1963 VW Convertible Build

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by Clyde65

That is slick!

Originally Posted by flashed

Looks great ,cant believe how fast you are getting it done .

Thanks guys!

Originally Posted by goldenburb

How much the Fuchs go for this days ? I still have 4.5x15s & 6x15s just asking. Cool ride.

Haven't kept up in awhile but around 1k each on genuine 4.5's, and $1200 for a pair of early/deep 6's.

[67ChevyRedneck]

Wow, it's like a car already!

They're literally like a giant go-cart.

[goldenburb]

Another Q for ya..
in the corner of my garage, I got a 56 bug that is over shadow by my 62 bus that has no paint on it.... how can I protect It I don't want to paint it.... Thanks just asking...

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by 67ChevyRedneck

Wow, it's like a car already!

They're literally like a giant go-cart.

Yeah that's why they're so popular to turn into dune buggies and kit cars.

Originally Posted by goldenburb

Another Q for ya..
in the corner of my garage, I got a 56 bug that is over shadow by my 62 bus that has no paint on it.... how can I protect It I don't want to paint it.... Thanks just asking...

If you want to leave it in bare metal then look into Ospho or Gibbs oil, I haven't tried either myself for long term storage but others claim that they work well. Either will need to be **completely** removed before you can shoot epoxy. Or if your metal is clean now you could go ahead and shoot epoxy to seal it up.

[theastronaut]

Still don't have this thing finished. I'm waiting on the cylinder heads still, they ended up being a mess and needing way more work than expected. The brakes are adjusted and bled, gas tank has been flushed/detailed/installed, radio is in, and a lot of the small/time consuming details are finished. I need to add some sound deadening and padding under the floor mats, finish covering one front seat, do a four wheel alignment, and finish building the engine once the hesdscare done.


I finally located a rear backrest, it arrived and I covered/installed it on Saturday.




The original distributors were cast iron, painted black, with a brown Bakelite cap. I wanted to run a modern distributor for reliability and the adjustable advance curve but the polished billet housing and grey cap looked out of place. I dug through our leftover SEM dye and found a color that was close and tinted it for a fairly close match. I also light sandblasted the cap for better adhesion and to give it a slightly textured surface to match the original caps better. The body of the distributor was shot with satin black.

[rusty76]

Looks cool.

[LBJ]

That chassis is beautiful! Nice job. Body on frame looks great. Wish I had that one.

[theastronaut]

I finally got the heads back from the machine shop this week. I did a little bit of port work and had to open up the chambers a few cc's to drop the compression down to 9.4 to 1 (was at 10:1).


Before/After.






Windows, frames, and weatherstripping cleaned up nicely. Before/after shots.













Rolled it out to clean the shop.

[plainred65]

Very nice!

[dug224]

Great project. The wheels and the stance are perfect.

[flashed]

Turned out great .

[theastronaut]

Thanks guys!


Been working on the engine. Once I finished porting and cc'ing the heads and went to mount them I found out that the upper row of head studs were too short. The '65 only head I'm using use matching one year only upper heads studs which took a couple of weeks to find. I finally got a set last Friday and I'm done with the longblock now.




The engine was missing the thermostat (most are) so I pulled one out of my parts stash and cleaned it up.






I used a solid rocker shaft kit from CB Performance to get rid of the old wavy washers and clips that retained and located the rockers. Had to shim each rocker to .005" side to side clearance, which required lapping some of the rocker stands and end caps to end up at the final tolerence. Way more work than slapping together stock parts but it'll last longer and work better. I also used later 1600 1.1:1 ratio rockers instead of the original 1:1 rockers.




I also found out that the pistons didn't clear the webs in the block at bdc. I had to grind away a bit of the skirt to gain enough clearance. Once I had ground enough away that the engine would make a full revolution I used clay to check the final clearance.

[goldenburb]

I've been out of the Volkswagen since for a while it stinks especially after they legalized marijuana in Colorado....
can you tell me who sells red carpet??

You're thread motivated me to pulled it out of the garage for an overdue wash

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by goldenburb

I've been out of the Volkswagen since for a while it stinks especially after they legalized marijuana in Colorado....
can you tell me who sells red carpet??

You're thread motivated me to pulled it out of the garage for an overdue wash

Wolfsburg West sells original style squareweave carpet, and you can special order it in red.

[theastronaut]

Got a little bit more done. Started a new project at the shop so I haven't had as much time to work on it, and I'm still wating on a couple of engine parts to finish it up.

[duallyjams]

It's been awhile just seeing what you've been up too.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by duallyjams

It's been awhile just seeing what you've been up too.

I started on a '51 GMC a few weeks ago for a local business. It was one of their original shop trucks and is still logo'd. Going with a 5.3/4L60e, Mustang 2 front suspension, TCI rear leaf/shock kit, rear mount Tanks tank, Vintage Air... basically making a mild reliable cruiser out of a stock truck. Good to hear from you, been keeping up with you on Instagram.

[theastronaut]

Cut up a NOS Ernst muffler tonight and gutted it. Made a smooth face for it on the english wheel and welded it back together. I have four feet of polished 1.25" stainless tubing on the way for tips to replicate an Abarth four tip. I also removed the pre-heater boxes on the upper pipes. The intake heat pipe will have to be relocated to clear the filter pump.


















Fan shroud is on, flaps hooked up to the thermostat. I restored an old Bosch Super Coil and hung it with the original bracket.

[NONHOG]

anxious to see the exhaust (and hear?) finished.

[theastronaut]

Originally Posted by NONHOG

anxious to see the exhaust (and hear?) finished.

I'll post a video of if it running!

[theastronaut]

Bought a NOS regulator last night, drilled and tapped an extra hole in the generator body so I could mount it, and detailed/installed it just now.









The stainless tubing came in yesterday so I laid out the spacing on the muffler. I'll install the engine to double check the alignment with the apron before drilling any holes.

[theastronaut]

Got the engine together and in the car, muffler finished, and running today. The straight cut gears are noticeable too!

'63 VW Convertible 1500 40hp - YouTube

[theastronaut]

I took the car to the local downtown Father's Day car show today, along with the '66 F100 we restored.

[duallyjams]

Another job well done.

[flashed]

Very nice and it sounds great too.