1963 VW Beetle:Ragtop Resto.

[63Ragtop]

Shit yeah, Summer!

BBQ, beer and bug down by the beach.

[63Ragtop]

Went to a small Hot rod get together last night.

managed to find a friend.

perfect day for it!

[63Ragtop]

Sup folks! still rolling this pile daily. been out to a few shows C&C, Kumeu the other day, even made it to Auckland Burgermeet!



Actual Update Material! Got some new rear tyres for xmas, as the others where 15 years old and bald as fuck.



actually slid out on me in the dry once!




Fancy Pirelli and everything, heaps of grips, just like a F1 car mate!
The guys at Lincoln Tyres sold them to me at a better price than shitty firehawks etc..



making the most of summer!!



rollin rollin rollin...

[63Ragtop]

Summertime!



slammage.(sitting on a funny angle)  





cruized around town the other night.



me and Bell climbed a tree.



birds eye view.



since I got it back on the road I've been sure the exhaust didn't sound right, as it had been nearly a decade I just rolled with it but for the last week or two it been starting to sound more and more like a massey ferguson by the day. So on friday night I dropped the whole thing out, which was better easy as half the nuts holding it on were missing  and one of the studs, so sorry about that if you were following me at the time!



and then I found this on one of the heat exchanger pipes.



what the fuckity? luckily I have a welder, also don't weld in jandels, that shit hurts!
Should last another couple months, right? 
got it all back together last yesterday which nearly killed me in this heat! and finally I can hear the actual exhaust note now, brum brum!! I like it alot.
Also spring washers where used this time so all the nuts and studs should stay put!

[63Ragtop]

6month update time, its been great driving the bug again, only real problems have been the electric fuel pump not pumping(earth being bad) and the right park light not working(also earth I guess?) headlight still works so ???
The main thing was the brakes, or lack there of! After the whole, rear hard line episode, I had bled and adjusted them a few times and come to find when I reinstalled the handbrake cables the left one wasn't sitting its guide under the lever, which resulted in the shoe being on at all times, wearing away all the shoe lining and nearly cooking the rear brake to the point that a small bit of paint blistered off the backing plate and also braking the cable, nice.
So, first things first, replace hand brake cables.



here you can see the poor old cable.

which is were I found the above shitfest inside the rear drums.



lucky it still looks good!



So with that fixed I took it to franks and got the rear bearings and seals sorted for good.
(photo op with johns 63!)
get the fucking brakes fixed! was franks professional assessment.
Yes sir, New shoe and drum time. The thing was the brakes worked okay, heaps of travel on the pedal, and would pull up much better on the second pump, otherwise an emergency stop would just lock up the fronts there was no progression, just wooden and dead feeling.
So I'm leaving work one shitty rainy night, the driveway is well over 100mtrs long, so I tend to give it a brat! in first, hook second, brat! and coast to the end to stop and lock the gate, and the gas pedal gets stuck down full tit!
This is the first time in six months of driving this has happened, people say their life flashes before them, all I saw was bumper to bumper traffic crawling past and me t-boning some poor fucker at over 50mph! I hit the clutch, I killed the key and stomped the brakes, everything happened super fast, the front tyres locked up easy on the wet dirty concrete and I slide into the massive steel gate, bompa!!



well damn.



have roughly knocked it out for now, to cold to repaint so rattle canned it for now and kicked myself in the head a few times. Could have been much worse.

the good!



this looks better!



quick matt black and thread lock the studs in.



yep, worn out alright!



New front drums.



no oil everywhere in the fronts at least, I gave everything a good blow out and clean, guess I didn't take a pic?



shiny new drums



swapped the bearing over front the old drums, I noticed the new drums have a groove to make this easier, the old ones didn't so there was only a tiny lip of the outer bearing to hit, managed without destroying the bearings.



all fitted up.



WOW! so much better to drive now! still need to bed in and might re-adjust soon, just to check, but it pulls up straight and quick, no shuddering at motorway speeds like they use to, very happy.



At least this side still looks nice! 
Main thing its much safer and enjoyable to drive now you don't feel like death it riding shotgun with you.
keen to start collecting some sound deadening and headlining materials over winter, I have big plans.

[63Ragtop]

Plans are afoot.

[63Ragtop]

So the old vw has been off the road for about ten months. Luckily, as fate would have it my young brother-in-law was heading overseas to travel. So I've had his old car to drive over winter. Anyone what to buy a 96 Caldina turbo desiel? No Right, moving on.

When I finally finished the resto on this thing, the interior was just thrown in, zero fucks, basic. Ten months ago it Also failed it's wof on the setlbelts. So the desiel arrived just on time. I'd noticed that the rear floor was getting wet while driving in the rain. Turned out to be a leak between the floorpan and body right in the corner under the back right. The sunroof had also seen better days, I'd only duct taped in on 2 years ago and the cover was starting to crack and leak. It also has no noise insulation and I'd never gotten around to spraying the rust proofing about inside, again because it was such a mad rush at the end.

[63Ragtop]

Pulled the interior, which took about 15 minutes. 

gave it a good clean, was please to see everything still looks pretty dry and tidy. Darrell gave me a huge sheet of sound deadening, stuck in place.

[63Ragtop]

Made up these little things to mount my fancy new seatbelts.

Gave them a lick of paint.

And, for the first time ever!

Reel up seatbelts!

[63Ragtop]

The other reason for new belts was to get rid of these stupidly long storks. I shopped around and was keen to get some old school style buckles, which are available in reel ups, but the buckle side was also an adjustable belt, as this car is a daily I didn't want to be fishing around under seats and nothing else is original in this car so who cares!

Better.

 

[63Ragtop]

Leaky corner.

Hopefully this stuff sorts it.

[63Ragtop]

So the rust proofing has a interesting colour/look  @sheepers dunno what happened to your gun mate, but as soon as I turned the air on it shot it's load all over the garage, seems stuck on?

 

[sheepers]

ah, yea the trigger sticks if it hasnt been used for ages.

give it a bath in meths or just use it heaps, either way it should free up.

[63Ragtop]

All done now, still worked Sweet!

Noise stuff.

And put all the autodec back in. Speakers are mounted to some 3mm mdf and glued the back of the carpet, no boxes, the magnets help keep them in place. 

[63Ragtop]

This is glue, very strong stuff.

And

Hurrah!

Interior is a much nice place to be now with all the carpet back in.  Still loud as all hell inside, maybe a little better around town, so that's a win.

Got a roll of canvas through work, so I'm going to make a new sunroof cover with the industrial sewing machine we have. Pretty easy to do, its just a big square shape with a douple hem on each side. Shit is spendy, lucky I only need 1.2mtrs.so nice, could have bought another vinyl cover for half the price, but this sewfine canvas is triple layered lushness. Then I'll reattach the inside headlining which actually helps the rag work properly.

Good it have you back ol' girl.

 

[63Ragtop]

New ragtop cover for the ragtop time.

Brought the bug inside work, took the old cover off and had fun removing all the sticky duct tape glue, fuck that stuff.

All the parts layed out.

Cut the new cover on the esko, perfectly square cad cut.

Sewed the hems over and added slits for the bow to sit inside as factory, the old cover didn't do this so you had to be careful not to end up with a parachute attached to the roof.

All mounted, I added some thick felt to the front bow, not sure I like it, if it doesn't pack down I might remove it, looks to chunky. 

Looks sweet folded back.

Will now start thinking about the inside headlining.

[63Ragtop]

But first, more important things!

As I don't have radio, I've just been plugging my phone into this 222Wattts of retro power!

With speakers in the front now, I was keen to get them going, luckily I have two 222Wattts amps. After way to much time trying to somehow fit them both under the back seat, I realize there's heaps of room behind the back seat, 

I was going to but this behind the back seat.

But, without drilling holes in my floor there's nothing to anchor it's considerably weight to.

So.

Ye ol 6x9th, shall suffice.

Tidied up the wiring. Been fiddling with settings, running the low pass on the 6x9, not bad. Had a stupid idea of just mounting the sub like the 6x9s as that rear area is pretty good box.

Took the family out for a drive over to Devonport, they weren't that thrilled about not taking mums limo. Well not limo, but a 04 Odyssey is infinitely more comfortable that this tiny smelly noisy little car. Started off great, got on the motorway, had gone about 2kms and the engine stuttered and we're outta gas! Fortunately I always carry spare gas. 

Are we making memories yet!

Had a swim and drove home our wet toggs with an ice cream, i always have to turn the car off a drivethu, cant hear the little man in the box! By the end of the day we all a most excellent day out.

 

[63Ragtop]

So here we are again. I've said it before but this thing is farkin loud to drive around in, one of the exhaust studs had pulled out way back, so has been on the list of things to do for some time. Still even with all the leaks, I started noticing a weird noise from the rear end, wheel bearing? Drove around for a week or so and it was not getting better. My hatred of vw rear hubs is as high as ever, so I dropped it off at Frank's because fuck vw rear hubs with their 300pound foot of bullshit. Turned out both rear drums had flogged out and where fairly close to falling off! I think these new drums are made of cheese? 

So we'll see how long these new new ones last? Don't think the last ones did 10k?

Realized I had a M10 tap and some threaded rod, dunno if this was the right way to go but thanks to the drums and fuckin covid it will have to do!

Can see all the carbon on the head there. Removable rear valance made this job super easy!

Engine is still going well, sounds very tappy tappy and the bottom is covered in oil. I would like to install a better oil breather system as it doesn't really have one, I'm sure this would help keeping the black stuff inside the case. My long term plan was to built a nice new engine before this one fucks out and straight swap them, I have also had naughty thoughts of a nice modern sohc Subaru engine, minimal chopping to install and an easy 200% power increase. 

Thanks for watching.

[63Ragtop]

When the car was at Frank's, his mechanic commented on how sloppy the shifter was. You just need to know how to drive it mate! Truth is if be having trouble with it for ages. So I left to do the school run and get to work, about a week later, hooked second and WTF? It jumped into neutral and the stick itself forgot it's H Pattern and just flopped about like a spoon in a mixing bowl! 

Turns out the base held together by these four long pop rivets, until it wasn't. Was a easy fix, even had the right size nut and bolt combo.

Actually pretty funny.

That my sharns for today. chur.

[63Ragtop]

Well, after a small break  over winter, I got a new wof for summer  

Feels good to be back on the road, been thinking about the subwoofer, I bought that box with the shitty lightning audio 12 inch, for 10bucks at the dump shop, 

It's super well built, better than the cheap repco ones and a lot better what I could build. The old sub is stuffed but I have always wanted some doffdoff! I have own this JBL12 for nearly 20 years! But the old vw genny has never had enough juice to run one.

Time to see if this thing still works!

Bridged the mighty 222watts and stuck it on the back seat for now. Gets ya right in the kidneys.

Fuck yeah.