I’ve got me the makings of a project here - yeehaaa!
1 x ’66 1300, 6v, pretty vrot due to rust, but in reasonable mechanical order (I hope!)
1 x ’63 body and pan, in beautiful, mostly rust free condition. Paint a bit ropey, but that can be fixed
Have current paperwork for both. The plan is to do up the ’63 using the ’66 for all that is missing on the ’63.
Having read oom Impi’s post on successful projects, here’s my plan:
Aim:
Looks: I’d like to have a very lekker, mostly original looking body – looker66’s bug is probably pretty close to what I’d like to achieve (considering I don’t have an uncle in the bodywork business)
Oomph: I want to have a bit of poke. Car must be nice to drive in Jhb traffic, so torque is a requirement, plus a decent cruising speed. 140 km/h comfortably would be nice. I want to be able to scoot up the hill on N12 past the Kraft Road turn-off in the right hand lane (i.e. not taking my chances stuck in the diesel fumes between trucks and over-laden taxi’s with Mozambique number plates).
Ok. So here’s my plan:
(Talk about tempting fate – geez – what do they say about the plans of mice and men..?)
1. Strip ’63.
2. Do chassis:
a. Pan:
i. Clean pan
ii. Fix any rust (e.g.around battery base).
iii. Replace any vrot looking chassis based components: gear shift bushings, quick change kit, master cylinder, clutchtube inside chassis, throttle pedal and mounts if necessary, clutch cable hook on pedal assembly. Tempted to replace brake lines too, as this would be the time to do it.
iv. Paint. (With what? Whats’ good for a chassis? 2K black, with some form of chassis/anti chip paint on the underside?)
b. Do up front beam:
i. Strip from ‘66, clean, paint.
ii. Adjusters – I’m not looking to lower the suspension – is there any good reason to go to the expense of adding adjusters? Now would be the time to do it.
iii. Replace brakes with discs (Hello Rui :
) which I assume come with bearings / brake lines etc? King/linkpins,steering damper, tie rod ends, shock absorbers, steering box, steering box coupler.iv. Probably fit thicker anti-sway bar to match camber compensator at rear.
c. Rear supension:
i. Strip from ’66, clean, paint.
ii. Replace axle gaitors, shocks, brake hoses (keeping drums – will this cause a problem with having ‘normal’ hubs on the front and VW hubs on the back?), brake cylinders/hoses/shoes, hand brake cable, torsion bar donuts. Probably fit camber compensator.
d. Gearbox:
i. Figure out which of the two gearboxes is in best condition.
ii. Replace gearbox oil, seals, engine mountings, clutch cable, Bowden tube, clutch throw out shaft, shift coupler, starter bushing.
e. Wheels:
Man – I’m going to struggle with this one. So many options. Something street suitable that won’t break the bank and will look nice. Will need adapters for rear hubs.
3. Do body:
a. Strip
b. Do I need to clean back to bare metal (which I imagine is the ideal) or just where I need to fix rust spots etc?
c. Paint. Probably metallic grey (can a non-pro spray metallic? I’ve done red 2k before and had good results…)
d. Rebuild – new body rubbers/seals where necessary. ’63 has good cal-look rubbers. I’ll probably just keep those.
e. Mount on Pan
4. Sundries:
a. Electrical:
i. Check wiring, decide if need to replace loom. Either neaten up / replace wiring.
ii. Convert 6v components to 12v
iii. Replacing alternator / gen bearings and brushes (depending on what is chosen to replace 6v gen), starter bushes and brushes, solenoid, bendix drive, refurbish wiper pivots and motor.
b. Decide on seats / upholstery… have the option of using stock from the ’66 or rally style seats that may come with the ’63.
c. Decide on stock instruments or added rev counter etc.
d. Fit results of b & c. Suspect it will include soundproofing, new carpets, reupholstered or rally front seats, reupholstered rear seat.
5. Engine:
a. Ideal: What I’d like is, I think - 90.5 cyls, 82mm crank. Twin carbs (40HPMX Empi?) Ported and polished heads (not sure what yet - CB roundports or as close to that as I can get to that from p’np heads here), Engle 110 cam. Full flow oil filter. Performance exhaust. I’d like to keep the heater boxes / get performance heater boxes because it gets fekkin cold on the ‘rand. Everything dynamically balanced.
b. Reality: It may make sense to rebuild the 1300 to a slightly higher performer while I build the nerve to pay for the engine above. Twin carbs? Whether to keep the single port heads and get a set of 1600 pistons / sleeves? Maybe try and do it with parts that can be taken across to the other engine – e.g. carbs that can be throttled down to work on this one but can be used on the other, exhaust, distr., coil, perf heater boxes etc. I suppose this depends on the condition of the case? If that is ok, then a rebuild is ok, but if it’s worn, then may as well just go straight to a.? Anyone got some good suggestions for me?
At the back of my mind, I figure that if I end up with two engines, I can then rebuild the other bug… doesn’t have to be perfect, as I’ll have my perfect one already
good luck with your project it definatly sounds interesting and i will be following this one carefully 
