When looking for a T3...

Bobnotch · Post by **Bobnotch** » Fri Jan 24, 2003 9:45 pm

Go to www.vwtype3.org scroll down to the bottom of the page. Click on the tech link, it will take you to the faqs on rust and where it hides. I hope this helps.

Bob 65 Notch S

JawKnee · Post by **JawKnee** » Fri Jan 24, 2003 11:02 pm

All I can say buy a nicer car than you think you need.. Look for something complete! Depending on what your plans are for the car. Just an example.. I bought a 69 fasty with a tatered body, but the pan was good, for $500. It had a lot of good parts. I planned on restoring it. Once I finished all the mechanical issues (everything) I was about to start the body work... At that time I found a 67 fastback ($800) that was running, but had been painted about 6 times.. Body was straight and was missing all sorts of things.. It was an import model with the cool decklid script and two-tone tail lights.. but the PO who painted it got overspray all over the good parts and ruined them... It had the wrong window winders and broken seats... the few "ONLY 67" parts were missing... So I combined the two cars, and afer about 3K worth of parts and who knows how much labor.. I had a pretty mechanically sound and pretty straight car. I am still missing a handfull of parts that I should have had with the car.. . it is almost to the point where I am thinking about picking up yet another donor car to get he missing parts (it will be cheaper than buying them individually) Looking back, I could have spent $2-3K on an original car hat hasnt been messed with and had all its parts.. drop it, spray it, and interior kit.. done. But as usual I learn the hard way... so trust me and buy a complete car.. save a little extra $$$ and wait for a good one!

If it has been painted by someone, there is a reason it was painted... unless it is a bad-*** paint job and you are paying a lot of $$ for the car, it is probably too good to be true..

------------------
Johnny
www.AirCooledKings.com

Bobnotch · Post by **Bobnotch** » Sat Jan 25, 2003 8:08 am

Yeah, I made that mistake too with my Notch, I should have gotten a better one. I paid 1500 for it(looked better in the photos),and then found the rust everywhere. It has a sunroof,and you don't see them that often was the reason for buying it. But it had rotten floors,no motor,the "C" pillars were gone at the base of the windows(side and rear),the roof was holely at the ends of the sunroof,the front fenders were rusted around the headlites,and the rear of the fenders,the rears were gone all along the bottom,the bottom edges of both front and rear trunks were rusted out, and the fresh air grills were just barely held on by some steel that was still left. The interior(what there was of it)wasn't much,and was missing all of its "S" stuff,like the rear arm rests(which are pricy),the dash was broken,not just cracked,no headliner,and lots of rust hiding in the rear tray,and sunroof tray. With all the rust it had, I almost cut the roof off and made a convertible out of it. But the car started talking to me,grew on me,it needed my help. So I decided to rebuild it as a driver. I installed a good pan from a 70 complete with IRS,cut out the rust and welded in new steel,searched for a pair of front fenders and installed them, cut up a set of squareback rear fenders for the metal I needed to fix the lowers on the rear as I haven't seen any notch rear fenders for sale. I then tackled the roof,I cut out the rust,rebuilt the sunroof tray, and then replaced the cutout rusty areas on the outside of the roof with metal. I spent about 3 months on this puting in about 4 to 6 hours after work during the week, and about 12 to 16 hours both days on the weekend. I was burnt out for about a month after I got the metal work done,but I wanted to get the car driveable by May 15th at the latest(self imposed deadline). I acheived my goal,but still had some other issues that I took care of as I drove it that summer, and took care of them the next winter. So far I've been very pleased with the results, I keep looking for rust to reappear,with all the patch pieces I put in,but haven't seen much(rear trunk popped up first and was taken care of right away).

Bob 65 Notch S with Sunroof