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Sadly, Phil's Beetle was involved in an accident and is a write off. |
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I
bought my VW from Swanton's, the old VW dealer at Hurstville in Sydney, back in
1982 when I was a student looking for transportation. I'd always been a VW
enthusiast since my youngest days, and can still remember being driven around in
my Dad's '59 VW, sitting in the well behind the back seat, chewing the rubber
strap and peeling off the upholstery below the back window!
When I was old enough to drive I knew I had to have a VW as well. Dad's was gone by then, sold to a neighbour a few years earlier and eventually written off by some idiot. Anyway, I looked around for a few weeks until I saw this one in Swanton's used car lot. It looked awful with its faded grape-purple chalky paint and rotten interior, but the body was straight and fairly rust free and the original 40hp 1200 still ran well. I plonked down $900 and drove it home, only to have the clutch cable and brake master cylinder fail in the first week.
Minor problems aside, it ran very well for two years until the 1200 dropped a piston top at Liverpool one afternoon. I ended up driving it home on three cylinders. A temporary 1500 motor built from junk only lasted a further 3 months, so I decided to take the car off the road for a while and fix it properly. I took two weeks off work and spent the time taking it completely apart, carefully labeling and bagging the parts as I went, until left with a bare shell on crates, a bedroom full of parts bags and the floorpan leaning against the back fence. Dad stripped and repainted the floorpan in black industrial enamel, and I reattached the Muller-built front end, Geddes-built gearbox and all the other hoses, lines, rubbers and bits and pieces that make a working chassis.
The first new engine the car had (1790cc) was attached and started up - I even remember driving it down the street and back, sitting on a milk crate, late one night! Only the body shell remained to restore. It took two further years of waxing and waning interest to actually get this finished, as many enthusiasts can probably understand! Eventually, however, all the rust and dents were removed after many hours of hard work by Dad, and the shell finally sat glowing in new VW Ruby Red lacquer, its original colour (it has since been resprayed in stronger two-pack enamel, in the same colour).
The new paint provided new inspiration, so the fresh shell was reunited with the rebuilt floorpan and final assembly of the car began. This wouldn’t have possible without the help of my parents, who brought back two suitcases full of rubber and plastic parts from West Coast Metric after their USA holiday in 1983! Remember this was a long time ago, when nobody in Sydney sold rubbers, gaskets, lenses, seals and linings needed for a full car restoration. Thankfully things are much easier for today’s VW restorer, with parts now plentiful and good value for money everywhere.
My VW was finally finished and re-registered with special DUB-064 licence plates early in 1987, and the car has been driven almost daily since. It’s traveled almost 300,000km in 38 years, 170,000 of those by me since 1982, which really isn’t as much as it sounds. I’ve continued to modify and improve it over the last fourteen years, so that today it’s usually a very reliable and comfortable car that can also be a bit quick - but not always of course!
Today my VW has a 2007cc Type 1-based motor, based on a new Brazilian case that is clearanced for a 78mm Scat crank, with stock VW conrods attached to CIMA 90.5mm pistons and cylinders. The cam is a CB hydraulic 110-grind, with quiet hydraulic tappets, steel pushrods and 1.25 rockers adjusted to no lash plus one and a half turns. The Scat 30mm oil pump has an attaching filter and draws oil from a Treuhaft deep sump. The heads are new CB 044 Magnums with 40x35.5 valves and dual springs that take long-reach 12mm thread motorbike plugs. Carbs are dual 40IDF Webers fitted with CB horizontal delivery tubes and Fast Freddie’s linkage. The exhaust manifold has been black ceramic coated for long life and reduced radiant heat in the engine bay. A hideaway muffler is fitted, and the stock heater is retained. A wider Type 4 oil cooler is used with a suitably modified fan shroud, while the usual Bosch 009 has been much improved with a CompuFire electronic ignition module. The 8-dowel 12-volt flywheel has been lightened to 5.5kg and has a grumbly Gene Berg clutch attached. The motor can run on standard unleaded fuel, but not very well even though the compression ration is only about 8.5:1. I’ve found the new lead replacement fuel tends to soot the plugs too easily, so nowadays I tend to run Ultra-unleaded like Optimax or similar. A litre of methylated spirits in each full tank of fuel cools the charge, cleans the lines and smooths combustion too. I always run a light Valvoline 10W-30 oil that runs cooler and seems to lube the hydraulic tappets better than thicker oil.
The gearbox is a Type 3 unit, complete with Type 3 longer axles and bigger brakes, but with a 40hp 3rd gear to reduce the gap between 2nd and 3rd. The diff is a stock 1500 4.125 ratio unit, which is much stronger than an aftermarket ‘superdiff’ I once fitted that only lasted 6 months before breaking! I once fitted a rear camber compensator and although the car felt better, the central mountings loaded the gearbox side plates and made them leak. I would fit another if I could find one that doesn’t mount in the middle.
The front end is standard except for a stiffer sway bar with urethane mountings, and slightly harder front brake pads. Naturally all the brake components have been replaced. Koni adjustable shocks are fitted front and rear.
A Bosch alternator has been fitted to the engine, while a semi-automatic 12-volt starter turns the motor over. Rod Young fitted an additional starter relay which completely cured the annoying hot starting problems. The engine is monitored by a VDO tacho, oil pressure and temperature gauges, and an ammeter (which wasn’t easy to fit), all added to the stock dash panel. A VDO clock and Sony stereo finishes off the dashboard. Other electrical goodies include two-speed wipers, an electric windscreen washer, a Golf horn, 100W American-spec H4 halogen headlights with quadruple parking lights, burglar alarm and an interior light that actually works, both by switch and by opening the doors!
Front seats are Superbug units with headrests (very comfy) mounted on 40hp runners, which together with the door panels and rear seat, are stitched in contrasting shades of grey. I fitted a stock headlining kit and a grey cut-pile carpet kit from Boris Orazem, together with rubber underfloor sound insulation. Fittings like the switches, knobs, handles and steering wheel are all standard, except that the steering column, gearstick and handbrake are chrome plated (with stock knobs). Inertia-reel seatbelts are fitted to the front, but no rear belts are wanted or needed. The windows have good quality, grey solar tinting applied to keep out the Aussie sun.
The body is standard, in the standard VW paint colour (Ruby Red), but the rear exhaust cutouts have been filled, and extra cooling louvres fitted to the engine lid. All the standard VW deluxe trim remains, including the bonnet and side trims, window trim, badges and standard chrome ‘towel-rail’ bumpers. This makes the car look as stock as possible! The only exceptions are the 5.5 x 15" chrome Porsche 356-lookalike wheels and the 195/65 tyres which seem the ideal size to me.
While
the car has been complete for years now, you never stop thinking of further
changes. For example, I’m considering lowering the rear end by maybe half an
inch, and must think of some way of fitting intermittent wipers without adding
an ugly aftermarket switch! I’m also thinking of adding electric fans to the
heater channels to push more heat through. I would also like to design and
install an underbody scoop to ram flow cold air into the engine bay at high
speeds, as strangely my VW runs almost too cool around town, but gets too hot
above about 100 km/h. It will need new king and link pins next year, maybe a new
clutch (diaphragm next time), and another future project is new interior
upholstery, which is getting a little tired now after 10 years.
If you’d like to know more about my Vdub, I always wave to other VWs I see on the street, so if you see me coming please do the same!