My 69 Kombi

I thought it best to start a new thread here in the picture gallery of the new project. Here are some pictures as the bus looked when I bought it,

Here are some pics of the glove box cover I made. Bus is named Ian.

So yesterday I had a list of things to do, Change tranny fluid...done. Adjust steering box and top off with fluids...done.  Change positive and negative battery cable....done.  Remove bumper and strip and paint......half done, bumper is removed, three of the four mounting bolts have the blind nut disconnected from the frame. PO drilled one thru to the engine bay and bolted straight through. That same side had one original working bolt. The other side was a pain in the a$$ to get off. It required Bob, Dewy and myself to remove plus a smack in the eye for Dewy from a stray wobbly socket on the air gun. OUCH!!  I never got to stripping the paint, maybe next week.  I wanted to clean the battery area up and see what kind of water damage I face. I was amazed to find the battery was sitting on 40 years of dirt, about 1-1/4" thick. It took me a hour to clean and scrape to get it out. Under the dirt was the remains of the original battery pad!!! Also to my surprise was the fact that their was only light surface rust. After wire brushing and vacuuming I sprayed with rust-oleum's  rust reformer paint. I also added the correct VW emblem on the nose.


Picture after cleaning.

Box of dirt and old battery cables and the remains of the pad.


I am gonna leave it like this until I drop the engine. Then I plan to do a thorough clean and respray.

When I am finished with this build it should look like this!!!    

While under the bus Bob discovered that the right drive axle was missing a few bolts  , Dewy found that only the top halves we missing because the broke off bits were still in the axle  , fortunately Dewy was able to unscrew the bits and we replaced with spares that Bob had and all is fine!! All the boots on the drive axle's will need replacing. , of course!!  And as it would be, I spent a large part of my cash on interior parts before confirming the mechanical status of the bus!!!!   . What the hell.... I have on the way sapphire blue tweed kick pannels, door panels and carpet!!!  Should look nice even if it does not run as well as it looks!!!

check the VIN on this as those outer door handles, inner rearview mirror and upper brake fluid res. are all 68 only items. I am betting its a 68. check the 68 only parts thread on the samba as there are other 68 only parts. Either way i like it

Tubdub bus was born Early June 1969. M code and vin have been checked. it also came with the round side lights. All the Vins match so it is a true 69 with 68 parts.

Or someone decided to change all those parts for some reason?????

Looking good! Sounds like you guy's got a lot done. The glove box cover came out great.

Yes I thought so, however Bob pointed out that my drawing was wrong. It is not supposed to have a wing window in the rear on the right side of the bus..... oh well!!! I will get it right on the rest!!

I figured it didn't have curtains and we could see the vent from the window on the other side. LOL

Yeah that's the ticket.....from the other side...I like it. That's my story:oops: 

Some quick pics. I cleaned the floors and fiber-glassed them. Then I topped that with two coats of Herculiner. I have also changed tranny fluid, adjusted the steering box and added fluid. Added new tail light assemblies and had alot of help from Dewy and Bob to chase down why my tail lights were not working. Here are some pics.

Old fiber-glass installed by the PO

Holes in the passenger floor that needs fixing.

Sheet aluminium riveted before glass work.

First layers of glass with 6 lbs matting.

Followed by the 12 lbs mat.

Passenger side done the same way. Light cloth followed by heavier.

Before Herculiner roll in truck bed liner.

First and second coat on. I have to wait four hours to do the next. Ignore the time/date on photos. My good camera took a puke and I am using the old. Can't remember how to change it.

New tail lights.

These are installed and working now!!

Today I received a package from the fedex van.  Excited I was ...yes!!  But alas only the carpet no panels!!
Here is a picture of it installed. The sun will help the wrinkles in time. The carpet is held in place by the tackiness of the herculiner. It works very well.