[T3] Newbie with dumb questions.

Fri Jan 28 08:05:17 PST 2011

OK.  You guys have been a big help.  And kinda reaffirmed a lot of what I
was thinking when I wrote my post.  Now I'll give you a little more
background.  From 86 to 01 I built about 15 Bugs and Things.  Since there
was no decent shop close by a lot of people started filling up my weekends
with little maintenance projects to include a few Porsche 914s.  So when it
comes to the basics I'm pretty fair (or at least used to be).  I just don't
have the knowledge base on these Type 3s yet.

In 01 I had to decide if I wanted to tinker on Harleys or VWs and Harleys
won out.  Now with gas getting where it is and I'm riding a newer bike that
doesn't need a lot of tinkering I am getting back into VWs.

I still have several Bugs and a couple of Things, but at 50 with a 9 year
old I thought if I'm going to make a daily driver the Type 3 with air would
be the way to go.  I think I can bust 30 mpg and I'm not making a car
payment and watching it depreciate every day.

Been there, done that with the old cars sitting for long periods of time.
My intent is to pull it in flush the fuel system, change the oil, put a
battery in it and see what happens.  Then like you say once it's running see
where I am with brakes, etc.  Fortunately I have a ton of extra parts for it
in boxes in the shop (1 being a factory tach) to include brake lines and
calipers. Shortly after buying it I picked up a squareback with an automatic
trans and factory air as well as another fast back with a good body and
motor (some issue with the rear motor mount, they had welded a chain in to
hang the rear of the engine on).  But it fired up and I drove it the 10
miles to get it home. Additionally.  The Squareback with factory AC gives me
factory tin, pully and compressor mount to use with a new compressor.  Also
if I can find anyone who knows anything about these automatic transmissions
it gives me something to put into another car for a wife that swears her bad
knee is too bad to operate a clutch.

The 1776 hydraulic is a motor that I already have.  I ran it in my 73 Thing
for about a year before I decided I needed something a lot bigger.  Then my
Dad put it in his 74 Thing for about a year.  It probably has about 25 to
30K on it and the hydraulics never offered any issues.  So it is my first
choice because it is already there at no current cost. I'm trying to reduce
the amount of maintenance as much as possible.

This Fastback doesn't have FI already, it has a set of stock carbs on it so
it might be a 70 or 71 (I'll have tp pull the title out or check the numbers
before I start.  It does have the later (Freeway Flier) transaxle in it. My
only real interest in EFI is to try to eek out as much fuel economy as I can
get and again to reduce maintenance.  I drive an average of 75 miles a day
and it is costing me over $100 a week to feed my wife's Jeep Commander.

Looks like I'll probably leave the body stock and drive it like it is while
I look for a reasonably priced 69.

Thanx again for all of the information.

On Thu, Jan 27, 2011 at 11:02 PM, Jim Adney <jadney at vwtype3.org> wrote:

> On 27 Jan 2011 at 12:14, Tom Hottinger wrote:
>
> > Been looking at some of the posts and am almost afraid to ask.  It
> appears
> > that this is mostly a bunch of purists and I'm afraid I may be hunted
> down
> > with pitch forks and torches.
>
> Fair enough, we'll leave the pitchforks at home.   ;-)
>
> > But here goes, I used to play with Beetles and Things but had to get away
> > for about 10 years.  Now I'm back out of necessity (I hate spending over
> > $100 a week to keep the wife's Jeep Commander full of gas).  I've decided
> to
> > drag a Type 3 Fastback out of the weeds and build a nice fuel efficient
> > daily driver.  I haven't touched it in 10 years so I can't remember what
> > year it is but I think it is a 72.
>
> We always like to hear resurrection stories, so I hope you can get it
> going.
>
> > It is a very stock survivor with no rust or dents.  Ran great when parked
> > but the Thing was so much more fun to drive.  I am wanting to put a
> > hydraulic 1776 and add air conditioning and possibly aftermarket EFI.
>  Most
> > of that is "No harm, No foul".
>
> Keep in mind that lots of things have gone south in those 10 years.
> It's really disappointing to spend your whole budget on "upgrades"
> and only then discover that there are lots of other problems ($$$)
> that need attention before the car becomes drivable. Get it drivable
> first, then think about the changes you'd like to make.
>
> I'm not sure if there are any decent hydraulic kits out there. The
> last word I heard was that our engines just didn't have enough oil
> pressure to keep hydraulics pumped up. Late Type 4 engines came with
> hydraulics, but that's a COMPLETELY different engine. Those lifters
> won't work in our cars.
>
> Bigger engines are a real possibility, but you have to be careful.
> There are lots of people out there who will try to sell you on
> "upgrades" that just boil down to poor quality or poorly thought out.
> If you want to go this route, I suggest you start by studying "How to
> Hot Rod the VW Engine" by Bill Fisher. He's not trying to sell you
> anything, so there's a LOT of really valuable info there, with a
> total lack of hype.
>
> AC is a problem on these cars. To install it, you have to cut into
> the cooling air intake to mount the belt for the compressor. That
> allows the engine to pull in hot air to cool itself, while you put
> extra load on the engine in hot weather. Durability is poor.
>
> If this really is a '72 (look at the 3rd digit of the VIN) then this
> should already be FI. It's pretty good as is. If you want to do
> better, you'll have to spend a LOT of money on the FI system and the
> engine that can handle it. As the speed shop sign says, "Speed costs
> money. How fast do you want to go?"
>
> > I hate the "Ivory" off white so am planning a paint job.  I have 3 parts
> > cars, 1 of which is a older swing axle fastback.
>
> Off white, really? I don't think I'd care for it either, but in 40
> years I think I've only ever seen 1 or 2 other white Type 3s.
>
> > I know the back fenders are easily enough swapped.  My question is: Does
> > anyone know how difficult oe even possible to swap the front clip.  I
> know I
> > will have to cut out the front apron but beyond that I don't know how
> much
> > more it would entail.
>
> Don't think in terms of a clip, just take the front fenders. They
> come off as easily as the rears. If you need to rework the front
> apron that's a separate project.
>
> If you're after the look of the early body style, forget this one and
> find a '69. Unless you're rich or a body man with lots of energy and
> time, the '69 will put you WAY ahead of the game. You can't imagine
> the amount of time BobNotch has put into his cars.
>
> --
> *******************************
> Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
> Madison, Wisconsin, USA
> *******************************
>
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