The long road back

[Class 11 streeter]

Hey all

Today after helping a fellow club member make progress on his squareback, I felt enough accomplishment to tackle something I have been putting off for too long, getting my poop in a group to get a bug up and RUNNING. I have been aircooled-less for 3 long years.

Back in 06, after 4 years of faithful my-only-car daily-driver service, my beloved Class 11 street car died of wiring failure. I decided to take her off the road and never did anything else but get distracted with other things.

She had a worn to bits 1600 dp, single relief case, weber progressive, and a low geared transaxle for offroading. I miss driving her, but I wanted the re-do to be right, so I "planned" to get her into a body shop. Never happened.........yet.........

Anyway, I wanted another 69 bug for daily driving, so last year enter this jewel. She has a million miles on worn out everything, but the price was right and it was a first year IRS stick. If she does me right I might give her a paint job.


She has been at Eddie's shop in Bakersfield getting a new front beam, rebuilt transaxle, disk brakes front and back, trailing arm swap (bearing housings were worn, common on high mileage IRS cars), and a fresh 1776.

Motor has an Engle 110 cam, 8:1 comp, dp heads. That's my motor (lower one), has my name and everything!


CB merged header with heater boxes.


Eddie working on rear brakes


I love the decklid script, saved it from a 68 autostick car:

I know, tags are expired, but I'll get the new ones on her soon!

I'm polishing a turd here but it should be reliable.


Anyway, I needed tin for the new motor, and the Class 11 had a full german set, so...........


Pulled the motor out to strip it and use stuff on the new motor. The motor removal included the ever popular Giant Black Widow enounter

Class 11's motor out. This motor took me places I never imagined, but all good things come to an end like driving an underpowered hot running slug like this one. Good riddance!!



One last shot, cars at Eddie's shop awaiting work.


More on the new ride later if there is anything interesting to tell!

[david58]

Sounds like you need a little motivation on the old ride. Throw a day into wiring the car and throw that motor in there.

[Class 11 streeter]

Hey Dave, thanks for the reply! I would love to resurrect the C11, but I really need to get it into a bodyshop, she has rust holes in the entire back cargo area and the pan is dinged and has multiple holes in it. In short, she needs a lot of attention from a welder. Plus, the plan is to strip the C11 of the street car stuff and make it more offroader.

Meanwhile I want to get my fix from the street 69 so that bug gets the love and $ for now.

Baja project in the wings after the 4x4 stuff is done................whatever that means.

[shakajava]

I like your thinking! I bought a 69' for the wife and I'm in the process of painting it. I lucked out in that it has a fresh engine and interier. Just needed to body painted. I have a 71' super for me and will be going for performance. Will be making a hybrid German/Euro look with it. It is amazing what you can do with $10000 into these cars! A cheap sports car!!!
Here are a few links to inspire you!
www.germanlook.net
http://www.shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=107350
http://www.vw-resource.com/table.html

[Class 11 streeter]

UPDATE!

Wow, 2 years and some change.

To make a 2+ year story shorter, this is the current status of the white "daily driver" bug project. The bug is currently sitting at German Dreams in Bakersfield, a VW/german car shop. The first shop the bug was at (Eddies VW in Bakersfield) had to close down and Eddie went to work for his former competetor. Tough times for small shops these days. The German Dreams owner, George, was glad to get Eddie's experience (and his customers) so it was a deal for both. Eddie promised me he would finish my bug to driving status so I have been patient while things settled down. Some of it was my fault getting parts to the shop in a timely manner, I have sources I prefer to use for certain things.

This pic was taken Sept 17th, fyi the Audi is the shop owners car.

I drove it for the first time saturday and she goes, stops, turns, and all that stuff a bug is supposed to do. Cosmetics are on hold while the things that make it stop and go get attention.

She still needs an alignment and a bit of jetting but she runs pretty good now. Motor is a 1776 DP, engle 110 cam, 8:1 comp, and a single 36 Dell. Exhaust is a CB 1-1/2" merged header with the performance heater boxes. Nice little combination, good power for a driver. Disk brakes all around too.

Of course, after I get the header raw from CB I find out CIP1 sells the same header already coated for the same price. So, an additional $130 later I had a coated header. Hmmm......

Anyway, I'm also working on that baja project I mentioned earlier but that's posted in the Off-Road forum.
That's all for now!

[Class 11 streeter]

Update again. More progress! Bug is now home!!! What took so long..........do you have years?

Drove her from Bakersfield to California City (over an hour driving 70-ish all the way). Pulled some steep hills at 65-70 in 4th gear beating all the big rigs and a few modern cars (but not many). This (formerly) unloved bug is hopefully going to do right by me for saving her from certain junkedness.

First order of business for me and my son was some descent (and safer) seat belts. I have had these Wolfsburg West belts waiting on this bug since almost day one and they finally went in.


The tan drivers seat came out of a Savannah Beige 68 bug, the same one that gave me the autostick script on the decklid. It was a budget decision to replace the destroyed drivers seat for no money. It looks goofy I know, but it works for now.

Future work: reset the rear torsions, back end sits too low for me. Also looking at replacing the front fenders and hood and think about PAINT!

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Matching seat covers are an inexpensive color equalizer.

Lee

[Class 11 streeter]

Matching seat covers are an inexpensive color equalizer.

Lee

I am trying to keep this bug seriously undercover! Matching seat covers doubles the steal-able value of the bug!!

[KarenTheBug]

Very nice, I wish I could drive my aircooled daily ... the gas mileage it gets vs. my modern watercooled Beetle is the reason why my aircooled is a weekend pleasure driver. With a 70 mile a day round trip commute, I'd go bankrupt and end up living in my aircooled bug just putting gas in it

[Bruce2]

I love the decklid script, saved it from a 68 autostick car:

You gotta find a set of black plates for that car!

Got a pic of the black widow?

[Class 11 streeter]

Tech day fail

So today my son and I were going to reset the rear torsions. I don't like the ride height in the back so the plan was to raise the rear arms up and level the bug. The spring plate tool I have does not fit the bolt head on my bug's shock towers so I will have to get it modified. Already got a lead just need to get it done.

The start of the job. My son seen in this pic absolutely excited to be here, and it wasn't the promise of money for his help. Really!


This is the tool to collapse the spring plates:


The problem is the upper bolt head holder is too small for this late pan shock tower/body bolt. I put the tool in place and gave an initial tighten when I realized it's not safe to work. As I explained to my son we were not going to do this I was slightly releasing the torsion tool and it flew off the bug. If that had been at full tension it would have been like a crowbar swung into my face.

So we did some wigit work, aligned the headlights, and did an "under car" inspection. Yes, the lift was higher than this at the time, just didn't want to waste this pic.


Back on her feet. This will be the normal ride height when adjustments are done. It's pretty high for some, but this will be the lowest bug I have ever owned to this point.


Got the popeye look going on, PO lost a headlight ring screw and put in a drywall screw that just doesn't cut it. It's on the fix list.


So we ended our day with a visit to the flight test museum and took a pic of the fastest aircraft ever built seen with the fastest automobile* ever built.

*automobile description exaggerated for effect

[Class 11 streeter]

You gotta find a set of black plates for that car!

Too overpriced and overhyped.

Got a pic of the black widow?

[Ol'fogasaurus]

On those torsion bar compression tools, a couple of recommendations: Washers between the wing nut and the clamp, a drop of lube on the threads (soft material and they wear fast being used dry and if you are not using a jack to lift the suspension, and get another nut the same size as the wing nut and use the wing nut as a jam nut and a tool on the other nut as the nut can back down the threads. I also use a clamp to stop the tool from sliding down the trailing arm.

Also check the welds on the head as I have had one come off (I have two of them and the threads are badly worn down on one of them). Also, you can see the rod bend under load so stay away from the area of the flex as much as possible; I that is why I only use them as a safety tool for which they are very good. The wing nut if it backs off will slap you in the wrist so move quick and don’t grab!

Resetting the spring plates/pre-load is something to do with much care as you told your son.

Lee

[mac2881994]

I have also found that a pair of vise grips clamped on the spring plate in front of the adjusting tool stops the tool from slipping up the spring plate.