1964 Beetle.

[whatucolm]

Hello all!
i'm going to have another attempt at doing a thread for my Beetle.i tried a few times before,but had loads of bother trying to upload pictures,because of really slow internet here,and i'm not to handy with the computer either..
heres a few pictures from the ad on Eircooled where i saw the car first..

 

[whatucolm]

well that was three or four years ago now.i rang the owner,Barry(baz 76,on here)and went to view it.i was just what i was looking for,so i put a deposit on it,and my brother trailored it home from Wexford to galway the next week.it was a kind of an unfinished project.it came with an unfitted 2.1 engine,Rancho pro street gearbox,Webber40's,CSP wide 5 disk brake kit,and loads of other lovely bits and pieces.i was happy out!

 

[whatucolm]

heres a pic of the engine as i got it.i painted up some tin ware for it,fitted an external oil filter anp pump cover,solid pushrods,bolt together rocker shafts,petronix ignition,and bugpack ceramic coated exhaust system

 

[whatucolm]

oh ya,it had a Bugpack(i think)deep sump too.
heres a picture of the engine put together and fitted-it was a bit of a squeeze!

 

[whatucolm]

i made up a few brackets from aluminium for the oil filter,oil breather thingy,and put some holes in the inner wings,to make the carbs easier to adjust(allegedly)

 

[whatucolm]

probablly not great having the oil hoses going through the bumper bracket,but i wasn't intending fitting bumpers.
big dirty heavy exhaust can now fitted too..

 

[whatucolm]

this is the CSP wide 5 brake kit the car came with-it also had ajusters in the front beam.the rear was at standard height.

these are the wheels the car came with.not the sexiest things on the planet!

so i bought two new Mangle 5.5" 356 look steels for the front,and got four 7"(ish) banded steels for the back-well two spares and two for the back!

 

[whatucolm]

being a cheap-skate,i considered dickying up the origionals with bits of an old drumkit...until i had visions of small children being sliced in half if they ever fell off when i was driving..not good-so i had to splash out on e-bay.

 

[whatucolm]

these are the bandad steels i got on e-bay.they were kind of rough,but i got them sandblasted,and with a bid of grinding/filling/painting,they looked better.

i painted them BMW metallic purple,but was not totally happy with them.they looked much darker than i expected,whan on the car.

two out of three cats preferr deep dish!

 

[whatucolm]

this is how it stood at the back-so it was time totwist those trailing arms around.

i over-did it on my first attempt- B@st*rd!. not much fun doin it twice..

 

[whatucolm]

got dropped spindles for the front too,and it looked like this-

front wheels rubbing thr wings on any kind of tight turn tho..

 

[whatucolm]

i also got some guages from cip1 in America.oil temp,oil pressure,volts and a rev counter.made a little plate to hold the small ones in the radio opening,and the rev counter in the speaker grill on the right-no tunes for this car-suppose i'll just have to listen to the engine..

 

[Guest]

ohh this brings back memories colm ! nice to see to trusty old 405 dturbo having a well earned rest in the backround, that was a bit of an epic 24 hours involved in getting the bug home from scotland

 

[whatucolm]

i think that 405 must be an honourary vdub at this stage Barry-i remember you callin up with it,with no passenger seats,filled to the gills with what looked like the makings of two or three beetles!

 

[Guest]

LOL was like that a good few times colm,including the trip back from scotland with the 64 on an A frame. justin might have a pic of it with a vw engine hanging out the back of it ! raging i got rid of that car

anyways sorry for the hijack, the 64 is still looking good

 

[whatucolm]

sound Barry,no bother-stick up a picture of it there you have it..

 

[whatucolm]

i think it was about a year after getting the car,we fired it up(a bit too literally)for the first time.it started no problem,and was ticking over well,but hit and miss when reved up.
i was tryin to figure it out at my brothers garage.saw it took the boot much better with one carb covered.so i did what any top-notch dumass would do,a poured a little petrol down the carb-she ran much better,for a while..
was at this for a while,when the unthinkable (to me)happened-the petrol cought fire!
i threw the petrol-the petrol landed on me-i cought fire!
jumper on fire,hat on fire-i thought my face was on fire..
my brother ran for the extinguisher-and proceeded to put the CAR out!-while i was on fire-he said he "didnt see " me..six foot away,running around like a headless chicken,on fire..
well i got a dose of the extinguisher eventually-happy days!-have you ever tasted that stuff?-was coughing for a couple of days.
but only really burnt my hands(a me blue jumper),and the engine bay and carbs just needed a good clean.
cought it on cctv,and it was very scary/funny.

 

[Guest]

sounds like a lucky escape colm for you and the car

 

[whatucolm]

the carb problem turned out to be no jets in the carbs! should have checked.so i got those and bored out the chokes of the carbs.they were Webber 40's-a bit small for a 2.1.
then decided to widen the wings.

 

[whatucolm]

sounds like a lucky escape colm for you and the car

it kinda was Barry-i'll never forget it!
always have an extinguisher in the car now,in case i get any ideas..