Hey guys, new here. I posted in the technical forum before I scrolled down and saw the general forum!
Bought a 1973 AS for my mother's 55th b-day in October. Her first car was a 72 blue Bug so this will hopefully be a nice surprise. It's a barn-fresh 54k mile survivor that has been in storage since 88. Plan is to keep original and make it a nice original survivor. The OG paint is great with some areas spot primed that I'm going to try to remove and resprayed to match the original. Interior needs 2 new front seat covers and a little bit of cleaning. My main area of conscern is getting it running and somewhat reliable for my mother. I know nothing about these cars and I'm all thumbs when it comes to mechanics. Oh I'm in CT if anyone can recommend a shop (or a starting point!).
Hi
there are not many people who know anything about the autosticks. They have all retired and not many new mechanics know how they work and don't want to know... lol
but You may be lucky... You just need to find someone who knows how they work.
The first thing usually is to replace all the vacuum hoses as they are old and can crack at any time making the car not work at all..
I used some usa truck Air hose POWAFLEX made in USA 300 psi or more its a dark orange color .. The hose used must not be able to be squashed when bent over with Your hands.. as the vacuum will suck those hoses in... [it won't happen right away]
so the harder the hose the better.. plus the small rubber vacuum hose.. easy to find..
Once those are all done.. job isn't too demanding .. new hose clamps on them all..
then that is something any auto mechanic or auto enthusiast could do for you...
just cut the hoses the same length and replace them.. old ones may be difficult to get off..
that will then tell you if anything is wrong with the car... the old hoses crack and leak..
once you have all new vacuum hoses , when something goes wrong, I can usually tell you what it may be... Not much mechanically goes wrong with these cars even though they are over 40 years old now...
Your beetle is not a super beetle so the front end will need a grease gun and grease pumped into it every few months.. easy to do... getting the grease fitting on the grease nipple or Zerk is the fiddly bit.. just pump grease into the torsion bars until grease comes out the ends..
The Constant velocity joints [4] on the rear axles may need some grease too to help stop any further wear... only grease to use is : lithium based MOLY grease .. any brand
cheers
LEE in Australia