Watch the video to see Sam's progress on this 1967 VW Beetle

We have a productive day working on this 1967 Sunroof Beetle. Watch along as we finally get that hinge pin out so we can install mirrors. The car gets new body molding, a clutch access plate along with new clutch and accelerator cables and bowden tube, a six shooter clutch adjusting nut installed, new swing axle boots, reverse light switch wiring, and a new throw out bearing.

Video Transcript

All right, this guy might be winning, but I'm not giving up.

I'm almost there. I'm gonna get it out, somehow. Let's see how that goes.

Custom modified punch.

Might be getting there.

I got it. That's why my favorite tool is a hammer.

All so I could get that stupid little guy in.

So this is what I've resorted to jack, extra jack handle bracing the hinge so I can drive that pin home that last little bit.

I'm gonna call that good. And now you can see why we don't recommend replacing these pins if your car's been painted. It is a ton of force to get that stupid little pin out. Man, not to mention that's a ton of force to get that stupid little pin in.

All right, I'm gonna brighten things up a little bit. New hood emblem, very nice heavy duty. These things are super like… you can hear that there's some heft in there. Some new clips.

Just like so. There we go, beautiful. All right now I can put on the rest of the molding along with some new clip, or rather I can put on some clips and then I can put on the rest of molding.

And just like that, we've got new body molding, on this side at least. Ooh we got that shiny hood emblem. And I trimmed down those boots as well.

So what if it's patina, doesn't mean we can't have a little bit of class, right.

All right, so if anybody watched my Super Beetle restoration series you'll notice that I cut a hole in the side of the tunnel and made a custom plate so that I can access the clutch cable easily. People have been doing the same modification in off-road cars for years so Airkewld put together this pre-made instructions and you can download them. Basically all you're doing is measuring back, measuring up, cutting a square that then gets covered by this plate right here. So I'm going to get working on that. That starts by getting rid of all these old tar board.

All right I changed the angle so I can get in here and actually work. But there you go. We're going to come back an inch and a half from the firewall. We're going to come up a half an inch. We're going to cut a hole that's three and a half inches tall and four inches long.

There we go. We had a long way to go. I didn't want to deal with all that. You know what, this is a perfect time to swap out to a six shooter. Hopefully. There we go.

All right, so we've got a lightly greased new German clutch cable. I’m gonna have to do some fighting on that bowden tube in the back. Bear with me.

And now that we've got our bowden sleeve pulled out. Honestly, it’s seen better days. So I'm gonna grab another one of these. But now… And just like that, our cable’s in place. Now, I gotta get a new sleeve.

And there. Now I'm going to clean this guy and put a six shooter on. Because why not, right.

All right, because nothing says budget like an $80 clutch adjustment nut. The raws weren't available. The black weren’t available, but we still had one stainless steel left in stock. So seeing as these are apparently pretty popular, I'm just going to install it. I know it's going to install because it's from Airkewld. So let's see here, yada yada yada, clean the cable threads are full of dirt and grime. We've done that. Stainless steel versions will need anti-seize. Fortunately, Pete includes some anti-seize.

All right threads are coated. Oh that's much easier. Obviously it's a new cable so it's going to be a lot easier than most, but even then it's just the feel of using this thing is very, very nice as opposed to a stock lean one. Yeah Airkewld knocks it out of the park again with another one. Let me go test the panel. Everything's in place. We can adjust that properly once the engine's in, but for now one more thing off of our list.

Once we get one in it everything else will be a little bit easier, but. That's installed. Well I guess I can run a new accelerator cable now. Looks like there was some emergency repairs done here. Lightly greased accelerator cable. Now I've got some more to do on the transmission kind of area stuff. No time like the present, right.

All right, reverse light wires aren't easy to hook up even when things are clean. They're worse when things are dirty. Let's see how this goes. Never mind, I can't see at all.

I wonder if I can get you guys in here. Hopefully you guys can see this. I gotta get this guy off from up there. There, got it. Doesn’t matter which wire goes to which terminal. Just an open and close switch so.

Oh, come on. That's half of it. Woo, got it. All right, that's one of two. Half the battle. Give me the other wire, please. This one I can see, but it doesn't mean it's going to be easier. Almost there, come on now. Too high. There we go. Uh-huh.

All right got them both, top and bottom. Not a fun job, especially with all this grease and grime and dirty and yucky. But that's done. Now I can get to swing axle boots, yay.

All right, for my next trick I'm gonna pull off some swing boots, I hope. I don't know if you guys can actually see with me all up in here, but as long as I can see that's the most important part. Wow, a hose clamp that won't unclamp. Yeah, that'll do. Oh that's got the old school kind right there. Those might be original boots. At least this one might be. And we're gonna get a little bit of water out of there, all right. What do you expect when you pressure wash it? At least it's not a bunch of grease. Well I gotta get that guy off, but I guess I'll go come over here and work with this guy for a bit.

All right I gotta get that guy off, that clamp, that clamp, these boots. I'll get everything cleaned up and then I can put some new swing axle boots on.

All right, well hopefully this view will give you guys a better view of what I'm about to do.

A little aviation sealant as long as inside lip. Just a thin coat. This stuff is super, super gummy. It really never dries out. It's kind of like tar almost. Especially at the seam here. Open it up and not get it all over with my hands on this side, probably not. I’ll try to feed this in over here, but it's not going to go underneath. I gotta get this pushed up a little bit. Bear with me.

All right, I don't know if you can see, I guess you can, because there's no engine, no weight and these axle tubes are pushed all the way down what I had to do is actually jack up one side by the shock tower to put all the weight on this axle so that I could get the boot in between the frame horn and the axle tube. And now I can get it bolted in place up on top. And then I can do the other side. The reason why I like IRS cars. Really, really, really not a fan of swing axles.

All right, there we go. Um, come down here.

There's one boot done. There's the other boot done. Note that they're both pointing back towards the bell housing, lower than that.

Now I'm going to change that guy out.

All right I'm really tired of going in and out and in and out and in and out, so I'm going to try and do this leaning over. Hopefully I'm not in the shot, but if I am, forgive me.

We're gonna pull out these clips. Nope, curve end goes to the back. Straight end goes into the clip. Remember the throw up bearing. And there's a little bit of grease. Over here, take a look, no significant wear on our throw out shaft.

A new Sachs, made in Germany, throw out bearing. Super quiet, just the way we like it. A little dab of grease, a little dab of grease. Do the same thing back here, and here. Go that guy there. Some new clips. That's one. All right, you’re in the groove, you're not in the groove. There we go, now they're both in the groove.

And with that our, new throw out bearing is installed. Clips in place. You can even hear the pedal inside dropping. But now, honestly, we could uh put the engine back in if it was ready to go.

All right so, I'm gonna wrap it up for today. I gotta clean up my workbench. It's getting messy and I like a clean workshop.

Pretty productive day. I got that hinge pin taken care of. Got all the body molding put on. I got both mirrors put on. We got the chassis inspection plate installed. We got the new clutch cable installed, along with a new bowden tube. And the six shooter, Airkewld six shooter clutch adjustment nut in stainless steel. New accelerator cable installed. Uh, what else can we get done? We got the new swing axle boots installed. I got the reverse light switch wiring installed. And we finished up by uh installing that throw up bearing, which means where I'm sitting currently could be an engine. But it's not so I might get to work on that tomorrow and get that all ready to put back in the car so we'll see what happens then.

Arrivederci.

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