Das Volks Vintage Volkswagen Gruppe

Finally got my brakes line in the mail today..... geez 10 + days of waiting.

Installed the main one tonight after the house went to sleep.


put some seats on from an oval i had sitting around




earlier in the week I installed the rag rails I got form Marc in NJ.



cleaned up the Golde handle


late 63-64 hood in a 9 out od 10 condition. This will work until I find a 61-early 63 hood with no emblem bump but with wolfsburg crest slots



nice tidbid I found.... can this explain the reason for this car being so solid?



test drive tommorow

Gonna test how water tight that ragtop is, huh? I hope it goes well!

Big_kid wrote:Gonna test how water tight that ragtop is, huh? I hope it goes well!

I dont think it leaked, but I did have some water on the DS floor. Ragtop?... maybe. Considering the rot on that side, it must be an ongoing issue form an undetermined source. I did note the rear window looks to be leaking as well; hence the missing headliner below the rear window.

I took her to my moms and mother in laws before Sandy. She pulls to one side when braking, and I have a not great pedal, so I'll rebleed and adjust the brakes. I'll yank the drums too so see how we are looking in there.

One front tire was rotted bad and had a slow leak, so I swapped out the empis 5's for a pair of centerlines I have in my stash. I dont now what rims I want to run on here yet. Still working out the electrical gremlins as I have no front blinkers, parking lihghts up fornt or one headlight. I'll get her done.

Added the rear ' door' panels, and rear seat. Hope to get liam in here soon. Ordered 3 point seat belts today, and need to decide what radio to run. Had a valve cover leak so chnaged the gasket this morning via flashlight. I also put in the heather tube ( box to body) on the passenger side. I drove her to work today, and it was a chilly 41 outside. Nice and toasty in the car though!

All in all.... im happy with her.

Glad to see it coming along!

while recovering from having my 4 wisdom teeth pulled last night, I ventured out to the garage for a bit to install my new 3 point seat belts form WW. I ordered the special adapter that reduces the stock 62-65 belt hole down to a std size. It bolts right into the stock ' holes'.

some pics of the 'new' door panels and seats

I'm learning just by reading. Keep at it!

I love the interior color.

I took the 63 out for a ride last weekend to exit 53ish. She ran fine, other than the front tires rubbing. I have other 135s in storage that I need to get mounted back onto the polished 5's that currently have dry rotted 135s' Im getting it ready for the intention to take liam to the holiday parade, so of course, Im a bit nervous as he hasnt been in anything aircooled yet. The brake REALLY pull to the left. It was bad emough that, I yanked the drum to see what was going on. I noticed that the pads had discolored marks on them... almost like thay have never made contact with the drum. And after last week's ride, I had NO heat on that that pass front drum. That make me think its was either a collapsed soft line or bad wheel cyl. I disconnected them and pumped the brakes. Still firm pedal and no juice out the soft line. Disconnected the soft line form the hard line....... pedal went to floor, brake fluid shot out all over. Soft lines for the front are on order.

Also, rear lap belt for center of rear seat.... liam will be sitting B$tch in his car seat..... i hope.

Careful, creating seat positions by mixing and matching seat belt bungs is a bad idea. This coming from my "EMS" hat. I'm sure you knew that when you posted it...

ObnoxiousBlue wrote:Careful, creating seat positions by mixing and matching seat belt bungs is a bad idea. This coming from my "EMS" hat. I'm sure you knew that when you posted it...

talk to me.... Did I miss something? What is your fear? Im not really mixing and matching, more so, installing the bung reducer that reduces the size of the hole so I can bolt in new seatbelts.

Im going into this knowing that its a vintage VW from the early 60's, 4w drums, non collapsible steering column, steel interior, no pass mirror, 40hp at best, etc. The assumption here is any collision will be not too pretty. Just trying to secure any bodies in the vehicle to the best ability without modifiying it and 'making' it a modern vehicle. Its the exact opposite of the 6k lbs 380 hp truck I drive daily...thats a given.

Raj, I dot expect the 63 will ever be safe in comparison to the tundra. And certainly you're right that any collision would be messy. But the goal of belts is "pre-crash positioning" the game is all bout putting Liam in the best position assuming a collision WILL occur. Bung reducers have nothing to do with it. Also, I'm not sure how the stock bolts are secured in the body of a beetle. But, given all modern cars there is a rail under or in the body that connects each side of the lower portions of a seat belt. On three points, this rail runs between the bungs for the lower point of the retractable, and the anchor point of the femal end of the buckle. The purpose of this rail is to prevent the metal around the bung from fatiguing, and shearing when force is applied to it. I believe (recalling Reise) that VW tried to work around this by using larg flange style nuts in the floor.

Also and a big also at that, make sure whatever belt you put on his seat either has a locking clip on it, or has the jambing slide bar in the latch to keep the seat from sliding around.

Is anything better than nothing? Maybe...

Is it worth looking at the floor of your car to see if the middle is really the best position? Yes.

oh I gotcha. Your concerned with a) ideal seat location for him and b) using one belt hole from one seat position with another hole form another.

These old VW dont connect the hole with hole, rather, like you said, they weld a plate to the bottom side to increase the foot print on the hole and hopefully reduce the potential to tear the floor
this is the 62-65 24mm 'hole' , as seen form the bottom. My plan is to replace the one side in the aftermarket pan on the PS of the car

as far as location of the boy. I originally was going to put him behind the pass seat so I can see him good and help him if need be. The other nice part about that location is her would have a 3rd shoulder belt for his car seat. But then I thought he'd be safer in the middle, in case of side impact. I can use the top of the seat strap and a fix it somewhere.... maybe.
I'll check the floor though, like you said.... I wanna see what the other side looks like

new radio.... fit sin stock location and included a trim plate that mimics the factory trim. No CD, but AUX in..... exactly what I need.

when off, it looks like a dial radio
when on... LED screen lights up behind Not to keen on the knobs but for $159 shipped, it will work. I just need to iron out the speaker situation now. But she will be good to go for the Christmas Parade!

Slick stereo, but where's the little red station indicator? I like it!

I drilled a hole & reinforced under the floor with some Dexion I had around the house when I reinstalled seats in my Astro van. So far I've not been in any wrecks, hopefully that will continue. The factory seat locations have a small plate welded to the floor where the mounting bolts go through. I replicated that as best I could.

Nice looking ride Raj. Coming along nicely. Pay a lot of attention to the mounting points for the belt you want to use for your boy. You want those to be right. Radio looks good. I'm sure there are knobs somewhere to match the rest.

Big_kid wrote:Slick stereo, but where's the little red station indicator? I like it!

Thanks Charlie..... no red indicatior. Also the dead giveway is the markings on the presets for real presets.

brucerodz wrote:Nice looking ride Raj. Coming along nicely. Pay a lot of attention to the mounting points for the belt you want to use for your boy. You want those to be right. Radio looks good. I'm sure there are knobs somewhere to match the rest.

Thanks Dave. Good idea on the knobs and will do with the boy. Appreciate the kind words

Raj, who makes that radio? I remember there was a company someone posted about on here that had retromod radios? Retrosound? They have ivory type knobs...

ObnoxiousBlue wrote:Raj, who makes that radio? I remember there was a company someone posted about on here that had retromod radios? Retrosound? They have ivory type knobs...

retromod was the other radio I was looking at. I didnt want to drop that coin on it, especially considering I dont really listen to CD's ($300 range)

This unit is the concours series form custom autosound
http://www.classiccarstereos.com/produc ... M-230.html

#cheapfuck lol

kidding

Id imagine you could get another knob that looks more correct.

ObnoxiousBlue wrote:#cheapfuck lol
kidding

nope..... its true. Wait 'til you have a mortgage and are building a house yourself... then we talk.

ObnoxiousBlue wrote: Id imagine you could get another knob that looks more correct.

Function over form for now with this one but agreed. I'll keep my eyes open. I might even have some on a few old stock radios I have in the basement. The only issue is that the new radio has a inner and outer knob for bass/ treble etc. Maybe I can rig soemthing.

Now I need to find a used chrome single side post antenna for it. I was surprised to see nada on TS.

Note to self: check shed for antennae this weekend.

building a house yourself

Nice!!! Nice work on making your 63 as safe as possible for your precious cargo!

BTW, Any headway on the garaj ????

Raj<

Missed out on reading up on this as you were working on it due to Sandy, but it looks like it is going to be sweet. Will be a hoot to see Liam sitting pretty insidel

Look forward to seeing it at the parade!!