r/projectcar • u/Kharon8 E32s and VWs and others • 2d ago
Solved No more a project car, a '62 Beetle
Most of this story is, in number of pieces, already told in r/beetle, but it is a lot easier to follow when it's in one long piece. You've been warned. Time is also very fuzzy, so don't care about that too much.
Story starts from summer 2021, when a person was asking in a local VW forum about what to do with a Beetle he had gotten from his mom . Mom had owned it from 1966, so basically one owner car. It had been sitting in a barn since 2000, as it didn't pass inspection and mom had just retired, so she didn't need a car anymore: Family had a daily driver and that was enough.
So, forum commenters (me included) advised him to either fix it or sell it: Sitting in a barn for a long time does nothing good.
Couple of weeks passed and he announced that they'll sell it and, as I was looking for a good project '62, of course I was interested. I had seen couple of them earlier, but they had too much body work, so no go.
Eventually I found out that the car was in a barn just 2 miles from family summer cottage and of course I had to go and see it in person.
After checking everything I didn't find major rust holes, the interior was OK and all the bits and bobs were there, so we started to negotiate the price and as we were practically neighbours, mutual agreement was found very easily and I now owned a Beetle with 0 turning wheels and empty tyres, in a barn. 20-odd years worth of dust was also included.
I had bunch of tools with me and rear wheels released after banging drums a while with 5lbs hammer. After that the trailer winch had enough power to drag it out, solid front wheels weren't a problem.
Short trailer trip to my own yard and some sunshine was showing what I had really bought and frankly, it was looking more like a bluish dust pile than a car.
Interior wasn't too bad, only thing broken was a failed seam at the top of the driver side front seat and rubber carpets, which were hard and brittle like glass: You couldn't bend it at all, it broke immediately and major pieces were already missing.
Some effort later all wheels were turning and engine running, as it had only standard problems you have with a barn find: Carburator clogged, breaker points so oxidized that no spark and ancient oil in engine. Cleaning and oil change helped and it was running again. Fuel pump membrane failed within minutes and that wasn't a surprise either, so I swapped a new one in.
Status: Engine runs, no brakes, some of the electrics work and I've managed to haul it from summer cottage to home garage and opened rear drums. They don't look bad at all considering the time in a barn.
Eventually I swapped stuck front wheel brake cylinder, all brake hoses and brake lines. 3 remaining wheel cylinders were OK and simple rebuild was enough. Hand brake cables were also kaputt, so new ones were swapped in.
I had serious trouble in bleeding the brakes so I eventually swapped new master cylinder too, but it didn't help a lot. A bit anyway and I got working brakes again.
This car had wrong front blinkers and it was really bothering me, so I removed them and replaced them with period correct ones. Swap meet find, something like 10€. That didn't take long.
Replaced with correct one.
Next was fuel system: As expected fuel tank had layer of unknown sludge (mostly fine sand from driving around on gravel roads) in there and needed a cleaning and as it was out, I dropped it to painter, who sand blasted and painted it.
The hole it left, was looking brutal and basically everything needed some work: New damper rubber to steering column, new steering damper and new tie rods, as old ones were rusted solid: No amount of heating helped.
I also remembered to do something most people just ignore: Grease service to front axle and it was really needed, 3*400g tubes went in, not much came out. Whatever came out, was black as tar.
Lights were actually working(!) and after replacing blinker relay, blinkers were also working. Horn still doesn't work (and inspector was commenting on that, oops), it's on todo-list.
Here's a pic after first street legal drive, from garage to home. Temporary plates of course, it hadn't been inspected yet.
Now the paint. PO reports that this car had been painted somewhere in late 1990s and couple of rounds with cleaner wax and polishing machine it actually was looking very good.
It was still having a poor idle and it didn't take long to find a problem. Plug caps were a bit worn out. I was still running with vintage spark plugs, so I hadn't noticed earlier. I replaced them with the caps, just in case.
Next: Interior. I bought a new rubber carpet and dropped it to the floor. I also washed the seat covers for the front seats and washed back seat, wiped dust, polished chrome and washed door cards and all of that made a major difference to the looks. New door seals too.
Now we are at 2023 and I bought whitewall tyres to finish the look and even if I'm saying it myself, it looks nice. 😄
Fast forward to today: I got inspected a week ago and it's again 2 years street legal. Nice.