Kumbang Riders Sept 07

From Kumbang Rider...

A bunch of us beetle lovers got together at Astaka Feild near Armada Hotel... 7 beetles altogether including my scale model of a vw beetle (My car is still in the shop remember)... last Friday nite... It was cool meeting up with these guys... chatting about our beetles... tech stuff and all...

We are hoping to meet up more regularly so look out for this site for more details... Unofficially i have called this meet 'Kumbang Riders Sept 07'... (Kumbang is Beetle in Malay)... here are some pics from that night...

I love those wheels man....

From Kumbang Rider...

The guys getting all technical...

From Kumbang Rider...

From Kumbang Rider...

Click on the Kumbang Rider link for more pictures.

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Week 3 - Paint Shop

Visited my beetle last Saturday, …. work on it is pretty slow…. The old paint is still being removed and some interesting things are being uncovered (accident damage, bad repair jobs, Bondo magic!!!)…. Slow and easy I say… im still wondering if I shld have removed the engine earlier… if I remove it now then I need to find a way to transport it back to my place…but where am I going to keep it…. hmmm I think I will just leave it in and remove it once its back at my place…. Maybe I shld have removed it before sending it to the shop for paint…… but then again….like I said…where the hell am I going to keep it!!!… arrghhhh!! decisions decisions!!!...

Golf for Sale!

1985 Blue Volkswagen Golf
Only 15 km
Only first gear and reverse used
Never driven hard
Original tires
Original brakes
Original fuel and oil
Only 1 driver Owner
Wishing to sell due to employment lay-off
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Week 1 - Paint Shop

So far its been a week at Ah Wah's Paint Shop they have stripped the fenders of its paint and removed as much of the trim and other big and little bits from the shell.

Looks kinda cool without the license plate light housing and Tail light setup doesnt it.

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As you can see its going to be a slow process... cant wait for it to be finished but then its still going to be alot of work to be done after that.......
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to be continued.....

Electrical Madness

Lets have a look at the Complete Wiring Harness i bought from CIP1.

The first thing you see when you open the box


Oh dear... what have i gotten myself into........


The kit comes with all the connectors and rubber gourmets that you need... but the connectors look a bit gimpy... i think i would reuse the car's original connectors if they are still in good condition or buy new ones... if i can....

All wires are colour coded to the original specs... heck even the insulation is colour coded...

and it already has the female connectors attached to it... no fuss just plug and play.... i hope.

The manual is pretty ok but not as detailed as i wld like it to be... or maybe i just dont understand it... like i said... do i know what i have gotten myself into?... will i be able to wire the bug myself?.....

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The last picture on the right is the wiring schematics of a 1961 bug... i suppose its about the same as a 65 but that ok... i do have the the 65 schematics .... in colour some more...

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Just one more thing... in no way am i encouraging anybody to rewire their bug on their own. Please be warned that badly done wiring can lead to short circuit or worse... fire.... You wouldnt want your pride and joy to go up in smoke would you........ So please be very careful and patient or request the aid of a professional.

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Finally sent for paint...

Meet my uncle Raveendran, he's had a passion for classic bikes and cars all his life..... and has owned many classics in his time. In his stable he has a Norton , a Triumph and a custom made copper bike as seen in the pictures. I dont have to say that he has been riding Norton and Triumph bikes before there were even called classics...keke sorry uncle... hope you dont take that the wrong way...

Anyhow all my life i have seen him restore classic cars and bikes for as a hobby and also for clients. He himself is a Morris Minor fan and has owned and refurbished a few Morris Minors before.. You can see a blue one in front of my beetle in the picture...... which has seen better days....

Its no wonder that he is currently the President of the Classic Bike Association of Malaysia....

You could say he is one of the people that influenced my love for classics too. I really appreciate his help in keeping my car in his place till i had the time and resources to send it for paint. And that day was last Saturday.... i finally got the car towed to the paint shop called Ah Wah in Teluk Pulai, Klang ....

Unfortunately the tow guy was a dud and did not secure the beetle properly.... so when taking a sharp turn into the shop area the rear driver side tyre came out of the clamp.... and the clamp ramped my new floor boards....WTF...%$%%&()...... it was hell trying the get the car or the tow clamps off.... and the rear apron got damaged in the process.... luckily the floor board seems to be ok and still look ok..... &^$##!!&*(^*(%$$...... im getting it flat bedded the next time..... in all that excitement i forgot to take my camera with me... will be going to the shop this weekend to pass a door lock lever cos i didnt realise the passenger door is locked..... pictures coming soon....

PS.... by the way my uncles custom bike is for sale ...... drop me a comment if youre interested.

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Rewiring Tips!

Found some good articles about rewiring your beetle on the VWtrends website HERE and HERE
Will be really useful when i rewire my 65...

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Thunder!! bad for glass

Last January 07 the driver's side window shattered during an electrical storm at my uncles house. can tunder shatter glass ..hmmm..... As you can see the window is missing.

There was glass everywhere..... on the floor on the seats... in the door wells too. It took forever to get the glass out of the door innerds.

There was glass on the ground too which I tried to clean. Glass on the door sill and floor was easily cleared.

Removing the window winding mechanism looked easy. Just removed a few bolts and pull it out... ....but it took me about half an hour to get in out of the door... i must be doing it wrong....

finally its removed.......


All the glass cleaned up... check out the nice new floor... ok maybe not so new..


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Have Beetle Will Travel...

Need I say more....

Mo...

Wiring Harness

Its here!! Its Here!!!... i ordered the Wiring Harness for my 65 beetle online at www.cip1.com on the 12th of March and it arrived last Monday. Picked it up at the FedEx HQ in Subang Hi-Tech Industrial Park. Had to pay quite a bit of tax for it too... but hey it was all good. Its the complete wiring loom which is colour coded with the original colour description as shown in the image below.... If you need more wiring diagrams for all models and makes of classic VWs, go to The Samba dot com.

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How to keep your Volkswagen Alive!!

This book is essential for your guidance in vw beetle up keeping. The Author explains everything in layman terms so as to not confuse the average reader. Thats why the rest of the title reads 'A manual of step by step procedures for the compleat (spelt that way) idiot!'. This book is absolutely great.....

2005 Body Shop

I struck the deal in January 05 but the shop could only start on the car after chinese new year in March 05. I only got the car back at the end of Jun 05. The work done on the car were; new floors, new heater channels, bottom part of the doors reworked and about 6 inches of the side lower part of the car replaced with new metal. Body rubber seals and Body to Chasis rubbers were replaced too. The following pictures were taken before completion.

(The car at the shop) (New metal all around the side lower part of the car)

(All four door hinges were worked on and bolts replaced),

(Checkout the new floor) (the battery area was not completed when i took this piture)

(You can see the new heater channels in black) (Some work done in the front headpan area)

(The spare wheel well done) (I had broken a few fender bolts and tread area which was replaced)

(The secret compartment still being worked on)(The front apron)

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I pretty much did not do anything after that because i had planned to get married in 2006. I had also moved out of the house and was renting a room. I also was saving to go for the U2 concert in Melbourne. This forced me to put the beetle project on hold... ...


by Jun of 2006 i moved into my own house (renting), got married in August 2006 and I went to Melbourne for the u2 concert in November 2006. To me 2006 went by really fast. Bam!! its 2007... the car has been resting under a shed in my uncle's place in Klang since i moved to my house last Jun06. I would like to get the car sand blasted next and then prep it for paint. fingers crossed....

to be continued........

2004 Tear down

The photo that you see in the very first post was taken in November 2003. I had bought the car in 2000 and eventhought it was in bad but running condition i just fell in love with it on the spot(i ignored all advice that i read in the Bug Shop website). The only thing i did to the car after i bought it was a new paint job and new tyres. Wish i had a picture of it when i bought it. I changed the absorbers a few months later and also changed the tie rods and steering damper a year later.

The car was in terrible shape, badly rusting (I have seen worst) and the engine needed a complete overhaul, but as usual, money was a deterrent. The floor was barely holding on to the main shell of the car. If you looked down you could see the road and if it rained very heavily, water would start flooding into the car. When that happened, a small wave of water will come splashing onto the front passenger's feet whenever i braked. I know i love the beach and waves and all, but hey... this was too much.

I would wave my hand out the window when i turned right because only the rear left side signal light was working. I would flash my headlights when i wanted to turn left. Talking about head lights, they were only there so that people could see the car coming down the road, otherwise it was useless. I could not see anything with it... its amazing how i used to drive at night and in those days i used to do alot of night driving. Another nice feature was the left door, ....it would open on its own, even when it was locked whenever i made a sharp right turn because the left door was hanging on only one hinge (Each door had two).. the bottom part of the door where the second hinge were was rotten with rust.

The pickup from standstill was pretty good though... i used to cream those kelisa fellows at the traffic lights... kekeke... then they would beat me at the straight... the car never could get past 60 miles/h (about 90km/h), but i would then overtake them at sharp corners. The car cornered like a dream. I would over take atleast a dozen cars left and right when coming down the sharp curve at Jalan Dato Abu Bakar, Section 16/1 (the road that leads to phileo damansara). But a drive to Klang would take a toll on the engine and i would have to stop at the side of the road for a little while.

So in November 2004 i decided to start restoring the car. Since budget was a concern i told myself that i would take my time restoring it. The first thing that i wanted to do was get a new floor pan into the car and attack a few rust spots.

My mum wanted me to sell the car and discouraged me from restoring it... under pressure from my mum and my sister i almost did. At that point i did what i thought was a good idea. I tore the car apart to prep it for body work. In my haste i yanked out all the wiring from the front. Dont get me wrong... the wiring was shit and everything was shorting, but i think i should not have messed with the wiring so that i would not have had to tow the car everywhere now.......... Here is the carnage;

(First to come off was the bonnet and the signal lights ; I had to rip out the running boards which were welded on the fenders and side)

(Removing the front and back fenders which took some time and i broke a few of the nuts and the treading at the body... oops!)

(The Petrol Tank , Wipers and Wiper Motor was easily removed)

(Removed all electricals from the car the speedo, petrol gauge and front main wiring loom; The wires looked like that even before i took it out of the car)

(The non vw seats removed, note the modified seat brackets arrggghhh!!)

(The batery area was badly rusted, you can see the road, found this pen stuck between the metal; The steering wheel and steering rod removed)

(You can see that the floor pan was hardly connected to the body; a little hard to see in the photo)

(The signal switch was cut in halve to accomedate the so called sports steering wheel arrrgg!! so sad; The floor looks good in this shot but as you can see below.......)

(underneath you can see that the floor was a bad patch job...so sad so sad..)

(more modifications from the former owner, a secret compartment; there must have been some clutch problems and the mechanic did not know how to tackle it the proper way)

(a closeup of the secret compartment; yet another modification which i never came around fixing. The wire would sometimes get stuck and the pedal would stay down when i was driving. I would have to reach down and yank it loose... used to scary my passenger when this happened...kekeke)

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In all it took me about two weeks to reach this stage. By that time i had scouted a few body metal shops to get quotes on putting in the new floor. i wanted to put in new floor pans (german metal replicas) but i only found that they sold brazillian one here which were notorious for being low quality and very thin. I settled on a shop in Subang Jaya near Giant who would fabricate the floor out of thick metal. There where two beetles there getting new floors done so i got to see how they did it. I liked it and the price was good so i struck a deal with him and set a date to bring the car.

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Next - Body Shop!