1973 VW Type 3 Squareback

[waveman1500]

Quite excited today, as I picked up my new Type 3 Squareback which I bought off eBay this week! Previous owner was a lady who had it parked in her backyard unregistered for over a year. With all the rego and insurance organised yesterday and a new battery thrown in, I started it up and drove it to the service station! Ran rough for about the first 2 or 3 minutes, as you'd expect, but cleared out very quickly and ran beautifully after that.

Here's some "before" pictures to get the ball rolling.


The front left indicator lens was perfect when I bought the car, but I scraped it off on the gate trying to get it out of the backyard! Aargh, not used to the extra front overhang compared to the Beetle!


Interior is quite nice. The gauge pod on the dash is a broken oil pressure gauge. The clock is also broken, but all the backlights work. During the cleanout of the car interior my friend found the steering wheel centre somewhere and it's now glued back on.


Mmm! Check out that nice fresh vinyl seat.


Beautiful headlining. No rips and it's not even perished or brittle, perhaps might've been replaced during the car's life.


1600cc twin-port with factory twin carb. Starts and runs okay but lacks a bit of power and may possibly have one or more burnt exhaust valves. It'll do for quite a while though.


I liked the detail of the German/English printing on the original cardboard insulation over the engine cover.


Yep, they all open! No rust to be found hiding anywhere yet.


Car was washed and we added some new trim clips...


And put on the trim which came with the car. All ready for daily duties, and according to the fuel gauge I've guzzled half a tank today! Went on a cruise tonight, following the Zippel cruise with 300+ American cars/hot rods.

Jobs done today:
Fuel + air
Wash, remove rubbish and vacuum
Replace trim
Fix indicators, steering wheel, wiper arms/rubbers
Cruise!

Jobs required to do:
Investigate a loud rattle in the engine bay, possibly a cracked engine mount bracket?
Repair or replace the hit-and-miss radio
Install an antenna
Fix the door trims, inside left door handle and left arm rest
Oil change, service and then whatever else needs doing...

[slackerTHEpinstriper]

now drop it on its

[dungbug]

Nice Square. ;D

[Knugcab]

Looks like a clean example, I really like the type 3 VWs.

[chaz]

Very nice mate, looks very clean too.

[al67]

Nice square.

so the next job is to dump it in the weeds!!

[waveman1500]

No plans for lowering at the moment, I'm afraid! If you'd seen my driveway then you'd understand! If it was lowered then it would probably have to live on the street, which I don't think is really sensible given that it could be locked up inside a garage. Also, I happen to think that it looks just fine at that height. One thing that does need changing are the skinny stock wheels and tyres, but I can't afford to change them yet. When I can afford the tyres, these rims will be going on:

[82blackstang]

nice square you got there

[type81]

nice find m8

[substandard]

Nov 1, 2009 0:54:26 GMT waveman1500 said:

If you'd seen my driveway then you'd understand!

Could be worth moving house. This is crying out for a lowering job. It's an afternoon's work. ;D

[waveman1500]

Update time! Been fixing this up lately and blowing the cobwebs out. Just got back today from a bit of a trip away with the lads, 600km round trip for a couple of nights of drinking and some fun with a Sea-Doo. ;D

In preparation for the trip, and because it was a great bargain, I bought a stereo for it and installed it. Pioneer 4x50W CD/MP3/WMA head unit and a pair of Pioneer 6" speakers in the front doors. The speakers which were previously fitted had disintegrated with age, but they were only 4" and the upgrade to 6" speakers has resulted in not much door card masonite remaining. Will have to make or buy some new door cards for it with smaller or deleted door pockets, to give some support for the speakers. Pics may follow, although the whole install is kind of a temporary hack-job and I'm not proud of it.

Other things which have been fixed:

Ignition timing (on the Bosch 009) fiddled with, much better now, although the carbs are running quite rich and the idle is a bit low.


The beginnings of some rust on the left-hand door. Proof that Australian cars DO rust!


More inside the door. All of this has been treated with rust converter now, although I still have to prime and paint it.


The left window lifter channel had completely rusted apart and broken, but handily my local VW workshop had new Brazilian ones in stock! *weebl* How handy! */weebl*


New window lifter channel in place, didn't get a photo of the rusty old one.


A 'before' shot of the rear. I've now bought some new black-on-white number plates and put them on, so it looks much more loved now!

A couple of problems surfaced on this week's road-trip, the biggest one being that the right-hand carb's linkage kept popping off, leaving the throttle wide open! This is now fixed with cable ties as an interim measure, although I believe that the root cause is actually vibration from the partially cracked right engine mount. Repairs for this hopefully coming soon.

The left rear tyre also seems to be leaking a bit faster than is preferable, and it has a huge dent in the outer bead/rim flange of the rim. This isn't a really big deal as I have about another 8 stock Beetle steel rims in the shed, so I might have to get the tyre swapped onto another rim. I realise that Type 3 rims are supposed to be different, but I'm about 95% sure that the wheels on the car at the moment are Beetle wheels anyway, as the fronts rub on full lock and all four look like they're a bit too narrow in the offset.

Another problem, which is probably more of a trait of the car, was some fairly scary moments in heavy crosswinds at 70mph on the way home. I'm thinking that the best solution to these last two problems may be to pony up the cash for some new 195/70R14 tyres and put my 14x6" steels on. Hence, no leaks and hopefully more stability! I'm sure everyone on here will be encouraging me, and I got paid recently, so I might happen to find myself at the tyre shop next week.

[grizz]

Roughly translated.... I am jealous.

[waveman1500]

Good progress on the Square today! It went in for a tune-up at GHR Motors, my local old-school VW shop, complete with old-school VW mechanic. I'm confident to change the oil and check the valve clearances, but I thought that it would be worth having the twin carbs properly set up at least once by someone who knows what they're doing, and the price was extremely reasonable. It got new points and plugs and everything adjusted. Runs 100% better now, idles better and goes much faster, revving cleanly through the rev range in 1st and 2nd. However, under full load up hills in 3rd and 4th it has been pinging pretty hard. Going to try a fresh tank of 98 octane tomorrow and see if it clears up, otherwise I'll back the timing off a bit.

One thing that the mechanic did tell me, was that once he got it up on the hoist, it became obvious that the left rear rim was buckled and out of round. I already knew that it had a slow leak, but this decided once and for all that I needed to go to the tyre shop tomorrow to get it changed. No point going there just to get one tyre swapped over though, now is there? ;D


Time to load up the old 14x6s!


Just a trial fit to make sure that they will actually go. Note the new plates. State government issue, only $21 a pair! Bargain.


Does my bum look big in this? ;D


Apologies for the rubbish phone pics. Proper ones will come once it's got the new tyres on and had a wash.








The clearances are pretty tight, but these are 195/75R14, and the replacement tyres will be 195/70R14, so all should be fine.


What does everyone think? The combination of a smooth running engine and the thought of wide steels on it has completely made my week so far, can't wipe the smile off my face!

[mrj]

beautiful car.... i am thinking of painting my fastback in that colour and banded steels look always ace on them....

[Matty]

Great looking square! The wider steels give it a really nice look too - Any other plans? Will you run the chrome hubcaps in the new steels too?

[waveman1500]

Dec 15, 2009 13:45:11 GMT Matty said:

Great looking square! The wider steels give it a really nice look too - Any other plans? Will you run the chrome hubcaps in the new steels too?

Thanks dude! Here's the answer to your question about the hubcaps:



A resounding yes!



I even gave it a quick wash to match the shiny new tyres.







Beautiful!

[dungbug]

I love this motor.........Very envious. ;D

[105ecossie]

I love this too.......I am a old skool ford head all my life,but as past couple of months i have caught myself looking at type 3's far too much.....might need to modify my santa list
(early notch if you are reading this santa.)

[Seth]

Kool!

[devilishdesigner]

Looking good, those wide rims will revolutionise the grip of the car. I had a very similar one a while back, 72, wide rims with 195s on the rear and 175s on the front, probably the only car that I've owned that I miss driving, with the right combination of tyres you can get into a 4 wheel drift if you hit a corner too hard