Longblock engine... above; as it is now, below; as it arrived in May. Arrived 06 May - gorgeous NEW VW longblock from aircooled.net. Watch this space for progress reports. The underside of the gas tank with paint stripped off. Normally this part is subject to extensive rust, being exposed to road salt and condensation from cold gas. Once it is coated with POR-15 it won't rust anymore. The inside of the tank I'll coat with American Standard fuel tank coating - both products from Restomotive. Applying the coating. Notice the gray color of the formerly rusted metal after applying the Metal-Ready. The early morning spring sunshine transilluminates the taillights - kind of pretty. I plan to replace the bulbs with LED clusters, which are much brighter and fit right in the socket.

That splatter on the pavement did not come from the car... I hope! Body is in beautiful shape - never driven in the winter. Left rear body support shows general level of rust on car; a little cleaning and some POR-15, and those areas will be good to go. The pan is totally solid except for under the battery. The right side of the car is a little more rusted than the left side, needing a bit of metal here and there. Much of the undercoating is brittle and comes right off with a pressure washer. The valve covers after cleaning, and treatment with POR-15. Nice, made me smile.

01 September, 2004
Damn, Damn, Double-Damn! The project is ON HOLD while my broken scapula heals. I had a bicycle accident last Thursday and suffered a head injury, a broken scapula, and numerous cuts, scrapes, and bruises. It will take 4 to 6 weeks before I'll be able to turn a wrench again, let alone slide that engine under the car and bolt it in place. So Close! Damn!

15 August '04: finally got German intake manifold center, Austrian muffler, Mexican outer manifold sections, and Brazillian engine to line up with a little strategic shimming and machining. Straightened out generator fan, fitted shroud to engine, and it's ready for distributer, carb, fuel pump, and some oil.

Notice the little cart the engine is sitting on: this is four heavy-duty machine wheels I found in the trash, screwed to a piece of plywood with a little platform attached. It makes working on the engine much easier. I sit on a stool and spin the engine around.

24 July '04... lots of progress. Gas tank is installed, new trunk seal, pressure-plate torqued, longer intake-manifold-mounting stud made and installed, shroud straightened out and installed, exhaust system installed. Some modifications to make to intake manifold, generator fan needs straightened as it exceeds runout spec. Am starting to think about actual start date.

07 June '04... See illustration below to view effects of metal-ready followed by POR-15 on the gas tank. Notice how the metal-ready either removed the rust or plated it with a grey zinc phosphate (white powdery in places) and the POR-25 is pitch-black, super-reflective. I just got the whole outside of the tank done, and have sealed the inside with American Standard tank sealer. Will install the tank in the car tomorrow after work.

I called Aircooled, and they could confirm the shroud has been shipped, and is expected to be delivered here next Tuesday. So perhaps next weekend I'll make a lot of progress toward getting the engine in.

31 May, '04... I am still waiting for a replacement shroud from Aircooled.net, and have been using the time to do a little rust-prevention and to seal the gas tank. I will end up having a whole procedure-page on gas-tank sealing if this works, because Restomotive's instructions have a little room for improvement, to say the least. (Note to Restomotive - do not recommend ductape to seal the tank while using MarineClean. It causes the ductape to "let go." I did find a really good solution for this problem, though.)

I pressure-washed the underside of the car over the transmission housing and in the rear fender-wells. Cleaned them with MarineClean and pressurewashed them again. Etched them with MetalReady and pressurewashed them again. Let dry for a week.

Saturday I put on 2 coats of POR-15, which adhered beautifully and left the area over the transmission (and the affected areas of the rear wheel wells) smooth and well-protected. Later I'll do some metal-patching and recoating, and that will be the end of rust under the rear of the car.

Unfortunately most of the original engine tin won't be usable because it is incompatible with the doghouse oil cooler, the dual-port heads, or the tin for same. I have a powder-coated shroud from SCAT to replace it.

I'll probably sell the original German tin on eBay to someone who is rebuilding a single-port engine with a regular oil cooler.

06 May - The NEW longblock from www.aircooled.net. is here!!! It's an original equipment NEW VW factory engine and it's gorgeous. I had aircooled.net install the distro spindle and oil pump on it, and plan to spend the next week off from work happily putting new life into the old bug. I am very, very, very excited. Tune in during the week for progress reports!

14 May - VW engines cool themselves with forced air instead of water. The air is routed around the cooling fins by intricate sheet metal guides called "tin." I will have to use a mix of new and old tin because some pieces won't fit over the new doghouse-type oil cooler or the dual-port heads and manifold. But for those pieces that do fit, I have been pressure-washing them and getting ready to apply POR15 before assembly.

So I take a really complicated bit of sheet metal about 50cm long from the old engine, made in Germany in 1967, and it slips on to the block made in Brazil in 2003. The fit is PERFECT, screw holes line up as if by laser. Cool.

Sealing the gas tank is a challenge. The degreaser is so aggressive that it cuts through the adhesive of ductape (which they recommended for closing orifices during the cleaning stage) so I have made closing plates for all its major orifices and sealed them with RTV silicone (which comes off easily). The first run of degreaser did not fully clean the tank so in the second run, I'll toss in a couple pounds of BB's to scrub the tank interior. Then a few boiling-water rinses and treatment with Metal-Ready, and I'll be ready to put that old tank into better-than-new condition.

But today it's raining and I need to rest anyway. I have been trying to spend some time each day just resting as exhaustion overtook me last week.

I cannot figure out how many miles this car has on it. The odo says "36,000" which as we all know doesn't mean diddly one way or the other. The transmission shows significant wear and the engine was shot, so I'm thinking 130,000.

Near as I can tell, it has hardly been driven at all during the last 25 years - it has weathered-but-new Allstate radials on it. How long ago did Sears stop selling those? Of course they need replacing ... despite new tread depth, they're not safe for highway use.

There are almost no aftermarket parts on this car. Everything is original VW as far as I can tell. Even the muffler said, "Made in West Germany." A pity I can't use that muffler on the new engine.

It has never been driven in the winter, and structurally the body is very solid. There are just a few areas that need a bit of metal here and there. The body has more rust on the right side than the left.

The new engine should be here in a couple weeks. It's an actual new longblock, not a rebuild. It will take me a while to install all the cooling metal, manifolds, exhaust, ignition, etc.

I'm using a modified BOSCH vacuum/centro distributer with a Pertronix magnetic pickup - so no "points 'n condensor" for this bug.

Once that engine is in and running, it's back to the original plan. I still have the sketches of how I wanted to paint it, the kind of Corbeaux ralley seats and so on.

Briefly, I am attempting to make a daily driver car out of this 1967 VW Beetle. I got the car a couple years ago, and have made good progress with its suspension, brakes, etc.

I have driven this car about 2,000 miles in the two years I've had it, which isn't nearly enough. Man, I love drivin' Bugs.

More details and pictures as I get this page back in shape. In particular, some readers have provided me with the names of suppliers and engine builders they have had good luck with, and I will put the links on this page.

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