Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Alive and Kicking................!


I realized today that it had been a ridiculous amount of time since I posted anything, so I decided it best to drop in a quick update! 

The Beetle project is indeed alive and well with quite a bit of work done! I have a bevvy of pictures to upload in the coming days depicting the current state of affairs.  Since Thanksgiving I have sourced parts (new fender, seats and bonnet from a '61)  Workshop manual (and what a massive tome it is!) New heavy duty floors from Cip1.ca and 1 heater Dansk heater channel.  I am patiently waiting my drivers side channel to arrive so it can be purchased, shipped and installed.  I am told the boat from Denmark docks next Monday, we shall see.   

Truly the biggest and most exciting news was captured in this video taken on December 24th. (see Below!)

With a new coil, HT leads, battery, distributor cap, rotor and ignition key our friend came alive!    

What a wonderful Christmas gift!   

Nothing can provide more motivation than hearing that project run for the first time.

A couple days later, I did an oil change and was very pleased that what came out looked pretty clean. It was evident that the PO had looked after the car (to a degree).  Once I get a little further in I plan on reaching out to him and letting him know that the Beetle is being resurrected.  

I had always heard that these cars were beautifully simple and joyful to work on.  I can honestly say that having only had the Water-cooled VW experience with my Rabbit and Fox those whispered words ring true.  This is a classic car for the everyman.  With limited tools and skills anyone can enjoy and take pride of ownership.  It is also the least expensive car project I have ever been involved with,  parts are plentiful from various corners of the world both NOS and reproduction.   It is very easy to understand how such a cult developed around these charming vehicles.  

Please stay tuned for more long awaited updates!  In the meantime here is video, enjoy!