bumming big time

tmea · 29 May 2009, 05:04

Michael:

FWIW I also have a 68 that had the same problem. The PO had rigged up a remote swithch to the starter terminals which I removed. I am good with electronics. The scheme you are going to undertake should work well also.

Have you considered replacing the electronic poirtion of the starter switch? That was the problem with mine. The switch carried 12 volts on the meter but was not passing any current/amps to the starter. I got the replacement portion of the switch from Mid America (not expensive) and installed it with no problems. It works great. The stock system is not ideal but works well.

Like anything else on these cars you can fix the problem or bypass the symptom. The beauty is, either way you can still get it running...

Tom

kbug · 29 May 2009, 05:25

Hey tmea. Thanks for the vote of confidence. Replacing the electronic portion was my original plan. Then Wolfsburg told me they wouldn't carry any of the ones currently on the market and were going to produce their own. Maybe I wouldn't have any problems with one bought from another source, but why take the chance when a bypass looked like a good option. I can always re-do it in the future.

tmea · 29 May 2009, 15:32

Absolutely. I think mine was made in India... It works great though. I replaced it a couple of years ago. Good luck with your 68. I love mine. Only major thing left to do is paint. I've been having a hard time finding a place that will do it.

Tom

Bookwus · 29 May 2009, 15:42

Hiya Tom,

Glad to see you back on the board.

Definitely agree with you on the electrics. The electrical portion of the keyswitch would very likely (almost a sure bet) do the job for Michael. But I gotta respect his desire to wait for a quality product and his plan in the interim is a good one.

Speaking of painters, too bad you don't live in my area. I've got a guy who is fantastic and, since he works out of his garage, is very reasonable on price. Matter of fact my car is getting a new coat of color right now. Here it is in primer.......

kbug · 29 May 2009, 16:34

Morning Mike. Your picture raises a few questions. Does the primer reflect the final color, was any body work involved, and how much were you quoted if you don't mind? Painting will be my next goal once the car is running.

Michael

Bookwus · 29 May 2009, 17:50

Hiya Michael,

Uh-oh.............paint questions! If there is one area of the car I leave to pros it's painting. I know very little about the process or the equipment. But I am on the ball enough to ask questions, so I'll pass some of that information along.

I was kinda shocked when I first saw the car in primer. I was expecting the usual primer gray color. Turns out that the pros now tend to match their primer color with the final finish coat. This can help them use less primer and less color coat (as in the case in which a final color does not cover well) to achieve better looking results. Actually, the more I looked at that yellow primer the more I liked it. But the car is going back to its original Savanna Beige.

There was quite a bit of body work on the car. Uncovering the old paint revealed that it had been in a couple of accidents. One rear ender and one small impact just behind the gas flap door. On top of that the car was a mass of dings, dents, and scrapes. To give you a "before" and "during" picture take a look at these...........

Before:

During:

When Willy, my painter, estimated the job at the end of last summer he quoted me $1200. Due to rising expenses the job this summer will cost a bit more but I'd be surprised if it goes over $1500. He's an honest guy and works hard for a dollar. If you go looking for a paint job at a professional shop be prepared to pay a lot more. Probably twice what I'm paying if not more. The single best way to cut costs is to do as much as the prep work as you can. That's where a good shop will spend most of its time.

tmea · 29 May 2009, 18:03

Mike:

Your car looks fantastic! Infact, it looks like mine. Mine is a Savannah Beige 68. When getting estimates I even offer to bring the car with no glass or trim and I still get rediculous estimeates. The car has zero rust. Frusterating. I'm still looking. I'm in the Kansas City area. Where is this guy?

Agree with you on the electrics. It is how VW should have done it in the first place. In mine, the guy had rigged a remote starter switch to the starter terminals with alligator clips and just ran the wires through the door and laid it on the floor. Glad I got the car before he could have implemented his ideas for converting to manual tranny and adding A/C.... I'm lucky with this one. No mods, just 100% stock.

Tom

Bookwus · 29 May 2009, 18:15

Hiya Tom,

Gotta love those Savanna Beige cars. My Bus (also a 1970) is Savanna Beige too.

Willy, my painter, is in Mollala, Oregon. It's about a half hour south of Portland.

This guy is so good that if I had a car that needed to be painted and I was anywhere in the Pacific Northwest, I'd bring it to him. I've seen him repair and redo jobs that were done by body and paint shops. The guy is just a wizard with paint and body work. One reason that he works for a lot less is that he uses his garage to do his painting. Very little overhead means less of a final bill. And, while he took the car apart for painting, I'll be doing the reassembly with him.

Yep, paint just costs an arm and a leg. I was really lucky to find Willy.

I'll post up an "after" picture when we get it all done.

68automaticFoVay · 30 May 2009, 12:57

Mine cost about $50 BUCKS
I rolled white primer rustolium and flat black paint every bit of pitted crusty chrome is now flat black.
I will soon do a off pan restore till thin I could not take driving around in a primer gray and rust car it had the rat look that may be hip but to me screamed white trash.
Surprizingly enough it was very exhausting work over a two day period after weeks of scraping pealing sanding and stripping I gave in and primed it with 3 coats of oil based rustolium white primer then rolled about 5 coats of oil based rustolium flat black and aside from one roll mark on the roof it came out very well considering each can of rustolium cost bout 9 bucks and the rest of the equipment stripper included cost total of $50 bucks The guys on youtube were right you can roll even a bug my advice is to use the sponge type brush for around the headlights and other tight curves and less paint is better thinning it to the consistancy of milk is about the rule I did 50/50 I am currently getting a fixed income (very limited) so elbow grease I have, fat bank roll, I do not.

Bookwus · 30 May 2009, 13:14

Hiya 68,

Yep, I've seen the roller approach to painting a car. The results can be surprisingly good. I think the idea behind this technique is borrowed from Europe (Great Britain mostly) where the tradition of hand painting (I believe they use laquer) coaches still holds out against the more popular spraying.

Take a look at this guy's $50 paint job. Pretty darn impressive!

http://www.rickwrench.com/index79master.htm?http://www.rickwrench.com/50dollarpaint.html

kbug · 31 May 2009, 01:13

Hey guys----Picked up my friend Ray to help install the starter switch this morning. He got to checking around with a volt meter and discovered that the ignition switch wasn't bad at all. He traced the problem down to the section of wire between the solenoid and the connectors under the rear seat. We just replaced a 2 foot section of wire and fired her up. That was cool except I had already drilled a hole in the dash for the starter button. I'll just stick the button in there and leave it. I may need it in the future.

The carb needs some fine tuning. The engine lopes in idle and dies when you put it in gear. If the builder had it running smooth before he delivered it (big if), then maybe I have a vacuum leak somewhere. Ray's going to look into fine tuning the H30/31 PICT carb. We didn't have a lot of time to play around with it this morning, but I'm off next Friday and we're going to dive into it and finish the job. At least nothing is leaking out so I must have installed the TC seal correctly. I think things are going well and I should be cruising next weekend.
Thanks for your help everybody. I may be starting a new thread for the carb.

Michael

Bookwus · 31 May 2009, 02:02

Hiya Michael,

With your 30/31 you definitely want to check this out..........

http://www.vw-resource.com/30PICT2.html

Bookwus · 31 May 2009, 02:46

Hiya All,

Since I interloped in this thread with the painting of my car, I'll just continue along with it here.

Here's a shot of Willy sanding down the primer. Getting ready for the color coat.

kbug · 31 May 2009, 05:16

Hey Bookwus. Were you tempted to change the color? Maybe beige with white sides. A carb question. This 30/31 has been a PITA ever since I got it. I'm not ruling out replacing it if it comes to that. Aircooled.net has a 34-3 for dual port, would that be a good mate?

Michael

Bookwus · 31 May 2009, 06:16

Hiya Michael,

Change the color? Nah, I'm too much of a stock Nazi to do something like that.

About your carburetor.........you definitely do not want a 30/31 sitting on top of a 1776. The 30/31 is an aftermarket carburetor designed to replace any of the original 30 series (30PICT1, 30PICT2, and 30PICT3) that sat on top of 1500 and 1600 single port engines. The 30/31 is way too small to the job on a 1776. Matter of fact, the 34PICT3 in its stock form is probably going to underwhelm the 1776 also. You'll need to rejet that 34PICT3 in order to make that 1776 reasonably happy.