the never ending project. 71 super build

this is going to be a long running build thread for my 71 super.
first some background.
i bought this car in September 1999. im the third owner, the second owner bought it in 1973. it was in solid driving condition and was stock.

in early 2001 (still in high school) i started doing body work and after high school used graduation money to buy a Top Line Parts super low kit to lower the front (set for a 3" drop).

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in 2003 i started taking auto body classes at a local college to further the body work and fix some minor rust. as i was working on it it kept getting stripped further and further until it was a rolling shell.
floor pan under the battery rust repair.

and behind the backseat under the window. a cool note is that the patch is from a mid 60's bug and i had dug it out of the scrap bin at school. and after it was patched i coated it in bed liner to help prevent any further rust issues.

the stripped shell. the black stuff in the fender wells is more bed liner.

the next step. paint! i went with your basic bright ass yellow. (it's actually ginster yellow taken from a 98 GTI) shot the engine compartment, trunk, door jambs and interior in the backyard and shot the outside in a spray booth at school.

also, cleaned out, resealed, and repainted the gas tank.

then came reassembly. i started with wiring and moved on to the dash and interior. new headliner, carpet, dash pad, and door panels.

the engine.
the stock 1600 duel port was taken apart

and then catastrophe happened

so a well used 1600 long block was found, finished, and installed

at this point the car was now a runner. but there's more to come, so stay tuned. ill probably get the thread fully caught up this weekend.

hmmm, this seems like a re-run.

How is the Bug doing now?

so far it is a re-run. i started at the beginning and im working it up to the current state of the project.

the current state, it hasn't had an engine sense late 2014 but iv been slowly working on other small things and acquiring parts.

Cool.

I always thought your paint looked really good and still cant believe you did parts at home and the body yourself, same as Greg did with his LPHV setup.
Painting larger things is the one part of VW work I have never done but wish I could do myself.

so we're up to the driving portion of the thread.

joined a club and took it to a couple shows.
drag day at Irwindale

and Bug-In at the California speedway

after putting several hundred miles in it i got tired of the sloppy front end and the clanking sound when hitting bumps, and the EMPI header i installed in high school was falling apart so i bought some parts. seat rail runners thing to keep the seat from wobbling around, bugpack j-tubes and header, and bugpack black urithane bushing

i modified the header. chopped the heat risers off, sand blasted it and repainted with some VHT high temp header paint.

so then i drove it for a while again, and then this happened. lady in a Prius came out of a parking lot and didn't se me.

so i had to fix it

made a makeshift paint booth in the backyard and fresh paint was applied

(note, the taillight was not re-sprayed, its just there as a color comparison)

so then October 2014 rolls around and the engine crapped out. lost compression on 2 cylinders do to worn out rings and a worn out head. so that landed me here.

so in January 2015 i got fed up with having it as a daily driver and a project. and replaced it as a daily driver with this.
a brand new 2015 Toyota Tacoma. (cool note, this picture was taken at Bug-In)

and then lost interest for a while.
i had extra heads and pistons and cylinders for the bug engine so i finally dug those out cleaned them up a little and i have halfway re-assembled it. sorry no pic available at this time. but im actually 2 rusted up and broken exhaust studs away from finishing that engine and hopefully getting the car moving under its own power.

iv also bought lots of new parts for a new 1776cc engine. aluminum case, CB Performance 69mm counterweighted crank, CB super race rods, CB lightened flywheel, straight cut gears (can't remember if there CB or Bugpack), SCAT degree crank pulley. still have my 110 cam and forged 90.5 pistons/cylinders

im starting to find some motivation again, so after the stock engine is back together the plan is disc brakes, finish rebuilding the front end (new ball joints, rebuild the steering box and maybe idler arm bushing, replace a bent tie rod) install tach, oil temp, oil pressure, and volts gauges. swap to an alternator. swap to an electric fuel pump. and then take the engine and trans out, have the trans rebuilt and beefed up and assembly that new 1776.

also at some point i need to address some minor rust around the back passenger quarter window and rear window (going to swap to cal-look window rubber when i do this), rebuild the running boards cause they're really starting to show there age. and do more paint work cause the drivers side front fender and hood are sun damaged and the clear coat is coming off.

or instead of reading this whole thread you can just watch this 4 minute video.

Hey, I was just listening to Linkin Park today while cutting some trees down. Sort of like a "3 degrees from" game :)

I fell into the apathy trap as well with mine. I just started forcing myself to do something each day until it started being fun again. It's such an easy thing to fall back out of though. That and I keep filling my very limited work space with tons of crap and it's an epic battle between my laziness and my OCD to clean the crap up enough to get some work done.

That's not good about the Prius hitting your Bug but nice work fixing and painting that, it looks new.
Good video too.

Nice truck and the same thing happened to me when I got my first nice truck after owning/driving only a Bug.
I totally lost interest in the bug for awhile since I had a car that worked.

schwim wrote:

Hey, I was just listening to Linkin Park today while cutting some trees down. Sort of like a "3 degrees from" game :)

I fell into the apathy trap as well with mine. I just started forcing myself to do something each day until it started being fun again. It's such an easy thing to fall back out of though. That and I keep filling my very limited work space with tons of crap and it's an epic battle between my laziness and my OCD to clean the crap up enough to get some work done.

it's actually not linkin park it's Fort Minor which is Mike Shinoda's side project. im really not a fan of ether, especially the new linkin park stuff, that shit sucks! that song was popular at the time and it seemed to fit the video so i used it.

iv also tried the forcing myself to just do something, anything on it over the weekend thing, didn't work. i got lazy which caused the work to be sloppy, which caused me to have to redo what i had done, which just made things worse. now iv got other projects going, painting "the office" in the house, trying to keep the weeds at bay and grow some grass in the backyard. birds are crapping all over everything, pissing me off. then i started building model cars again and yeah... iv got 3 of those going right now.

You have one nice Bug there. I really like the color. Yellow / black is an awesome combination.
Too bad the project slowed down...

A note on that SCAT degree crank pulley you mentioned above. I tried one a few years back and ended up dumping it.
The "oil restraining thread" (no idea if that's the correct English term) was very poor. I did not work at all.
Oil spilled all over the engine compartmet. Compare the SCAT pulley to the stock one (if you have one at hand)
and you will see what I'm talking about...

I ended up with this one from EMPI. The oil restraining thread is quite similar to stock. No oil leaks in operation.

huh, i know a few other guys who are running the scat pulley and aren't having any issues that's why i got one.
but thanks for the heads up, ill have to keep an eye on it when the time comes. iv already got it so im going to give it a shot, i can always swap it out later if i have to.

well, after being totally F'ed by photobucket, the pic's are working again. now hosted on Imgur.

Super_Randy wrote:

well, after being totally F'ed by photobucket, the pic's are working again. now hosted on Imgur.

Yeah, I called it the "Photobucket Apocalypse" on another forum. failed company with a cheap selloff in 3, 2, 1....

wouldn't surprise me. im sure the competition is loving this

Maddel wrote:

You have one nice Bug there. I really like the color. Yellow / black is an awesome combination.
Too bad the project slowed down...

I totally agree on the Black and Yellow combo on Bug's.
My dream was to paint my Baja bright gloss yellow with gloss black fenders, roof rack, tube bumpers and wheels.

Off topic...

65VW wrote:

I totally agree on the Black and Yellow combo on Bug's.
My dream was to paint my Baja bright gloss yellow with gloss black fenders, roof rack, tube bumpers and wheels.

Not an exact match but close...

http://downtownmotorcarsales.com/volkswagen/253871-for-sell-1974-bw-baja-bug-completely-restored.html

Maddel wrote:

Not an exact match but close...

Wow, that's gorgeous. I'd drive the heck out of that.

Super Nice.

In my 16 year old mind my Baja looked very close to that really nicely built/painted Baja in the pictures! Haha.
Or at least I thought I was just a paint job and a few parts away from making mine look like that.

Super_Randy wrote:

... now iv got other projects going ... then i started building model cars again and yeah... iv got 3 of those going right now.

Can't tell from the pic above... Are these model cars radio controlled?

Almost 20 years ago I built this one which is packed away in the attic now ...

yeap, radio controlled. the one in the pic is a Kyosho Stadium Baja i got back in early 1998. it was my first hobby grade RC. RC cars are another hobby of mine, iv got like 15 of them, as well as 2 small helicopters and a boat.

is yours an 1/8 nitro? im not real familiar with Graupner.