Hodgepodge Beetle: Surprises around each corner

This is technically an update to the first gear woes series of posts, all spurred from the first gear jumping out easily. When we pulling the trans showed us the driver side were the axle meets was leaking at the seals. The trans has been rebuilt but not without some surprises. Its actually a late 1964 6v trans converted with longer axles to work with the 1968. This was told to us while we were dropping off the trans at the shop for the rebuild. They suggested changing out the 4th gear for a taller one so highway was a bit more manageable. I thought this was a great idea and gave them the go ahead to do so. Transmission came back super clean, the shop clearly spent some time on it. We reinstalled the trans, axles as well as drums.

While we had the engine out we cleaned it up a bit and replaced some aging parts like flywheel, clutch, tins and such. I did break a manifold stud which thankfully the local hardware store had. I picked up a stud extractor and everything went smoothly. We had some fitment issues with tins, nothing serious just weirdness. Turns out after checking the engine serial number online we have a engine manufactured in Nov 1965. This makes it a 1300cc motor and mounts up the same but its not the 1500cc this beetle originally came with. New proper tins were ordered and installed which resolved that issue. I will need to remember this for when it gets rebuilt as different heads will be needed if I want to add bigger displacement. At that point I might as well go dual port.

So I have a hodgepodge beetle which isn’t too surprising as its old and a bunch of parts for early VW’s can be used on others so this type of thing happens all the time. I was never going for a showroom car, just a daily driver and actually adds to its charm for me. We have also finally named the beetle Hodgepodge and I think it will stick.

Chassis 1968 Beetle VIN: 1187774490
Engine 1965 Nov 1300 : F0 376 499
Trans 1964 Dec: 7 528 409

This upcoming weekend we are going to throw the engine back in, connect it all up and fill with fluids.