Official Mexican / Brazilian Beetles - All years

[hopkin]

I had thought about adding a footrest, I'm glad to see that I don't have to look for the slats I may do that when the time comes to change the carpet, for now that's a project for the distant future.

These images show how the carpet would cover the floormat in an older Beetle:

I can see that the firewall carpet is cut to allow the footrest to rest against the metal. The floor carpet would cover it.

Can you cut the existing carpet on the firewall to match the second picture?(and would you want to?), or maybe order just the two parts (firewall and floor).
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1971 Super Beetle (past)
1971 Super Beetle (past)
1974 SunBug (past)
1972 914 (past)
1991 Honda Civic (Original Owner)
1996 'Open Air' Mexican Beetle (current)
2015 Golf (current)
2017 Dune Edition (daughter's car)

[Gerrelt]

[hopkin]

[Gerrelt]

[hopkin]

Is the footrest binding on the carpet at the bulge on the right hand side?

_________________
1971 Super Beetle (past)
1971 Super Beetle (past)
1974 SunBug (past)
1972 914 (past)
1991 Honda Civic (Original Owner)
1996 'Open Air' Mexican Beetle (current)
2015 Golf (current)
2017 Dune Edition (daughter's car)

[Gerrelt]

[hopkin]

I found this thread that shows the form of the firewall on older Beetles, it looks the same as your car.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=286353&highlight=passenger+footrest

The thread also has some nice pictures showing the carpet install.

It looks to me like the firewall carpet on the older Beetle fills the void.

Could you make a standoff to fill the gap?
_________________
1971 Super Beetle (past)
1971 Super Beetle (past)
1974 SunBug (past)
1972 914 (past)
1991 Honda Civic (Original Owner)
1996 'Open Air' Mexican Beetle (current)
2015 Golf (current)
2017 Dune Edition (daughter's car)

[Gerrelt]

Yes, I agree, on the older beetles, the firewall carpet filled the void. Allthough that wasn't ideal, it didn't provide a good support to the top of the footrest. And that's probaby the reason why my footrest is all bent at the top.

I am not yet sure what I will do. I have to make a standoff (and weld it to it), or straighten the footrest completely, and take out the bits that hit the firewall hump.
Then it would be more like the superbeetle footrest, that is all flat:

(apparently the mid-sixties beetles also used a similar footrest)

But straightening it will make it harder to slide the tabs in.
It would be the nicest and easiest option though...

I never knew a footrest could be this complicated..
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[Gerrelt]

Wait a minute... Is it meant to be straight? :

Is mine just bent?
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[hopkin]

That looks different than yours, thinner metal, maybe aftermarket?

I would make a standoff, I don't think you need to weld it in, just a couple of screws along the top; it could even be a piece of wood, painted black.
_________________
1971 Super Beetle (past)
1971 Super Beetle (past)
1974 SunBug (past)
1972 914 (past)
1991 Honda Civic (Original Owner)
1996 'Open Air' Mexican Beetle (current)
2015 Golf (current)
2017 Dune Edition (daughter's car)

[GArBa]

I'd make a wooden standoff too, only I'd use some marine varnish on it to avoid it absorbing moisture. then glue it to the footrest with neoprenic glue and cover everyting with carpet.
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cars:
'97 type 1 1600i
'14 type AA Seat Mii (sadly dead after 270.000 km)
'22 type C1 T-Cross
'23 type AC3 Hyundai I10 (VW no longer makes small cars!)
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moped:
'82 Benelli Magnum 3v

[Gerrelt]

After some carefull examination of the footrest plate, it became clear to me it was bent, while it should be straight. The bend was just not nice enough to be a facotory stamped bend.
So, I straightened it, which was much easier then I thought. The metal is pretty thin and bends easily.
Afterwards, the footrest fitted like it should :

And we received new floormats last week too. And that fits nicely too:

Today I de-rusted and painted the footrest, but I still have to get some carpet/floormat material to cover it.
I briefly contemplated welding a piece of iron to the back of the footrest to strengthen it. But then I realized that maybe I was over-engineering a passenger footrest..
So I skipped that, and I can allways still do that if it bends again.
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[hopkin]

[hopkin]

I bought a sales brochure for a 2000 Mexican Beetle that I found on eBay, it has the accessories page that Antonio has posted before. I notice that the passenger side mirror was an option

Front and back:

(That looks like a note showing pesos to US $$ on the front cover.)

Pages 1 & 2:

Pages 3 & 4:

Pages 5 & 6:

Pages 7 & 8:

Pages 9 & 10:

Pages 11 & 12:

_________________
1971 Super Beetle (past)
1971 Super Beetle (past)
1974 SunBug (past)
1972 914 (past)
1991 Honda Civic (Original Owner)
1996 'Open Air' Mexican Beetle (current)
2015 Golf (current)
2017 Dune Edition (daughter's car)

[GArBa]

[Gerrelt]

Thanks for sharing the brochure, Hopkin! I've saved the images.


I've finished the footrest/floormat situation, so let's bring my footrest-saga to the end..

First I cleaned and painted the footrest black.
Then I bought a floormat at our local hardware store. They didn't have all-black ones, but this one will do the job too.
I've cut a square out of it that's bigger then the footrest:

An then first glued it to the front with contact cement, and let it dry. And the next day I cut away the excess floormat but left a piece at the top. that piece I folded over and then glued it to the back, using clamps to hold it. The result:

I also now glued the small bit, which is not straight but bend back a little.

And the end result:

Much better then just the metal footrest with the holes in it.


This weekend I put together the drivers door. Man, beetle doors are always tricky to get back together.. But it's together again. I had to replace the vent window, which was broken. The pin at the bottom rusted through.
I now have two old style chromed vent windows in the doors.
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[hopkin]

[Gerrelt]

Yep, you went through exactly the same ordeal as me.

This is what my backing plate looked like:

Both sides where bad. I recreated the backing plate out of a alumium strip, painted it black and riveted it to the trim.

How do you put the window + winder mechanism back in?
Window first then mechanism?
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[hopkin]

Your scraper is what my passenger side looked like, the drivers side was worse.

This all that was left on the drivers side:

You can also see that the sound proofing was messed up.

This is the scraper from the passenger side:

I also had to replace the lift channels, the one on the drivers side was shot:

The passenger side wasn't as bad, but I replaced it anyways.
I ordered new ones from WW, they worked perfectly, but the rubbers from WW (for the lift channels) were too thick, I reused the old ones.

Here's a close up of the plate I riveted on, I painted the new backing with rust paint before riveted on:

Before I started to take the doors apart, I ordered everything I could think off from WW, related to the inside of the doors. Now I have a bunch of spare parts, including scrapers with no backing plate, but with rubbers (my old ones, which are fine).

Funny, there is virtually no rust on the door, the metal they used for the backing on the scraper must have been crappy.

I did the drivers side in 2013 and the passenger side in 2014.
_________________
1971 Super Beetle (past)
1971 Super Beetle (past)
1974 SunBug (past)
1972 914 (past)
1991 Honda Civic (Original Owner)
1996 'Open Air' Mexican Beetle (current)
2015 Golf (current)
2017 Dune Edition (daughter's car)

[hopkin]