'67 project

[akitsuji]

Bren,
I appreciate your help on my Ghia. I just come back from Japan. We had a great time. Michele took a lot of pictures including Ghia, Bus(Street venders), beetles and a Thing. I visited Flat 4, Dustin send me the info. They had a 1954 Beetle for $25K.

[bren]

You are welcome Aki. It was really a club effort. We had a good time at the GTG and were happy to help you with your car. We even said happy birthday to you though I'm sure you did not hear us in Japan!

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Alignment is done and it rides much better. Battle Creek Firestone has done the alignment on both of my cars. They grumble a bit but they do get it right. For $150 the alignment is lifetime, they will check it anytime. A little more tuning help from George on the way home and the car is running great.
Maybe today I will get some photos in the sunshine.

[TaylorMutts]

You are such a tease on those pics!

[bren]

Yea, I know. Not intentional really. I just have been working on it and not really documenting. Today is different though. I actually have some photos to share.

Today I had a goal of getting the interior in the car from the rear seat rearward.
I started with this. That is the brush on sound dampner you see.




I put in padding, carpet, rear 'door' panels and the rear seat and now it looks like this:

I was able to use the original carpet in the rear. I used the padding that AJ recommended on the parcel shelf and firewall then glued the carpet over that. The original carpet pieces that cover the wheel wells had factory padding so I used that. I glued some more carpet padding to the inside of the rear quarters for more sound dampening. Can you tell I want this car to be quiet?

Here are the front seats:

And the dash: need to get the glove box door installed.


And some outdoor shots:

[VDub63 ( Steven )]

I like it Bren and only 5-6 months , not a bad turn around time.

[TaylorMutts]

Thanks for the pics, Bren. I know how hard it is to stop to take pics when you are "on a roll" with a project. Looking back, I wish I slowed down long enough to do a better job doumenting my project. I always forget to take those "before" pictures!

Also, those running boards look oddly familiar.

[Chris]

looks great bren, cant wait to get started on my projects

[dubfreak1]

Outstanding job Bren! It has to put a smile on your face every time you turn the key.

[Dustin]

Good work Bren, It hardly looks like the same car we picked up in Illinois.

[wells]

Looks great Bren!!! It is inspiring me to get the other projects done faster so I can get back to Buggin!

[jmallen05]

Looks good Bren, thats gonna make a nice daily driver. What size tire are you running?


jerry

[bren]

Thanks everyone. It is great to be driving it. Took it for a nice long drive to Mattawan then Plainwell today. It was nice. Even got to go on my favorite M89. Still more to do (is a car really ever done?) but it is nice to have it on the road in 5 months! Somedays it seems like it took forever, other days it seems like no time at all.

Sorry Jerry, I forgot to answer you about the tire size before. They are Bridgestone Insignia's P185/65 R15. They came on my beige car. They look better on a 5.5" wide rim.

Running boards look familiar Bill? I wonder why? Thanks again, they are perfect for this car.

[jmallen05]

Is it going to make the trip to the gtg next weekend?

[bren]

That is the plan.

[bren]

There are some rattles and vibrations in this car (go figure) that I want to eliminate. I got rid of one that was from the shift rod coupler access panel. Now I have a big vibration noise in the tunnel when I shift then accellerate. Seems to go away when I cruise in 4th. John steered me in the direction of the clutch cable tube. I did some research on the Samba and discovered that my clutch cable tube had broken loose from both the front and middle brackets. I could see the front one due to a previous owner access hole shown below. The tubing is some soft clear tubing I slit and slid over the metal tube trying to stop the noise, did not work. It did however help with the fuel line.



This should not move like this, should be welded in place. Apparently this weld fails with age.


To find the middle bracket I had to open up the tunnel. I found some cool articles on this with good info on how and where to make the opening:
www.thebugshop.org/bsfqtube.htm
www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=236748&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
this one was not the right dimensions for my car but the copy of the service bulletin showing how to make the cut was interesting:
www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=236748&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

So, I removed the seat, measured 5 times then made the cut:





It was hard to get a good shot of the bracket, this is the best I got. From the articles I learned that this bracket is designed to flex. Unfortunately some flex too many times and brake at the bend like mine. It is hard to see but this is basically a L shaped bracket that welds to the inside of the tunnel then goes over to the tube. It broke at the bend of the L.


My welding skills are very minimal. I am going to have a experienced welder do these for me. Hopefully soon. Then I can take it out for a test run. If the vibrations are gone then I can work on finishing the interior over the winter.