My LHD '69 1300 Beetle
Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2009 1:36 pm
For my 18th birthday back in June my mom surprised me with this beauty! Apparently the original owner brought it down from Greece and my mom bought it from their daughter so I'm actually the 3rd owner of this car. It's a left-hand drive (which is a bit annoying when it comes to things like toll gates, booms,etc), but it's an awesome daily driver.
It had been neglected for a long time (the oil was a thick sludge when we tried to drain it and the carb was filthy)! There were many other things that were wrong with it and my uncle and I have done loads of work on it to get it looking as it does now. Unfortunately, I don't have any before pictures but when my mom bought it it had just received a new paint job, new carpeting and upholstery (to try and sell it I would imagine).
We replaced:
-the side mirrors
-the rear view mirror
-the front windscreen (the one that was in was too small for the hole and wasn't tempered
)
-the rubber seals around the windows and the doors (they were falling apart and were a little too easy to remove )
-the rear shocks with gas riders (the front ones were still OK)
-about 90% of the wiring
-the break sensor thing behind the wheel (you would press brakes and the lights wouldn't come on)
-the oil presure sensor
-most of the bulbs
-both rear lights
-the indicator mechanism
-the old, broken running boards with aluminium ones
And:
-we put in seat belts for the two front seats which are for a Citi Golf
-a fuel filter was put in
-new Firehawk tires were put on
-an immobiliser was put in (but I've disconnected the fuel cut off since the idiots who installed it put it at the base of the engine compartment where it could overheat and leave me blocking up a lane on the R21 for 10 minutes in rush hour traffic a couple weeks ago)
-a gear lock was fitted, but you have to put the car into 4th (the highest gear) when locking it. It was also mounted in a funny way so it's actually a huge mission to take on and off because you have to push down the rubber around the gear lever and judo chop the thing into place.
-a basic radio was put in and it's still working, by some miracle, with the completely destroyed speaker in the dash
There is little to no rust (which is a huge relief). One thing that bothers me though is that the right passenger door sags slightly, you can see the bottom hinge is damaged but the only way I can see of fixing that is by removing the door and strengthening that point by welding, but that would destroy the paint...
I'm contemplating replacing the generator with an alternator and taking the engine apart this holiday (because I've heard some funny tapping while idling). I also want to put some kick panel speakers in when I get some cash. The side panels and lining are original but the (door) side panels have received water damage and are warped. Someone had also made new holes and had used plastic clips for the door panels but it left the original holes exposed along the top (hopefully I can soon fix this). Once the petrol drops below a quarter the gauge goes up to full and down to empty repeatedly so I'm hoping to fix that soon as well. I have some airplane seat belts (the type that clips over your lap) that I want to put in for the back seat but I need to find the correct eyebolts for the job.
The switch for the windscreen wiper appears to also be a button at the centre (you can push it in) but there is no mechanism to spray the windows. Does anyone know if I can hook up an electrical sprayer to work with this button (I know it originally worked with tire pressure)? I don't want to mount another button/switch to work with the sprayer.
The timings, etc are all properly adjusted and maintained. Soon the speedo will go back to 00000, I think, seeing as it's at 98585.
Is there anything that anyone recommends that I should do to the car in the near future? Next year I have to drive it about 70kms everyday to varsity and back and I don't want it to give me trouble. Overall I'm really happy with it! The fastest I've ever gone in it is about 130km/h (almost the whole speedo LOL) and depending on how I drive I've gotten between 350 and 500 km out of a full tank of petrol (I've noticed it's gotten better as I've been driving more) - I only fill up with LRP from the Engen up the road from my house and we've gone through nearly three bottles of ordinary oil to try and clean out the gunge that was in the system but at the next oil change I'm going to put in Castrol GTX.
Enjoy the pictures and please tell me what you think...
It had been neglected for a long time (the oil was a thick sludge when we tried to drain it and the carb was filthy)! There were many other things that were wrong with it and my uncle and I have done loads of work on it to get it looking as it does now. Unfortunately, I don't have any before pictures but when my mom bought it it had just received a new paint job, new carpeting and upholstery (to try and sell it I would imagine).
We replaced:
-the side mirrors
-the rear view mirror
-the front windscreen (the one that was in was too small for the hole and wasn't tempered
)-the rubber seals around the windows and the doors (they were falling apart and were a little too easy to remove
)-the rear shocks with gas riders (the front ones were still OK)
-about 90% of the wiring
-the break sensor thing behind the wheel (you would press brakes and the lights wouldn't come on)
-the oil presure sensor
-most of the bulbs
-both rear lights
-the indicator mechanism
-the old, broken running boards with aluminium ones
And:
-we put in seat belts for the two front seats which are for a Citi Golf
-a fuel filter was put in
-new Firehawk tires were put on
-an immobiliser was put in (but I've disconnected the fuel cut off since the idiots who installed it put it at the base of the engine compartment where it could overheat and leave me blocking up a lane on the R21 for 10 minutes in rush hour traffic a couple weeks ago)
-a gear lock was fitted, but you have to put the car into 4th (the highest gear) when locking it. It was also mounted in a funny way so it's actually a huge mission to take on and off because you have to push down the rubber around the gear lever and judo chop the thing into place.
-a basic radio was put in and it's still working, by some miracle, with the completely destroyed speaker in the dash
There is little to no rust (which is a huge relief). One thing that bothers me though is that the right passenger door sags slightly, you can see the bottom hinge is damaged but the only way I can see of fixing that is by removing the door and strengthening that point by welding, but that would destroy the paint...
I'm contemplating replacing the generator with an alternator and taking the engine apart this holiday (because I've heard some funny tapping while idling). I also want to put some kick panel speakers in when I get some cash. The side panels and lining are original but the (door) side panels have received water damage and are warped. Someone had also made new holes and had used plastic clips for the door panels but it left the original holes exposed along the top (hopefully I can soon fix this). Once the petrol drops below a quarter the gauge goes up to full and down to empty repeatedly so I'm hoping to fix that soon as well. I have some airplane seat belts (the type that clips over your lap) that I want to put in for the back seat but I need to find the correct eyebolts for the job.
The switch for the windscreen wiper appears to also be a button at the centre (you can push it in) but there is no mechanism to spray the windows. Does anyone know if I can hook up an electrical sprayer to work with this button (I know it originally worked with tire pressure)? I don't want to mount another button/switch to work with the sprayer.
The timings, etc are all properly adjusted and maintained. Soon the speedo will go back to 00000, I think, seeing as it's at 98585.
Is there anything that anyone recommends that I should do to the car in the near future? Next year I have to drive it about 70kms everyday to varsity and back and I don't want it to give me trouble. Overall I'm really happy with it! The fastest I've ever gone in it is about 130km/h (almost the whole speedo LOL) and depending on how I drive I've gotten between 350 and 500 km out of a full tank of petrol (I've noticed it's gotten better as I've been driving more) - I only fill up with LRP from the Engen up the road from my house and we've gone through nearly three bottles of ordinary oil to try and clean out the gunge that was in the system but at the next oil change I'm going to put in Castrol GTX.
Enjoy the pictures and please tell me what you think...
