64 VW Ragtop (moonroof0

Description for Volkswagen Beetle - Classic 1964

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note - a zero feedback bidder won last time and will not communicate, hus ruining the auction - thank you very much. please bid only if you intend to actually buy. i will probably reject any 0 feedback bidders unless you talk to me first.
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I bought this about a decade ago in Waxahachi Texas. I thought it was black natively but later found that it was initially green. It was also initially a hard top. Technically it is a 64 but I decked it out as a 63 because in 64 they changed over to the small metal port hole style moon roof. I wanted the older 2-fold ragtop. This are much bigger and cooler than the new style.
I found a clip in town with complete mechanical frames and rails and proceeded to install it. I traced the outline on the outside and added sufficient margin and chopped a hole with a jigsaw. The clip is installed with over a hundred #4-40 countersunk screws and liberal RTV. It allowed incremental adhesion and fine adjustment. It is a solid as you are going to get with about 4 inches of RTV 108 and metal overlap all around. In the decade sitting out in the Texas summer heat, t has not cracked or shown any sign of compromise. I cannot say that my welding it would have had as good a result. It will last the life of the car easily. Check out the pictures. You have to be looking for it specifically to spot that it wasn't built that way.
I gutted the interior and scraped up and solvent-ed out the tar on the floorboards. It had the classic hole in the battery compartment. This had been compounded by the fact that the previous owner had that portion of the pan sitting on top of it without cutting it out and re-welding. The hole let in water that would splash up into the hole and keep it there to further rust the floorboard. I caught this pretty early on and the hole didn't have a chance to get bigger than a couple inches. I removed the replacement pan, rought the pan with a hole in it down to metal as well as the underside of the replacement pan, oated both mating suffices liberally with a fiber loaded tar roofing compound and bolted the two together and sealed the edges with RTV. It is watertight and not going anywhere.
I did the whole POR 14 treatment and coating thing to the floor pans. It will have to hold ocean water for months or years before rusting out. It is good to go with the ragtop (which incidentally has never leaked).
Most all parts used in the resto-mod are from Wolfsburg West.. They are a California company run by folks that truly love the air cooled VWs and get as close to original as possible with all their parts. Other parts were original equipment scrounged from the classified and from the air cooled community in Austin (The Austin Air Coolers). I got the occasional part from West Coast Metric but was never satisfied with the quality and never used them.
New parts ( since I bought it..) are:
All the cocoa pads for both front and back seats
Grey square weave carpeting (this is the good stuff, eplicating the original) for the front and back footwells as well as the luggage compartment behind the back seat.
The seat covers, oor panels, nd rear side panels.
I replaced the headliner and did as good a job as I could. It could have been better, ut is more presentable than the previous shag carpeting.
The window regulators are all new, s well as the odd window crank and the external door handles (the old ones were more pitted than I could tolerate).
All glass is original. I replaced the rear window frames with pop outs. All window rubber was replaced (both front, ack and side)
You will note that the passenger side glass is not perfect. It got scrapped from the previous owner running it up and down with a screwed up window regulator. I applied a glass abrasive and polish and it looks presentable and is no longer in danger of cracking from those flaws but it is far from perfect.
New running boards and chrome for turn signals, nd headlights and body details. I added the proper 63 Wolfsburg crest to the front hood. The rear deck lid was small license plate light which was proper for a 63 and I think some 64s shipped that way. VW was not so anal on introducing new models, ut rather incrementally improved the design.
New freeway flyer ( higher 4th gear ratio ) transaxle.
New Mofoco 1600 dual port engine with 041 heads.. < 2000 miles on it.
Dual PICT (I forget the number at present) carbs and intake manifolds. I had to fabricate and Install a balance tube between them for smooth idle operation...
New vacuum and centrifugal advance distributor.
New ceramic coated exhaust manifolds and muffler.
New clutch (it failed on me on a trip to a friends house and It just happened to be near a shop that specialized in air cooled. They fabricated a better accelerator cable linkage to the dual carbs on that fix.
New vintage R2 air conditioning from a guy in Rockwall Texas.
New alternator.
New (from the junk yard..tested by me) thermostat and linkages.
New high capacity oil pump and oil cooler.
New (to me) original equipment bumpers.
New paint. ( years outside tin the Texas sun has dulled it up a bit but a compounding and wax would make it show really well )
New brake cylinders, aster cylinder and shoes.
12 volt wiper rotor mod from Wolfsburg West (64s were originally 6 volt and it did run but way too hot so I did the mod).
I initially had a serpentine belt arrangement between the crank, enerator and AC compressor with a poorly designed belt tensioner. It tended to oscillate and was going to fail, o I disabled the AC and replaced the serpentine with a v-belt. in the mean time, he clutch replacement happened and they opened up the AC system.
The AC worked but too many things kept getting in the way. I believe it would work again with a new drier (you are supposed to replace those when you open up the system) and a charge of R2 and proper coupling to the v-belt. I would add an extra pulley to the alternator and run a two belt system to power the compressor. This will solve the problems of belt routing and reduced crank shaft coupling area to the v belt.
This is a resto-mod driver and will not restore to absolute original without significant work and expense, ut if you want an original style driver that won't take much to get going, his is your beetle.
If you are just going to tool around town on the weekend or holidays, he present tires will work. The flat one will most likely pump up and hold air fine. It has been a few years since I filled them. If you are using it as a daily driver and on freeways, 'd replace them.
Here is what you will need to do to get it back on the road. The tube connecting the metal tube from the gas tank to the fuel pump was vacuum tube ( that incidentally I was assured was fuel line ( that's the last time I'll listen to a woman at the counter of even the best parts store in town ) ) melted and will need to be replaced. The carbs should be primed with a squirt of fuel and starting spray. They may need to be soaked as they have dried up, ut I have always had good luck trying it without that step. I'd change the oil and look at the plugs for oil fouling as it has sat for a long time. May need new ones, robably not. The battery was new but now will probably have to be replaced as I can't imagine the fluid levels are still covering the plates. It will probably not inspect right in texas without new wiper blades. A smart student of John Muir could get things on the road for less than 200 bucks.
Long term, ou will want to replace the outer cover of the ragtop, ut the existing one is still serviceable. There is the typical maintenance that should probably be done, ike valve adjustment and general tweaking. Get John Muir's book How to keep your VW alive - a guide for the complete idiot, nd you will be way ahead of the game. "How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive: A Manual of Step-by-Step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot Paperback — August 29, 001 " Air cooled VWs require some know how and attention. It is incumbent on you to know your way around it and this is the way for the average Joe.
It will require trailering out as I am not in a good way to complete even those fairly trivial repairs. Why am I selling? My heart has failed and I have medical bills. I can still work but not much extra curricular activity. You will note that the pictures are without a compound and waxing. It would show really well if I did that but if I did I would fall back in love with it and not be able to part with it. I have been putting off listing it for far too long. I have over ten grand in it and will never get that out and I knew it going into it. It was a labor of love and I don't regret a bit of it.
My hope is that someone will take over for me and return her to usefulness.
Payment can be Paypal or Cashiers check cleared before pickup.