Hello from Lakeville Minnesota

mmclakeville · Post by **mmclakeville** » Sat Jul 30, 2011 3:32 pm

All,

I am new to the forum and a new owner of a 1966 VW Bug.
My name is Mark.

Through a twist of fate a distant relative past away two years ago and had a farm in Lethbridge Alberta Canada. My parents were both Canadian - this individual was related via a sister of my mothers. He left a farm that ultimately went to my mother and one surviving sister. There were 160 acres and 16 buildings on the site. None were in too good of shape. But inside a badly leaning wooden garage with a dirt floor piled high with papers and boxes and lots of dust was a sea blue 66 bug.

We cabled off the building to make it safe and then began to dig this little gem out of its cocoon. There it sat not being registered since 1985. The owner purchased the car in November of 65 brand new. We have all of the registrations and the original owners manuals - pretty much everything. Has 98K on it, half tank of gas (gone now) no battery - thank you - and very little rust considering he lived in a rural area with nothing but dirt roads and gravel.

We pulled it home about four weeks ago and are still finding little surprises and mysteries. The interior is in really good shape for age and miles. Brakes are gone - emergency brake works but hydraulics are gone. Do not know why he parked it but assume the motor and/or tranny had gotten tired and needed a rebuild. With the age and the period of sitting I chose not to bother to try and fire it up but instead pulling it apart to begin a restoral project.

Started to pull the motor and noticed that something had been spliced into the fuel line going to the carb. Started to disconnect things to pull the motor and noticed a third tail pipe - cute little skinny thing. Then noticed that there was a rerouting of the heating duct piping into the frame boxes. Everything is tucked in above the tranny but it appears to me to be a gas fired heater. Still unraveling this but this is my guess and being Lethbridge where winters can be brutal I think my guess is pretty sound.

So far the pan appears to be light rust - have not pulled up carpets yet. But underneath it is pretty solid and very little rust which is again very surprising. We have all the original wheels and even the toolkit and jack were neatly placed in the forward trunk compartment.

Still have one more vehicle to go and retrieve - a 1950 MapleLeaf 3 ton dump truck with wooden box. The cab is trashed but the rest of the truck is again in amazingly good shape. So we hope to drag it home before snow starts to fly.

So far this is my story. I wanted to join the forum to get guidance and recommendations which I will post in the technical area as time permits and the need arises. Will be rebuilding or replacing the engine and tranny pretty much straightway. Will change it over to disk brakes and get it painted - off frame tear down and restore. Want to keep it close to original but make it reliable and upgrade to 12 volt. Goal is to have it running in time for next years back to the 50's car show here in Minneapolis June 2012.

Thanks
Mark

Post by **jmartini** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 4:34 am

Mark - welcome to the forum! What a great story and a great find. Sounds like you may have hit the jackpot, not many cars have all the original documentation etc. Let us know how things go.

kgl271 · Post by **kgl271** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 12:50 pm

Hi Mark,

Wecome to the forum. I am workinig on a 66 Bug with a friend of mine, I live in Apple Valley and he is in Lakeville/Rosemount area. Would love to connect with you and see your bug. We have a lot of metal work to do on his and the motor was pulled and freshed up.

Hit me offline kgl271@gmail.com