Aircooled VW South Africa

Here goes. I got some ants in my pants after seeing an old lowlight which a "kennis" of a freind bought. This got me thinking and I seriously wanted my own cabby. The only problem I had was that I did not know what a car does (as in under the hood), what a cam, piston, carburettor or even a distributor is or how it all works. So I started looking around for an affordable project and started reading up. A lot. So I found my cab, and immediately christened her "Shorty".

Shorty was unhappy. Years of crud and kak built up in her poor interior, as the Previous Owner was a carpenter, who took out the bench seats in the rear (saving them in damn near immaculate condition for myself on his attic) and used her as a workhorse with his wood, cabinets and tools in the back.





Unfortunately, all the crap that built up in her belly was job related (to the PO), amounting in screws, a couple of drillbits, some glue, and two plastic army figurines (those small green ones). Nothing of value underneath the dumping ground. I was hoping for something to satisfy my voyeuristic tendencies, maybe a Scope from 1970 or the like, but alas, no such luck.

Project "Cleanup" started with the removal of the engine.

An alien piece of metal, bits and plastic encased in 37 years of buildup of oil and sticky yucky stuff.

I took apart EVERYTHING (sorry no pic of all the loose bits lying around in the house, HQ - The Wife - didn't take too kindly on all the oily "goeters" contaminating her fiefdom), which was promptly removed and passed on to...

Mr Claude Inda, (thanks to Tom Bishop for the referral) who did a complete shortblock. I wanted to stay original (1700 mentioned in the topic) and struggled to get some parts, but in the end it all worked out. The normal issues, two dropped seats but luckily no damage to the pistons, an engine filled with a silvery, black gunky oil which probably struggled to find it's way through all the passages and corners and a decimated carb (it looked like there was some heat escaping back up the manifold and burnt the *&^% out of it).

I received a complete shortblock, steamcleaned, rebalanced, with new piston rings, bearings, seals, 2 x rebuilt heads with new valves, valve guides and pushrod tubes and a much better looking heart for Her Shortness.

While the 'open heart surgery' was ongoing, Project Cleanup was set in motion on the interior and body. I sanded down her floors, removing some rusty spots (which wouldn't have been conducive to her general wellbeing)



and red-ox'ed everything that was horizontal

After this, the dashboard was removed,


which was powdercoated and looks brand new (you'll have to take my word, don't have a pic at hand).

After this she went away for a bit of a facelift. The front windscreen came off and the pinhole of rust that was visible turned out to be more than just that...



But luckily Robby (Shorty's Dr 90210) cut it out along with the rest of the bad spots, welded in new pieces of metal, klapped it out with some hammers to get the shape right and worked his magic...



And proceeded with spraypainting


and

You are doing great work there! keep it up buddy

Wow, that looks good I've also found some green plastic military soldiers in the past under the seats of old cars, and Lego blocks - there will always be Lego blocks!

cool project!!! I'll be watching this one closely.

Thanks guys! Missed the lego's, I can only assume that the PO wasn't too fussed about his kids using educational toys.

The unsightly tears in the rooflining, which couldn't be "quickfixed"


and besides, just do it right the first time. New rooflining was added and all the horizontal surfaces were painted with Spectrum (a liquid rubberized soundproofing) from cabin through to the back to keep out the roadnoise (it's the black stuff on the floor).


Some parts were missing and seems to be scarcer than hen's teeth (have any of you noted basically all mechanics saying that due to SA's warm weather we don't need thermostats?) so I fashioned non return flaps,



getting more than my money's worth from the previous night's drinking, and oil cooler flap.

More to follow. Engine was put back in yesterday, but still need to connect everything up (wires, fuel lines etc). Hopefully I can start her up next weekend and get the timing in. Also waiting on the seats and interior boards for recovering, which *should* be done by November.

Oh, and thanks for all the info already on the site, which helped out quite a bit. Even so, I'm sorry to say that I've still managed to figure out some ways how not to do things right.

Lots of hard work so far, she is looking good !!

Well done. Can't wait wait for more pictures of further progress.

jahjuan wrote: Even so, I'm sorry to say that I've still managed to figure out some ways how not to do things right.

me too... dont worry, as long as you can learn from it



Stupidity isnt repeatedly hitting your head against a wall
Stupidity is expecting a different result each time.

That's a serious bit of nose job repair going on there,seems someone has talent with a welder and materials.

Nice project - looking good so far