Dome Light / 4 1/2 inch Ball joint lift

[Douglas A]

Waiting on parts to finish this project, so why not fix the dome light. PO thought it was great idea to take out dome light along with all the wires. Must to save weight, Really! Easiest was to do this I found out, use bailing wire up from the door jamb pillar button. Two problem spots, hinge & the top where it meets the roof, must be some sort of slot it must fit in. You know when you have it align. Then push the bailing wire through to the dome light. Tape wire on and feed back through. Take your time you can do it. I'm using 14 & 16 gauge wire. I think it would be easier if I used the same gauge 16. That's all I had.

[ORANGECRUSHer]

mine is like this too.

My fix was to slap one of these free magnetic flashlights on the roof. It's a lot faster installation, but can bite 'cha if you hit a big pot hole just right. ;p

_________________
Brian H.
I may not know everything,but I will try to help if I can
OrangeCrushER Berrien Warrior 2.4L Quad4
LAZY MARY 1970 Baja 1835cc

[Douglas A]

[chubby53]

I ran LED ribbon along the roof line on mine on both sides. under $20 total cost if you have a solder iron and fair soldering skills. works great. super bright.
_________________
My build:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=385100

[andk5591]

Depending on the car and light, you may need 3 wires......
_________________
D-Dubya Manx clone - 63 Short pan,1914.
Rosie 65 bug - My mostly stock daily driver.
Woodie 69 VW woodie (Hot VWs 7/12).
"John's car" 64 VW woodie - The first ever
Maxine 61 Cal-look bug - Cindy's daily driver.
Max - 73 standard Beetle hearse project - For sale
66 bug project - Real patina & Suby conversion
There's more, but not keeping them...

[Douglas A]

[Douglas A]

Making some progress now. Got the new rear bearings in for the
(Second time)" USE YOUR OLD ONES TO TAP IN THE NEW ONES" Installed
spring plates & controls arms. Do not do what I did, make my own
spring plate tool. My torsion bars our really wound up for the height.
It made my tools like cheese (Dangerous) Also painted the shocks not
bad, they weren't that old. Next step install new thing axles and engine.

Spring plate tool, spring plates made butter of them (Dangerous)

Spring plates & control arms installed

[Brian]

[chubby53]

I ran LEDs on both sides of mine. Super bright.

_________________
My build:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=385100

[Brian]

hell yea, that's legit.
_________________
Wash your hands

'69 Bug
'68 Baja Truck
'71 Bug
'68 Camper

Only losers litter

[chubby53]

The nice thing is that with my roll age in it creates a nice ambient light
_________________
My build:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=385100

[Douglas A]

[Douglas A]

OK my seats got stolen out of the car with the engine steering wheel & shifter.
My seats were not stock. As you all know stock VW's seats are the size of a couch. Also I did not care how the after markets were installed. If you really look how your going to do this its not that easy. The stock seat frames are about 5 inches off the pan, and in my option are junk! over today standards.
45 years of wear and tear and they slide on a piece of plastic most likely
missing, now you have metal to metal. The PO owner decided to mount brackets to the old seat frame and called it a day and installed the new seats.
So When i got the car I bought again another set of seats (Stolen) that had its own set of seat rails. Problem most modern seats sit about 1/2 inch to a inch off the floor. You will not see over the hood or the steering wheel.
So I attached them as well to the existing seat frame (stupid) and weak!
For all the fabrication to the stock seat frames.

So now on the third set of cheap Chinese seats and as well sitting about 1 inch off the ground with a set of universal seat rails (ball bearings) Nice! Once again I started to install them on the original seat frame and realized
this is totally JERRY RIG! on a car that has been totally rebuild top to bottom.
So this is what I came up with. I'm showing the way it was going to be
and what I came up with. Other issues I found out stock seat rails attached to pan sit at a angle of 8 degrees. Most modern seats come standard at a angel all ready.
Having problems with pictures will post tonight.

Car today almost done

Stock seat frame

This would be jerry rig or let say this is what it was like before

This is it today and materials I used
Channel iron 1 /1/4 1 1/2 sq tube 3" sq tube

Had to chisel off old locking tabs

Bolted channel iron down with grade 8 nuts and bolts. Channel iron is on the
Inside Of rails. Channel iron is sitting on the ridge of floor
Pan plus rails. Shaved about the first 3 inches of
The rails off to be level with angle iron. Now the rails
Are at 2 degrees not 8. Now installed 1 1/2 sq tubing "welded"
To channel iron. Now welded the 3 x 3 to 1 1/2 sq tube.
Now the new seat frame rails can be
Bolted to the 3 x 3's then the seats bolted to
The new rails, Gives you many ways
To uninstall.

This give you pretty close to stock seat height

[chubby53]

[Douglas A]

[Douglas A]

Just finished up my fresh air box. The PO thought it was a great idea to
take it out as well as the dome light. As you can see by the pictures
the hoses aren't correct. However should work. Also I'm thinking about placing a 3" boat blower fan in front of it. I have seen others do
it others ways than what I'm thinking? What I'm thinking well resemble
the super beetle box. Also I'm thinking to add a couple of ducts under the dash as well. My year does not have the ones facing you just the side
vents and the ones on top of the dash.

[Dark Earth]

[Douglas A]

Finally done "almost" just a few minor things left.
This is what I encounter after start up. It appears I gained at least 4 inches in height.
Looks to me the front is about 1/2 inch higher, I can lower that if I choose.
I will post a picture today out in the street for the height.

I know there are some other post out there. However let me tell you
what my problems were.
1) Horn not working at all
2) Horn going off when turning wheel
3) Right turn signal stop working left side working intermittently
4) New reproduction steering wheel rubbing against steering column

At first I put a spacer inside the column as the PO had, first a piece of
PVC. Then I got the correct snap ring still rubbing? Then I added a washer
fixed the rubbing issues. Also the turn indicator was new as well as the
steering wheel. The last one got stolen out of car, along with everything else including the engine. So for the horn not working, I replaced the steering wheel bushing that attaches to the horn contact inside column. Problem was the bearing was not seated all the way on the horn contact. That fixed the horn to work. Now its going off when turning, Do not cut corners for sure that washer I added inside the column had something to do with it? So you must determine the problem upstream in the horn button area or downstream inside the column or at the steering box. So I pulled the wheel, took off the turn indicator left it hanging on the side. Put it all back together, Works fine? So the turn indicator was grounding out on the steering wheel? First I had one of those 4 screws stripped out that holds indicator in. Could it not be sitting level? Also that washer does not belong inside there. The top part of the steering column is replaceable so off to the junkyard because of the stripped screw. Also readjusted the new column still rubbing? Also the guy at the Junkyard gave me another indicator to test because mine new one got destroyed trying to figure out why it was working intermittently. So the Problem was, I forgot I rebuilt the
steering box! The steering shaft was pushed down to far on the steering
box, go figure! No more washer inside column, no more rubbing of the steering wheel. Also order a new indicator, installed no problems at all!
here is a great wire schematic for your turn indicator, very simple one.
http://www.oldvolkshome.com/6870turnswitcht1_OVH.pdf

[Douglas A]

[Dark Earth]