I came across my '65 while I was on a quest to find a rear window for one of my '66 Bugs. To make a long story short, the '65 was complete, the owner wanted to sell, and the price was right, so I bought it. Unfortunately, I don't have a nice, big house of my own, or a 2-car garage...I live with my parents. You can't even begin to imagine how much butt kissing I have to do to keep my hobby alive. Kids, please get your parents permission first before bringing multiple long-term projects home. Anyway, my father still doesn't know that I now have a fourth Bug residing in the backyard, so my goal is to get the floor fixed, and get it running before he finds out! with the weather being so crappy now, I don't know if I can achieve my goal. This project page is kind of a time line marker, and a detailed account of occurrences, plus it adds something to my pitiful little webpage.

1/1/99
Saw the '65 for the first time after spending part of New Year's day on the side of I-495 waiting for my speeding ticket. It looks pretty tore down, but it's very complete, except for the floor. Haggled on the price a little, but left saying, "I'll think about it."

1/2/99
I started having visions of a little beater to drive around in, of course with a few mods.

1/3/99
Figured I might as well buy it as it has already cost me a speeding ticket. Towing it home was a chore. Never ever take a friend who swears that they know everything. I needed him for his truck and tow bar, but I won't do it again. I can only assume that the '65 was happy where it was because after we pulled it out of it's space, it would only roll backwards. I spent the remaining daylight removing every bit of braking power it had, and listening to my friend complain. On the way home, the Bug clunked around on the tow bar everytime the truck stopped, slowed down, or started off. I'm sure many of you know why by now. It seems that after I had made certain that I had put the tranny in neutral, my friend "wanted to make sure". Well, at least I know that the engine isn't locked up, whether it starts or not, is something completely different.

1/4/99
Forgot the keys over the owner's house. Doh'

1/5/99
I still haven't tried to start it yet, and it's like 2 degrees here, so it won't be today either. I'm trying to find out what it has, and what it doesn't. I found out that there are absolutely no seat tracks on the drivers side, but the area under the rear seat seems to be in almost perfect condition...go figure.

1/6/99
I finally got a chance to put a battery in and check the engine out. Something smelled odd when I hooked up the battery...not exactly a burning smell, but not exactly an electrical smell either. I'll definitely have to check that out. The engine spins nicely, but none of the speedo lights are working. I figure I will try to get it running this weekend, whatever the weather.

1/7/99
Didn't even touch the Bug. I've been working on this webpage all night.

1/8/99
If you visited this page before today, you should know exactly what I did. It snowed all morning, and most of the afternoon, so I am assuming that the Bug is pretty much covered...I haven't been out back since I got off of work. I'm definitely planning on working on it tomorrow. Hopefully, I can get it to start...or sound like it wants to.

1/9/99
I worked on the Bug all day. It was on some kind of 6/12 volt system with a resistor, which I had to bypass. I finished converting it to 12 volt, messed with the distributor a few times, primed the carb, and after rigging the throttle to stay wide open, I finally got the engine to sputter a few times. There might be a slight rod knock...I'm not sure yet. I do know that the engine is not the original, it's from a '62 I believe (664??? serial number). Tomorrow, I've got to blow out the fuel line, and see if the fuel pump works. I still haven't checked to see if the headlights and taillights work or not.

1/16/99
Sorry it's been a few days, but its been cold, and I've been tired. I've also been considering selling the '65, and starting Project '66, mainly because the '66 has already had the external bodywork taken care of. I've been getting differing opinions on what I should do, but I haven't made any definite plans. If you have an opinion, let me know what you think. The '65 still sputters, but I haven't gotten it to start. The battery died, so I went out to get a charger, and ended up getting involved in someone else's Bug. I haven't been out back since. I'd like to say that I'll get back on it tomorrow, but I've got so many things going on at once, I can't devote any definite time to any of my Bugs. I'm going to try though.

1/17/99
Still no updates on the '65, butI did get a chance to mess with one of my Bugs today at least. I pushed the '65 into a corner, pulled the battery out, threw it in my '66 (the one that runs), and went out for a day of driving with some of my club members, Bill and Ted. Boy did we have an "Excellent Adventure". I hadn't driven a Bug in months, so you know I was happy. We jumped on a few cars, spun a few tires, and shocked a whole lot of people, including myself. It felt so good to step on the gas in fourth, and pull away from almost anything, and seeing peoples jaws drop. I'm pretty sure a few others became Bug lovers today! Unfortunately, this will probably be the last time I get to drive my '66 with that engine, since it will soon be in the back of my '74. I'm starting to have second thoughts about that too, but I'm going to stick to my original plan. I won't be able to work on the '65 tomorrow either. I'll be busy all day doing non Bug related stuff...maybe, so I probably won't have any updates then either. Sorry.

2/7/99
Sorry for the lack of updates, but I have been EXTREMELY busy. As some of you now know, Project '65 has been axed. I ended up stripping it, and giving the body away. My friends and I limped the remains out to northern MD, and parked it next to a '67 that made the stripped '65 look immaculate in comparison. If anyone needs any parts for a '65, e-mail me! The only reason I got rid of it was because I have way too many projects for one person to handle, so... I also wanted to jump on project '66. None of the proposed offers for the '66 came through, and I got tired of watching it slowly deteriorate, and I also wanted something to take down the track every now and then, so Project '66 was born...again. Not an extreme amount of work has been done on the '66. I yanked the tranny out, and the Bug has been sitting on jackstands for two weeks. I yanked the seemingly fresh tranny out of the '65, and took it to the best VW mechanic on the East Coast to be "beefed up". If you have ever been to the Manassas Bug-Outs, the Bug-Ons, or any other VW events in this area (MD, VA, PA, NJ, NC, etc.), and have watched some of the races, then you know who I'm referring to...Jimmy Sartwell. The tranny should be done in another week or two, complete with all the amenities that a race Bug should have, aside from the really expensive stuff. My tentative goal for the '66 is to have it drivable for the first Bug-On which I believe is on April 17. My, soon to be in the works, engine won't be even close to being finished by then, but if everything else is in order, I'm going to put my 1641cc in so I can get familiar with the track and staging and everything. For more detail about Project '66, see my '66 Bug Page. On another note, the shop we were trying to get fell through, but we are still looking. We found a few decent prospects, but nothing definite yet.

2/22/99
Sorry for the lack of updates, but progress has been going kind of slow. Jimmy has been really busy, since it's getting close to the racing season, so my tranny isn't finished yet. Yesterday I replaced my first shift rod bushing, which was fun, especially when you don't know what the heck a shift rod bushing looks like. Luckily, I had a friend with me who had just done his. Trust me, it's a lot easier replacing the bushing with the rod completely out of the car, and it's a lot easier taking the shift rod out of the car if the front end is very, very straight. While the shift rod was out, I cleaned it up and lubed it before I put it back in. I also lucked out and found a cast iron shift coupling with urethane mounts that I'm definitely using. I'm also working on cleaning up the undercarriage while the tranny is still out. I placed my order for some Por-15 today, so hopefully it will be here by the weekend. I'm using Eastwood's Corroless Paint on the inside, which I already have. I have to clean up as much of the rust as I possibly can without taking the body off of the pan, (can't leave trails of rust when I'm running down the track) and I don't have ready access to a sandblaster, so most likely I'll have to do it all by hand. I still haven't decided what to do about the floors yet. I know that they need to be replaced, but I know if I'm going to do it myself or not.

2/27/99
Still no tranny. I'm not in a big hurry to get it back, but I would like to get the '66 back on the ground. Maybe in another week or two. I got my Por-15 a few days ago, and I'm dying to see how well it works. If I had gotten my lazy butt up and gone outside to prep the undercarriage, I could have had that done by now. Tomorrow, I'm supposed to put my race tranny and my 1641 engine in my '74, so I can start driving it on a regular basis, but I doubt that will happen. Fred promised that he would come over and help out, but I'm not counting on it. I would probably get more done if I were by myself anyway. He did however agree to sell me the main parts of an 1835 (counter weighted crank, pistons, pre cut block) for $350, so I'm definitely going to hold him to it. I didn't accomplish anything that I wanted to accomplish today, except for some shopping. Monday is my 24th birthday (scary thing is that it's also my girlfriends birthday), so I had to shop around for the perfect part for my girl to buy for me. I wanted a short shift Gene Berg shifter, but since Peek Performance was out of stock...again, and my special order won't be in for a while, she's going to get me my much needed floorpans. I also picked up an Autometer oil pressure light to go with all my gauges, and I put some more money down on my rims.

3/9/99
The day of the blizzard of '99, also my Mom's birthday. I finally put my new tranny in my '74 over the weekend, though it was definitely a chore. I painted the area above, and in front of the tranny with my POR-15, and slapped the fresh tranny in place, though it wasn't that easy. Removing the CV joints was an experience that I never want to go through again, then there was the fact of the wrong nose cone on the new tranny. The nose cone itself wasn't the problem, the fact that I didn't have another gasket was. None of the bolts holding the tranny in place wanted to come off, the hardest of which was the wing nut for the clutch cable. The wing nut was so hard to take off that I was strongly considering cutting the cable just to get it over with. Everything you could imagine went wrong while doing this, including being without jackstands and minus one of two floor jacks. It's a good thing that I love my Bugs. I still haven't hung my engine in there yet, and I don't even plan on it until it gets warmer...and drier. Still no tranny for my '66, but I talked to Jimmy over the weekend, and he said that it's next on the list. The 1835 that I was going to get from Fred isn't going to happen. I think I might have found a better deal, but I will keep you posted. I'm thinking about taking the body off of the '66, and doing a complete restoration on it, sandblasting, welding, the works. The only drawback will be buying a MIG welder, a compressor, and a sandblasting machine. If I do decide to do the total resto, I can use it as a learning experience, since I have hever welded, sandblasted, or even used an air tool. I figure I have to learn sometime, so it might as well be now.

3/18/99
I haven't done much with the Bugs lately, except for trying to keep them covered in windy situations. I got my Gene Berg shifter, thanks to my girlfriend. I haven't put it in the car yet, but that hasn't stopped me from practicing speed shifting with it. This weekend, weather permitting, I'm going to attempt to work on replacing the floors. I decided to forget the total body off resto, since it isn't that bad, and just focus on what needs to be fixed. Luckily for me, Bill had an E-Z Mig Welder, so I didn't have to go out and buy one. It only has 2 switches (on/off and hi/low), so someone with my limited skills should be able to work it. I haven't gotten around to putting the engine in my '74 yet either. I still have to replace the shift rod bushing and shift coupling before I drive it anyway, so I'm not stressing about it. Everyone in the club is now down, for a while, including Bill. Check out the club page for more details. Technically, I'm not down since Droopy is still running, but I'm including myself anyway.



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