How to Restore Volkswagen Beetles explains all the basic skills required for a full restoration - including welding, painting, and panel beating - and containing over 700 colour photos. This manual contains everything you need to know to make your Beetle like new again. Showing how to carry out hands-on bodywork and mechanical restoration, interior restoration, and troubleshooting, you'll find solutions to problems that simply aren't covered in normal workshop manuals. Even those with no technical knowledge or restoration experience can now see how to completely restore a Volkswagen Beetle, from bodywork, interior, mechanical and electrical - an essential manual for millions of Beetle owners around the world.
Restoring 1949-1967 VW Beetles to original factory condition in the simplest, most cost-effective way possible is the goal of this illustrated guide. Sections include tear-down of the unrestored vehicle, part evaluation and buying, engine rebuilding and restoring, vintage accessories, and more.
Perhaps the most charismatic automobile ever, the Volkswagen Beetle was the longest-running, most-manufactured automobile on a single platform of all time. From 1938 to 2003, more than 21.5 million "Bugs" were assembled, distributed, and sold on nearly every continent in the world. Throughout the Beetle's successful run, many of these cars have been relegated to project car status due to their age or condition. Airkooled Kustoms, a VW restoration shop in Hazel Green, Alabama, brings its expertise in restoring these cars to book form with this all-encompassing compilation. Restoring your Beetle is covered through step-by-step sequences from unbolting that first nut through polishing the paint on your freshly restored Bug. The specialists at Airkooled Kustoms walk you through the proper disassembly methods, restoring versus replacing components, and reassembling your restored Bug, covering everything related to the body, undercarriage, and interior along the way. It's about time a thorough, hands-on restoration book has been authored by authorities who know the Beetle like the back of their hands. With this book, you will have everything you need to bring your old or new VW Beetle project back to life. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 12.0px Arial; color: #000000}
Sometimes achieving big things requires the ability to think small. This simple concept was the driving force that propelled the Volkswagen Beetle to become an avatar of American-style freedom, a household brand, and a global icon. The VW Bug inspired the ad men of Madison Avenue, beguiled Woodstock Nation, and has recently been re-imagined for the hipster generation. And while today it is surely one of the most recognizable cars in the world, few of us know the compelling details of this car’s story. In Thinking Small, journalist and cultural historian Andrea Hiott retraces the improbable journey of this little car that changed the world. Andrea Hiott’s wide-ranging narrative stretches from the factory floors of Weimar Germany to the executive suites of today’s automotive innovators, showing how a succession of artists and engineers shepherded the Beetle to market through periods of privation and war, reconstruction and recovery. Henry Ford’s Model T may have revolutionized the American auto industry, but for years Europe remained a place where only the elite drove cars. That all changed with the advent of the Volkswagen, the product of a Nazi initiative to bring driving to the masses. But Hitler’s concept of “the people’s car” would soon take on new meaning. As Germany rebuilt from the rubble of World War II, a whole generation succumbed to the charms of the world’s most huggable automobile. Indeed, the story of the Volkswagen is a story about people, and Hiott introduces us to the men who believed in it, built it, and sold it: Ferdinand Porsche, the visionary Austrian automobile designer whose futuristic dream of an affordable family vehicle was fatally compromised by his patron Adolf Hitler’s monomaniacal drive toward war; Heinrich Nordhoff, the forward-thinking German industrialist whose management innovations made mass production of the Beetle a reality; and Bill Bernbach, the Jewish American advertising executive whose team of Madison Avenue mavericks dreamed up the legendary ad campaign that transformed the quintessential German compact into an outsize worldwide phenomenon. Thinking Small is the remarkable story of an automobile and an idea. Hatched in an age of darkness, the Beetle emerged into the light of a new era as a symbol of individuality and personal mobility—a triumph not of the will but of the imagination.
Learn how to rebuild a Volkswagen air-cooled engine! This guide will teach the reader how to troubleshoot, remove, tear down, inspect, assemble, and install Bug, Bus, Karmann Ghia, Thing, Type-3, Type-4, and Porsche 914 engines. All models from 1961 on up are included.
This is the story of a little miracle on four wheels, discovered in a field in Eastern Europe by two of the most competent collectors of air-cooled Volkswagens: The 38 split window Beetle. The vehicle with the chassis number 3806 is as black and shiny as it was more than 70 years ago. It is the pride and joy of the Grundmann collection! When the discovery of this prototype of the VW 38 was posted on an internet forum, the international Beetle scene went wild. For the experienced VW restorers Traugott and Christian Grundmann there was no question: the first "Splitty" would become the centrepiece of their exquisite old-timer collection. The VW 38's condition may have been shocking, but it was not beyond hope. Supported by a brilliant team of welders, upholsterers, painters, mechanics and VW enthusiasts from around the world, they managed to give the dear little Beetle a complete makeover. Traugott Grundmann and his son Christian have a little piece of paradise in the Weser Hills: they have created their very own automobile museum for one of the most exclusive Volkswagen collections in the world. More than 50 old-timers, including many one-offs and special models, are displayed in all their splendor in Hessisch Oldendorf - most of them were restored to their former glory in the Grundmann's workshop. The VW 38 is the exhibition's new shining star. Axel Struwe leads two lives: one as a food photographer and qualified photo designer, the other as a passionate collector and restorer of VW old-timers. When the German first heard that his friend Christian Grundmann had discovered a VW 38, it became obvious that he would not only support the project with his practical experience, but also document the journey with his camera. Clauspeter Becker was three years old when the first split window Beetle appeared. He can vividly remember sitting in a VW 38 as a young lad in Berlin - but in the back seat. As part of his research for this book, the renowned specialist journalist and book writer from Neuhausen near Stuttgart, who received the Johny-Rozendaal-Uhr award in 2010 for his entire oeuvre, finally got to take the steering wheel himself. 83 colour, 16 b/w
"This Volkswagen Type 1 service manual covers Beetles, Super Beetles, VW Convertibles and Karmann Ghias for the model years 1970 through 1979"--Page 4 of cover.
See the entire chronology of air-cooled Volkswagens in The Complete Book of Classic Volkswagens, a beautifully illustrated overview of one of the oldest and best-known foreign car brands in America.
Build and modify your Volkswagen Beetle using today’s greatest aftermarket parts while implementing historic and modern modifications! If ever a car rolled off the factory floor in the form of a blank slate, the VW Beetle is it. In fact, after taking delivery of their beloved Bug, many owners began modifications and customizations to personalize their favorite German compact. Perhaps the most charismatic automobile ever, the Volkswagen Beetle was the longest-running, most-manufactured automobile on a single platform in automotive history. From 1938 to 2003, more than 21.5 million Bugs were assembled, distributed, and sold on nearly every continent in the world. If there’s a component that owners can modify, they’ll do it, and each custom touch makes them love their Beetle even more. Airkooled Kustoms, a Volkswagen restoration and modification shop in Hazel Green, Alabama, has served all kinds of classic Volkswagen owners. For those who venture into the world of customization, no modern or historic trend is off-limits. These Volkswagen experts introduce and walk you through some of the most glorious customizations that Beetle owners can make to their rides. You’ll find inspiration, instruction, and more modifications than most owners could ever tackle in a lifetime.
Service to Volkswagen is of top priority to Volkswagen organization and has always include the continuing development and introduction of new and expanded services. In line with this purpose, Volkswagen of America, Inc., has completeness, with practical explanations, step-by-step procedures, and accurate specifications. Though the do-it -yourself Volkswagen owner will find this manual indispensable as a source of the same detailed maintenance and repair information available at an authorized Volkswagen dealer, the Volkswagen owner who has no intention of working on his or her car will find that reading an owning this manual will make it possible to discuss repairs more intelligently with a professional technician.
