I just got a 65 EZ camper :o) Its been sitting for 13 years after someone sugared the tank. Its a walk-thru and the body is in good shape even the battery tray is solid as is the interior. I think with my engine swap and a few hours I should be up and running. I cant wait to show it off at the camp outs. I do plan on making this a daily driver also , how can you not drive your bus all the time? I think I will sell the EZ camper interior and camper windows and use the westfalia camper interior out of my 67 in it. This was a great find and I figured after 13 years off the road it needed saving:o)
How is the work on your bug going? I haven't seen any pictures. I'm still waiting for the rubber bushing for my IRS suspension. If it takes to long I will replace them with unthreaded. Yesterday, I was able to slide the end of the car on a round, for the first time since I put new 185 tires. I was going home to lunch and I wasn't counting on that, but it was funny.
Good point -- I should post some pictures somewhere. I am very bad at maintaining web sites - maybe one of those blog spots would work better for me.
So you're driving your bug, then? As long as that long bolt doesn't walk out, I don't think it can do damage. Aircooled.net has bolts with a hole drilled through them so you can use safety wire to make sure they never walk out - I'll replace mine with those just in case.
I've been busy doing mondane work at both work, at home and my daughter's subaru engine:
My wife is in a painting mood. She feels "we" should paint - and with "we", she means the ceasarian "remco" :) Part of her 'kick' is my fault since I had the idea to replace some doors in our foyer with 'french' glass pane doors. It'll look nice but, of course, now stuff has to be stripped, sanded and repainted.
On the automotive front, I fixed the subie engine and finally last week was going to lift it back in. When all bolted in, I found that the bolt holes on the torque converter are totally screwed up. So had to lift the D@#$&%% thing back out and get the torque conveter machined at a machine shop.
Needless to say, I haven't done as much as intended this month since that engine was in my way. My entire bug is now sitting in my garage: body on a large dolly and the stripped frame on a roll around table. Most the rust and undercoating is off. I am working on replacing some frame stuff now - my "napoleon hat" front piece (where the master brake cylinder mounts) is shot and am surgically trying to remove the old welds. I did find a hole in the bottom of my frame head cover so will replace that. Pretty funny, because I just painted the inside of my framehead with disgustingly thick axle grease to protect it. That will smell just great when I start welding, huh - maybe you'll be able to smell it where you live :) When I get that done, I'll put the new floors in and completely spray the frame and wrap it in a tarp - since it is cold, I'll wait with the spraying until April/May. Hopefully March I'll start replacing the heater channels, firewall and cross members on the body. I also need to fix an A pillar and replace two small panels. I am having fun with it - never having done anything on this scale, it has been a great learning experience.
Up date I just took the 65 camper on a 60 mile trip and I couldn't be any happier ...even the radio works...lol the wipers don't but I expected as much, the last local VW repair shop put in a light balb to bring down the voltage??? The wife to be really did a great job cleaning up the interior (yes she even suggested trying it out,) I'm going to start taking personal time to work on my VW's...lol. I'll get pics soon its still moss green even with wash. Its not perfect but its a nice bus, I won't be looking for another.
Mario Vintage Werks Restorations up to 2 new customers aday on average,I get to have all the fun:o)
I drive my bug regularly. Every Friday I take my sons to school on it. I borrow my daily drive car for two days and I had to use the beetle. One think that I learn is that before disassembly something be sure you have the right parts to replace. I don't live on US so I can't order parts from Aircooled. I have to find them here in Portugal, a small country on the other side of the Atlantic Sea. You must know it since you born in Europe. I have already order some parts from Germany. "She feels "we" should paint - and with "we", she means the caesarian "remco" :) " This story sounds familiarly to me. I do think that all wife's went to the same school :-) My beetle looks nice from a 2 m distance. The paint was some bubbles and there a small holes and rust on the bottom of the heater channels and on the bottom of the A pillar. I would like to restore it properly, but it would be very expensive and a huge project. I will wait for my sons to grow up a bit more to help me on that.
I see what you mean with not being able to order stuff from places here
- that is a pain. If you need something from over here that is hard to get there, you could order it and get it shipped to my house - when I get it, I could forward it to you. Just email me, should you ever need to do that.
Eventually you'll do a proper restore, I am sure. It would be fun to include your sons into it as well. My son (15) helps me from time to time, but he doesn't like to get too dirty - dirt is apparently not 'cool'. When I rebuilt the engine, I passed him all the cruddiest pieces to clean, You gotta learn to love dirt somehow, right? :)
Do you have a huge rust problem in Portugal? The weather is a tempered maritime climate, right? Does the sea breeze (mist and sea salt) affect older cars?
I think that if we what someone evolved on our project we must split the funny. First of all we must motivate our team ;-) The weather here is tempered. Today's temperature is between 8=BA C (46F) and 18=BA C (64F) I live about 20 km from the sea and have pine trees between my house and the sea. It's a very humid region, but I don't have sea breeze on my town. The cars that are parked near the sea can rust out on a few years. The houses that have iron stuff rust out completely. 90% of the time the wind comes from sea to land.
Actually the 72 is my son's car so that's his motivation. He wants it black, no chrome. He has always liked cars. We've been going to car shows and cruise nights since he was a baby so that paid off :) One cannot do work on cars unless you don't mind getting dirty so he'll learn.
He's seen what big bug engines can do at shows and that's what he wants in it. We agreed that he first needs to learn how to drive properly. We hope to build a aircooled "mustang spanker" engine one day. We'll see.
Wow - you should open up a por15 dealership :) I do like your winter temperatures, though.
I think so too. It took a bit to die -- they even poured bleach into the oil filler, from what I remember. That's one of the few TV shows I really like!
All that you really have to do to kill an engine is put a little valve granding compound into the oil. It will not be long before everything in the engine is just dust, valves, rings, bearings, crank, cam. Just as good as using emery cloth and much faster.
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