an electronic ignition.  Not trusting it we installed a new Bosch 009 with points as well as a new coil.  Well, it still didn't run right and I couldn't get the carburetor to adjust at all.  A look at the carb made me replace it outright.  With a lot of help from our mechanic it is running  now but more stuff has popped up.  The engine needs new seals (it drops a lake of oil when parked) and the frame head is a rusty mess.  If we really want that vacation it is going to cost us . . .

February, 2003

We bought our first Beetle in February.  After a short bit of shopping we settled on this little guy.  We picked him up for $1600 and thought we had a real deal at the time.  Sure, there were some problems like the dents and the crack in the steering wheel but there was very little rust (visible . . .)

The first thing we did was clean up the engine bay.  As you can see it was a little old and dirty, the gas lines were leaking and the warm air hoses were shot.  We thought it was a good start.

Then we installed an electric pump for the windshield washer and redid the wiring for the rear defog.