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  #1  
Old September 25th 2008, 05:18
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Xellex Xellex is offline
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GL 1303S project from Romania

Hi guys, I finally feel confident enough to start up a project thread for my bug here, on the GL forums. It's a late start, but I wanted to learn stuff better before I apply it, and I have to thank you all for that.
The germanlook style fit my dreams and my ideas like a glove, an I've dreamt of a bug that I'd work on, ever since I was a child.
I only got one last year, at the age of 25, but I'm a VW forum lurker ever since I can remember having a computer, and I'm happy that I've waited until now, mostly because the bug I bought was in such a good shape, and also, that now I mostly know what to do to it.
I'll be posting pictures here, progress and thoughts.
In the meantime, here's my bug, as it looked like last year in may, when I bought it.
It's a '73 1303S ('74 model with 2 bolt struts), and I knew about it for 1 year before I finally got it.
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  #2  
Old September 26th 2008, 20:25
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Ok the main reason why I wanted a bug in such a good shape was that I wanted to drive it and enjoy it eaven before I'd start working on it. And that's what I did!
Last year I've been all around the country with my bug, and it's been great! Nothing broke down, and it ran awesome. With a few exceptions: at some point the carb got some dirt in it and I decided to do a carb overhaul, so I bought a kit, and did it myself. After that the speedometer cable tip got worn (the square part rounded up) and I exchanged it.
Oh, and the verry first job I did on the bug was to clean and paint the rims, and to install the chrome hubcaps, because the previous owner had some ugly hubcaps on it.
That's what it looked like before I got it:
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  #3  
Old September 27th 2008, 15:36
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It looks clean and nice! The '74 with the 'Golf' struts is a good year for a GL to start with
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  #4  
Old September 27th 2008, 19:05
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Thanks, it's as close as I could get to the car I had in mind. My prefferate car out of all the bugs is the '75 with the r&p steering. but then again, the r&p conversion can be made into a nice project
To continue the story, before I bought my bug, I had no technical experience whatsoever, and almost everything I knew about beetles was from the internet. That's why I wanted to take it slow, and that's why the first steps I took towards the GL were a few easy ones:
First of all I took off those ugly "sport" mirrors and installed the original chrome one. If it's not GL than let it be stock :P
And then I got 2 smoked taillights.



Then I bought "clear 3 chamber" headlights, with turn signals incorporated in them. I didnt relocate the turn signals yet because it would look strange still haveing the ones on the fenders too.
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Old October 4th 2008, 17:53
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When I installed the new headlights I realised the high and low beam were inversed, so when I turned on the headlights they were already on hi, and when I was using the high beam. you couldnt see much difference.
After I fixed it, I was a bit dissapointed about the quality of light. The fact that I already had a plan, maybe contributed to that :P
So I bought a HID conversion kit. It's not a bi-xenon. Only the low beam is HID, and the high beam is halogen, but it's ok. I don't disturb the incoming traffic at all, and the light is awesome.
You can see one HID and one old halogen headlight in the last pic.
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Old October 4th 2008, 21:06
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Wow, quite a difference in light output!!! So Halogen low, HID high? Where did you get that from?

Jason
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  #7  
Old October 5th 2008, 07:12
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no, all the way around: HID low(the one that you commonly use), and halogen High.
I only bought it like this because it was cheaper and easier to come around last year. Nowadays things have changed and you can buy a bi-xenon kit for a fair price.
I got mine from a friend's tuning shop, but I'm sure you can easily find a kit on ebay or a parts store.

A few pics with the car after the snow melted away last spring:
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  #8  
Old October 9th 2008, 19:03
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As spring came I started driving my bug more and more, but something felt wrong so I sent my carb to have it reconditioned and the guy did and awesome job.

After that I had to take our equivalent of the MOT so I had to do a complete brake system overhaul. That was my biggest job on the bug at that time.
Then I found an ad about a couple of type4 engines, so I went and bought a 2000cc CJ engine.

After that I started gathering parts to do a Cali conversion, thinking I wont have enough money to get a porsche style cooling system. But I put that project on hold for a while.

In may, me and my girlfriend went to Hannover at the Maikaefertreffen, as my birthday present. I can't describe how nice that was.
I didnt have too much money to spend for parts in Germany, but I had to get something for my bug, so I got an antenna because mine was broken, and also a "Quick-shift kit" that I installed and it's great.
You can see all the pics I took HERE
Shortly after we came back, there was a beetle meeting in my country, in the city of Timisoara, so we went there too. It was great fun.
Pics HERE
I found something that I wanted for a long time at that meeting: a pair of Opel Manta side mirrors.

And that was one of the last times I drove my bug, because something pretty nice happened...
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  #9  
Old October 9th 2008, 19:20
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... I managed to find a Porsche enthusiast that had a donor 1989 Porsche 944, and the only thing he wanted to use from that car was the dashboard and interior parts.
At first I only went there and got the seats. They need new upholstery but they are ok.

But then I started thinking: dude! how often do you find a Porsche 944 in Romania to get the parts you want from it? So I took a trip to that guy again and bought everything I thought I would use.

And that's where the real work started on my bug. I work alone, I don't have a garage, and I dont't have any mechanical experience, so things go very slowly. But I'm happy with how things are going, and I'm enjoying every second I'm working on my bug.
I have to thank everyone that contributed to these forums, everything I do on my bug is inspired from the web, mostly from here.
I'm trying to take alot of photos, to give something back to the comunity. All my albums can be found at this link:

PRESS HERE FOR ALL MY ALBUMS

I know the titles are in romanian, but everything is laid up in a chronological order, so it's gonna be extremely easy to go through.

I hope you guys will enjoy the pics, and I'm very open to suggestions, discussions, ideas, any kind of chat and feed-back.
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Old October 9th 2008, 19:40
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And this is where I am at the moment:



I cleaned, inspected, painted and mounted every porsche part onto position, including the wheels. It's easier this way, because seeing it take shape motivates me, and it's also makes me realise exactly what else I need next.
The back end is almost done, as I found drive axles too, I've installed the urethane bushings, the bump-stops. All I need and I'm waiting for is the hand-brake adaptors. And the porsche sway-bar mounting kit.
In the front things are more complicated, as I need to get custom struts. I ordered the kerscher ball-joints. Now I'm cleaning the sway-bar and the a-arms and installing the urethane bushings.
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Old November 6th 2008, 17:27
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Ok the handbrake is perfectly working again, thanks to the Vdub engineering conversion parts, thanks Lanner!



I pulled the old master cylinder out of the car. It turned out it wasnt the correct 1303 MC, it was a dual circuit old style beetle MC, altho this wasnt a problem.



Now I'm in the process of adapting the 944 MC to the bug. I know everything I have to do, thanks to all the info you guys posted about this on the forums.



Still, there is something that's not clear. I've read all the opinions, arguing, debates etc :P about the 944 MC and the brake bias, but I'm still not sure if it's a good idea to reverse the pipes to the MC, front pipe to rear piston, and rear pipe to front piston. It would be much easier bolting them on like that, and not doing some extra plumbing but I have to know for sure it's a good thing to do...
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  #12  
Old November 7th 2008, 10:08
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The front pipes must go to the rear piston i.e. the one closest to the pedal and the rear brake line to the front piston. The reason for this is that the rear piston has only a hydaulic connection with the front piston so that when you press the pedal the rear piston pressurises its circuit and then pressurises the front piston. Usually the front brake pistons are larger than the rear so that the front brake m/c piston needs to move further potentially that the rear piston. If you plumbed it the otherway round the rear brake would hydraulically lock everything up before the front got to anywhere near its full travel.

evilC
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Old November 7th 2008, 11:30
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yes, that's what I thought. Still, there are a few people on this forums that plumbed it the other way around. I think Wally did it too. Am I right?
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Old November 7th 2008, 17:02
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Yeah, but I plumbed it back and actually removed the 944 MC all together and used a bug 19/19 MC again
My thinking is that larger diameter MC brakes with less force and if you don't realy need the lesser pedal travel, you better use the smallest piston for the most pressure inside the MC. More pressure= lesser brakepedal effort= harder braking.
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Old November 7th 2008, 19:37
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I think that would only be true if the calipers were the same size front/rear, and if the 19mm would push enough fluid to succesfully move the big NA 944 front caliper pistons.
Your thinking makes perfect sense, but imho the total volume of the pistons inside the calipers at full braking (expanded the most / brakes locked) has to be equal or lower to the volume of the piston inside the MC when pedal is released. If it's bigger then there's a big problem.
So yes, the lowest volume MC piston is the best, but there's a lower limit, and there's also a higher limit, to the point where brake effort is too high, and pedal travel is extremely small.
The question is: does the 19mm MC fit somewhere above that lower limit? Ofcourse on the street/track you could get great results, and good braking because the bug is so light.
And the second question is: what does that do to the rear, lower volume calipers? Probably locking them too early.

That's just my late night thinking, and the only fluid dynamics classes I took were in college, so I could be very wrong.

Anyway I'll just do the extra plumbing and mount the MC the normal way.
Thank you for your response, I apreciate it.
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Last edited by Xellex; November 7th 2008 at 19:54.
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