Any VW Beetle experts in the house???

[SacredCow]

I'm about to buy a 1979 Super Beetle Convertible from a friend. He regrets having to sell it, but he needs the money and wants her to go to a owner that's going to take care of her needs. Right off, the top will be replaced along with a few other (mostly) cosmetic issues. Then, I'll take the restoration process one project at a time.

Mechanically, I believe her to be sound, and she comes with a full history of what's been done. I've had other VW's before, but this will be my first air-cooled. Does anyone have any advice with regards to these cars?

Thanks!

[SacredCow]

1. Update- She's now mine....

Heidi is her name, and she is now officially mine:







Her insides aren't as pretty...




Off she goes to the upholstery shop very soon for a new top, and then begins the task of gutting the inside and finding all of her little rust spots.... I'm glad that she's been taken care of in the engine and transmission department. I drove her a good bit this weekend, and she purrs like a lolcat.

[JVS]

3. interesting pic. The dash looks a lot like my dad's mid 1970's audi, the doors, shifter...

and brake like moms 1970 beetle

[flvegan]

5. Audi/VW have been under the same umbrella since the 60's.

Most of their cars to today share a platform and parts, IIRC.

[jimmil]

6. I would really consider

Using Valvoline Max Life as the oil of choice for this old girl. It's very good oil and appears to actually work. Stay away from Mobile 1 because in 1998 they changed the formula and it is a much poorer oil now than years ago. Do NOT use any of the pour in crap. Most of it is snake oil and some, those with teflon in it like Slick 50, can do damage to your engine by forming long polymer strings that can clog oil passages.

WARNING: The next part is pure speculation as I never worked on a VW but I have had six airplanes and being air cooled engines I would think the same principals apply.

As far as the VW itself the one thing I would look at is the baffling around the cylinders. In an air cooled engine the airflow around the engine is critical for heat removal. If some of the baffling has become brittle and cracked or broken you can loose some of the cooling which is not good what so ever. I remember some owners in the day would open the rear hood after driving to cool the engine to prevent vapor lock when starting up again. I have no idea if that is relevant or not but maybe something to keep in mind if on some hot days it refuses to start after a short trip to the store.

[JVS]

2. Not really much advice, but change the oil often.

I read that air cooling is particularly tough on oil. Also, VW beetles have a pretty developed fan-culture so if you pick up a magazine like the paper version of this one http://www.hotvws.com/ you should be able to find advertisements for quality parts.

[jimmil]

4. Over a period of time...

Try to put her back stock completely. It's hard to believe but VW's, especially the old models are fetching as much as $30K and higher now. You definitely have a diamond in the rough. The car looks like it is in GREAT shape and that is good news for you. Parts are plentiful and cheap since it has only been a few years since they have been out of production throughout the world.

[old mark]

7. Can only add support -

keep the oil and filter clean, change regularly.

Some of the old ones had trouble starting in rainy, damp weather - problem is mainly the distributer cap - they crack and short.

I used to keep a new one in the car as a spare.

mark

[SacredCow]

8. Update on the beetle....

Well, I'm closing in on having owned this car for a year... Unfortunately, she's not as far along as I'd like, but progress HAS been made.

The convertible top... That was an ordeal. Took a while for the upholstery shop to get all of the parts, and when they took the old material off, there was a fair amount of rust and bending of the frame. They were able to fix everything though, and the end result looks fantastic. The top, padding, and headlining material is all new.

Engine... I've really not done much other than regular oil changes and valve adjustments. I'm playing it safe and having the valves adjusted with every oil change (they suggest every 5000 miles, but I'm really not driving the car that much). There are 132K-ish original miles on the car, and some have said that the engine may be approaching the end of it's life. But the previous owner had a complete top-end engine overhaul performed- all new heads and seals installed, so I think it will be good for a while. It continues to purr like a kitten! Oh, and it does remain fuel-injected- no conversion to carbs, and I plan to keep it that way.

Tranny... I'm planning to have the transmission overhauled in the next month or 2. There is some popping out of 3rd (that they claim is due to a worn bushing, but to get to the bushing, the tranny has to be removed so at that point- might as well overhaul it). I've set aside the funds for that.

Interior... All I've really done is cleaned it up and put some temporary covers and padding into the front seats so she can be driven comfortably. I've pulled back the carpet and vinyl, and it looks as if I may be able to bypass any floor-pan work. The rust is minimal. I plan to clean and treat the rust spots and make a couple of small patches and re-inforcements. I've purchased some dampening materials (second skin) and will one day tear out everything and replace. I'm not going to go completely stock, as the black vinyl is just not practical in Louisiana heat. I will be installing a tweed interior, in a mixture of charcoal and black.

That's the high points- lots of other odds and ends to work on, too.

[jimmil]

9. As far as the seats....

Can you score another set? That way you could have one set put stock if you plan to sell it in the future and the other you can have upholstered any way you like. I know it's hot in La. and vinyl seats are absolutely horrible there. However, a spare set of stock seats may be cost effective if you plan on selling it ever. You definitely would get more on the sale.

Just as a comment, I saw an old VW convertible get $42,000.00 at an auction on TV. Until recently the convertibles were a real hot seller while the old 60s muscle cars were taking a nose dive.

[catnhatnh]

10. I got to the party a little late....

but back in the day about 90% of all catastrophic engine failures were on #3 cylinder...thats driver side and forward to you. the reason had to do with the air cooling jacket design which left the 2 rear cylinders closer to the cool air at the rear. This left the forward 2 cylinders more prone to overheating and seizure. But in that subset the right side cylinder is both closer to the cooling fan AND the left side passage is partly obscured by the oil cooling tower that adds it's own heat to the cooling flow.

So, if you really wanted to protect that rascal-and the boys with big bucks in hopping up the engine needed to-the gold standard was a cylinder head temperature gauge on #3...

And that's the way it was...