The 65 pic is noticeable for its quality. Lemme guess, a medium format on Kodachrome?
-
Enjoy XS650.com? Consider making a donation to help support the site.
XS650.com receives a small share of sales from some links on this page, but direct donations have a much greater impact on keeping this site going.
Getting the ‘57 beetle back on the road in 2024
- Thread starter bosco659
- Start date
Very possible- I expect my Grandfather took the pic, he was a bit of a photography buff. He always had a fancy 35mm camera, but I don't think he got a true SLR until the early 80's, a Pentax K1000. Mom and Dad had a pretty elaborate (for what it was) Kodak Instamatic for most of my childhood (it's on display now) that did adjust aperture automatically. And slides were always the family default vs. prints.
Not really. But there is a normal-reserve valve at the front fascia of the passenger compartment (in the foot well) that takes the "place" of a gas gauge...just like a motorcycle, when it starts to cough, you reach down and flip the valve to reserve, time to get gas!Do you have to manually turn the fuel on?
Back at the wiring. I found the other end of the melted wire and it had been snipped off behind the dash. The wire feeds two small bulbs that are supposed to be parking lights. I guess it must have shorted out and the po just snipped off the wire at the switch. No other wires were damaged by the short. I’ve added a new wire but need to wait for some larger loom to bundle everything back up. It’s interesting that all the other lights are fused but this circuit wasn’t.
Sometimes we are worried about XS650 wiring...this is a place beyond! Another, ~15 years on down the road...Wow! Good for you resuscitating this old Dub!!! Love it.
Late start today but got a bit done today. My wiring loom arrived so I bundled up the main harness from the dash to the nose. I spliced in a new wire to replace the melted circuit. I replaced the hard plastic loom with the new stuff. Much nicer now although the old stuff would offer more mechanical protection.
While in the process of moving and bundling wires I noticed some of the connector blocks had quite a bit of corrosion in the mating surfaces snd screws. I disassembled one and cleaned it up. I may do the same for the remaining blocks ad I run out of things to do.
While attempting to hook up the signal light, it disintegrated in my hand. Fortunately I had purchased a replacement just in case.. Upon removal of tge remnants I noticed the back of the mount had quite a bit of surface rust so that needed to be cleaned up to provide ground for the light. Fortunately I had the right tool to clean up the surface in that tight space. I live it when I have the right parts and tools on hand. The light is securely mounted completed with new wire, loom, rubber boot and cleaned connector. The spot that needed cleaning is a recess on the inside of the fender. Doesn’t show in the pic but is tricky to get at especially if I didn’t have the die grinder and small Roloc disc. Last pic shows recessed light mount without housing or lens. Fenders with these signal light mounts are unobtainium now.
Funky German fuses shown.
There was a discussion some time ago about what’s a good electrical tape. This job confirmed hands down that Scotch / 3M 700 is superior to the $2.00 per roll stuff. There’s a better grade too that I may try next Super 88.
The left front is just about done and the right front is next. It shouldn’t be as bad as the left. I also have a new horn to install too. That’s probably next week. Small jobs like this take a long time to do correctly.
Lots of pics coming…..
While in the process of moving and bundling wires I noticed some of the connector blocks had quite a bit of corrosion in the mating surfaces snd screws. I disassembled one and cleaned it up. I may do the same for the remaining blocks ad I run out of things to do.
While attempting to hook up the signal light, it disintegrated in my hand. Fortunately I had purchased a replacement just in case.. Upon removal of tge remnants I noticed the back of the mount had quite a bit of surface rust so that needed to be cleaned up to provide ground for the light. Fortunately I had the right tool to clean up the surface in that tight space. I live it when I have the right parts and tools on hand. The light is securely mounted completed with new wire, loom, rubber boot and cleaned connector. The spot that needed cleaning is a recess on the inside of the fender. Doesn’t show in the pic but is tricky to get at especially if I didn’t have the die grinder and small Roloc disc. Last pic shows recessed light mount without housing or lens. Fenders with these signal light mounts are unobtainium now.
Funky German fuses shown.
There was a discussion some time ago about what’s a good electrical tape. This job confirmed hands down that Scotch / 3M 700 is superior to the $2.00 per roll stuff. There’s a better grade too that I may try next Super 88.
The left front is just about done and the right front is next. It shouldn’t be as bad as the left. I also have a new horn to install too. That’s probably next week. Small jobs like this take a long time to do correctly.
Lots of pics coming…..
Attachments
Last edited:
When did I start this project? 
Careful Vic, you're startin' to step on my toes there....
Not sure if I posted these pics before but here’s a couple of decals on the glass of the beetle and I’m trying to preserve them. I got the RH headlight wiring squared away as well as the turn signal. Now I’m waiting for parts to rebuild the headlight assemblies - lots of parts and needed advice on the correct assembly of all the bits. I’m usually good at figuring stuff out but this was a head scratcher.
I received 4 parts shipments in the last few days (my wallet is close to $400 lighter 
). I attempted to reassemble the headlight with proper seals, clips, springs etc. what a pita! About an hour later I had one side done. Now that I’ve done this one I’m pretty sure future work will be much easier. A few repeat pics of components.
). I attempted to reassemble the headlight with proper seals, clips, springs etc. what a pita! About an hour later I had one side done. Now that I’ve done this one I’m pretty sure future work will be much easier. A few repeat pics of components.
Included in the parts purchase was 1M of 5.5mm ID, cloth covered rubber fuel line. I thought the diameter was interesting as sometimes 1/4” ID fuel line is a bit sloppy on the fittings.
Special M6x1.00 cap nuts for the oil screen retainer. Poor old bug doesn’t even have an oil filter. Without these capped nuts oil will apparently leak past the threads making a mess over time. They are used in conjunction with copper washers. I might try substituting fibre washers for copper because I have lots of them. I wonder if nylocks would allow oil to leak through?
Probably, because most nylocks do not make 100% contact with the threads.
While waiting for the snow to start /stop, I heated up the garage and put in a bit of beetle time. On the menu today:
- drill hole for new grommet for new horn wiring harness (too large diameter wiring for the old grommet). Thank goodness for a right angle drill and step drill bit. New horn shown but not yet mounted.
- headlight assembly to fender seal - non existent when I got the car. While in the neighborhood I cleaned up the inside of the headlight bucket. Had decades of crusty stuff built up in there.
- bought new deck lid to body rubber seals. The old stuff was hard, cracked and painted in spots. This will take many hours to re/re. The seal is captured on the one side by a channel that welded to the fenders and front apron. The old stuff is hanging on for dear life! Using the wide end of a cat’s paw pry bar I’m opening up the channel ever so slightly to release the rubber seals it takes a long time per inch and can’t be rushed for fear of messing up the channel. Reinstalling the new strip should be fairly easy. Once I slide the new piece into the opened channel, I’ll tap the channel closed to retain the seal. It will look much nicer when completed.
Last pic is a battery disconnect switch that I’ll install as I well through the remainder of the electrical stuff. I’d rather disconnect the battery each day after working on it. The car has very few fuses and I’m paranoid about shorts, melting wires and fire. Long term I may install a compact rotary disconnect.
Interesting tidbit. If the hood release cable were to break or the latch malfunction, there’s no way to open the front hood. I’ll have to work on a failsafe system or a redundant cable to pull from underneath - “just in case”.
Also need to get spare keys cut. This is for the ignition. The rear deck lid lock doesn’t work. Cool looking key. You can still buy replacements that look like this.
Edit - horn installed. Note the water drain from the headlight bucket tube.
- drill hole for new grommet for new horn wiring harness (too large diameter wiring for the old grommet). Thank goodness for a right angle drill and step drill bit. New horn shown but not yet mounted.
- headlight assembly to fender seal - non existent when I got the car. While in the neighborhood I cleaned up the inside of the headlight bucket. Had decades of crusty stuff built up in there.
- bought new deck lid to body rubber seals. The old stuff was hard, cracked and painted in spots. This will take many hours to re/re. The seal is captured on the one side by a channel that welded to the fenders and front apron. The old stuff is hanging on for dear life! Using the wide end of a cat’s paw pry bar I’m opening up the channel ever so slightly to release the rubber seals it takes a long time per inch and can’t be rushed for fear of messing up the channel. Reinstalling the new strip should be fairly easy. Once I slide the new piece into the opened channel, I’ll tap the channel closed to retain the seal. It will look much nicer when completed.
Last pic is a battery disconnect switch that I’ll install as I well through the remainder of the electrical stuff. I’d rather disconnect the battery each day after working on it. The car has very few fuses and I’m paranoid about shorts, melting wires and fire. Long term I may install a compact rotary disconnect.
Interesting tidbit. If the hood release cable were to break or the latch malfunction, there’s no way to open the front hood. I’ll have to work on a failsafe system or a redundant cable to pull from underneath - “just in case”.
Also need to get spare keys cut. This is for the ignition. The rear deck lid lock doesn’t work. Cool looking key. You can still buy replacements that look like this.
Edit - horn installed. Note the water drain from the headlight bucket tube.
Last edited:
At last I got a battery for the beetle. It’s a bit taller than the std size but should be ok. I wanted to test all the wiring repairs I had completed then I could button up the front end wiring and work my way back. To do this I used my Power Probe. It’s an overgrown test light that reads voltage, tests for ground and can back feed voltage into a circuit with the press of a switch. All circuits tested ok but the parking light in the one headlight needed some cleaning of the contacts.
I put in a 7.5A in line fuse on the test power lead just in case something shorted out at the back of the car.
I put in a 7.5A in line fuse on the test power lead just in case something shorted out at the back of the car.
The po stuck something on the dash decades ago and the tape residue is stuck on the dash surface. There’s no tackiness and remnants of the adhesive. I don’t know if it was masking tape or scotch tape. Any suggestions how I might remove this? On line searches suggest WD40; alcohol; Goo Gone….. I think this will be stubborn to remove.
Any suggestions?
Any suggestions?
I would say not WD40, as I have found that it is good with petroleum -based residue but not so much other stuff; have had good luck with Goo Gone, but with stubborn adhesives, have to soak it a bit e.g. saturate a rag or paper towel and let it sit on the residue for a while.
Of course there are other, more powerful solvents that would probably work, but would very likely also injure the substrate.
