It seems to get a never ending story. We already spent one week going through a lot of nerve-wracking times. But there is hope in sight, because the automotive electrician who has been trying to fix all damages in cooperation with Domi, told us, that he’ll receive a new regulator Read more…
After so many delays of the vessel we were so happy to see Herbie, our No. 53, again! But since that we’re going through a martyrdom. Domi had to take dynamo out of the engine two times. Finally we got it fixed but there is still one thing missing – Read more…
It’s getting really frustrating! Herbie is not fixed yet because there is still one part missing. Everything was perfect until our Love Bug got on his vessel heading South. Today Domi installed again all “repaired” parts and it seemed to be working but the regulator we bought was obviously broken Read more…
As we told you before, an unknown person hurt Herbie a lot, while he was on his ship going from Veracruz, Mexico, to Cartagena of the Indies in Colombia. That person not only broke his lid lock, he also tried to open the front hood, turned on the windshield wipers, Read more…
Today we went together to the port again where we parked Herbie yesterday after we found out that somebody on the ship caused a fatal electric problem. That person turned on the ignition, the windshield wipers and the interior light and left Herbie simply alone – on his cruise across Read more…
We finished the welding on the backside of the bug and now we have to change the sillboards….
Yesterday we began to adapt the 1600i rear end to Flo’s bug. Flo could not belive that it will fit as good as it does already. 🙂 Flo had also cleaned the frame with the steam jet. It was sooo cold “playing” with water oudside!
Today Flo and Friedrich detached the chassis from the frame. Next they will remove the sillboards. The original frame of the orange bug was in such a bad condition that we had to demound some sheets. We also had to remove the co-drivers side of the frame because it was Read more…
Yesterday we made big steps forward on the rusty orange bug. We removed the doors, the left side wall and the whole rear end. Underneath you can see what we have done and how it looks like. Its a litte bit scary to see the bug in this condition. Next Read more…
Friedrich and Flo installed today the new contactless ignition system on Flo’s bug. Thanks to Domi for this great birthday present! The engine runs now perfectly and sounds great!
Yesterday we prepared the “new” sheets from a 1600i to weld it into the rusty-orange bug. Fridrich is verry happy to be part of this job 😉
Flo has removed the original 34 horse power engine to replace it with an engine from Mexico, which has a higher quality. The reason for the whole thing is that he wants to save the original engine and keep it alive, because Flo likes to drive faster and so his Read more…
The Love Bug is able to honk again. A loud horn is for sure one of the most important features while touring the world in a small car. For just a couple bucks you can get all different kinds of universal horns in automotive stores. Domi decided to buy an Read more…
Yesterday Friedrich helped Flo to overhaul a 34 horse power engine from Mexico for his bug. He wants to exchange the engine to conserve the original one which had only 75,000 kilometers on it.
Today Domi bought a steering wheel pedal lock at a local auto part store for our trip to Mexico and South America. If somebody wants to steal Ocho, he would be still able to do so but we want to make it more difficult. Hopefully everything will be fine and Read more…
There is a lot of work waiting for Flo, Friedrich and Matthias at the garage but they keep on working. The engine of Flo’s 1303S is nearly finished and also other things are almost done. Many parts are new like the cylinder heads as well as the cylinders and pistons. Read more…
Flo’s old fifty horsepower engine is ready for revision and conversion to an injection engine. Old parts which wont be used again. “New” parts from the 1600i.
There is no other way than shipping a vehicle from North (or Central) to South America. Therefore we’ll have to put Herbie on one of the big cargo ships where thefts happen quite often. So we ordered a lock for the engine hood. But we had to get it twice Read more…
We drove to Lancaster for shopping and also in order to change all four tires on our almost 49 years old VW Bug. That is the third time that we put new tires on Herbie while touring around the globe.
Finally we got the right shocks for Herbie. We ordered four new ones by Monroe (made in the US) – Domi’s favorites! It was as it used to be here in the Mojave desert a nice and warm day – great to work outside. The reason why Domi likes the Read more…
Domi installed the new lid lock in the back. He was able to lock the hood after that but he couldn’t unlock it again because the pin wouldn’t go inside totally, so Domi guesses. We spoke to “ISP West” where we bought this spare part and we are so thankful Read more…
As we’re planning to go to South America we bought a new engine lid lock including keys which we didn’t have.
Domi was pretty disappointed when he inspected the package he received yesterday. We ordered four new shocks for Herbie but the ones we got are obviously a very different type.
Today we got our new starter. We bought it on the internet for just 50 bucks including shipping. I would say this is very cheap for a in the US remanufactured starter by Bosch (made in Germany). There was not only the bushing included, even a warranty and a year Read more…
Domi always carried at least one VW Bug service manual with him on our travels around the globe. Now he got two of them. Both were presents by two of his best friends – Bernhard and Friedrich. As an example: How to adjust the valves correctly.
The original starter from 1963 fell apart. Domi already ordered a remanufactured one and took the old one out. With Zainab’s cosmetic mirror it was much easier to check if the fly wheel is doing well.
This is how my jeans look like after working three weeks on the car.
Today Domi had to find a “new” fly wheel for Herbie because the old one was worn out and he wasn’t able to order a new one because they stopped producing the old small ones Domi would need. Our friend Michael helped Domi with taking him to different junk yards Read more…
There is always something to do for Domi. At that time he did a paint job on Herbie’s hitch. It is an original one made by ‘Westfalia’ (in Wiedenbrueck, Germany) from 1970 – especially built for VW Bugs.
Herbie visited again Randy’s garage at Sherman E. Burroughs High School in Ridgecrest, California, in order to take his engine apart the last time. There was a little gap between the cylinder number three and its head which was leaking oil. So we have to fix that before taking Herbie Read more…
It looked like a major surgery when Domi took all engine parts off to tighten the 16 bolts of the cylinder heads.
Our VW Bug had to be aligned again – meaning the tracking and the camber got adjusted.
It was just a little tiny thing what created a mess: The clips of the pressure plate fell apart during pushing the clutch. Thanks to Susie and Michael we got to know Randy who is working at the auto garage of Sherman E. Burroughs High School in Ridgecrest. So we Read more…
We had to change the shaft of the pedals because the hook for the clutch cable was totally worn out.
Domi had to change the axle arms because the collar type pins and the king pins were totally worn out. Also the bearings on the right side in the front were seriously damaged. And we put new brake shoes on all wheels.
We have to say thank you to our friend and mechanic Friedrich who helped us with the painting of the new fenders. Luckily no single bolt broke when we took the old and rusty fenders off. We’re finished! But today we’ll just wash and polish our Bug before posting pictures Read more…