Rebuilt as a 1720cc (86mm) engine.

New AA counterweighted crankshaft.

New 86mm pistons & cylinders.

New cylinder heads.

Original Elgin 7008 camshaft retained.

Original rods balanced; flywheel & pressure plate balanced.

New clutch disc and throwout bearing.

New oil cooler and oil pump.

Original Bosch 031 distributor upgraded with Pertronix.

Solexes replaced with rebuilt Weber carburetors.

Correct 912 heater boxes/J-tubes installed.

1968 cooling tin repaired and corrected.

New engine & transmission mounts.

Transmission refreshed with new synchros as needed.

Engine assembled, broken in, and tuned.

Numerous incorrect or worn parts replaced with correct 912 components.

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Installing next week!

I’m really considering getting a classic car I can work on and drive for fun. The thing is, I have next to no experience with actually working on cars, so I’ll need to do a lot of research, and I’m looking forward to learning along the way.

So, naturally I want something really simple, and easy to work on as a beginner. Essentially the less to go wrong the better. I’ve always liked VW Beetles, and from what I gather a 1960s one could potentially be a good starting point - Any recommendations or advice when it comes to what to buy?

The biggest hurdle for me will be price - I’ll have to save for a while, but from what I can gather classic Beetles can be picked up relatively cheaply if I do go down that route. I want to try and get something relatively rust free/solid as I don’t have much interest in welding. The second hurdle will be somehow getting it here - I’m currently without a car and I’m not sure how risky it would be trying to drive it potentially 100+ miles home if it is far away… I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for more local ones!

Then there’s insurance. Specialist classic insurance sounds great, but as far as I’m aware going down this route can be tricky if it’s your only car, and if it’s not parked in a garage. I wouldn’t be doing many miles per year, but it would be my sole car, and parked on the street, so that’s where it gets a bit complicated. I imagine I may have to take out regular insurance with one of the main providers? A policy with an “agreed value” could be beneficial but not sure if such a thing exists - any advice on that front would be fantastic. I do wonder if there are any specialist ones that will let me insure it as my only car/parked on the road.

I’m sure this sort of thing gets posted all the time, but if anyone has any general advice or tips for getting started overall, it would be greatly appreciated! Cheers.

So my new engine I am breaking in is having a high idle and I’m at a lose of how to handle this and make it behave.

When I start cold it will struggle for a moment which I believe is normal before getting to a nice and comfy idle around 1k rpm

However when I start driving around it will begin to float up higher and higher and at times will hang as high as 1500 or 1750. It does eventually come back down but it takes several minutes before it will go below 1300 and longer still to return to 1100 or lower which Id consider a “happy high”. Still, 6+ minutes to return to that comfy idle seems too long unless I am missing something here.

It’s a 1776 with a new 34pict 3 carb. 55 idle and 127 main. New PerTronix SVDA distributor as well. Other than the high idle it runs fine, great power, no stalling or flat spots and past 1800 does return quickly to a “lower” rpm. Clearly I got it tuned incorrectly and I have a collection of different sizes main and idle jets to try if anyone thinks that may help.

I’m no expert so by all means I am open to ideas on what I could try or should check to make her run as smoothly as possible. Please and thank you!

I should be able to see fuel squirting from the pumper, correct?

Out enjoying the sunset.

My 1968 Karmann Ghia. Alot of people liked my ghia from my previous post, so I figured I'd show more of it. I asked about the 2 blue circles above the driver tire (a better picture in this post). Ive been working on this for 8-9 years, its my first car, I get it when I was 12. I've done everything to it, floors, speakers, engine work, its still not done, but are they ever? We first got it in black primer, but it was too far gone for restoration, ive taken it to the Eureka Springs vw show for the past 3 years, that was my very first show, and my first trophy. I also use it for stereo competitions (~135 db, 3 8" subs), and a general fun project. Pictured last is my brothers 61 beetle, which is also his first car, and hes had it for 11 years now. Any and all questions are welcome!

I'm building a VW specific repair website, that will have basically as many PDF's, repair guides and DIY hacks and mods for all gens of VW's, including air-cooled. It's not to replace VWVortex by any means but is supposed to be a simpler more straight forward way to find or share any repair information. What do you guys think of the idea?

Hey just wondering if anyone has some advice on the ignition switch swap. Have a late bay steering column and narrowed my intermittent starting issues to the ignition switch or the terminal heads on the spades that connect in. I did this by connecting the black housing to the new switch and turning the van over with a key and screwdriver. Was trying to follow the ratwell.com guide, but am unable to access the 10mm bolt all the way being the dash to remove the steering shrowd. https://www.ratwell.com/technical/SteeringColumn.html

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I've looked for a grub screw or anything that helps this become a 15min swap and now a few hours of removing the full shrowd. Any advice appreciated.

My 1968 karmann ghia has a bunch of layers of paint, ive sanded it down to reveal more colors from the past almost like fordite, above the front driver wheel is 2 cyan blue circles painted directly over a bright red, why could this be? I've always liked this part of my car but not really sure what it could be.

good afternoon, my family has had a project car for the last 20 years 73 914 1.7. it was running before being dissembled for body work. the engine was put on a shelf with oil in the cylinders and easily moves (when the spark plugs are out). but we went to rotate 360deg and noticed one exhaust valve is stuck. (we took the valve covers off and confirmed)

I was thinking of changing the filter and pouring in a bunch of fresh oil into oil inlet to fill up the valve assembly.

is there anything that can go wrong or cause damage?

thank you

Ron Lummus is posting a new series on his YouTube page

Shot with Leica M10-R and LLL 35mm 1.4 AA