Just bought a '75 Swallowtail from the...fourth owner ;)

[clintg60-16v]

Removed the backseat for vinyl repair; there is a hole in the leading edge of the backrest vinyl. Local vinyl shop said it can't be repaired. I'll keep looking....

Looking through the rear window annoyed me into action today.

Stayed up til 2:30am changing timing belt and water pump on brother's MK IV Jetta. Needed additional motivation this morning:



Seat, looking sad:




Enter Black & Decker:



The sides of the original board had subtle curves. All cut lines are faithful to the original, and symmetrical.


Need to source a few old fasteners, but....




When my German squareweave carpet and thin black vinyl get here, lots of work will commence in this area. For now though I'm happy. It's only about 1mm thicker than the old backing board. Home Depot FTW!

[SouthernRoads]

awesome story with this car. looks great too!

[IronTrap]

That's awesome, all in the details!

I really need to do the same to mine, on my extremely long to-do list

[aeffertz]

Let me know if you ever want to let those chrome euro bumpers go. Been looking forever and a day for a clean set!

Well, would you look at that.

Say, where did you get this piece at?

(The piece that holds the plug wires)

[clintg60-16v]

I'll need to look into the source on that wire loom...



Had to take a trip back to OH a few weeks ago to get the title notarized. So three months later, it's finally plated. This is legal to run in Indiana...




The title lineage I have so far indicates 57,000 original miles.


Also found the original literature that would have came upon delivery of a '75. I plan on scanning in, if anybody's interested.




Will be putting photoshop to good use on this sticker, to change a couple things specific to my car.

[16V_Scirocco_GTX]

Wire loom piece looks just like what came on the 16v motors.

[rod_knock]

nope. aba. clips and everything.

[aeffertz]

Hmm. Well if someone has one they'll let go of, I want one.

[PoorHouse]

Cool

Had to take a trip back to OH a few weeks ago to get the title notarized. So three months later, it's finally plated. This is legal to run in Indiana...

Interested

Also found the original literature that would have came upon delivery of a '75. I plan on scanning in, if anybody's interested.

[clintg60-16v]

On vacation, waiting for my squareweave carpet to get here.

I'm disappointed in the TMI sample catalog; they don't have the paper thin vinyl to finish the Masonite on the back of the rear bench. Headliner material would work if it didn't have the pinholes.

Started to cut new trunk inserts this afternoon. Got bored and ran a few errands. Stopped at an abandoned aircraft hangar and took these old-school pics.

[clintg60-16v]

The drivers door lock hasn't worked for at least four years. Time to fix.

Got the knob "shaft"; fits in the latch mechanism oh-so-delicately. Note how it's bent...not the way it should be.



Also broke out a spare latch as I wasn't sure what I was going to find.




Both latches looked to be in similar shape, except for some serious overspray. I took all the old funk off...soaked in PB blaster, then blasted with brake cleaner, then used lithium grease on rotating and contact points.



Metal > plastic... Good time to upgrade the door pulls.



Getting the linkages back together took some finesse. Once the latch was reinstalled, I had to fish the locking "rod" into a small plastic sleeve. It helped to have the latch removed to figure out where to go.

It worked, but was easily worked out of position due to how bent it was. I removed the working pass side lock and found the rod to be almost straight in comparison. So some minor strategic "tweaking" of the rod shape was all that was needed.

Key to putting in the rod is removing the outside door handle, and removing the three latch screws to allow play. Watch the "mating up" through the large hole (for the door handle), then rotate the shaft up so that it can be worked through the lock button hole without bending it. Then reposition/ tighten down the latch, and reinstall the handle.

Works A1 now.


Plastic > metal ... Just like the look of the plastic surrounds better.

[clintg60-16v]

Sweet find in passenger door? NOS sugar packet?!?

[clintg60-16v]

Finally.

[GTrabbIt]

[SouthernRoads]

honestly your rabbit is probably my favorite out of all ive ever seen. The beefy white lettered tires stance is so refreshing. I absolutely love the wheels and the color is my favorite for a rabbit. Plus its a swallowtail. ghez

[clintg60-16v]

The parcel tray and supports had some serious sagging and cracking. Decided that replacement would be near-impossible; time to make the unusable, useable again!


BEFORE:











My reinforcement/ repair material of choice:





In progress:







After sanding:






...and ready to spray with some semi-gloss black...

[clintg60-16v]

While the repaired panels cure overnight, fresh carpet is trimmed...




With the help of my assistant, the carpet is ready...






Time to break out the Super 77:






Mounting...in fresh fiberglass screw holes!!!




Left plenty of carpet to rejoin the parcel tray to the seatback. I'm missing the hardware for that job, for now.

[clintg60-16v]

If you're having upholstery problems...








...I feel bad for you son...









...I've got 99 problems...






...and a bench ain't one.








For the price paid, the covers are awesome in fit and finish. Vinyl is thick...color is dead on in the centers, and slightly off on the smooth sections (camera makes it look worse; goes very well with the door panels.)

The pressed stripes run vertically instead of horizontally. Doesn't really bother me... As they are basketweave like the original (though the center sections of the original seats were square weave, with basket weave on the outer edges of the seating surface)

What a freak find (to me)


As for the parcel tray carpet, I'm kicking myself for notching the carpet to match the OEM tray pattern. I had to shred my old carpet while removing it (even had to use a sander to get the rest off)....so I had no template for it. I have some carpet left over, and think i can create a couple clip-on caps for those areas. I won't be spending more money to redo it; not this year anyway...

[aeffertz]

Looks great.

Disregard my last PM, I went full retard. Everything was there.

[PoorHouse]

Those covers look good and nice work on the deck.

[clintg60-16v]

My driver's seat cushion has always felt like a memory foam mattress, and wasn't looking shapely.

Snagged some lower seat cushions recently from an '82 being parted out with only 108K on it; shame for the car, but good for this one!

So, I pulled the front seat for the first time ever on this car. I'm not fond of the "retaining clip" design for these older frames.




Wow. The old original foam was a layered mess compared to the newer 'one piece' foam. The '75 seat upholstery doesn't use sewn-in metal retention bars to hold their shape to the foam. Evidently, it was all done with adhesive. There is nowhere on the original upholstery to insert a set of the retention bars.

And I really was looking forward to the sculpted "saddestday666/ PoorHouse" look that they have on their original seats.

Alas, no adhesive today,I'm not using adhesive on the original covers until they are restored in the future.

'Til then...this 'll be nice...



Look at this old cushion...I guess it's better than horsehair.




The newer cushion fit like a glove in the frame. Same dimensions as the original would've been in its prime.








This was a good time to fix the seatback release latches; the release lever only lifted one of the latches. Ladies and gentlemen...this is fine engineering right here!



I don't have a seat to compare it to, but is that an 'original bungee cord'? And twine for the releases? Seems to work fine! I upgraded to thicker twine to repair the broken latch.







My son's frustration with Volkswagens is setting in at a young age.




Bottom together...will finish up on replacing seatback foam tomorrow. Hope it fits as well as the lower cushions.

[clintg60-16v]

Not a lot of time this weekend. Used some copper "spray-a-gasket" and multiple coats of clear to restore this finely-crafted emissions delete.... Lol... courtesy of my abandoned '75 Rocco project.




And finally put the drivers seat back in. Seat covers fit well but need to set it in the sun to take out a few wrinkles. Hinge covers to come later. The passenger floorboard shows the next item on the agenda.

[clintg60-16v]

I couldn't drive the car like THIS anymore:



Driver-side seatbelt was in sad shape.

The box 'o belts arrived today. Not in the condition expected, but it turns out the pieces I needed were there and then some! It would take some work though.

This was the best one; decent chrome on the buckles and b-pillar mount...and belt material was soft and seems good.



Whatever car this came from, didn't surrender the belts easily...the mounting bolt is frozen where is mounts near the floor, so this must've been an ugly scene.

A few minutes with the grinder and 20 singed hair follicles later, and the offending bolt and metal were removed.

Cleaned the belt length up with upholstery cleaner, and installed the mounting bracket from my old belt assesmbly because yellow zinc plating is prettier than rust.

Here is is, all mounted up. The belts came with two center covers for the retractor that I have not been able to find, 'til now... so now both retractors are 'fully dressed'.




And the belts came with one "buckle stop"... I had a crusty belt that had one also, so that makes two in my book. This was one of those details that I never knew I missed, 'til I installed them!





This upcoming week will end in epic fashion; bought some 1500 grit sandpaper, some Trizact discs, and am taking one hell of a road trip for some spare odds and ends.

[itskohler]

[clintg60-16v]

My trip last Friday afternoon was somewhat of a bust.

The circumstances are almost tragic.

I decided to visit the salvage 'yard' that I've been fond of over the years. The one that hasn't crushed any VW for about 39 years. Land of unmolested early Rabbits, complete DPD A/C systems, early interior goodies, etc, etc. I was on a mission to grab some relatively value-less odds and ends for my Rabbit, as well as some special-request items for Cholland and PoorHouse. I had my personal hopes pinned on a piece of underdash carpet, which resided in a '75 red 4-door Swallowtail parked in a very accessible spot at the yard.

That carpet, and perhaps some parcel tray pieces, would be my reward for a trip well-done.

Well...

I called the day before my arrival, and spoke with the owner. He seemed happy I was coming, and I brought some HD camera equipment in-tow, as well as two Go-Pros, to film the epic event for YouTube.

The next morning, I arrived. The gates were locked, but I was on the early side of the morning. I proceeded to film footage of my approach to the area and the outside of the entrance.

I met the owner's assistant at 8:30 or so. Being that it had been two years since my last visit, he quickly brought me up to speed on current events. The owner had closed the shop for the last year and a half or so; he had contracted Lyme disease, and things were looking dire for his health by all accounts.

With the yard closed, there was no steady income. The owner commisioned one of his associates to sell some cars for scrap.

Mind you, this business is well-known for air-cooled cars. It even sponsored one of the VWs that ran on Pink's. This associate decided to scrap most of the 'accessible cars' that weren't overgrown, and water-cooled cars were low on this man's hierarchy of needs.

This meant that my red 4-door '75...GONE. As well as countless other Sportrucks, GTIs, diesels, Sciroccos and bunnys. Even a decent 914 got the axe (figure that one out).

When I entered the yard, my jaw almost hit the ground. The disappointment was heartbreaking. "The end of an era".

I tried to find my early non-AC Scirocco console. GONE, as well as the cars that they would have came from.

There are some decent early Rabbits left, just not that many that I haven't been to before. There was a small silver lining in that with many cars cleared out, I found two others that I hadn't been to. One actually had a serviceable Swallowtail hood, and the other had (4-door config) SOFT and CLEAN black vinyl seats. Looked beautiful.

At this point, it was 106 degrees in the shade, and I lost a lot of energy just coming to grips with the changed landscape. I called it a day.

The owner took me to his other two yards. That was an adventure that deserves its own story in the Car Lounge. It involved high speeds, driving through trees in a Ford 2WD pickup in an overgrown landscape of barely-discernable air-cooled VWs, and an obliterated barbed-wire fence. But even at these yards, many cars had evidently disappeared. As a PLUS, there were three Corrados there, but I long for nothing for my Corrado right now. As a minus, Corrados now outnumber MK I Sciroccos there by the score of four to two.

At least the Scirocco S is still there, successfully hiding in the foliage out of fear for its life.

I'll be posting up a needs list soon.

NLA - most of the following cars:

[url]

[clintg60-16v]

My washer solvent tank has always been stinky and funky, with some reddish stains on the inside of questionable origin.



But in the wee hours of the morning, I came home to find a NOS Swallowtail solvent tank in my mailbox.




So excited, I had to put it on.

Craigslist is awesome.

[canexrabbit]

Sweet find in passenger door? NOS sugar packet?!?

wow 1978 burger king sugar thats awsome

[IronTrap]

Just got caught up on your posts.. man this is probably one of my favorite threads on the mk1 forum right now.. interior is looking great! The TMI carpet kit you got, was it the multipiece kit they sell or a one piece kit?

Bummer about that yard, I had a yard many years ago that was the same way.. then they closed the gate, crushed a ton of cars, and rarely if ever let anyone in

Looks like you have the later style coolant reservoir, just need a NOS one to match that minty washer bottle!

Keep it up

[clintg60-16v]

Just got caught up on your posts.. man this is probably one of my favorite threads on the mk1 forum right now.. interior is looking great! The TMI carpet kit you got, was it the multipiece kit they sell or a one piece kit?

The TMI carpet was one square yard. I had to cut to fit. I wish it was a multipiece, because squareweave is a little difficult to cut without fraying edges. I have a few fray spots but they aren't too bad.

I had the carpet from the parcel supports as templates, but I was on my own with the tray itself.

[Urwrstntmare]

Hey man tried to pm you, your box is Full.

[Urwrstntmare]

I have this one, i was gonna recover it, the covering on it is up for grabs, its minty mint.

[clintg60-16v]

New acquisition!

[PoorHouse]

Nice, with the horn button.


How's the grip?

[clintg60-16v]

Grip has a little twist to it. I'm going to try the fabled epoxy injection one of these days.

Snagged some cushions for my seat backs in the wee hours this morning. Chaos reigned. I was at a dead sprint to the donor car when the gates opened, in a foot race with three people that couldn't speak English. Grabbed what I needed and got to work on time!

[Cubster]

Really like the wheel/tire combo.....what are the specs?