Bella - 1958 Australian Beetle

Cleverchap wrote:

NICE SPOTTY SOCKS!!!!!!!!!

I noticed that too ....very cheerful socks ...you can tell a lot by a person's socks


(I however ...smell ,and as I'm a rev ...i'm also very holey )

why thank you!

just had a look at cutting the current rod - tried with a junior hacksaw and after about 20 mins of sawing, I only had a small cut... got the jigsaw out but the blade wasn't long enough, so went to get our new angle grinder which we got for Christmas (we lost our old ones in the flood) and it doesn't work!

So my day of fixing Bella came to a halt before 8am

Its a bummer when a plan turns to poop

Indeed gotta go into town tomorrow to buy a new angle grinder now.

spotted some cheapuns in aldi b/w if any help?

I think B&Q do them for about £10. How much were they in Aldi?

sorry didnt see! but hey at a tenner, b&q sounds good worth a look in aldi as they had loads of discs etc, but again didnt notice price

yeah can't grumble with a tenner really

It does!

After trying to use a junior hacksaw for what seemed like hours on Friday, I managed to get a small indent into the rod... I couldn't really get the saw in to cut it properly, so Jim suggested I used a different type of saw, which I got today and set it to work:


After ages of sawing, I finally cut through it:


Yep it wasn't going to bend or rust away, was it?!


Looks like she's smoking a pipe lol:


That's as far as I got as I need to take the bumper off and move the Split out the way to get it out, and the Split's up on axel stands so hopefully he'll be moving tomorrow

did you have to make a hole in the front clip to remove the gear rod?

no there's a hole already there

cool ......I thought you may have extra work ......good news

nope, cunningly VW had thought of this! Otherwise it would have been a body off job!

Finally got the refund on the other beam so it's all systems go! Ordered a pair of 12v semaphores, a dual circuit master cylinder and a new gearstick boot from Heritage and a Volvo 240 reservoir to go on the master cylinder. Think I confused the chap on the phone at the Volvo place when I explained it was for a Beetle

Joey Bus went for his MOT retest today so I had the chance to remove the old shift rod (he was in the way before) and get the new one fitted. Steve helped me fit the new one as it's tricky to do it on your own without 'go go gadget' arms.

Anyway, got that fitted and started looking for the new selector plate that I bought at Dubfreeze...... hmmm looks a little different to the old one....




Yep, that's right - there's a chunk missing where it's worn through and there's a massive crack in it, so I could pull it apart with my fingers!

What on earth has happened to this Beetle?! First of all the gearbox was lose and moving around because the threads for the front mount had been snapped off, then the coupling was welded to the rod and now this plate!

I have no idea ....but I would say its unusual for this part to wear as bad as it has ....keep up the pics .....awesome thread

yeah I can't say I've ever read about one wearing like this. Good job I decided to change it, otherwise I'd have plodded on without knowing and it would have eventually broken up completely and I'd be stuck somewhere with no/few gears!

one more step closer to the mot

yep all there is to do is put the beam back on and wire up the semaphores.

Right, well we fitted the new shift rod, did the coupling up, fitted new shifter plate and..... only managed to get 2 gears after asking on the tech forum, I came to the conclusion that it was the wrong year, so pulled it out to check.... you can see the obvious differences!


The original one is the one which is in 2 bits lol.

My other parts arrived on Friday - 12v semaphores and new dual circuit master cylinder. I also got a Volvo 240 reservoir.


On my way home from uni today I stopped off at Jim's (Tofufi) house to collect some grub screws for the adjusters (thanks Jim!) and then onto Dirty Dave's house to collect her original beam... those of you who've followed this thread for longer know Tom took 3.5in out of it and removed the shock towers - Dave has narrowed it another 1.5in and fitted shock towers - thanks Dave!


And with a bit of POR-15:


We mocked it up and it appears to fit like a glove!

that beam looks ...'one off' and superb ......i'm not jealous ...nope not me ....no ......no ...............no

Let's see some pics of it mocked up............

we didn't take any - and it's now covered in wet POR-15 lol. I'll take some when we fit it - prob weds or thurs.

have you got a spare narrowed beam now then lucy that your trying to sell???