Getting the ‘57 beetle back on the road in 2024

[bosco659]

Cleaning and adjusting the hood latch - first time in over 50 years that the hood licks shut now!

The old girl is off the axle stands and all 4 tires are back on the ground. Plan is to move it up north this coming Thursday, weather permitting. I should be able to continue the saga this winter with the engine reassembly.

 

[bosco659]

Last finishing touches before moving it on Thursday. Paint seat adjuster hardware and clean up the last two hub caps. A bit beat up but originals.

 

[bosco659]

I’ll continue to update this thread as I build the engine this winter, but I plan to post a new thread and topic on this:

Going into that:

 

[John Regular]

I’ll continue to update this thread as I build the engine this winter, but I plan to post a new thread and topic on this:

View attachment 338859View attachment 338860

Going into that:

View attachment 338861View attachment 338862

An Army buddy of mine restored one with his deployment money when we got home from Iraq. I believe it was a 93 but I know nothing about them. He was really into Supras though and would always talk about his. If I find a picture I'll share it

 

[John Regular]

An Army buddy of mine restored one with his deployment money when we got home from Iraq. I believe it was a 93 but I know nothing about them. He was really into Supras though and would always talk about his. If I find a picture I'll share it

 

[bosco659]

Here’s a little trick I tried out today to rescue a few screws on the beetle. The door latch mechanisms are attached to the door with 6mm countersunk head, phillips screws. The previous owner obviously didn’t have good tools or skills so they damaged the recesses for the screwdriver. Many were so damaged that they were barely removable. This style of screw head is not common to my inventory of hardware so I tried to save them - at least until I can get replacements.

After removal, I clamped the screw in my vise with aluminum jaw protectors. I made the jaws of the vise snug, but not too tight. I then beat down the damaged screw head to the point where the phillips “slot” was still visible, but “folded”over the damaged material. I then took a good phillips or rather JIC bit and tapped it into the recess. This reformed the screw head opening and made the screw quite usable again. Not an ideal fix but might help you out if your in a jam one day.

 

[bosco659]

Poor ole beetle was kicked out of its heated home and sent up north to a cold storage shed. It will be there until next April / May. I rented a uhaul auto transporter. Heavy trailer, worked ok although the ramp was just barely wide enough for the beetle’s narrow track. There wasn’t a winch on the trailer so it was quite the task to get it loaded. Check out the rear wheel camber with no engine.

 

[Downeaster]

Technically, I believe the side-to-side distance between wheels is called "track", but I could be wrong about that and it doesn't matter anyway.

One of the handiest (if rarely used these days) things I ever did was put Reese receivers on the tongues of both trailers for my portable winch. Anything the trailers can handle, I can winch aboard. Small trailer is used for lawn mowers and motorcycles, large trailer (18') is used for tractors and cars.

 

[cycleranger]

I once loaded a '40 Ford PU onto one of those trailers with a comealong.
I was by myself, it was 100°, and it took forever because the truck was so damn heavy.

 

[bosco659]

Technically, I believe the side-to-side distance between wheels is called "track", but I could be wrong about that and it doesn't matter anyway.

One of the handiest (if rarely used these days) things I ever did was put Reese receivers on the tongues of both trailers for my portable winch. Anything the trailers can handle, I can winch aboard. Small trailer is used for lawn mowers and motorcycles, large trailer (18') is used for tractors and cars.

View attachment 339050

You’re correct @Downeaster - track is the correct term.

Many years ago I had a portable 12v electric winch much like yours. It would have been ideal for loading the car on the trailer. Maybe I should look for a winch and fab something up over the winter. Actually a light block and tackle would have done the trick too (got rid of mine a long time ago).

This time it was just brute force to get the car on the trailer. A friend came to help. The ratchet strap was used to get the car rolling over difficult spots. Then I snugged your the strap, lifted the strap vertically, rolling the car ahead. My buddy then quickly positioned a wheel chock behin the RR wheel before it could roll back again. We did this about 10X and the car was up on the trailer.

Note to self for next trip: the ramps of the Uhaul trailer are stored in the trailer itself. To use them you just release a latch and pull them straight out. When loading the car I made the mistake of positioning the ramps 90 degrees to the back of the trailer. When unloading I realized when you pull the ramps out, they don’t have to be at 90 degrees. Instead I moved the loose end of the ramps in towards the center line of the trailer bringing them closer together a the end by maybe 10-12”. The track was still sketchy at the top of the ramp but once we were a fit down, the tires were almost dead center on the ramps. Much better.

 

[bosco659]

I once loaded a '40 Ford PU onto one of those trailers with a comealong.
I was by myself, it was 100°, and it took forever because the truck was so damn heavy.

I have a wire cable come along too but thought it would take too many pulls and repositioning to do the job. If I wasn’t able to get the car on the way we did I could have used the puller. When I go to pick up the car I’ll be 1/2 year older and I should probably take that tool with me. I’m sure in 1/2 year the car will be much heavier for me. Lol. I guess I should be glad I’m still able to do things like this.

 

[gggGary]

a boat winch would bring that vdub up the ramps.
one might argue if you can't get it on your trailer with a boat winch you shouldnt be dragging it home anyways......

 

[bosco659]

a boat winch would bring that vdub up the ramps.
one might argue if you can't get it on your trailer with a boat winch you shouldnt be dragging it home anyways......

True that. The boat winch would be a good option. I need to replace the one on my fishing boat trailer anyway so maybe I’ll see what I can rig up. The auto transporter is a rental so I’d have to make something portable. The other challenge with a boat winch is keeping it level while cranking. Maybe attach it to a 2x6 which in turn an be lashed to the trailer with a strap or two.

There’s always something to think about.

 

[bosco659]

Organizing my new found space in the garage, I stumbled onto the beetle generator. I took it apart (partially), cleaned it up and back into storage until needed next year. The generator is on a fixed mount pedestal on the crankcase. Belt tensioning is accomplished by adding / removing shims between the two generator pulley halves. Wider gap (more shims) = looser belt. It was interesting that there shims between the pulley halves, but the spare shims are stored under the pulley nut. Cool system although primitive. Before and after cleaning pics.

 

[bosco659]

Took the generator apart to replace brushes and bearings. Still haven’t figured out how to get one of the bearings off though. I’ll order the parts tomorrow.

The bits are cleaning up nicely.

 

[bosco659]

New bearings and brushes arrived so I put the generator back together before I forgot how to do it. One end cap has a captured bearing that was spring loaded and kept in place with a wire clip. This required squeezing everything together to get the retaining wire in place. I painted some of the bits. Most would cringe at my paint job, but most areas will never be seen and it looks better than rust and dirt.

|

 

[bosco659]

Final generator pics. At first I was just going to put the generator back in, as found when removed but a cleanup and rebuild was executed. Then a quick paint job took place. As I reassembled the fan I thought who cares what it looks like because it will never be seen again once assembled. It bothered me to look at the dirty / rusty old thing, so I cleaned and painted it. It actually turned out nice. The paint I used was stuff I bought on sale - Tremclad Professional High Performance paint. It was an odd colour - bronze. I actually like the look and will buy more for “inventory”. It covers well and dries really quickly and remotely resembles bare metal.

 

[Downeaster]

Sometimes, just YOU knowing it was done makes it worth the effort.

 

[bosco659]

You’re right @Downeaster. I guess when I sell it I can show pics of the unseen care I put into getting it back on the road.

I went online after my earlier post to see if the vendor still had that paint and my lucky day! On sale, so I ordered 3 cans. This is a discontinued colour so once it’s gone, it’s gone.

 

[TX650A Van Islander]

Wow Vic, you are doing some really fine work on your cool old car. It will be the talk of the town next summer!