Super Beetle Project: Ready for the Headliner

I wasn't sure we could get it done, but all of our prep work is ready and we are good to go tomorrow night to the headliner shop.

First order of business this morning was to reattach the dashboard. I had a strip of the old ugly paint on the passenger side so I used paint thinner and sand paper to get the majority of it off. Then I tried to widen the openings for the hand bar so it would fit snugly. No such luck, there is a piece of metal running through the dash that is in the way, so it's still on my to-do list. But all of the lights and knobs (except the fresh air vents) are re-attached and in place.

Once I got everything connected, I turned on the power and none of my dash lights worked. Oh was I unhappy. After tracing all of the wires, I finally realized the painter's tape was still over the fuses. When I checked, sure enough the fuse was at the end and was painted over. I replaced the fuse, and my lights came right on!

With everything restored to it's former glory, I got my new door jamb light switches and dome light and installed them. First try, I had lights. And they also work with the door switches. When you open the door the light goes on, when you close it the light goes off. Most excellent.

Next I reattached the door hardware so I could close and latch the doors. And I had the heater vent cables (cut when my brother-in-law welded the battery pan) so I installed those. Had to make a trip to Lowes for this one. I pulled out the vent flaps, and disconnected the wires. Then discovered those wires are important, you disconnect them at the small piece of hardware that requires a VERY tiny screwdriver. I now own one of those courtesy of Lowes. Of course there are two channels, one for each side. When I first ran the wires I switched them up - one was too short and one was too long. Didn't take a braniac to figure out I had them backwards. So I pulled them out and ran them through correctly. Then I attached the vent flaps. Once again, switched them and one wire was too long the other too short. You'd think on these 50/50 situations I'd be right half the time.

Next, I installed my new wiper motor. Of course another trip to Lowes. I needed e-clips to fasten the moving arm. Removed the old motor, attached the new motor. Then installed in the car. Also attached my new wiper blades that arrived this week. The motor works great if the arms are up, but they won't move at all if the wiper blades are in contact with the window. My on-line experts think either the nuts are not tight enough or I need to lubricate the moving parts. We can try both easily.

Once I got all the parts installed, I cleaned up the floor to get all of the sanding residue up. Then we went to re-attach the clutch cable. We hate doing that, but the clutch pedal fell forward while we were painting and the cable slipped off. My son was not in a good mood when this started. So I did all the pre-work and took out the pedal assembly. Richard came out to help push the cable through so I could reattach. He was grumbling a lot, so when he asked if he could try putting the bolts in I said "no you'll get mad and throw stuff". So he left and went inside. Unfortunately I was holding the clutch, and my ratchet was in the garage. So I was stuck. He waited almost 20 minutes to come back outside - and I was hot. I was cursing like a sailor and my arm hurt like crazy from holding the clutch. He did take the clutch back and help. But not before he got mad (like I expected) and threw a wrench across the yard. Like I said, we don't like doing the clutch cable.

Finally, all was done so we popped a seat in and took it for a drive. I drove out and my son drove home. Amazing how much he has improved since we replaced the shifter and put the shift plate in place. Being able to find the gears makes a big difference.