Nostalgia
Submitted by Mike 3-3-08


I bought my first Beetle in 1983 while a sophomore in college, a white '73 sedan. I'm not exactly sure why I bought a bug rather than something else, I think my dad really liked them and encouraged me to give it a try. So I did, and ended up loving it. I liked everything about Beetles: the way they looked, they way they sounded and smelled, their styling, simplicity, reliability, economy, the ease of repair, and above all, their personality. Beetles have character by the bucketful. After college I got a job and moved to Maryland, and bought a new car for my daily commute. Living in an apartment complex and having very little money to spare, I was forced to sell my Beetle. But within a year or two I got the "bug" again and ended up buying a '76 convertible. It was rusty and something of a clunker, the previous owner having riveted in a yield sign to cover the holes under the battery. The fuel lines leaked, then the fuel injection failed so the car would start and idle but died when you tried to accelerate. It wouldn't pass Maryland inspection and I ended up selling it to someone who wanted to convert it to carb. A couple years later I bought a '74 Super Beetle, which I kept for a year or so until getting married. After that came a long dry spell as my wife and I bought a house, had a couple kids, and had little free time (or extra money).

Then something unexpected happened. Back in 1992, around the time I sold my Super, my dad purchased a blue '74 convertible (yeah, he really DID like Beetles!), which he loved and babied and only drove between May and November. He kept it totally stock and took care of things as needed, and it was always garage-kept. But over time he decided he wanted something a little newer and in the summer of 2006 ended up buying a Mini Cooper convertible. To be honest I'm not sure which car is smaller! Anyway, his one-car garage was too small for both cars so he offered it to me, my brother, and my sister, for a nominal amount of money. Fortunately for me, my brother hates Beetles and my sister had no place to keep it, and had a newborn baby to take care of. So I leapt at the offer. I had the car trucked from New Hampshire to Maryland. When it arrived they backed it down the carrier and into my driveway, and it felt like I had just gotten Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. My dry spell of roughly 16 years was finally over.

The car was in good but not perfect condition, so I went to work on it. The car needed all new hoses, a fan belt, complete tune up and oil change, transmission fluid change, gaskets everywhere, battery, intake manifold boots, plus I rebuilt the carb...the list goes on. Within a year I was feeling bolder and replaced the clutch by myself, along with the transmission mounts. My dad had replaced the original speedometer with a new one, as the odometer had stopped working. He had kept the original speedometer though, and after getting it from him I decided to fix it. Using information found online, I purchased and installed a new brass gear, and reinstalled the speedometer in the car. In the past six months the car has received new rear brakes, new left and right tie rod assemblies to cure the "Super Beetle shimmie", a new shift rod bushing and shift coupler bushings, and a new fuel pump. I recently diagnosed a hard-to-find vacuum leak, one that had dogged my dad while he owned it (and me for the past 18 months). The car would hesitate on acceleration. After rebuilding and adjusting the carb, testing the vacuum pot on the distributor, replacing vacuum lines, intake manifold gaskets, fuel pump, and more, it still hesitated. I then learned that a possible location for a vacuum leak was in the thermostat inside the air cleaner. Lo and behold, bypassing the thermostat and running a line straight to the warm air flap cured the hesitation. (I'm now looking for a new thermostat). There's nothing like the feeling of diagnosing and fixing a stubborn problem. Anyway, the convertible still needs a lot of body rubber, such as door gaskets, inner and outer door scrapers, wedges, and seals, but they will be replaced as time and budget permit. As is, the car is quite driveable and is loads of fun, and onlookers frequently wave, ask what year it is, and offer up stories of when they had a Beetle.

You know how sometimes after a long time you start feeling nostalgic about something, and then you get it back but it's never quite as good as you remembered it? Well in my case I think the opposite happened. After a year with my "new" convertible, I realized I had forgotten just how much I enjoyed Beetles, and started reminiscing about my first, '73 Bug. I decided I really wanted a regular Bug to go with the vert. After several months looking around in the newspaper and the online sites I located a blue '74 sedan in good shape about 70 miles from home. I bought the car in July of 2007 and have really enjoyed driving it and working on it. I find this is the most enjoyable and rewarding hobby I've ever had.

Two great looking 74 Beetles.







First & Last Car
Submitted by Bill T. 2-8-08


Im not sure what the attraction was to a bug back when I was a teenager. Being it was the late 80's, most teenagers were typically hyped up on cars such as 5.0 Mustangs & Chevy IROCs. Owing a decent muscle car back then would not have been an easy task for most . Especially on limited salaries which a part timer would earn working a few hours after school. Insurance alone seemed impossible for newly licensed drivers. Being so my first car was a 72 standard beetle purchased from a small used car dealer in Rosedale Maryland. It took several years of working as a restaurant dishwasher, but I finally had enough saved up to purchase decent used car. It was picked up for somewhere around $1800.00 (that was a lot of dirty dishes) and a lot for a Beetle.
I remember a few comments from older folks saying "Thats as much as this car cost new ! " Probably so but this car was obviously well cared for. Completely original & intact, except for maybe the battery and other small tune up parts. It ran like a champ with a little over 60k on the odometer. The doors had the flawless "THAWUMP" when closed. The original owner's manual was neatly stamped with dealer maintenance records revealing years of scheduled visits. Even the washer fluid sprayer worked! Seven bucks would top off the gas tank and you could drive for days. Occational poor judgement and the discovery of cheap parts kept auto part suppliers such as JC Whitney prosperous. It was no big deal after school to slap on a new fender & bumper before heading off to work. Years went by and the car was starting to show its use. By 1995 it had given all it had and was parked along side the house for 5 years. It sat until finally a full pan off restoration was decided . By this time full restoration was possible as there was time & room to work on the car. A new daily driver allowed for a more complete restoration. An area for the restoration was first staged by pouring a 10' x 10' concrete slab and rigging up some saw horses for the body. After all parts were pulled from the shell , it was lifted off the pan.




    
                                                                                                                                                                       
  
                                                                    

Shaved reflectors and new tailights                                   Polished EMPI 8 Spoke Alloys                                                                                                     


Chambered Headlights                                                                                                             Mirrors from Italy
 





BEFORE PHOTOS BELOW:        




  

 Several minor rust areas were mig welded and dents straightened. The shell was then coated with what used to be called "Eastwoods Coroless" now called "Rust Encapsulator" The pan was restored and coated the same way.

New items were installed such as belly pan gasket, shocks, brake system ,clutch, 1600dp Factory Motor, tranny mounts, tranny rebuild, starter, generator, oil cooler, exhaust system, 009 Distributor, Pertronix Ignition, Dual Kadron Carbs, Polished Empi 8 Spoke wheels, tires ,& etc.

A small spot in the back yard made for a crude restoration area.  It is humorous to look back now at how things had to done withough a garage.





















                                                                                    Projects
                                                           
                                                                                                                        72 Ghia CV Restoration Project
                                                                                                                                    Submitted by Bill T.   


UNDER CONSTRUCTION  (Page may load slowly due to large number of photos) 
 
 
This was the condition at which the car was towed home. It was purchased from someone who simply had lost interest in the car .   
    

 
    
After removing anything possible from the shell it was unbolted from the pan  & angle iron is welded to the shell for support.         
      T
The hinges did not want to budge. A little heat and a few good whacks of a hammer on the screwdriver finally convinced them to loosen up.

 
Some of the hinge screws were stripped and needed to be extracted with a removal tool



 
With the bracing in place its time to lift the shell off the body.



After 36 years of marraige it was time to separate.



One of the previous owners must of decided roofing tar would make a nice adhesive for an aftermarket carpet kit.  
 Not to mention it was over top of riveted street signs.



After trying several methods of removing the tar , finally it was an air chisel which took most of it off.


 Fine display of workmanship. To be tackled at a later time.   Somebody must of had a smirk and a beer doing this.


Had to atleast yank those street signs off though.




A few tools of the trade    They will see plenty of action with this prize




Removing the shell reveals rockers are shot.  Plus stuffed with newspaper?   The work of a Mighty Mouse or PO?



Previous bodywork left open gaps for water ,which resulted in rust

In desperate need of Soda blasting



  
layers and layers of paint, primer & bondo, 
                                                                    
  
Poking around reveals rust ..rust & more rust

           
 
 Lap welded Passenger side fender repair and front end damage .....Like they say you get what you pay for.

 
 
Spare fence posts, scrap wood and bed rails came in handy.    Can almost walk in the shed now....almost.  Need to yank the brittle wiring harness & she is off to the soda blaster.  

 
 
With the help of family, the shell is sent to the soda blaster.  


 This will give the neighbors something to talk about or atleast a topic for the neighborhood association meetings.


The shell measured roughly 12 foot (1 foot longer than the trailer enclosed area) so it rode like this off to the soda blaster.

  
While waiting for the shell to come back there is plenty of other small projects to get into.


 Making the best of stale gas has which was drained from the tank.  At $4.00 a Gallon, I will find a use for it !


Small parts cleaned up in the media blasting booth, coated, bagged & tagged for a later time.

    
Its a VW Jigsaw puzzle    I will try to save as many original pieces as possible as the goal is to keep it as close to stock as possible.

   
It will be an nice day when these parts can finally be reinstalled


Several days later it was back from soda blasting

    
With the shell fairly clean it will be easier to pinpoint problem areas.
         

    
A new headlight section may be in order here as the time trying to salvage this one could be better spend somewhere else. 
 
 
The headlight bucket should clean up just fine & I was told the repros are pretty much junk.

 
This is all unchartered terrirory , I've never done body repair this extensive.  After all the repairing this car needs , I hope to be an expert in the end....Atleast on Ghias ! 
The thought is anything too far gone gets replaced, but not discarded until a replacement is found.
 
This reproduction section was purchased used for $20 , a little rusty but otherwise in nice shape.


Behind the spare tire area shows a previous repair which was not given a whole lot of effort.  There were still open areas which must of allowed water to enter.  I pulled the inner & outer fender to access & repair these spots. 


The front had been clipped in the past and the new fender was lap welded on which caused rust under the overlapped area. The red area in front is where the fender had overlapped.  I grinded off the welds which it was attached and traced the old cut which someone had made to remove the damaged fender.  Later I will butt weld the fender back on and try grind down the weld marks as smooth as possible.
This will be the same case for the inner fender which was also lap welded on

 
Replicating damaged sheetmetal,  This will take some practice so I will start on less obvious areas before tackling those which are more visible 

Duplicating a missing support bracket  This is actually kind of fun. 

This damaged area was previous plugged with bondo which was revealed after soda blasting.  This fabrication will be a little more tricky

This section was previously repaired with a lap weld.  I wanted to begin practicing on repairs so this small section was a good start.


Fabricating a template to replace steel which had rotted away 


My weakness.  Getting so wrapped up in things I forget to stop take  a break & clean up a little.



Ghia & website both under construction , pardon the mess.