George's Cars

I have 2 engines and 2 gearboxes to choose from for my buggy and I’m confused as to which one to choose. Now remember my knowledge of VW’s is very small, I’m learning as I go along. I have a 1300cc engine and gearbox which I know to be good. Problem is these are still in a car so the car will have to be stripped if I want to use them.

I also have a engine and gearbox that came with the chassis, problem is I know nothing about them. They are an unknown quality. But they do have two positives. The gearbox is already on the ground and only needs a quick clean and it could do into the buggy. So first question, should I trust this unknown gearbox or should I go to the extra effort and strip the doner car and use a good gearbox.

Second issue is the engine, again I know nothing about it, I know its a 1300cc case but the guy I bought it off thought it was upgraded to a 1600cc. Now my maths is bad but 1600cc is always better than 1300cc in my book. Is there a way I can tell if it bas been upgraded. Codes on heads? Length of pistons? etc etc…..

If I know its a 1600cc engine its worth the extra effort but if its a 1300cc I’ll stick to the one I know is good.

I have decided after a long nights sleep thinking about it that I’m going to use the gearbox from the donor beetle so that means more stripping. Hopefully it will be worth it in the long run.

That it folks, I’m done stripping. For those of you who know me you will be glad to hear the only stripping that has beening going on was on the donor beetle.

I got the rear of the beetle stripped down, the gearbox and rear suppension taken apart.

Now today was a good day in some ways but a bad day in a lot of others. The good is I made progress and have a better understanding of what i need to do for the next few steps. The bad is that its going to cost me more money. Some of the front suspension parts I was hoping to reuse are worn beyond repair so I’m going to have to buy some additional parts.

Above are the torsion bars that are damaged. The photo is really bad quality, i took it on my phone but the inner bushing area is scored really badly.

Some of the other bits I took out today.

After getting my hands on a snad blaster to clean all the suspension parts I have given up again. I had 2 suppliers who ordered me sand media for the blaster but neother delivered.

So on a pissed off day before Chrismas I decided that I’ll do it the old fashoned way and wire brush it. Yes it will take longer but at least I’ll be making progress. I started with the front axle assembly. Its cleaned and primered but I have to remove the old bearings before I do anything else with it. I don’t have it to have nice clean shiney paint and end up distroying it while cheaning out the remainingg grease in the axle tubes.

Next problem is to decide what to replace the bearings with.

Option 1 – Replace bearings with new bearings and inner shims
Option 2 – Replace outer bearings with rubber or poly bushes.
Option 3 – Replace outer bearings and inner shims with full lenght poly bushes.

I suppose time will tell whats the best option

Well,

I had a good weekend on the buggy. I was only doing bits and pieces on it here and there but still managed to get a nice bit of work done.

Chassis was stone chips, now its nice and shiney in gloss black. The chassis was then flipped over the whole process began again. Block sanded, primered and then top coated in gloss back again. No stone chip on this side. I’m hoping not to get too many stones inside the car!!

Sorry they are phone pics so not great quality.

I also got the full front beam from the donor car.

It needs to be sand blasted and painted before i do much with it. This is how the donor car looks now.