Aircooled VW South Africa

Dobby



Dobby is a 1968-1972 1600 4-Speed Manual Beetle as far as I can tell. Was "Restored" by the previous owner.
We took her around to some local mechanics and workshops to see if we could fix the issues we found (due to time constraints etc). The short story is that we were ripped off repeatedly and found ourselves pouring money into work that wasn't actually being done.
We've decided to stop paying unscrouplulous mechanics and do it ourselves.

First thing was to replace the clutch. The one fitted by the "Restorer" would vibrate severely under any load. We decided to remove it and replace it with one that was actually intended to work on a beetle. Strange. That fixed the vibration issues.

'Genny Siezed While out on the road. New "Fan Belt" and recon 'Genny fitted.

Then came time to replace the points. F@!# that. Replaced with an electronic ignition system in order to keep things simple and to keep maintainance down. Redid timing with a Timing light and a Burn efficeincy system.

Various Knobs and trim pieces were replaced. just to keep that "Classic" Look.

Various Rubber seals and Boots were replaced in order to stop the shower of oil under the car, still in progress.

Gallery


Hardcore Camber? Am I doing it right?






Nothing Fancy, Just what she needs. Plenty of Giddy-up The oil bath Air-Filter is a bit of an eyesore.The hoses are worn, but still do what they need to. Not the prettiest girl at the ball


Any one have any idea what engine this actually is?

Shes's got a nice Blue and white leather interior with suede inlays in the seats. Aftermarket gearknob installed after a Mechanic managed to destroy the original one, same story with the steering wheel. Original pedals. White leather headliner with yellow glue all over thanks to the "Restorer".Original pedals and seats. The seat rails are quite dicey, it makes things interesting.

The Goal with Dobby isn't to turn her into a souped up GTI/V5/S4/911/M3/Cosworth/CooperS Eater (Unfortunatly the budget doesn't stretch that far). It's just to have a pretty, nearly original, well functioning beetle.

We have some strange gearbox issues. She tends to jump out of 4th Gear (She's a 4-Speed) when she's under strain. Not too intense of a strain, around 70-90 KM/H up a slight incline. Makes things interesting but it needs to be fixed. Any ideas?

My mother reversed into her a couple months back. Poor dobby.

You should see the other car!

Sorry for the Pic Dump and for the TL;DR.
Thanks for reading if you did.

So after months of pouring money into the Brake system at the Break and Clutch specialists Near Bright Water Commons, to no avail, and replacing slave cylinders all round, a small pop and a loss of all break pressure was what it took to start work on overhaulin' Dobby's stopping parts! Worn rubber hoses (That were meant to be replaced, at a cost of R400 a piece) and High pressure fluids dont mix. I suppose an exploding master cylinder would also contribute to the problem slightly

BEFORE

Some lovely, barely stopping at the best of times, drums up front. Rusted to hell. Broke the bin while throwing them out! Pain in the ass 'till the end!


Severely worn Brake hose.


Brake Fluid in the cabin. All over the carpet. Great.


Brake fluid out of the cabin. All over the driveway. Great.

Funny how it's never REALLY all in the master cylinder.

Just to be fair, the drums did pass road worthy. Barely. Kind of makes you shudder when you think of what passes for being "Road Worthy"

After searching through the forums, I came across Calooker (Rui). He seemed to be doing some great stuff with the break kits and all, so I dropped him a PM. Really nice guy, really great prices, Quality Parts.
I highly recommend doing business with him.

He sourced me a Front Disk Break kit and Some rubber break hoses for all around.

Really simple, bolt on system. In order to keep the stock mags (Just purchaced new tyres and New mags were expensive) I had to purchace a Reverse Wheel adapter from 100 PCD to 205 PCD. I settled on Maugene Engineering. More on this disappointing experience later.

After

Yummy vented disks.


Beautifully Machined Wheel Hubs.


No. Really. These things are F&*#ing gorgeous.


Caliper (Seems pretty large to me) and Caliper bracket. NOTE: Caliper is installed behind the Bracket, not as shown! 15 Minutes of headscratching to follow if you screw it up!


That'll do Dobby, That'll do...


Correct Assembly 'Sammich!


No way to attch the wheels without the adaptors so... This'll do right? (Yes, she's on tressles. I'm just good at photoshop.)

Then the waiting began. She sat like this for four weeks while we waited for adaptors. The adapters were ordered the same day as the brake system so it was probably more than four weeks.
No clear comunication from Maugene if they did pick up the Phone or responded to E-Mails. Not very impressive.

Then the adaptors arrived.

Excuse the following photo's. I was lucky to catch a few photos of the adaptors before they went back in their box before I threw them through something.


Shoddy, Sharp and careless machining. Not impressive. Horrible shamfer.


INCOMPLETE THREADING!


Insult to injury. after +4 weeks of tension, they didn't clear the calipers.

R480 a piece. I honestly expected more attention to detail and quality. Not impressed.

I can't afford to drive out to Pretoria to kill someone so We decided to complete the threading with a nice M12 1.5 (I think) thread tool. Didn't take to long to do by hand which just made it even more insulting that the job had been botched the first time around by Maugene.


re-threaded and cleaned up. High tensile bolts installed.


0.8mm Aluminum spacer installed to clear the calipers, had to be filed down by hand to avoid issues. Just some generic thing bought from Midas. Multi PCD C#@p isn't much fun.


Sexy No?

All hoses replaced, all bled out and tightened up.

Stops like Zuma with a broken shower. No. seriously, she stands on her nose.
Well worth the money and hard work!

Thanks Calooker!

Sorry for the Pic Dump and the TL;DR

Nice write-up.

Did you take up the issues with Maugene? I've only ever had top quality workmanship from them.......

Blitzkrieg wrote:Nice write-up.

Did you take up the issues with Maugene? I've only ever had top quality workmanship from them.......

Thanks!

I didn't even bother to take things up with them, I was so fed up at that point. Just Re-Finished them myself. I don't feel that I rushed them, something tells me they had an Appy do the finishing work.

Now on to Light replacement!
I need to replace them because quite frankly, they're not up to standard any more and the one side has a rusting dish, I'm sure the other one is soon to follow.
This is a picture of the headlight "Cup" inside the front fender:


I've seen a mod when the guys just replace the Headlight with a mk1 golf headlight. Does that fill the entire cavity? Do they look reasonably stock?

Here's the lense:


Does the mk1 part fit directly under that or do i refit the entire unit into the chrome ring with the clips?

Then with concern to the rear lights!

Any ideas where I can pick up replacement parts for what I'm guessing are the 68-69 "Slim" Taillights?

Sorry for all the questions guys!
Thanks for reading!

Looks stunning. Love the car. Thanks for the write up.
Good work!

O yea, and welcome to the forum

Tony Z wrote:Looks stunning. Love the car. Thanks for the write up.
Good work!

O yea, and welcome to the forum

Thanks! Good to be here!

Your ride is insane!
I'm a fan!

nice job so far on upgrading your bug

everything you need to know about upgrading your lights are found here..........http://www.aircooledvwsa.co.za/viewtopi ... headlights

Howzit vader, er, megafisshy
Lucky car, keep at it, amusing reading, cool pics

nice looking bug and its great to see loads of pics. keep it up

jolas wrote:Howzit vader, er, megafisshy
Lucky car, keep at it, amusing reading, cool pics

Thanks man! Mine's got a Guitar, Vader's is dancing to my sweet soul-crushing melody!

MarshallGTi wrote:nice looking bug and its great to see loads of pics. keep it up

Will do! Thanks!

The brake kit looks good , can you notice if the wheels sit out wider because of the adapters or does it look stock?

Update?

Looks good, keep the pics comming, like sthe upgrades being done...

MegaFisshy wrote:

jolas wrote:Howzit vader, er, megafisshy
Lucky car, keep at it, amusing reading, cool pics

Thanks man! Mine's got a Guitar, Vader's is dancing to my sweet soul-crushing melody!

Someone call my name?

The only music I dance to is the voices in my mind!!
Stormtroopers!! To much RnR!!!

Nice project keep it going...

MegaFisshy wrote:

jolas wrote:Howzit vader, er, megafisshy
Lucky car, keep at it, amusing reading, cool pics

Thanks man! Mine's got a Guitar, Vader's is dancing to my sweet soul-crushing melody!

Someone call my name?

The only music I dance to is the voices in my mind!!
Stormtroopers!! To much RnR!!!

Nice project keep it going...