[T3] Old Type IIIs

[Bobsnotch at aol.com]

In a message dated 2/23/2011 2:45:44 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
j_jonik at yahoo.com writes:

Isn't it  the case that all Manuals on how to take care of a Type III are 
assuming that  New Parts are available, and assuming a certain age for 
existing  parts?

None that I've seen talk about "Are your wires and connections  40 years 
old?"...and what to do about that.   What IS the life of a wire  or connector 
or Control Box or the rest?

How to know which parts, incl  wires, connectors, other components, MUST be 
replaced after X number of years  to be reliable?

Bottom Line:    How to make a 70's T-3 a "New  Car"...good for the next 40 
years....or next trip to Mexico or the boondocks  elsewhere....body problems 
aside for now?

Fear is that T-3's will  become just Show Cars, trucked to Car Shows, 
unreliable for actual  use.   That would be a tragedy for one of the most 
practical cars  ever made.





I had to think about this for a little bit (while watching paint dry,  
before shooting a coat of clear), so I had some time to ponder it. In 40 years,  
I'll be 90 years old (almost, next month I turn 50), and my youngest (who's 
a  t-3 aficionado, and HAS attended a T-3 Invasion with his own car) will 
be almost  70 (turns 29 in June), will probably not be too concerned what the 
car looks  like IF they can afford gas to actually drive it. In my links 
below, are how I'm  trying to get another 20 to 25 years out of them, after 
which, someone else will  have to deal with "the weird old man" stuff that 
kept it around that  long. Most of what I'm doing, deals with what Jim 
mentioned last night,  keeping the "shell" around, as rust never sleeps, and will 
continue to eat away  the car itself. If you can slow the rust, then the car 
will be around for  awhile (maybe another 40 years). The mechanicals, that's 
not really a problem,  as our cars basically use a bug engine, and they'll 
be around for awhile, as  there's still a thriving industry keeping them in 
business. Transmissions are  rebuildable, and there's a couple of places 
still doing that. Brakes, they've  been taken care of by the aftermarket (for 
the most part), but switching to DOT  5 will help you get more years out of 
the OE parts. ISP West and a few  others are working on bushings that can 
replace the worn out obsolete stuff in  our front ends (Delrin looks very 
promising). The rest, Keith has pretty  much covered. Like I mentioned above, I'm 
mainly trying to get another 20 to 25  years out of the car, after that, 
it'll be someone else's problem, just like it  was when you got yours (unless 
you bought it new). I mean, how long do you  realistically plan to keep it?  

Bob 65 Notch  S with sunroof and IRS (Krusty)
71 Notch (Krunchy)
64 T-34 Ghia  (Wolfie)
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.vwtype3.org/private.cgi/type3-vwtype3.org/attachments/20110224/2394faab/attachment-0001.htm>