I haven't gotten around to updating my blog since Monday, but that doesn't mean that I have been neglecting Lily! Over the course of this week a lot of things have gotten done. The windshield wiper motor finally came out, with Jon's help. The radio, if anyone is interested, was held in place by two little washers that had to be turned very gently with a tiny screw driver. The washers were actually integrated into the stereo knobs, hence being virtually invisible. Once we got the washers out, the faceplate came off the radio. Then there were two rather inflexible metal strips in front of the radio. They were holding the radio back, preventing it from falling forwards. In other models, there are little hinged clips in the back so I had spent a while trying to bend these things. It was not going to happen! Once those were out of the way and all of the wiring for the radio had been disconnected, the radio was easily removed by pushing it towards the passenger compartment. If anyone wants to market a theft proof radio, I think I've found the perfect prototype. It took me at least an hour's work to get the thing out! I don't think your average car radio thief would have the patience for this thing. (Do people still actually steal car radios these days? My last car was so run down that the thieves would have felt sorry for me so I didn't have to worry about that!)
Once the radio came out, we were easily able to get the windshield wiper motor out and take it apart. Everything looks ok, but there's some pretty heavy rust build up. I have to figure out how to test the motor and I'm going to scrub all of that rust out of there before I put it back together. If the motor isn't faulty, then it must be a wiring problem. Still, I wanted to take things apart and look at them before putting them back together so I don't really mind that I may have taken the extremely long way around.
While Jon was humming and hawing in the front of the car (the so-called luggage compartment as my newly arrived Haynes manual calls it, thus avoiding the nomenclature issues that can arise when trying to describe the thing that is like the trunk in the front of the car), I went around to the back. I decided to wash out the oil sieve instead of buying a new one, but I'm still waiting for new gaskets before I put the oil in. Gaskets, as I learned this week, are called Dichtungen in German. My Dichtungen should be at the VW mechanic in the next town tomorrow. After that, I'll close things up and put in some fresh oil. All of the Germans seem to like 15W/40 and since it's a German car, I've decided to go native. Another word that I learned this week is Zundkerzen. They are not Zundsteckdosen, like you would say if you translated "spark plug" directly into German. Germans think of them as more like candles. I'm not sure why.
I'd been wanting to look at the spark plugs since I got the car because my dad always said that you could tell a lot about the state of a VW engine by looking at the spark plugs. Fortunately, they were not gunky at all. That indicates that there isn't oil leaking into places where it shouldn't be. Of course, it could be leaking into other places, but for now I'm feeling good about the state of things. The did have a bit of corrosion on them, but I think that's probably because the car was stationery for so long. Regardless of their pristine beauty, there's a strong chance that they're older than I am and the extra set that Kurt had left in the tool kit didn't look too much better, so I bought new ones. Those are going in tomorrow too.
I'm still not sure how to go forth with the project. On one hand, the engine runs and doesn't seem to leak oil anywhere. At all. Which is weird for a VW...good weird. Lily does not mark her spot at all. This makes me hesitant to start pulling things apart and replacing seals because I'm not sure I could come up with anything better than what is already there. Somehow I trust the mechanical skills of the VW factory workers who put the engine together more than I trust my own. On the other hand, the car is 40 years old and I'm pretty sure that no major work has been done. The hot and cool air ducts in the engine still had overspray on them and the car only had just over 40k km on it when I bought it so it seems unlikely that much has been done and it seems very possible that nothing major needs to be done. I don't want to do a half-assed job, but I don't want to dig myself into a pit and end up with a car that doesn't run as well as it should just because I'm eager to get my hands greasy. What should I do?
Well, for tomorrow at least, I'm going to put the oil gaskets and sieve back in place, fill her up with oil, put in some new spark plugs and drive her all the way across the road. This is to free up the garage for the crazy Bavarian things that my neighbors want to do to celebrate last weekend's engagement. Wish me luck! :)
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Tearing stuff apart
Today I had help working on the Beetle. Jon and I had decided to take apart the dash to see if that was the way to get to the fresh air box and the windshield wiper motor. It wasn't, but we figured that much out pretty quickly. I was stumped about how to get the stupid fresh air box out of the way, but eventually he found three little screws in the groove near the trunk seal and once we took them out, the fresh air box was free! I took it apart and cleaned all of the crap out of it. It was disgusting. There seems to be some sort of mold in there so it's going to have to sit out in the sun for a while. That's ok though, because the windshield wiper motor still isn't out!!
Still a mess in here...
We spent a while trying to get the original radio out of the way so that we could get to the final nuts holding the windshield wiper motor in place, but it wasn't budging and I was afraid to use too much force because I don't want to destroy the dash, the radio, or my hand, so I ended up leaving it there. The wiring looks ok for the most part - nothing seems obviously corroded, although there is one connector on the wiring for the motor that seems suspicious. I may try to install a new connector tomorrow and see if that fixes the problem. Otherwise, I'll try to find out how to get the radio out of there and then keep working on getting the motor out.
Jon also took the old license plate holder off of the back of the car. Underneath it and the grime that had accumulated underneath it was a small patch of pristine paint. It's nice to see what the car looked like when it was new and to have some more guidance on restoring it to its original color.
Today was Sunday and in Bavaria, that means no shopping. Not even for Beetle parts. Tomorrow I'm going to buy some more viscous oil (Germans seem to like 15W-40), wire strippers, and a new oil screen if they've got the right one for my bug. I'm going to try again to get the radio out and see if I can make some more progress on getting the windshield wiper motor out. I'm slowly finding my way around the confusing mess of wires in the front end of the car...of course, by the time I feel at home there it'll be time to move on to something else.
We spent a while trying to get the original radio out of the way so that we could get to the final nuts holding the windshield wiper motor in place, but it wasn't budging and I was afraid to use too much force because I don't want to destroy the dash, the radio, or my hand, so I ended up leaving it there. The wiring looks ok for the most part - nothing seems obviously corroded, although there is one connector on the wiring for the motor that seems suspicious. I may try to install a new connector tomorrow and see if that fixes the problem. Otherwise, I'll try to find out how to get the radio out of there and then keep working on getting the motor out.
Jon also took the old license plate holder off of the back of the car. Underneath it and the grime that had accumulated underneath it was a small patch of pristine paint. It's nice to see what the car looked like when it was new and to have some more guidance on restoring it to its original color.
Today was Sunday and in Bavaria, that means no shopping. Not even for Beetle parts. Tomorrow I'm going to buy some more viscous oil (Germans seem to like 15W-40), wire strippers, and a new oil screen if they've got the right one for my bug. I'm going to try again to get the radio out and see if I can make some more progress on getting the windshield wiper motor out. I'm slowly finding my way around the confusing mess of wires in the front end of the car...of course, by the time I feel at home there it'll be time to move on to something else.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Morning Projects
The to-do list for today was more than enough, considering how long it's been since I worked on a VW. Here's a run-down of how the projects went:
1) Oil change. Status: 50% completion, waiting on parts.
Talk about a tough nut!
I had ratchets and wrenches, but this one did not want to budge. Since my oil pan was questionable too, I decided to run down to the shop to get some WD-40. I read somewhere that oil + heat +ultraviolence a few gentle taps = job done. I ran the engine for a while when I got back to heat up everything (but not for long enough to make the exhaust pipes flesh-searing hot), sprayed a bunch of oil onto the offending nut and viola! Three year-old oil tar comes gushing out of my car. I think there may have actually been whole chunks of dinosaur in this oil. An hour later, it was still dribbling out because the oil was so thick. Unfortunately, I was overly optimistic and thought that I could reuse the oil screen. While it might technically be possible, it seems much smarter to get a new one.
2) Spark plugs.
I didn't even bother to get started with this one. I could take them out, clean them, and check the gaps without having to run the engine. However, since project 3 took so long and I won't be able to get my new oil screen until Monday at the absolute earliest, I left this one for tomorrow. Or the next day. Or whenever I find out what's going on with the windshield wipers.
3)Windshield wipers.
Wiring diagrams are useful and they certainly made more sense when I could actually see the wires that they were describing! However, they did not help me very much today. I started looking for the windshield wiper motor. It's located behind the part which is euphemistically called the fresh air box. In my car it's more like the leftover dust from the Nuremberg trials box. This is the thing that was blowing crap in my face the other day when I took the car for a spin after sweeping it out. I have to take it out, and not just because I hate it for making me sneeze. It also obscures my view of the windshield wiper motor and all of the pretty wiring that connects to it.
A preview of what might be hiding behind Pandora's fresh air box...
Unfortunately, I couldn't get it out from the front side of the car and it looks like I'm going to have to remove at least part of the dashboard to get anywhere with this. I got as far as I could, but I need more information and probably a second set of hands so I'm going to wait until tomorrow.
Even though it wasn't a success, I figured something out and that really is the point of the project. If I wanted this to be done quickly, I'd just drop the car off at the VW restoration shop in Nuremberg. That would be very boring though and would not make for a good blog.
1) Oil change. Status: 50% completion, waiting on parts.
Talk about a tough nut!
I had ratchets and wrenches, but this one did not want to budge. Since my oil pan was questionable too, I decided to run down to the shop to get some WD-40. I read somewhere that oil + heat +
2) Spark plugs.
I didn't even bother to get started with this one. I could take them out, clean them, and check the gaps without having to run the engine. However, since project 3 took so long and I won't be able to get my new oil screen until Monday at the absolute earliest, I left this one for tomorrow. Or the next day. Or whenever I find out what's going on with the windshield wipers.
3)Windshield wipers.
Wiring diagrams are useful and they certainly made more sense when I could actually see the wires that they were describing! However, they did not help me very much today. I started looking for the windshield wiper motor. It's located behind the part which is euphemistically called the fresh air box. In my car it's more like the leftover dust from the Nuremberg trials box. This is the thing that was blowing crap in my face the other day when I took the car for a spin after sweeping it out. I have to take it out, and not just because I hate it for making me sneeze. It also obscures my view of the windshield wiper motor and all of the pretty wiring that connects to it.
A preview of what might be hiding behind Pandora's fresh air box...
Unfortunately, I couldn't get it out from the front side of the car and it looks like I'm going to have to remove at least part of the dashboard to get anywhere with this. I got as far as I could, but I need more information and probably a second set of hands so I'm going to wait until tomorrow.
Even though it wasn't a success, I figured something out and that really is the point of the project. If I wanted this to be done quickly, I'd just drop the car off at the VW restoration shop in Nuremberg. That would be very boring though and would not make for a good blog.
How to Impress that VW-loving Girl in Your Life
Jon knows about my blog (or blug and I obnoxiously called it the other day). When he got home from work last night, I was tired, but he insisted I go down to the Beetle and post pictures of the cars new tires. But Jon, I argued, everyone knows what tires look like! Still, I was happy that he was interested in both of my projects so I went along with it. So, folks, here it is...a new tire.
I think it's beautiful, but I tend to dote. Also, it was nice to drive the car yesterday without thinking that 75% of my tires had a strong chance of experiencing spontaneous failure in the immediate future.
Of course, I didn't just buy new tires yesterday. He also wanted me to take a picture of the burnt fuse cover.
Yup, it's burnt alright. I tried to install the new fuses, but the one for the windshield wipers threw sparks and burned my thumb as soon as the fuse made contact with the panel. My next guess is that a little rodent had a tasty snack of wire coating while the vehicle was left standing. I wish those books would hurry up and get here! I found a wiring diagram for my Beetle:http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
German 1971 Beetle Wiring Diagram
For German-speakers and people who need a key (i.e. those of us who for whom wiring diagrams mostly look like abstract art), go here:
German language version with key
So I'll look around today and see if I can find any obvious problems in the wiring for the windshield wipers. That, plus the oil change, replacing the spark plugs, and checking the timing should be enough VW for me for today.
Then, Jon said "Oh, and don't forget to take a picture of this one" and started moving towards the glove box. I thought he wanted me to photograph the trunk lever. Then I looked inside...
Who knew that my Beetle is almost the same color as a Tiffany's box?! Of course, it's not the box that matters...
Of course I said yes. It was the sweetest thing ever. :-D
So now I have another reason to get my beetle finished up in the next year. It has a wedding to go to!
Of course, getting engaged didn't change my oil, nor did it fix my windshield wipers, so it's time for me to get to work!
I think it's beautiful, but I tend to dote. Also, it was nice to drive the car yesterday without thinking that 75% of my tires had a strong chance of experiencing spontaneous failure in the immediate future.
Of course, I didn't just buy new tires yesterday. He also wanted me to take a picture of the burnt fuse cover.
Yup, it's burnt alright. I tried to install the new fuses, but the one for the windshield wipers threw sparks and burned my thumb as soon as the fuse made contact with the panel. My next guess is that a little rodent had a tasty snack of wire coating while the vehicle was left standing. I wish those books would hurry up and get here! I found a wiring diagram for my Beetle:http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
German 1971 Beetle Wiring Diagram
For German-speakers and people who need a key (i.e. those of us who for whom wiring diagrams mostly look like abstract art), go here:
German language version with key
So I'll look around today and see if I can find any obvious problems in the wiring for the windshield wipers. That, plus the oil change, replacing the spark plugs, and checking the timing should be enough VW for me for today.
Then, Jon said "Oh, and don't forget to take a picture of this one" and started moving towards the glove box. I thought he wanted me to photograph the trunk lever. Then I looked inside...
Who knew that my Beetle is almost the same color as a Tiffany's box?! Of course, it's not the box that matters...
Of course I said yes. It was the sweetest thing ever. :-D
So now I have another reason to get my beetle finished up in the next year. It has a wedding to go to!
Of course, getting engaged didn't change my oil, nor did it fix my windshield wipers, so it's time for me to get to work!
Friday, June 17, 2011
New Shoes and a Minor Setback
First of all, greetings to the people from the Scenic City Volks Folks who followed the link that David posted on the forum! Any advice is welcome, as are questions, but I probably won't be much good at answering the latter!
Lily and I went to Roeggele to pick up her new shoes today! After Wednesday's flat it was apparent that the old tires were no longer any good. Since I'd already used my spare, it was time to get some new ones - and fast! Unfortunately, since Oldtimers, as they're called here in the finest De-English, are pretty uncommon the tires for the Beetle were a special order item so I couldn't get them right away on Wednesday. The guys in the shop were amused by the car's documentation. The information about the type of tires that the car requires, along with all of the other information that one normally needs, is included in the Fahrzeugschein - part of the documentation that I posted about yesterday - for cars in Germany. Normally these get replaced, but since Lily still has her original log book that's where the information was. The way the sizes are described has changed however so it took the guys a while to track down the right tire size. This is something else that's different from my experiences with the VW bus in America - never had a problem there. Then again, I wasn't in a tiny farming town...
Anyways, the new tires are on and I got a few fun things while I was at the car parts store.
1) Rust-killing primer. I'm torn about using this now to kill the little rust spots that are there now because it will make the car significantly uglier and I'm not planning to get it repainted until I'm happy with the mechanical condition of the car. On the other hand, I don't want the rust spots to expand and there is competition for garage space around here.
(The competition...Jon's being nice now and letting me park the beetle inside on account of the state of the seals on the body though. What a wonderful man!)
2) A funnel. Unlike the previous owner, I won't be using a chocolate cake recipe as an ersatz funnel. Tomorrow's project is an oil change and a basic tune-up. Hopefully that will cure the jitters in the engine when I'm just cruising. The car is fine with acceleration and deceleration, but gets really shaky whenever I slow down so hopefully I'll get to the root of the problem when I start poking around a bit. This is where comments from you Volksfolks would be extremely welcome!
3) New windshield wiper blades. The car had been sitting outside long enough for the tires to rot...I'm pretty sure these were trashed so I got new ones.
4)More ceramic fuses! I wasn't sure if these would be easy to find, but they were. I didn't know the German word so I took a burnt out one into the shop and asked if they had such things. "Ach, Autosicherungen...ja, die gibt's drüben" (Ah, fuses...yeah, they're over there). New German word and fresh fuses for less than three euros. Score!
That brings me to the little setback. I thought I'd fixed the wipers yesterday, but it turns out that the fuse wasn't the only problem. I wanted to show Jon where the fuse panel was last night so that just in case something happens while he's driving, he knows where to look and I discovered that my previously pristine fuse panel cover now has a pretty big burn on it. The fuse that I put in place of the blown one was not just blown but the metal was now nothing but ash. This suggests that there might be a bigger problem. I'm anxiously awaiting my VW books so that I can figure out where the windshield wiper bits are and check out the wiring. I guess I could just go start poking around, but somehow I find wiring more intimidating than engine parts. I remember Dad re-wiring the house and my mother standing by with the dustpan to knock him away from the wires if he electrocuted himself. Maybe that has something to do with it.
Photos of the damage and Lily's new shoes to come later. Tomorrow it'll be time to get my hands dirty!
Lily and I went to Roeggele to pick up her new shoes today! After Wednesday's flat it was apparent that the old tires were no longer any good. Since I'd already used my spare, it was time to get some new ones - and fast! Unfortunately, since Oldtimers, as they're called here in the finest De-English, are pretty uncommon the tires for the Beetle were a special order item so I couldn't get them right away on Wednesday. The guys in the shop were amused by the car's documentation. The information about the type of tires that the car requires, along with all of the other information that one normally needs, is included in the Fahrzeugschein - part of the documentation that I posted about yesterday - for cars in Germany. Normally these get replaced, but since Lily still has her original log book that's where the information was. The way the sizes are described has changed however so it took the guys a while to track down the right tire size. This is something else that's different from my experiences with the VW bus in America - never had a problem there. Then again, I wasn't in a tiny farming town...
Anyways, the new tires are on and I got a few fun things while I was at the car parts store.
1) Rust-killing primer. I'm torn about using this now to kill the little rust spots that are there now because it will make the car significantly uglier and I'm not planning to get it repainted until I'm happy with the mechanical condition of the car. On the other hand, I don't want the rust spots to expand and there is competition for garage space around here.
(The competition...Jon's being nice now and letting me park the beetle inside on account of the state of the seals on the body though. What a wonderful man!)
2) A funnel. Unlike the previous owner, I won't be using a chocolate cake recipe as an ersatz funnel. Tomorrow's project is an oil change and a basic tune-up. Hopefully that will cure the jitters in the engine when I'm just cruising. The car is fine with acceleration and deceleration, but gets really shaky whenever I slow down so hopefully I'll get to the root of the problem when I start poking around a bit. This is where comments from you Volksfolks would be extremely welcome!
3) New windshield wiper blades. The car had been sitting outside long enough for the tires to rot...I'm pretty sure these were trashed so I got new ones.
4)More ceramic fuses! I wasn't sure if these would be easy to find, but they were. I didn't know the German word so I took a burnt out one into the shop and asked if they had such things. "Ach, Autosicherungen...ja, die gibt's drüben" (Ah, fuses...yeah, they're over there). New German word and fresh fuses for less than three euros. Score!
That brings me to the little setback. I thought I'd fixed the wipers yesterday, but it turns out that the fuse wasn't the only problem. I wanted to show Jon where the fuse panel was last night so that just in case something happens while he's driving, he knows where to look and I discovered that my previously pristine fuse panel cover now has a pretty big burn on it. The fuse that I put in place of the blown one was not just blown but the metal was now nothing but ash. This suggests that there might be a bigger problem. I'm anxiously awaiting my VW books so that I can figure out where the windshield wiper bits are and check out the wiring. I guess I could just go start poking around, but somehow I find wiring more intimidating than engine parts. I remember Dad re-wiring the house and my mother standing by with the dustpan to knock him away from the wires if he electrocuted himself. Maybe that has something to do with it.
Photos of the damage and Lily's new shoes to come later. Tomorrow it'll be time to get my hands dirty!
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Meet Lily
So, after the mandatory two hour stint at the keyboard proofreading my work, I decided to spend the rest of the morning cleaning out the inside of the beetle and to use the opportunity to learn more about the car. First things first, who is Lily?
Lily is a 1971 Beetle from Nuremberg. She belonged to an electrical engineer and was later passed on to his son. The original owner was Kurt, not Hans like I said yesterday, and from evidence found in the car he liked chocolate cake, soap, bicycle puncture repair kits, hipster sunglasses, and he was a smoker. And he liked to keep things very nice and tidy in his Beetle.
The car came with its original registration, but the users manual was not in the car. :(
Letter of registration
Description of the car. German class paid off! Strangely enough, I started learning German because of my first VW, ended up majoring in it, getting a PhD in German studies, and finally, buying another air-cooled VW. I could have saved a lot of time by skipping steps 2 and 3...
Information about the origins of the car.
De-registration. Luckily, endgültig (irrevokably, finally) does not actually mean that the car cannot be registered again. Phew!
Lily was built in Wolfsburg in 1971, but first registered in 1972. She must have been a year-end special! I wonder how many of the other cars sold at the same time are still on the roads...She's a standard 1302 model Beetle. The 1302s were first produced in 1971 and featured major improvements in the front-end technology over previous models. The engines were slightly bigger than older models (1.6L, up from 1.3L) and Luxury and Sparsam (economical) models were also available, but Lily is just a plain old Beetle.
The interior is is remarkably good shape for a 40 year old car. I figured out this morning that the springs in the drivers seat were not actually destroyed, but rather that the seat was configured to what seems to be gangster style setting where the driver is leaned back so far that it is doubtful that they can actually see over the hood. There are only two ways to have the seat in this Beetle - either straight up or this gangster setting. Since I'm pretty small and can't imagine I'll need room in front of me for making silly hand gestures in rap videos, I've opted to adjust the seat so that it keeps me sitting upright. Speaking of seats, I managed to get the passenger seat moving again and closed off the heating ducts on the floor.
Here's a picture of the interior.
The upholstery seems to be the original and since I'm quite fond of that shade of blue I think I just want to get it steam cleaned instead of buying new seat covers.
There are a few small holes in the headliner, but that's to be expected in a car that old. Eventually I'll patch that or replace it. I'm reluctant to rip the headliner out, but I'm not sure if it'd be patchable...Everything is original - the old radio is still there, the steering wheel is in excellent condition, all of the buttons and knobs work...except for one.
(Steering wheel, radio, sound system with one tinny little speaker behind the steering wheel...the original radio is staying, but something more modern will be installed in the glove box!)
One of the points that caused the car to fail its roadworthiness inspection was the lack of functional windshield wipers. They're there, but the switch was until now pretty useless. In an effort to get my windshield wipers working, I started moving fuses around. Luckily, the blown fuse was the only thing preventing the wipers from working, but the cover to the fuse panel was misleading so I thought that the blown fuse was for something else. Now, I can drive in the rain!
Like I said yesterday, the previous owner left a lot of interesting stuff in the car. The front of the car was full of tools and useful things. Behind the seats were more things of varying levels of utility. My favorites include the little fold up stool that is the perfect height for looking into the engine compartment, the nice set of sockets, and the required warning triangle and first aid kit.
(The complete haul included two bars of old man soap, three puncture repair kits for a bicycle, sunglasses, and many much more useful objects!)
View in the back: This guy was prepared for *everything*! He had a tow cable, countless cleaning cloths, gloves, rain gear, the lovely little stool, and so much more hiding in the little compartment behind the back seat!
Once I sorted through everything, I put most of it back in its place. Sure, that place was the trash can for some of the things (old soap, most of the collection of shopping bags kept in the back), but I kept a lot of the other things because they just seem to go with the car.
Tomorrow I'll get my new tires and put that rusted old hubcap back on.
Lily is a 1971 Beetle from Nuremberg. She belonged to an electrical engineer and was later passed on to his son. The original owner was Kurt, not Hans like I said yesterday, and from evidence found in the car he liked chocolate cake, soap, bicycle puncture repair kits, hipster sunglasses, and he was a smoker. And he liked to keep things very nice and tidy in his Beetle.
The car came with its original registration, but the users manual was not in the car. :(
Letter of registration
Description of the car. German class paid off! Strangely enough, I started learning German because of my first VW, ended up majoring in it, getting a PhD in German studies, and finally, buying another air-cooled VW. I could have saved a lot of time by skipping steps 2 and 3...
Information about the origins of the car.
De-registration. Luckily, endgültig (irrevokably, finally) does not actually mean that the car cannot be registered again. Phew!
Lily was built in Wolfsburg in 1971, but first registered in 1972. She must have been a year-end special! I wonder how many of the other cars sold at the same time are still on the roads...She's a standard 1302 model Beetle. The 1302s were first produced in 1971 and featured major improvements in the front-end technology over previous models. The engines were slightly bigger than older models (1.6L, up from 1.3L) and Luxury and Sparsam (economical) models were also available, but Lily is just a plain old Beetle.
The interior is is remarkably good shape for a 40 year old car. I figured out this morning that the springs in the drivers seat were not actually destroyed, but rather that the seat was configured to what seems to be gangster style setting where the driver is leaned back so far that it is doubtful that they can actually see over the hood. There are only two ways to have the seat in this Beetle - either straight up or this gangster setting. Since I'm pretty small and can't imagine I'll need room in front of me for making silly hand gestures in rap videos, I've opted to adjust the seat so that it keeps me sitting upright. Speaking of seats, I managed to get the passenger seat moving again and closed off the heating ducts on the floor.
Here's a picture of the interior.
The upholstery seems to be the original and since I'm quite fond of that shade of blue I think I just want to get it steam cleaned instead of buying new seat covers.
There are a few small holes in the headliner, but that's to be expected in a car that old. Eventually I'll patch that or replace it. I'm reluctant to rip the headliner out, but I'm not sure if it'd be patchable...Everything is original - the old radio is still there, the steering wheel is in excellent condition, all of the buttons and knobs work...except for one.
(Steering wheel, radio, sound system with one tinny little speaker behind the steering wheel...the original radio is staying, but something more modern will be installed in the glove box!)
One of the points that caused the car to fail its roadworthiness inspection was the lack of functional windshield wipers. They're there, but the switch was until now pretty useless. In an effort to get my windshield wipers working, I started moving fuses around. Luckily, the blown fuse was the only thing preventing the wipers from working, but the cover to the fuse panel was misleading so I thought that the blown fuse was for something else. Now, I can drive in the rain!
Like I said yesterday, the previous owner left a lot of interesting stuff in the car. The front of the car was full of tools and useful things. Behind the seats were more things of varying levels of utility. My favorites include the little fold up stool that is the perfect height for looking into the engine compartment, the nice set of sockets, and the required warning triangle and first aid kit.
(The complete haul included two bars of old man soap, three puncture repair kits for a bicycle, sunglasses, and many much more useful objects!)
View in the back: This guy was prepared for *everything*! He had a tow cable, countless cleaning cloths, gloves, rain gear, the lovely little stool, and so much more hiding in the little compartment behind the back seat!
Once I sorted through everything, I put most of it back in its place. Sure, that place was the trash can for some of the things (old soap, most of the collection of shopping bags kept in the back), but I kept a lot of the other things because they just seem to go with the car.
Tomorrow I'll get my new tires and put that rusted old hubcap back on.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Lily's First Day at Home
I traveled picked Lily up in Fürth last night and drove it back to the town where we live. I'm not sure this was technically legal since I don't know how roadworthy the car is (or even what the German standards of roadworthiness are since I got my license in Ireland). According to the guy who I bought it from, it hadn't been driven more than about 5 miles in the last 3 years, so I didn't know what to expect but I also didn't want to pay for towing so I decided to chance my arm and see how far we could make it.
Surprisingly, we made it all the way back to the house without incident. Lily had its first Autobahn drive when the GPS sent us in an unexpected direction (!!) and I got to change a very flat tire this morning, but otherwise no complaints. I was delighted to discover that I still remembered how to change a tire (thanks to my dad for drilling that into my head!) and that I was able to stomp on the tire iron hard enough to break through who knows how many years of rust on the bolts to get the old tire off and replace it with an even older but more air-tight one. Marathon training paid off!
While I was looking for the spare and all the goodies I need to change the tire, I also found a nice cache of tools that the previous owner, dear (probably deceased) Hans (and yes, that is the original owner's real name...) had left in the car for me. He left a spare generator belt, a full-size spare, a first aid kit that appears to be older than I am, and a very wide selection of random cloths - hopefully not cut from old underwear. I had it inspected this morning and for what it's been through it's in good shape. It has no rust whatsoever on the undercarriage, which means that the other cars will be sleeping outside from now on, and solid brakes so my biggest worries are resolved. Driving is good, being able to stop is better!
It needs three things repaired in order to pass the next inspection:
1) The windshield wipers don't work. At all. A fuse is blown, but it doesn't seem to be the one for the wipers. I'm going to try to find some ceramic fuses somewhere though and see if this fixed the problem. Otherwise, it'll just have to wait until I get my repair manuals in from amazon.
2) The ball joints in the front "have air in them". That's what the German guy doing the inspection said anyways. I'm not sure if this is a do-it-yourself-er or a pay someone else to deal with it problem. I also wonder if its just a consequence of the car being 40 years old and not having any major work done on it or if it means I should look at the front end more closely.
3) The exhaust pipes are rusted through. This shouldn't be as difficult of a fix, and it certainly goes some of the way towards explaining the headache I had after doing this morning's errands with the car.
Haynes and Bentley manuals are on their way and I've asked my folks back in America to look for my copy of Muir's How to Keep Your VW. I had a green one and a blue one, but I think I gave my dad the blue one...or maybe it was the other way around...either way...I need one and I know that I've had two so hopefully one will emerge from the vortex of my parents' basement.
I have access to tools and other things that I'll need for the project, so I'm going to try to DIY as much as I can. Since I have access to a second car it won't be a problem if the bug is off the road for a few days at a time while I wait for parts/healing of bloody knuckles/reduced blood pressure. I'm thinking mechanical-body-interior should be the order of things. Other than a few annoying rust patches, the only body parts that might need to be replaced are the engine shelf and one of the front fenders. It seems to run well, but considering that it probably never had any major work done, I'm considering overhauling the engine completely, but at the same time I find myself thinking that that would be overkill and that there's no need to mess up a good engine. Then again, I'm concerned about the integrity of the engine seals...after 40s years I can't expect too much from them!
A considerable amount of time was spent at a gas station near where I got the car thinking about whether or not the car needs a lead additive. My '71 bus in America didn't need it, but Germany, German cars, and German fuel are all different. This morning, while sifting through Han's tool collection, I found a half empty bottle of lead additive in the front of the car, so my question has been answered and the weird shaking from the engine has been (partially) explained. I am concerned about my car's lead addiction though...Is it time for an intervention?
It's nice to have a VW again - so much more fun than the Micra!
Lily the Beetle
Lily is my newly acquired 1971 VW Beetle. It's a working project car - it runs, but I'm not sure how long I'll be able to keep driving it until it needs major repairs so I'm going to slowly rebuild the car over the course of my next year. I'm currently living in Germany with my beetle and my partner who will be traveling for the next year, giving me plenty of time to work on my car.
This blog is a record of the project for me and anyone else who might be interested. I'm no mechanical genius, so it'll be interesting. :)
This blog is a record of the project for me and anyone else who might be interested. I'm no mechanical genius, so it'll be interesting. :)
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