Hello everyone. I am new to being an NB owner and I have a lot of work ahead of me. I have just started to work on my sisters old car, so I can use it in the winter. Here is a list of everything I need to do to it:
- New driver and passenger door latch/microswitch
- New hatch latch
- Fix the paint (Clear coat)
- New rear brakes
Anyways to tell you about the car. It is a 1998 Beetle with the 2.0 which is mated to the 4 speed auto (I love manual). It has about 186,000 Km on it, only 300km in the last year! I have a bunch of plans with it and I will update you with lots of photos and stories The only thing I have done to the car (had the car for about 2 weeks) is a homemade intake. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take the car for a drive but it sounded nice in the drive way.
So heres two pictures; I only had time to grab these two when I was there working on it.
The homemade intake (Will be painted later and the filter is off of my Escort's Weapon R intake kit)
Well guys I thought I would update you with some more pictures. As I said it is nothing impressive now, but later it will be atleast nice Unfortunately the car was in an accident before we bought it, so all of the "Wrongs or problems" with the car are from the accident and repairs (Which were done very poorly as you will see). Thanks for looking
A Couple warm up shots:
Peeling clear coat Stupid body shop!
Need to sand and polish the headlights
Side shot
16" American Racing rims which have marks due to poor weather
More peeling clear coat
Interior Shot
Stupid Cigarette burn Previous owners!
Automatic
Instrument Cluster
Clarion head unit- got to go!
Popping out buttons
Rubber stuff coming off- Gonna repaint blue to match the car!
Where that handle goes- Still works, just won't stay on!
More peeling
Cracked fog light
Broken battery cover
Makeshift dipstick tube (Ok this one I did do lol)
The 2.sl0w Haha Jk (pretty peppy if you push it, be better if the car was 5 speed)
The cheap intake
Weapon R Clamps haha (From my Escort intake)
Nighttime lights on
Nighttime plus fog(s) (Will be getting the one fixed, or both replaced with after market ones)
And just to show you my Escort
Ok so I know thats been more than enough but I thought I would show you all about both of my cars so far I plan to have most of the problems on the beetle fixed by mid to late summer I will continue to update and take pictures for you all ENJOY BEETLE LOVERS
Hello everyone! Well it hasn't been long but I thought I would update you guys on whats happenin' with "WinterBeetle". Yes that is its name now, although I really liked "Blue Boy". So anyways I took it to school to do some work. The front brakes were the only brakes we had on the car so the front pads and rotors are gonna need to be changed, and the back rotors, calipers, and pads are gonna need to be changed as well. I am very lucky and I have a previous Volkswagen dealer as a auto teacher so I should get good deals on parts and don't have to pay the outrageous price of labour now-a-days! Woo hoo! Also I have some other parts I am hoping to put on as well.
I am thinking of how to make some tips for the exhaust?! I am too cheap and don't feel like spending $120 on some of the factory accessory tips they make.
Anyways some of the things I picked up on the weekend:
This is what I am hoping to fix my clear coat with. It won't be perfect but I am not expecting it to be
^^They are both the same they just changed the can size and labels.
Although my car isn't a sport (Wish it was), I can still pretend. Once I'm done it will look fairly sporty. I can't stress the "fairly" part enough lol I don't think its the same style lettering though.
Also getting a couple cans of this for both the Escort and Beetle
Also is can anyone tell me how to change the thread name? Thanks
I think its gonna look pretty bad (no better than it does now imho) if you just repair the laquer (clear coat) the only fix for peeling like that is a full respray of the front end (base coat & laquer) otherwise you are going to end up with shiny patches and matt patches.
My advice do it right and do it once, or try and bodge it and it'll look crap and you'll be wanting to do it again pretty soon.
Thats actually what I'm planning on doing! If I can afford it. But what the heck, its gonna get repainted anyways. I know that it's gonna look crappy. I just wish I had some money to repaint it. But I do know exactly what your talking about. Also I've already bought the cans haha I'm gonna ask my teacher where he's getting his golf fender painted
Regarding the latch to flip the driver/passenger seat forward breaking: I think that's a thing with all 98s. Just don't pull OUT when you push up on them. On my old car, they used to pop out almost every time with just the slightest bit of outward force. But they just clip back on....
Yeah man, we try not to pull them out or anything but the dealership tried glueing the handle in and it didn't work. This resulted in part of the handle breaking on the metal rod Gonna have to do something about it.....now just to figure out what that something is Also we have like 2 spare handles that aren't broken.
Well finally got "Winterbeetle" moved into the shop She really didn't want to go over the hump in the middle of the lift and I ended up accidentally spinning the tires Eventually had to take a little run at it and he went right over.
So we got the front and back tires of and its obvious I am going to need to do the rear- calipers, rotors and pads and the front- rotors and pads. Hopefully it won't be too expensive.
Also we ended up getting the glass out of the hatch. When they replaced the rear window they never cleared out the broken glass in behind the black plastic on the trunk. So me and my friend pulled it off and glass came careening down on us :O I am kinda upset with the quality of workmanship the repairs were done with.
The only other problem we had was getting the lift arms under the car. Due to the fact that the car is so low we had to use the floor jack to raise it up then put the lift arms underneath. Worked out well though
Here's two pictures I was able to grab with my phone:
The car with all his tires off
And the tires stacked all up
Hope to give you more updates friday Not going to school tomorrow!
Hey guys. Did some work on "Winterbeetle" yesterday in Auto. Was able to pull of both front and rear calipers, three of the four rotors off and all the pads out. Good thing I did this when i did, he needed brakes sooooo bad Should cost a little over $200 to do front and back rotors and pads, as well as rear calipers. So I snapped some pictures with my camera on my phone so its not great but they still show you what you want to see.
The left rear rotor which is the only rotor left on the car
The Front left and my buddy helpin me
Got that rear caliper off and was able to buff and lube all of the slides
Everything off of the right rear. If you look at the right side of the picture you can see the stuff we pulled off.
The same thing up front
Best tool ever
The last bolt that is in our way of having all of the rotors off. It is seized and stripped. We need to figure out what to do.
Another thing I have on the to do list is to order a stubby antenna. It is getting annoying looking at that long antenna! Have a great day
Did anyone else have the same problem with the seized bolt on the slide holder (Don't know what that bracket is called ) ???
are you talking about the set screw in the rotor or one of the bolts holding the carrier on?
if it's one of the bolts on back, soak it with some PB and try to break it free, of not, heat it up real good and it should come out, but be careful of the hot carrier falling when it does come off.
Lol yeah wouldn't want the carrier falling on me And yes the carrier is what I'm talking about...THANKS!!!! Funny enough we were talking about heating it up at the end of class And I soaked it for the weekend. Hopefully that will get it!
Hey there! Your car has a few rough edges, but soon it'll be right up to spec!
One thing i would recommend for you is to change out the screws on the front tag plate to some new fresh ones! :wink: I know you guys may get a lot of snow in Ontario and that rusts screws, but still change them. It'll help to clean up the front end a little.
Also, I just wetsanded my headlights a few weekends ago! It came out great!! I think its time for me to use plast-X on them again for a quick polish. Here is a link to the HOW-TO i used to sand them. You can leave them on the car, just put some blue painters tape around the edges of the lights.
Haha thanks man. Funny enough I just went out today and bought plate protectors and stainless steel screws I hate rust man. I want a clean looking car. There is no way, even if this is my winter car, that it is gonna look back. I keep going on here and getting more ideas haha. Also I just wet sanded mine but I think I am going to do them again as well. I really appreciate the comment! Should have some more pics on monday
Hey man! I saw a bunch of your videos on Youtube of the Beetle. Looks good, you should have a fun project ahead of you. I am actually a few days away from being an owner of a '98 New Beetle myself. I'll put up some pics in a new thread. I found it funny that I first saw you on Youtube and then registered for this site and said, "Hey, that Beetle looks familiar!" lol. Dropping by to say hey!
Haha priceless I should have some videos up one day I don't like video taping at school though lol Have way too much work ahead of me! Thanks for subscribing lol what color if '98 are you getting?
We're working on building a Baja Bug to take to the Detroit Gambler 500 in May. Since we've utilized this forum for some research purposes, I figured I would share some information and photos from our build.
We utilized the Stage 3 Lift Kit from VWLiftKits.com. It includes better springs...
18x8 TSW Jarama Wheels, 225/40 Michelin Pilot A/S plus tires,Eibach pro-kit lowering springs, Audi TT pedals. Soon will be big brake kit, HID headlight conversion anti-roll bar, performance chip, and cold-air intake.:cool:
(I love manual). It has about 186,000 Km on it, only 300km in the last year! I have a bunch of plans with it and I will update you with lots of photos and stories 
