Hello all,
Recently joined the forums after picking up my (batik Blue or marlin blue, not sure which one lol) New Beetle for very cheap. I've found this site to be a good resource and a good place to document my progress. As I mentioned in my intro thread, I'm new to the Beetle but not to Volkswagens.
I don't really consider this a build thread, but more of a documentation of what I've done to the car, replaced etc.
So when I picked up the car, the interior was pretty bad. The paint has some clear coat issues. It was running rough, flashing CEL. Rear wheel bearing was pretty much toast.
The day I picked it up:
I don't have any pictures of the interior, but to start off; it's tan, and not my favorite of all the options. The driver seat is ripped, door cards falling apart, headliner sagging, glove box broken, center console broken etc. All the common issues from early 2000s VWs. Cosmetic stuff doesn't worry me as much though.
Back on track. On the initial drive home, I picked up a set of spark plugs and swapped them out. No more flashing CEL, but it was still on. At this point it was drivable though. Over the next week I made of list of things that needed to be addressed and made several junkyard trips.
To date, I've replaced the following from the junkyard:
-Seat belt buckle, passenger side (it was completely missing, no idea how that happened)
-Window switch, driver side
-Larger cooling fan (completely dead, surprisingly the smaller fan kept the car from overheating)
-Hazard switch (originally there were no turn signals, now I have no hazards but turns work. Haven't figured that out yet)
-Reverse light housing, driver side (again completely missing)
-License plate light housings
-Front turn signal housing (was missing)
After driving around for about a week, I could hear the rear wheel bearing getting increasingly louder. Figured I should replace it, so I did. Got a new one. Wheel off, caliper off. Rotor is stuck (melted) to the hub/bearing.
Hammered it off and the balls from the bearings went everywhere. Yeah, I think it's safe to say it was time to change it. I had rear rotors from my mk4 laying around so they were quickly put to use. New bearing successfully installed, no more noises.
Somewhere in this two week time span, I cleaned the headlights up:
Anyone know of smoked housing or ecodes for the Beetles? I really dig how they look on my other cars.
I also installed a euro switch and straightened out the fog grill as well as changed every light bulb on the front end.
Anyways, I guess we'll see what direction this car goes. I really want to update the interior to the black leather (saw some sport seats in the junkyard) but I have other issues to address first.
