68 Bug

[Brown]

As those of you who attened the meeting know i picked up a 68 white bug to use as a daily driver while complete work on the Rotten bannana. It was an Autostick i picked up with a 72 donor car which I wapped all the manual parts from to convert it to a standard. I didn't let anyone know other than Glenn who helped me with some engine issues. It has some surface rust and the heater channels are shot but the floor boards are very solid and the doors are pretty tight. The motor that was in the car ran but 1 and 2 cylinders had no compression. I switched to the engine i had taken out of the Rotton banane and with some tweaking got it running pretty well.

I will post pictures and the history of what it did to get it on the road, but I feel like a real club member now that I drove one to a meeting.

[Raj]

cool.... 68 IRS car then.

[Glenn A]

You should start a thread about changing those heater channels.

[williamblanda]

Congrats, Ken! Can't wait to see some photos.

[Tom]

I was wondering when we would see you in a VW.

[Raj]

I was wondering when we would see you in a VW.

[Tom]

I was wondering when we would see you in a VW.

Wrong , but funny .

[Brown]

So i picked the 68 autostick up in agusut along with a 72 donor car for the manual transmission and extra parts.

The car has some rust and the heater channels both need to be replaced. The floor pans are good and the doors are nice and tight. The breakes didn't work but i was able to get the engine running but it ran rough.

i started by removing the engine, autostick tranny and all of the autostick acessories.





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The hardest part of the conversion was the installation of the new clutch tube. Some of the newer autosticks come with a clutch tube but the 68 does not. I used a 1/2 inche black iron pipe. I cut tow holes int he tunnel to get access to the two mounting points for the clutch tube.

Front hole just behind the pedal cluster!


Rear hole just behind the shifter

[Brown]

After welding the clutch tube in i had to adjust the length to get the right bend in the bowden tube. After that it was just a matter of bolting the manual tranny in place, the clutch tube with new bushing, the shifter, new pedal cluster and clutch cable.

Welded the holes in the tunnel





The brakes were bad so i replaced two of the wheel cylinders, all the metal brake lines except the main line, the four rubbers lines and the brake shoes. The MC was leaking from the point where the plunger goes and it leaked into the tunnel. I had some trouble bleeding he systme but after checkinghte Samba for some tips i get it bled.

Installed the engine after struggling for a day trying to get it started i went back to basics;

Compression
Spark
Fuel.

The compression was 45 and 60 in 1 and 2 respectively so that engine is shot. I think that give me 6 bad engines in my garage. Luckily i had the 1600 from the rotten bannana sitting around so i put the new clutch and pressure plate at slapped it in the car.

A visit was made by the master to help with set the end play , main seal and clutch.

[Brown]

Before putting the engine in i sandblasted all the tins and paneted them up for a little nicer look



The muffler, and both heater boxes had alot of holes in them so they were removed and i had anew mufler laying around and used the heater boxes fromt he engine that cmae out of the car.

Had some issues with the exhust studs in he front of hte engine. The tips were gione so i decided to realce them. Big mistake even with heat PB and an assortment of liquids couldnot get them out so of course i broke two of them off.

Tried all the techniques from the samba, welding nut to the broken stud, heat etc, and nothing worked so i ended up drilling them both out and retapped them.






Before installing the engine i put new manifold boots, adjusted the valves, repalced the plugs. points, cap, rotor and wires.


After installing he engine it started but i could not get it to idle. Discovered one of the boots was leaking so i swithced back to the old style clamp, which fixed that. The carburetor throttle shaft was also leaking though so after Glenn lending me a spare carb i rebuilt another carb i had inthe garage and that fixed that problems

[Brown]

Once i got the engine to idle i set the timing and adjusted the carburetor. Car has nice power. I found the speedometer is screaming though when it took it to the meeting on Wednesday. TOmorow i'll check the cable and hope it's that and not the actual speedometer

Some other things i did while iw was waiting for parts was to remove both seats ans clean the rust /grease the runners. The floor pan ont he driver side had alot of surface rust inside so i pyulled up the tar boards wire wheeled the rust and POR 15 painted it.

I installed a back shelf for a set of 6 by 9 speakers






THe front lurn signals and running lights were not working and i tracked down a ground problem.

[Raj]

nice work Ken. Good progress on this one.

[Glenn A]

Nice job on the clutch cable tube.

The color on the speaker shelf is a little girly. but it looks nice.

[Brown]

Nice job on the clutch cable tube.

The color on the speaker shelf is a little girly. but it looks nice.

I like to be in touch with my feminine side!

Oh wait i think i hear the phone...Hello Mike!!

[williamblanda]

Nice work, Ken. That engine looks sharp!

[Brown]

THanks everyone! It's nice to have something to drive around in now! I feel like part of the gang!

[Glenn]

I feel like part of the gang!

To some people, that's not a good thing.

[Brown]

I feel like part of the gang!

To some people, that's not a good thing.

True, but i have very low standards!!

[Glenn]

I feel like part of the gang!

To some people, that's not a good thing.

True, but i have very low standards!!

I thought it was DVG that had low standards. After all, they let me in.

[Brown]

I took the bug for a nice long ride out to Mikes yesterday and ont he way out the front end would shimmy at around 55 -60 MPH. No consistently ly but happenend enogh. When i goto out to mikes i put the front tires ont he back and the back tirsont he front. Driving home no more shimmy so i'm sure the problem was the balance.

However on the ride home the steering felt strange when i would make slight turns. The steering wheel did not turn smoothly but almost felt like there were these small intermediate points as it turned, like the wheel was indexed.

Now i just remembered that I did not adjust the air in the tires so the back had the 18 and the front the 27, so maybe this cuased the problem.

I think i am going to replace the inner and outer wheel bearings and the ball joints to be on the safe side.

Other than that the car rides nice and has some nice pickup!

[Glenn A]

steering stabilizer could be shot.

[Brown]

steering stabilizer could be shot.

I actually picked one up so i'll install it over the weekend and adjust the air pressure in the tires!

[Brown]

After switching the tires when i was at Mike's i adjusted the air pressure for front and back and took the car for a ride to a friends and i thought the steering wheel was going to shake free. Saturday i decided i was going to check out the entire beam. The steering box had a little play so i decided to take it off and clean it up, new oil etc, That took about 2 hours to get off, very awkward position and when i took it apart i found that it was packed with grease, so i guess it had already been worked on and would not hold the oil. I tried to take everything off but i can't get the large allen nut at the end of the shaft to turn, anyone have any ideas for something to fit into it? I set that aside to check out everything esle. The ball joints don't show any play but all of the boots are ripped and there is no grease left in them. The tie rods all seam fairly tight so no extra play there. Then when i checked the passenger side i found the top of the shock had unscrewed from the shock mounting kit, so that obvioulsy was a problem. I took that off and tighted it back up. Upon initial inspection of the steering damper it was nice and shinny, no rust so i thougth that it must have been new, but i decided to check it anyway and when i took it off i found it has no ressistance to it at all. I ended up taking the damper out of the donor car, which was all rusty but was in great shape so i installed that.

I think what i'm going to do now is to put it all back together and fix up the adjustble front end i bought from Manny a few years back at Englishtown, that way i can lower the front end. That needs ball joints, I'll put new wheel bearing in, i will install front disk brakes i have and then swap that into the car.

In the mean time I'm thinking the bad steering damper was causing much of the front end shakes to i should be able to drive it Ok unitl the new front beam is ready!!

[Glenn A]

Nice. It will look good a little lower.

[mannys66]

bad steering dampener will do that everytime.