1966 Type 1 by dustinwark

14 minute(s) of a 29 minute read

1966 Type 1

Compliments of dustinwark @ www.vwvortex.com

12/11/10

Hello Air-cooled forum!

I picked up this '66 about a month ago for my Fiancee as a DD. By "I" I mean she paid for it, but I helped her find a good one. It runs okay, more on that later, and is in pretty damn good shape. The plan for this winter is to get the inside insulated/finished. get the primer off the outside, and lower it a touch until spring when it will be slammed.

Here are a few pictures of how we got it.

I will post more pictures later today. I spent about 5 hours last night sanding and got the primer off the rear fenders and apron. The paint is in great condition in most parts and I think will look great with a nice buff.

Well here are the pictures after the first night of sanding.

12/12/10

Spent another good 5-6 hours yesterday sanding and made really good progress. I actually had some help so we were able to get more work done. The rear fender was sanded with 1000 grit (as opposed to the 400 the rest was) and then buffed with an orbital just to test to see how the paint will look. I am going to try and wrap things up today. Here are pictures from last night:

The front/rear fenders, front/rear apron, front/rear hood are all 100% sanded and ready for a buff. The roof is 97% done and the sides/doors still need some work, but we have reached a good point where driving around won't look too funny.

1/8/11

Well David and I got a BUNCH of little things fixed on the car and Daisy is getting more excited about it! The list of things now fixed:

-working starter (bought a brand new Bosch 12v starter, turns our we needed a 6v which David had a spare)

-new speedometer cable

-new heater cables

-new brake switch

-new parcel tray installed

-new roller style accelerator pedal

-new throttle cable

-got all exterior lights (turn signals, running, tail, head, and brake) working.

Some pictures I took during.

new starter that we ended up not using:

boo for stock ride height:

a good view in the shop, with something lurking:

old starter, new roller pedal, and the parcel tray!

2/17/11

Okay it has been a long time since there has been an update and the entire time David and I had been trying to figure out what was determined to e a charging issue. 

We:

-torn the engine apart and replaced the old generator with a spare one David had (didn't have the right socket to remove the fan so the one form David's bus stayed.

-learned how to polarize a generator (thanks Jerry)

-replaced the heater boxes due to a nice exhaust leak in the cabin.

-relocated the fuel filter away from the engine bay

-rebuilt the carb (first for me)

-torn the engine down again to put an alternator in because the new generator was still not charging

-put the old fan on the alternator with the correct socket (thanks James)

-ran some new wires to the alternator as there was not steady voltage.

After all of that we tested the alternator and it was still not charging so before Daisy threw in the towel we dropped it off at RMF. They diagnosed the problem (the alternator we had put in was VERY old and did NOT have an internal regulator like every other alternator so simply adding the correct one fixed the charging issue), added a correct voltage regulator, fixed all the interior lighting which was broken due to a 6v headlight switch being blown.

So the car is running and charging how it is suppose to and Daisy is happy. Now that it is running right we can once again focus on making the car better looking.

Daisy and I spent a few hours the other night finishing off the sanding of the primer we had started earlier. It is all off now!

2/27/10

Some picture of the wheels I had refinished for the bug.

2/28/11

Got some center caps for them as well:

4/1/11

Finally started working on the moar low aspect of this build. David and I started tearing the beam out to weld some adjusters on. We ran into some issues so just decided to go ahead and narrow the beam (2"). It took all of yesterday just to get everything out and mostly fitted and welded back together. Today we have to set the adjuster, finish welding, put it back together, lower the rear (1 click), and replace the brake lines. When we took out the gas tank to get to the beam we noticed that the brake lines were ancient and about to crumble to dust......AWESOME so glad my Fiancee and I are still alive! Not sure how low it is going to sit right now, but it probably won't be as low as I want it until later when we get some drop spindles.

Got the beam out:

Stock beam, you can see the tiny sway bar that has since been cut off and tossed away.

Brake lines:

inside, torsion leafs

David doing his thing:

and this is how the narrowed beam looked last night when we left it, rough, but it works!

Pictures of everything back together to come hopefully tonight.

4/2/11

Well after another long day everything is back on the car and moar low is complete. Once we get smaller tires and drop spindles it will be going lower. At this height the tire rubs on the headlight bucket. We also had to remove the shocks as they were bottomed out and kept the car from going any lower.

4/13/11

Got a new front bumper with US-spec over-riders and threw it on today. Matching rear bumper to follow soon.

4/14/11

Got a "new" hood to replace the old bent one. The old one didn't sit right and had a ton of dents on it, looked almost like a golf ball in spots. Not 100% sure what the plan is for this hood, I feel bad about letting it rust so probably going to get some paint mixed up into rattle cans and try to match the paint.

4/28/11

Well we had the car pin-striped (by hand) by a man named Shaky, did an awesome job. I also added a little something to the VW emblem, I just painted it white and sanded some of it off.

5/6/11

Got the wheels back, tires mounted, balanced, and on the car! I absolutely love the way the white looks on the turquoise. I knew it would look good, but not this good. Next on the list: Shorter shocks, drop spindles, moar low, rear bumper to match the front, get the wipers working, and then start working on the interior. 

6/6/11

Two small updates. One cosmetic and the other mechanical. Noticed the coil was leaking a thick black goo from the bottom so decided it was time to replace it. It was replaced with a newish blue Bosch one. Engine seems to run a little smoother now.

old:

and the new(ish) one:

and an engine shot:

Also did a straight trade for an awesome early white steering wheel.

old:

and the new(ish) one: