Due to the obvious trama, there are no pictures of the 65 Bug during this phase of its existence. Basically it ended up behind the garage in a state of disrepair for a couple weeks, not unlike this picture, while I decided what I needed to do. It was really obvious, I needed to rebuild the engine, replace the rear deck lid, both rear fenders, the tail lights, the licenses plate light holder and the rear bumper, while I was at it, it needed to be converted to 12 volts and the seat rails realigned/reinforced. These were the obvious things, of course this led to other little things needing to be looked into, fuel lines, brake lines etc. I had it apart now, so I might as well make sure everything was right. I knew from my dad that the issue of engine replacement required clutch considerations and on and on and on. Well, best to bite the bullet and get to it if this was going to work at all. After all, we had paid $540.00 for a parking permit. And now there was no car to park! So even though it was winter and the car was outside, I had to do everything to it that could be done to get it ready for the life of an outside car in New York State.
I ordered a rebuild kit for a 1600 engine, which my brother so kindly provided, and began my first full tear down of a VW engine. I also ordered the book so I’d know what the requirements were. Now to be fair, there is no engine easier to rebuild than a Volkswagen. I mean, they were meant to be rebuilt in battle I think, because you can tear down and rebuild the engine with a crescent wrench and a pair of vice grips in the back of another VW, if you have to.
Anyway, I put the 1600 upgrade/rebuild from, JCWhitney together and built the engine into a real little powerhouse. It has an electronic ignition system, no points, a competition oil and fuel pump and a rebuilt carburetor. I wanted to keep it as stock as possible as my daughter was going to be the one maintaining it. I also wanted it to be a little zippy as she does have her mothers right foot, (lead) and likes to get up and go. After the experience with the original wreck, I also added seat belts and made sure the seats were firmly attached. Unfortunately, I got mixed up and couldn’t figure out why the rear fenders were so difficult to get to match the rest of the car, specifically the rear bumper. I had to make one out of a late model bumper and again revert to my welding abilities to make a bumper that would allow me to open the rear deck lid. You see I had mounted the bumpers from the 68 on the 65 and they made for a weird situation. But by the time I had figured it out, I didn’t have time to change them over, so off to the welder I went.
Anyway, after all these upgrades (12volt) I took the car to my daughter, I really don’t remember how now, (brown cow). She had the car in Syracuse for a while, a few months, when she called home with the joyous information, that the car wouldn’t move. Okay, now I installed the wrong motor with the wrong clutch in the wrong car after making sure everything was compatible, in fact I used the clutch off the original engine because it was in new condition as far as I could ascertain. So I suspected as my daughter had no previous experience with a clutch that it was simply too much for the, probably 30 year old, used clutch in a 30 year old car to take the experience of a new driver. Realize, I’m trouble shooting a car over the phone with a teenage girl in college for AAART! When I arrived, the car was definitely not in a self motivating mood, It was smooth and quiet and everything worked fine except it wouldn’t move, at all. So I had prepared, and brought everything I would need to change the clutch, which of course involves removing the engine. Just in case I also brought the TOWBAR. By this time my brother had found me one of my own.
I changed the clutch in the parking lot, in under two hours, in the rain. (Uphill both ways)
When I had completed the replacement of the engine, after the installation of the new clutch, I attempted to pull the car off the ramps.
I had the rear wheels on ramps, as I had found it easiest to pull the engine by putting the car on ramps and using a floor jack to put the engine in and out. I even made a special little “block of wood” that made the angles right to get everything to align correctly.
Note the word “attempted”. It didn’t move! Well not exactly, it kind of shimmied on the ramps, but wouldn’t move from them. I determined this meant the transaxle was shot and I was real glad I had brought the towbar.
We spent the rest of the day going to dinner and a couple stores and prepared to tow the car back to our room, at a local motel the next day, the weather was getting ugly but I only two days to get this done, I had to make most of these trips, on my first day off work, regardless of my getting any sleep on my 24 hour shift, and be back the next day to try to get some sleep and go back to work. Being a Fireman is both great and taxing. You have enough time to do more than most people if you can do it in a day and a half and get some sleep so you can return to work. This was one of those quick turn around trips, no time to dally about, get there, get it done, and get back.
So as we left her dorm in the light rain, it was simply luck that we noticed the car starting to smoke from the left rear wheel. Now maybe there was a component of steam in the smoke, maybe not, but we did notice it. As our motel room was only 2 miles away, I continued to slowly tow the car there so we could be out of our room on time, before noon. This was before we learned about asking for a late check out time.
It turns out, (pun intended) the center of the rear brake drum was entirely honed out, so much so, that the axle was able to spin in the wheel, actually the brake drum, and the car would just set there. No failure of the transaxle, no significant damage to the car. We just needed a brake drum for a thirty year old car on a Sunday afternoon in Syracuse New York. NO PROBLEM.
I spent an hour in the rain /sleet/freezing/flying/snot. Removing the destroyed brake drum and an hour on the phone trying to find a local parts store where they would carry a brake drum for a VW from the last century! And you aren’t going to believe this, I know I didn’t, I found one, in fact I found a place with everything you could want for VW s, two miles East, on the same road as our motel, open on Sunday afternoon, and they had the part for a reasonable price. I was amazed, and cold and wet.
I bought the part and returned to the motel where My wife was waiting with the VW. I put the part on, in the ice covered lot, and hooked the car up to tow it home. We went to a Diner across the street, and I changed into my last set of dry clothes.
I had shared a set of long johns with my wife, when she had offered to stay with the VW while I went to get the parts. We had a cup of soup in the diner and went out to the gas pump to fill the truck before towing the VW home again. After all the mess of towing it with the brakes rubbing on the cored out brake drum, I wanted to replace the brake shoes, the wheel cylinders, and the rear bearings, before returning the car to my daughter. And time required I get my tail home. As we pulled up to the gas pump, the windshield fogged up entirely and the inside of the truck smelled heavily of antifreeze. I realized the heater core had blown, not that we would need heat in an ice storm. As we drove 6 hours back to Ohio, through Buffalo, and along the coast of Lake Erie in a freezing weather system, without heat, or sleep, or any hope of survival, but I had to be back to go to work the next day! So off we went, after I short cut the heater line back into the engine, and refilled the coolant system. I had experience with replacing heater cores before. Some even required I just cut out the firewall and replace them, rather than removing the entire interior of the car, as required to do it “right”. I could only imagine the addition of a core replacement on top of the day in the ice I had already experienced and it just didn’t seem reasonable. So after short circuiting the leaking part, we headed for Ohio, towing the VW, and about to experience the most miserable trip I ever took with my wife.
My wife swore she was going to lose her appendages, all of them to frost bite, in fact I think she tried to sleep, hoping she wouldn’t wake up, she was so miserably cold. I was cold but I am a normally hot bodied person to begin with, so it wasn’t that big a deal for me. Though I remember being uncomfortable, I was more worried about my wife as she whimpered next to me. She had long johns and winter clothes and a blanket and was still freezing. I think she still emanates cold from that trip, even today. Usually when I suggest buying a new tool.
I can tell you now, though I didn’t know it then, that the heater core for a 94 Ford Ranger, costs around $25.00 and requires the removal of two screws and takes about 15 minutes to replace. I think my wife even emanated cold for a couple weeks after she heard that little packet of information. The only technical consideration in replacing the heater core is that the hoses be correctly oriented, if you get them backwards, the heater won’t heat. Found that out the hard way too. But that’s another page altogether.
I went about putting all the parts on the car that could have been damaged in the brake drum torque failure, yes it was my fault, and took my daughter another car, my wife’s old car. A 79 Buick Skyhawk, which she drove for the next three and a half years. And I drove for an additional 3 years.
Thus ends page two of the 65 VW Saga. More to come, maybe.
