Itinerant Air-Cooled

Hello one and all

I have been trying for years to get a square back in my area. Always been my fav. air cooled dub.
Luck shined on me (i hope) and one popped up in town yesterday...today it is mine.

Rust as usual, some spots not so bad, some pretty bad. The motor "supposedly" runs when the carbs are on, or so was stated to me, i have yet to try. Interior is in pretty good shape. Here are some pics, tell me what you think. I cant wait to dig in and bring the beauty back to life.

~Henry

flickr set

http://www.flickr.com/photos/b1zzle/set ... 895864488/

Bizzle wrote:Hello one and all

I have been trying for years to get a square back in my area. Always been my fav. air cooled dub.
Luck shined on me (i hope) and one popped up in town yesterday...today it is mine.
tell me what you think.

I think you have a challenging project in front of you.
I see a beautiful white Squareback with red interior (very handsome) in your future.

These cars are seductive as hell when they are running well and properly adjusted. I am biased towards stock for the simple reason that the stock engineering is truly the most competent of your choices. That includes rustling up a D-Jet fuel injection system with spare fuel pump/manifold/temp sensors/distributor contacts/throttle switch. I just started my 1973 Squareback after a full year of sitting around, three cranks, lights up and is asking "where we going?"

Have fun.
Colin

I am right there with you on the stock set up man. I'm not sure what possessed everyone to become carb conversion addicts. It works, but never fully quite right. I wish I could drive it right this minute.......seductive is an understatement ;) . This will be the summer of fishin and vw fixin.


Oh and hi everyone, my name is henry btw. I've been a vw guy for the last 8 years, this is my first air cooled though. So the learning curve is there.

Bizzle wrote:I am right there with you on the stock set up man. I'm not sure what possessed everyone to become carb conversion addicts. It works, but never fully quite right. I wish I could drive it right this minute.......seductive is an understatement ;) . This will be the summer of fishin and vw fixin.


Oh and hi everyone, my name is henry btw. I've been a vw guy for the last 8 years, this is my first air cooled though. So the learning curve is there.

I, too, walked the valley of darkness of water-cooled VWs, from a '76 Rabbit to a '78 Scirocco to a '77 Rabbit to a '89 Vanagon to a 90 Passat to a 93 Passat GLX to a 94 Passat GLX to a vow never never again drive a new Volkswagen. Too cheap plastic with insane mechanical failures like wheel bearings at 33,000 miles while I still owned my half-million mile VW bus with original bearings.

You got the Bentley manual for that thing?
Colin

the bentley manual is on its way and so is another book that was recommended. I cant decide where to start on this baby lol

Bizzle wrote:the bentley manual is on its way and so is another book that was recommended. I cant decide where to start on this baby lol

Strip the interior clean out. Remove all windows. FIX RUST. Body off if hideous structural issues along channels and pillars. Make body integrity as strong as possible. Prime and paint. New seals and glass back in. Now you can do what you want in the order you want. I go directly to brakes, then steering, then engine.
Colin

rust? what is that? i just thought that was character ..lukily the pans are perfect, just 8 million other places.......hopefully i dont find anything tooo too nasty, but intial scans look good,but a few spots do have me worried. we shall see!

but the inside
oh the inside
i love the inside







and, when i cleaned out the trunk
i found all the front carpeting (rear carpeting is still in place)....not in the worst of shape..

Hi Henry and welcome! I love your name, my six year old son has the same. Congrats on getting bit by the air-cooled bug (even though it's a squareback!). Looks like you've got a great project ahead of you, and you've come to the right place for all the help you might need. I, among others, look forward to seeing this beauty come back to life!

dtrumbo wrote: (even though it's a squareback!).

hahaha

I have always loved me some square backs!......my friend is already working on a ghia, so we couldnt have the same air cooled rides now could we? :D

here is his ghia, 71 with a 73 super beetle enginei do believe

No dis' on the squareback, just delineating it from the 'bug' (Beetle) reference. I love 'em all! Their simplicity spoke to me after we bought our first (my wife's '70 bus). After that I was bitten, smitten and in all other ways hooked!

Bizzle wrote:

dtrumbo wrote: (even though it's a squareback!).

hahaha

I have always loved me some square backs!......my friend is already working on a ghia, so we couldnt have the same air cooled rides now could we? :D

here is his ghia, 71 with a 73 super beetle enginei do believe

Nice Ghia! You need to flip the drivers mirror mount so the mirror is almost level. Dunno why so many Ghias drive around with goofy mirrors.

ha, good call! I will tell him. I never noticed that!

So today I have been looking at online places for parts.........there are so many....who do you all prefer ordering items from?

My favorite is AutohausAZ http://www.autohausaz.com/ followed closely by Airhead Parts http://www.airheadparts.com/ . Both have reasonable pricing and ship the same day you order with tracking numbers, etc. AutohausAZ has free shipping on orders of $50.00 or more which is pretty easy to do. With you being on the East Coast you might have good luck with The Bus Depot http://busdepot.com/ In my experience they don't do the whole same-day shipping with tracking numbers deal that gives me a warm/fuzzy but in theory you would get your parts sooner as they're likely coming from Pennsylvania. I have seen The Bus Depot have items drop-shipped from their supplier so not all parts come from their PA location.

ISPWest http://www.vwispwest.com/ specializes in Type 3 parts but they seem on the pricey side. If they're the only one that has it, I guess it's not all that pricey, huh?

Good luck and report back on vendors you have good experiences with. We all can use vendor-feedback, good and bad.