Aircooled VW South Africa

I recently entered the world of AC VW's when I bought a Beamish bug on Gumtree. The idea was to have vehicle that we can tow to Stilbaai for the holidays, and have here in the Cape as a runaround, so it must be reliable.

With me not being too optimistic about my mechanical talent, as I last "really" worked on an engine when I replaced the piston on my Honda MT50 in 1981, I tried to get a car that was in a reasonable condition, so that it could be driven for a couple of months before work started on it.

As my plan is to spread the work over a couple of months, this might take a while to finish. Things that I would like to do, includes upgrading the front brakes to disks, repairing or replacing the wiring loom, redoing the instrument panel, repairing and respraying the body and replacing some other odds and ends.

I have had the seats re-upholstered, going from this




to this




Somewhere along the line someone had fitted a radio to the buggy, but that would seem to be an exercise in futility, as the sound is only audible when standing at a robot, or when the engine is switched off.



And herewith the reason for my thinking that the wiring might need a bit of a check-up




At the moment the car looks OK-ish, but I would like to get the finish a bit better, as well as repair the places where the fibreglass have been damaged,



and the rims will also be sent in for refurbishing.



Somethings that will probably require the engine to be removed, includes the fan shroud



and a general cleanup of all the assorted bits and bobs.





Think I need to cost in a new clutch cable as well....

Being new to the AC scene, I hope to draw on the base of knowledge that are gathered here on the forum, for help, advice, suggestions and support (of the emotional type!).

I have stopped by HR's house as he lives quite close, and learn't that the best tyre pressure is not 2.5 bar (as told to me by the previous owner) but 0.8 front and 1.2 back! What a difference! Thanks, Dave!

Nice one on refurbishing the seats instead of getting silly boy racer seats!

I am so happy you did. Since Rory's passing, it is even cooler that you refurbished them.

wowwwwwwwwwwwwwww
the seats came out real nice ,where did you end up recovering it??

is your buggy shortwheel base,post a side angle pic please

have you got a bottom piece for the rear seat aswell????

I would not waste money on disks up front, the buggy is very light and drums are fine.
You don't want to lock up the front under heavy braking.

No problem Loopy, any time.

Please put a post in the suppliers thread as to the supplier and cost of your seats. Thanks.

@Mince: Sort of glad I kept the old seats, the guy who did the upholstery also advised me against the boy racer seats.
@Buggyfan: Will post a pic as requested, and I do have the bottom part, it is done in the same style as the back rest ito colour and style.
@John: thanks, will keep that in mind.
@HR: Seat upholsterer details posted in Suppliers section.

My plan is to remove the duplicated front indicators, keeping the Beetle ones,



replace the mirrors with something that is actually usable and shows more than the back wheels



and replace the rear light clusters with Beetle rear lights, preferably the small older ones.



I received the hard top, a soft top as well as a tonneau cover with the car, but will probably be using the buggy either with the hard top or open. The side panels of the hard top have been spruced up by replacing the old yellowed plastic windows with new flexiglass, so visibility when using them should be much improved.

The buggy came with an A-frame for towing, but no wiring, so that has been attended to, and a plug has been fitted to the front of the buggy, which together with an umbilical cable will connect to the towing car for the lights to work.

The dash and the switchgear on the steering column is also a bit of an issue for me, but I will mull on the options for a while.

Loopy, see where most of us have our mirrors. You are welcome to come and see hoe I mounted mine.

Looking good!

Love the compass (boere-gps )

Lekker man, the seats look fantastic, keep us updated and remember we love pics..

Loopy wrote:
Somewhere along the line someone had fitted a radio to the buggy, but that would seem to be an exercise in futility, as the sound is only audible when standing at a robot, or when the engine is switched off.

You obviously do not have enough sound....

Tony Z wrote:

Loopy wrote:
Somewhere along the line someone had fitted a radio to the buggy, but that would seem to be an exercise in futility, as the sound is only audible when standing at a robot, or when the engine is switched off.

You obviously do not have enough sound....

Definitely! But what would the best option for sound be in a buggy? Placement of speakers and the head unit, etc, and then the security risk? Don't want to blow everybody away with the sound, only to loose all the equipment to thieves.

Some sidepics for Buggyfan:







Installed the seats, but removed and cleaned the mounting rails first, as there was no sliding movement when trying to adjust the seats. On the drivers side there is a door pocket, which is preventing full movement of the seat, so I will be removing that.

My opinion on sound in a buggie ... pointless.
My folks have a beamish buggie just like yours and the sound the exhausts make are too loud for sound! AND, it is so easy to steal the sound.
So
a) you cant hear it
b) can get stolen in a second
c) one more electrical issue to worry about if it rains

I would do the disk conversion in front for various reasons..
1) You do away with the need to constantly adjust the drums.
2) Getting sand/mud in the drums eats the metal away and makes a mess..
3) Chances of you locking up the front wheels is less than on a "modern car". You just need to upgrade the Master Cylinder to a two phase/duel action unit. No need for a brake buster.
4) Stopping distance IMHO is halved with disks.
5) And they look much cooler than the drums..