1970 VolkswagenBeetle

My wife wanted to buy a classic VW Bus for photography. When I saw how much they cost, I politely suggested that she consider a less expensive vehicle. She then found this VW Beetle out in Colfax, NC. We drove over to take a look, and we immediately fell in love with it.

I purchased the Beetle one week after seeing it for the first time. Since I was not confident in my ability to drive stick, the buyer drove it to our home for us, and I drove him back to his.

I drove the Beetle to my favorite pizza place for lunch!

I drove the Beetle to Kung Fu Tea for bubble tea. I realized that the Savannah Beige color was the same color as black milk tea.

A week after buying the Beetle, I discovered a small gas leak. I nearly panicked! The leaks came from the fuel sending unit and the fuel neck. I purchased replacement parts from Wolfsburg West and made the repairs myself. This was the first repair I did on the Beetle.

Two weeks after buying the Beetle, the engine overheated while driving it home from church. Smoke was billowing out of the back. By the time I pulled off the highway into a gas station, the engine was seething. I had to tow it home.

This moment was my “call to adventure” as a car guy. I tried finding shops to fix the engine, but nobody in my area could do it. Ultimately, I had to buy a new engine and swap it myself. I had never done major car projects like this before. Now, there was no choice: I had to rise to the challenge.

The original engine could not be salvaged, so I ordered a newly built engine from GEX International. It was a 1600cc dual port engine. I also bought a “pea shooter” exhaust system. GEX took about a month to build it. FedEx shipped it right to my garage.

Dropping the engine was the biggest car project I had undertaken up to this time. I had to disconnect the fuel line, the air hoses, the heater boxes, the wires, and the tray. When dropping it, I lowered it onto a custom dolly I built myself. I felt so proud of myself once it was out because I proved that I could do it.

Installing the new engine was more difficult than removing the old one. Lining up the mounting bolts with the transaxle spleens was not easy. Then, I discovered that I did not properly align the clutch plate! I had to drop the new engine, realign the clutch, and reinstall it. Eventually, I got it in and running.

We adopted Suki the French Bulldog in November. This was her first ride in the Beetle. What a cutie!

The Beetle came with lap belts for the front seats and no visible seat belts for the back seats. I bought new belts from JBugs for “safety”. I liked the old-school latch style, and they came with stickers of the Wolfsburg crest.

I did it like a boss! The new engine needed its first oil change after ~300 miles, and then again after ~1000 miles.

The original steering wheel was not in good shape, and its horn bar was broken. I wanted to get a new steering wheel that would complement the tan and brown tones I planned to install for the interior. This wooden steering wheel looked beautiful.

The EMPI trigger shifter is the way to go. The lucky cat knob just looks cool.

I ordered a full TMI interior kit (carpet, seat upholstery, panels, and headliner) from JBugs. The first pieces to arrive were the door panels. They’re pretty straightforward to install. The previous ones were in terrible shape. The new ones looked so much better.

The seat upholstery from the interior kit arrived next. I stripped the front seats down to their metal frames. Then, it’s a layer of burlap followed by the “seat buns” and finally the vinyl covers. The two-tone colors looked amazing. The only downside was that the classic “VW smell” went away with the old coconut fiber seat pads.

Eventually, I got around to reupholstering the back bench. It was the same process as for the front seats. Unfortunately, JBugs sent me two seat buns for the back instead of one seat bun and one back bun. I had to wait to receive the back bun before I could move onto that part of the project.

Finally, the back bun arrived, and I could finish the back bench upholstery. The back of the bench needed a piece of the carpet kit, too.

The Beetle’s interior needed to be redone. The previous owner was a smoker, so the interior smelled like cigarettes. The yellow vinyl upholstery and old door panels looked ugly, too. Plus, I wanted to install a full sound system that would have required me to rip up the carpet anyway.

Installing a whole new interior was a massive project. I had already started it with the door panels and the seat upholstery. Now, it was time to do the carpet and the headliner. I ripped out everything down to the bare metal. I even had to remove the rear glass and the front windshield.

I ordered a sand-colored tweed headliner to complement the paint, the new tan upholstery, and new the brown carpet. I installed Hushmat along the roof followed by a headliner pad with spray glue. Then, to install the headliner, I had to mount its “ribs” and stretch it across the roof. I needed to use edge trim to hold the headliner in place around the windshields and windows. The effort was worthwhile: the headliner looked nice once it was done.

A new headliner needs new accents!

I installed Hushmat everywhere: in the doors, along the rear firewall, on the floor pans, and on the front walls. Aircooled VWs are loud, so I hoped that sound deadening material would make the cabin a little quieter.

The sound system has a Bluetooth head unit, an amplifier in the trunk, 6” Focal speakers with tweeters in the front kickpanels, 6x9” Focal woofers mounted to the back shelf, and an 8” Rockford Fosgate P300-8P Punch subwoofer hidden under the back shelf. I had to run wires up and down the cabin.

The carpet kit had pre-cut pieces and carpet pads. I chose a brown loop carpet to complement the tan color palette. From top to bottom, the colors go from light to dark: The sand tweed headliner, the tan upholstery, and the deep brown carpet. When it all came together, the interior looked fresh.

Volkzbitz is the place to go if you want a refurbished Solex carburator instead of a questionable aftermarket carb. I had tuning problems with occasional backfires, so I thought a new(ish) carburetor might best. Volkzbitz carbs are works of art. I got them for both my Beetle and my Karmann Ghia. As someone once told me, “Buy once, cry once.”

The Beetle’s bumpers were clearly not original. They were too light and too thin. They also had a bit of surface rust on the fronts and backs. I cleaned off the rust with superfine steel wool. Then, I painted the backsides with rust protection. Next, I polished the chrome to make it really shine. Finally, I used high quality electrical tape for that black line across the bumpers.

I discovered that one of the rocker mounting bolts had stripped, which then caused one of the rocker arms to crack! That needed to be replaced expediently.

My church held a small car show as part of their Big Fall Kickoff. The Beetle won “Best Import”!

The Beetle had a backfire that progressively worsened. I tried everything to find it, but I could not locate it. Unfortunately, on this day, the backfire got so bad that it literally blew up the engine. It would not start again. It happened about a mile from my house, and I had to push it home. The Beetle would be off the road until after Christmas.

After ruling out other possible causes, I suspected that the backfire may have been caused by an air leak in the exhaust system. Sure enough, when I disconnected the exhaust system, I found exactly where the air leaks happened. The gaskets around the connection ports had thick black soot. This was the smoking gun I needed to find.

The engine lost compression, which indicated a deeper problem. I disassembled the engine all the way down to its case. The cylinders showed deep scoring. I suspected the valves may have burned, so I sent the heads off to a machine shop to grind them out to perfection.

I bought a new set of pistons and cylinders since the old ones burned up. Assembling them is a very careful process.

Reassembling the engine was basically the reverse of teardown. I did a smoke test to make sure there were no more air leaks.

The Beetle was back on the road, and Suki was loving it.

I delivered a keynote address at QA or the Highway 2024 in Columbus, OH about all the lessons I learned from working on my Beetle and how they apply to software development and testing.

The old running boards were rusty and crusty. The rust was causing rough bumps underneath the rubber top. I replaced them with sleek aluminum running boards.

Mothers Polish for the hubcaps. Adam’s Polishes Graphene Tire Dressing for the tires. Shine!

Over the week of Independence Day, I did a full exterior detailing on the Beetle. I did the works: waterless wash, clay bar, paint correction, polish, and wax. I also replaced the VW logo. Afterwards, the car looked like new.

Who knows the last time when the rear brakes had been rebuilt. I installed new shoes and new hardware.

A stock Beetle had drum brakes front and back. I converted the fronts to disc brakes for better stopping and better safety.

The Beetle and the Bus!

Nice touches. The “D” stands for Deutschland.

The kids loved it!

At the end of 2024, the transmission when “boom”. It could not shift into gears 3 and 4. When I tried, the transmission behaved as if it were in neutral. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to repair it. I had to work on my Karmann Ghia instead. Once I had time, I dropped the engine and removed the transaxle. I thought I could open up the transaxle to fix it, but I quickly realized that the job was more than I could handle myself.

Hicks VW in Durham, NC had a rebuilt transaxle in stock that was compatible with my Beetle. I gladly purchased it rather than attempting to rebuild one myself. The only stipulation was that I had to exchange my old one so they could use for another rebuild.

Finally, the Beetle had a working cupholder!

Suki loves the Beetle.

The shock absorbers were completely shot. I replaced the fronts and backs with KYB Excel-G’s.

Mochi was our new French Bulldog puppy! We did a photo shoot with her and the Beetle shortly after adopting her.