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1967 VW Variant.

kadman

I am starting this thread about the 67 Variant that I was lucky enough to gain ownership from Alpha Beta.

And so that he can continue with the best thread on boards, his own one:), I will be posting up any relevant info of the variant here from now on.

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kadman

What I have done so far is to assess the current condition of the car.
so....

I freed the 2 seized wheels so that nI can move it in and out of the shed as I need to.
I brought loads of sand with me from the south coast , tucked up in the wing areas, front and back.

I am inspecting the main trouble areas associated with Type 3 Variants. Mainly heater channels, A and B posts, windscreen
areas, and front inner wheelhouse, and under rear seat ares. Plus the floor pan of course.

When I was negotiating ( well giving Alpha his asking without any hassle to him) I as happy to take the car, if I did not
have to split the floor from the pan for repairs. A 20 minute inspection of the car led me to believe I would not have to do this.
Of course thats if under the muck it was reasonably OK. I took a chance that it was. And indeed it is better than I had hoped.

So far inspection has revealed that I need to repair the two corner rear tails of the shell, the front spare wheel well area,
and one front bumper mount. All this without splitting the shell.:)

More to follow

unkel

Pics!

kadman

unkel wrote: »

Pics!

Drivers door panel after a sponge and soapy water.

[IMG][/img]

Seat came up as well after a minute or two

Drivers side front beam showing vw manufacturing number.

And top of heater channel showing shiny solid metal.

kadman

Oil looks like it was changed yesterday.

Rear passenger side panel unmarked, not the usual condition.

And underneath the leather inspection cover, nice shiny rust free wing bolts.

Abd dynamo is unmarked from its 50 year slumber

kadman

Wing surface rust treated with genolite and a quick rub 5 minutes later with fine scotchbrite pad.

For 53 year old german metal this is in amazing condition. Far superior to whats available today.

Majority of repro vw panels are paper thin. There are some decent made panels out there, but its not whats widely used. Cheaper crap is the norm

falcof8l

There is an Irish VW Aircooled group on FB, you may get assistance from there also.

Good luck with the project.

B

kadman

falcof8l wrote: »

There is an Irish VW Aircooled group on FB, you may get assistance from there also.

Good luck with the project.

B

Thanks, but I am well familiar with the VW aircooled variety, and have worked on all of them many, many years:)

But it would be interesting to know folks opinions on which routes they would take on the journey.

My own current plans are to get the mechanics and engine going, then the body.

Which entails door,wings,front boot, and rear hatch removal. Strip down these parts and make any necessary repairs ready for paint.

Then to make any repairs to the body shell with these parts off.

Maybe pass on all the parts to a neighbour crash repair chap with a modern spray booth. As he only has to spray parts, it should be a cheaper option than a full car respray.I have already spoken to him, and he has offered me spraybooth time., for myself.

Then when its driving, move the shell to the booth, just to respray the roof.

Bring home re assemble, job done

kadman

Pancake engine design.

Vw 's pancake engine design made it possible to increase luggage space area in the type 3 range.
Boxer engine similar to beetle engine, except the cooling fan has been taken from the upright position
of the beetle engine, and moved to the end of the crankshaft at the pulley end.
This made the pancake engine low in height, about 40cms, IIRC.

The engine in this car is free revolving, and in ok visual appearance. The dynamo looks like new:)

I notice that the automatic chokes have no live feeds to them from the coil. This
means they were inoperative. This would have made this engine difficult to start,
especially in colder months.

outfox

Best of luck with the project. It will make for interesting reading here.

Can I ask what this is for? Is it to pull moisture out of the metal?

kadman wrote: »

I brought loads of sand with me from the south coast , tucked up in the wing areas, front and back.

ba_barabus

outfox wrote: »

Can I ask what this is for? Is it to pull moisture out of the metal?

I think it's a left over from the previous owner

kadman

outfox wrote: »

Best of luck with the project. It will make for interesting reading here.

Can I ask what this is for? Is it to pull moisture out of the metal?

From driving along the beach on the southern coast of the emerald isle.
Its from having fun and enjoying the car:)

kadman

I expect to remove the plugs after plenty of lubrication with WD 40 this week.

Clean and gap them. Check the distributor and rotor, and clean and gap the points.
Change the coil, and connect the auto chokes.
Oil looks new, so I will crank the engine with the plugs out, and get the oil around the engine.

Then compression test all cylinders . If its good then I replace the plugs, and squirt petrol straight
down the inlet manifold.. Check the dissy for spark.

If good to go, then fire it up. I will know within 5 minutes whether this engine will fire or not.

Sounds like a plan.

John Hutton

kadman wrote: »

I expect to remove the plugs after plenty of lubrication with WD 40 this week.

Clean and gap them. Check the distributor and rotor, and clean and gap the points.
Change the coil, and connect the auto chokes.
Oil looks new, so I will crank the engine with the plugs out, and get the oil around the engine.

Then compression test all cylinders . If its good then I replace the plugs, and squirt petrol straight
down the inlet manifold.. Check the dissy for spark.

If good to go, then fire it up. I will know within 5 minutes whether this engine will fire or not.

Sounds like a plan.

Record the attempt to start it please!

ba_barabus

This is really making me want to get a proper project

ratracer

kadman makes it sound even easier to do than wheeler dealers!

I envy your training and skills, the most I can do is look in at these projects in admiration. I really love seeing any vehicle being restored, preserved and used as it was intended in the first place.

jmreire

kadman wrote: »

Thanks, but I am well familiar with the VW aircooled variety, and have worked on all of them many, many years:)

But it would be interesting to know folks opinions on which routes they would take on the journey.

My own current plans are to get the mechanics and engine going, then the body.

Which entails door,wings,front boot, and rear hatch removal. Strip down these parts and make any necessary repairs ready for paint.

Then to make any repairs to the body shell with these parts off.

Maybe pass on all the parts to a neighbour crash repair chap with a modern spray booth. As he only has to spray parts, it should be a cheaper option than a full car respray.I have already spoken to him, and he has offered me spraybooth time., for myself.

Then when its driving, move the shell to the booth, just to respray the roof.

Bring home re assemble, job done

Sound's like a plan........;)

kadman

John Hutton wrote: »

Record the attempt to start it please!

Thats the plan,:)

saabsaab

When you get the plugs out you could squirt a little 2 stroke down the bores?

kadman

ratracer wrote: »

kadman makes it sound even easier to do than wheeler dealers!

I envy your training and skills, the most I can do is look in at these projects in admiration. I really love seeing any vehicle being restored, preserved and used as it was intended in the first place.

The only training I had was an interest in all things mechanical, well nurtured by my dad. he was my teacher, old school.

Its really a process of eliminating all the components one by one, after you have established each component works as it should. If it doesn't, its a possible issue,

Fix it and move on to the next.:)

kadman

John Hutton wrote: »

Record the attempt to start it please!

Just like my last one,

kadman

Picture showing the dynamo pulley cover.

Notice the sticker with the recommended tappet setting of 4 thou.
This was the initial setting for all valve tappets on all VW engines between services.

Problem was that the VW engine performed so well , even when it was not serviced at the regular periods.

That it went for longer periods without setting, that VW increased the valve tappet settings to 6 thou
to accomodate lazy service owners:)

Properly serviced classic VW engines with valve settings of 4 thou are a sweeter running engine.

Markcheese

kadman wrote: »

From driving along the beach on the southern coast of the emerald isle.
Its from having fun and enjoying the car:)

Amazed all the salt in the sand didn't rot out the body ...

jmreire

The most common rust area of the Beetle was underneath the battery, but they could and did rust in other areas too. But the centre frame, on which everything depended, was made of a very heavy gauge metal, and aside from surface rust, I've never seen one rust through.

kadman

Well amazingly there is no rust all anywhere on the floorpan, and the battery tray
is spotless.

There is no similarity at all between the beetle Type1 and the Type3 floorpan.
As you correctly point out the beetle has a central spine down the length of the car,
and two floorpans, one either side of the spine, placed in from above.

The type 3 floorpan differs in the construction. It has a central spine, but a single full size pan
attached to the central spine, from below.

So that if you look under a type 3 floor, you cannot see the central spine. If you
can the floors have been replaced.

jmreire

kadman wrote: »

Well amazingly there is no rust all anywhere on the floorpan, and the battery tray
is spotless.

There is no similarity at all between the beetle Type1 and the Type3 floorpan.
As you correctly point out the beetle has a central spine down the length of the car,
and two floorpans, one either side of the spine, placed in from above.

The type 3 floorpan differs in the construction. It has a central spine, but a single full size pan
attached to the central spine, from below.

So that if you look under a type 3 floor, you cannot see the central spine. If you
can the floors have been replaced.

Yes, the Beetle and the Variant were two different vehicles though, so different construction. But they shared a lot of design features...torsion bar suspension, and "Y" ( loosely described ) shaped Chassis either end of the centre spine, Fantastic car, and very popular with commercial travellers, and Vet's. We serviced quite a lot of them, and even had one Karmann Ghia customer

kadman

True for the suspension, but type 3 had torsion bar suspension all around,
using round torsion bars on front beam and rear axle.
Where as beetle torsion bar suspension on the front was actually made up of seperate leaves
in the tube of the front beam, and round torsion bars on the rear.

The variant was initially a hard sell for Volkswagen, according to the leading salesperson for vw back in the day.

Main dealers had to be encouraged to drive the variant as a dealer car. Thats why many variants were owned
and run by VW leasing company, as this one was

kadman

Here is the full pressed steel floor of the type 3.
And as you can see the central spine is not visible as the floor pan is a single complete pressed panel.
here is one i prepared earlier,

carchaeologist

Excellent thread here Kadman, it looks a very solid and worthwhile car. Will certainly enjoy the progress reports.

jmreire

kadman wrote: »

True for the suspension, but type 3 had torsion bar suspension all around,
using round torsion bars on front beam and rear axle.
Where as beetle torsion bar suspension on the front was actually made up of seperate leaves
in the tube of the front beam, and round torsion bars on the rear.

The variant was initially a hard sell for Volkswagen, according to the leading salesperson for vw back in the day.

Main dealers had to be encouraged to drive the variant as a dealer car. Thats why many variants were owned
and run by VW leasing company, as this one was

Yes the front ones were flat strip's but held together in a "shape" for want of a better description, but you know what I mean. I well remember using masking tape to help them keep their "Shape" before inserting them into the axle beam.Rears as you say, were round splined bars, not the kind of suspension that was very popular at the time...Morris Minor's had it as well for the front suspension. Again round bar's with splined end's running along the chassis rails. Same system basically, but most cars of that era were using coil spring suspension. With most of our customers ( Farmer's mainly ) the Beetle was first choice, then came the commercial salesmen and Vet's. But they were a really good car IMHO, be nice to see yours when its finished.

kadman

Off out now to crack open the plugs....hopefully, and do a compression check to see
if its in a condition to fire.

Wish me luck:)