Well, my dream of finding a 1965 convertible came true right after I sold my 1992 Honda Civic Si Hatch! Amazing! I never thought I would be able to find the convertible Bug that I had been trying to get my hands on since I starting fixing up cars. The vert is still in the restoration stages, so don't expect too much here. I had to do a lot of work to this car just to be to drive it safely, and confidently
Getting ready to buy the car after driving the car and talking to the owner for a while.
Washed off the car for me!
For starters I had to figure out why the car would stop when I was not in gear, and suppose to be coasting, yet the brakes would barely stop the car and would go just about to the floor. Can anyone say scary? Yet the cars motor seemed strong enough, and did manage to get me home after sitting in traffic on the 91 FWY for 2 hours! The car had no emergency brake (just a hole between the seats), no working horn, no working windshield wipers, very sluggish gears, a top that had a few tears and would not hold back water and was ready to loose the back window at any time. The whole under side of the car was totally rusted out. The rust was so bad that both side mountings for the jack were broken off, and parts of the underside of the car were braking off just looking at it.
Still this car was a great find, and for the price for finding an 1965 Karmann Convertible with most if not all of the original parts still intact, even though they were a bit rusty, falling apart, or needing major attention, was awesome. The paint wasn't too bad, even though it needed some major buffing, and the doors had some serious rust spots. The rear deck lid needs to be swapped out as well, due to the fact a non-vert deck lid was used to cover the motor, as well as an ugly rain cover to help prevent water damage to the engine components. I know, it helped keep out the water, but it was not very appealing and it needed to be removed.
Pics of me and my daughter adding brake fluid while my wife helped us bleed the brakes. It was a family affair! Thanks ladies, I couldn't have done it without you!
All this stuff was fixable, and that was the reason why I wanted to buy the car in the first place. I didn’t want a vert that was already fixed up, because then I would have to change everything someone else did, to make it mine. What's the point of spending even more money doing it that way right? Anyway, just to be able to drive the car home was a bonus for me. Although I was a bit worried the whole time that the car was going to die and I didn’t even have the 100 mile tow from AAA!
After an over 3 1/2 hour trip home that was only supposed to take 1 hour and 15 minutes, I was just happy to put the Bug in the garage. Don’t get me wrong, having a convertible is AWESOME, and I did enjoy the trip home for the most part. The weather must have been 95+ in the shade, and you know I drove the car with the top down! However, by the time we pulled through the traffic, the sun had gone bye bye, and I was starting to feel the chill at 65 miles an hour wearing a tank. Still, looking up at the stars from time to time while driving the vert home made the journey worth it!
Now to tell you what I did to get this bad boy the way it is now. It is not finished by any means, but it is a "driver" and that is what I wanted.
For starters I had to replace the shifting coupler, as the gears were very sluggish. I then had to replace all the brake lines, brake cylinders, and rear brake shoes. the front brake shoes didn't look to bad, so I was able to keep those. I had to install a new emergency brake, which came in a bag not preassembled, so it was puzzle time! Then came time to bleed the brakes, which for everyone that has done this before knows, is more than a one person job. Yes, I tried the syphone method, and it wasnt good. So I had to call the wife for assistance. She was cool with it.
Notice the difference after I spent hours polishing the car. The yellow actually looks more like yellow than the mustard color it looked like previously.
Shined up the 5 spoke Empi's using Mother's chrome polish . Cleaned and shined the 145/15 x 165/15 tires, so that I could sell them to buy brake parts and "smoothies". Yes, the car sat on jack stands, after I sold my wheels and tires, until I found a set of smoothies. That was the longest week in my life, as the weather was totally perfect for cruisin' and my car was "jacked up"! Pun intended. :(
Bought "smoothies"(stock wheels) from a car show swap meet, stripped off the paint using "Jasco", and srayed the wheels two-tone yellow and off-white. The yellow was a made using yellow, white, and a bit of black. Yes, I was a mad-scientist trying to match the yellow for the rims. Next time I will just have Home Depot match it for me! :)
Bought new tires (135/15 up front by 165/15 in the rear, "porta-walls" inserts at that same swap meet for $25.00 for a set of 5(AWESOME deal!!!). Then found a deal for a set of 4 BIG Logo hub caps on The Samba.com for $55 plus shipping.Thanks Samba!! Then lowered the front a bit "old school" style. Yep thats right I put a 80 lb. dumb-bell in the front! :) Well, I do have lowered spindles on it already, and bought some adjusters to weld in, but finding the time to weld them in right now is the hard part. Plus I still need to buy the bushings as the old ones are shot! Hey, the ride is great, and the gas mileage isnt bad at all, so why mess with a good thing! :)
I liked the new look, it was very Beachy looking...but it still needed something...
...yes, the side panels needed to be painted to match the off-white in the wheels.
The fender beading would need to be changed to white, to match the rest of the car as well...
Bought a stock steering wheel for $40 from a salvage yard in Lake Elsinore that only deals with Volkswagens. Then bought some "Mighty Putty" and went to work fisxing all the cracks, then sanded, sanded, and sanded some more to get the wheel just right. Then I primered the wheel, painted it using the same off-white color"Ivory Bisque" from Home Depot. Sanded again, and sprayed a few coats of clear. Then bought the center cap, which I have sinced changed to a center clock cap, along with the hardware to hook up the horn.
