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Howdy folks!
I’ve become the temporary caretaker of a Daytona MIGI TD built on a 1970 VW Beetle with a ’67 1500cc motor in it. I helped the owner trade a backhoe for it and now he wants to polish it up a bit and sell it.
The car runs pretty well (just had a new carb installed) but is somewhat rough under the surface and I’m dealing with a couple of problems. Most seriously it appears to only have front brakes, they lock at the drop of a hat while the rears just sit there and smile. Today I found the split reservoir was drained and when I filled I got some nice bubbles out of the hose to the rear piston on the master cylinder. I opened one rear bleeder and pumped the pedal a bit but felt no resistance other than the front pistons and got no fluid out back. I’m thinking the master cylinder may have popped internally but I need to do some more testing.
The 2nd issue is the floor pan under the battery is rotted out. It’s bad enough I’m worried about the battery dropping out but welding in a new section of floor pan is a bit more than I bargained for on this project. I’m very tempted to weld in a few sheet metal straps and call it close enough but that would be a shoddy repair at best. Anybody done the floor pans before, how bad is it? I’ve got a TIG machine and can do decent welds on thicker stuff but I tend to make holes when doing sheet metal. I’ve heard MIG is the way to go with thin sheet metal. Can I make the TIG work with some practice or will it be much less headache to spend the coin for a cheap MIG and a new tank for Co2\Argon?
3rd is the hood has had gas spilled on it several times during filling and the paint is peeling. The windshield is also cracked. I’m gonna see if I can get someone to do a paint match and respray for me and maybe replace the glass while they’re at it.
4th and the main reason I’m posting is the electrical system. I’m not sure what this guy was drinking that made him think he was an electrician but half of the wiring harness is bypassed and wired together by twisting together wire ends and slapping some electrical tape on them. I’ve got the rear turn signals, the regular headlights (no high beams), the wiper motor, and a few gauges and that’s it.
He “wired in” a modern radio to a pair of speakers behind the seat complete with a power wire straight off the battery. Did this car come with a radio or did it just have that cover plate I’ve seen on a few of these? I’m tempted to just pull it since it sounds and looks like crap anyway but I’ve also found some reproductions that look like vintage radios. Thoughts on any of those options or an actual vintage radio?
Does anyone have a wiring diagram for this particular car?
Do the headlights and horn normally work with the ignition off? I’m concerned that’s why the battery died over the winter.
Did this car have 4 way flashers or just turn signals? Currently I only have rear turn signals, the fronts are disconnected and the front fender strut bolts were missing.
I currently have 4 switches on the dash, one works the horn, and one turns on a weak sounding blower motor behind the dash. What did these switches originally do? I’m working on wiring the horn back up the regular horn button, the terminal appears to have broken off the switch. I’ll either replace it or rivet on a new terminal. I also had to retap the steering wheel hub up one bolt size since two of the three originals were stripped.
Obligatory this thread is worthless without pics
I greatly appreciate any help,
Matt
Hi Matt!
Welcome aboard!
Sounds like you are on your way to diagnosing the brake issues.
VW floor pans are available. It easiest to replace them with the body off the pan. But if you have room to work between the rusted areas and the outer channels (where the body is bolted to), it’s possible re repair them with the body in place. Welding is the best solution. But you can also cut away the rusted areas and rivet the replacements in place. Then seal up the joints well, and cover the whole thing with something like Por15.
It’s likely gel coat and not paint. Either way, a good parts store or body shop will have equipment to match the color. Make sure it’s only the gel coat that is peeling; because it is possible the fiberglass is also delaminating from the gas.
Radios were optional from most of the kit manufacturers. They are also easily added by the owner. It’s really not possible to tell if your car “…came with a radio.”
Electrical diagrams are available in the library (up there on the tool bar, second from the right).
Most of these kits did not have four way flashers.
Lights normally work with the ignition off. Horn only with power on. But with the genius work of your prior owner, i guess all bets are off! 😉
There is no “standard” for the dash switches. Much depends on the kit manufacturer, the options on the car, and on the person who did the actual build. A fairly standard layout would be lights, wipers, fog lights, defroster blower.
Hope some of this helps!
Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica RoadsterIf you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)
For welding floor patches I’ve had good luck with my muffler shop. They weld that gauge all day and seem to like a change of pace.
Re: “Radios were optional from most of the kit manufacturers. They are also easily added by the owner.”
Probably true if you don’t select a RetroSound. I finally got my RetroSound working, but I lost half my hair pulling it out, trying to get there. One issue with a radio is figuring out how to mount speakers. The one thing good about RetroSound is that they make enclosures for speakers that then can be surface mounted. I couldn’t find any similar enclosures anywhere else. The problem with the enclosures is incredibly poor quality and extreme frustration in trying to make them work. BTW, you CAN use other brands of speakers in their enclosures. It’s like RetroSound had some good ideas but the execution is very poor.
I have no personal experience with RetroSound, but have heard similar comments about their quality issues in other forums.
Caveat emptor I guess.
As to speaker enclosures (or baffles), that was easy. I have two six inch round speakers mounted on the rear “firewall.” They are surface mounted. I used baffles like these:
http://www.crutchfield.com/shopsearch/speaker_baffles.html
They sound great and have been in place for over 30 years without drying out.
Paul Mossberg
Former Owner of a 1981 Classic Roadsters Ltd. Duchess (VW)
2005 Intermeccanica RoadsterIf you own a TDr and are not in the Registry, please go to https://tdreplica.com/forums/topic/mg-td-replica-registry/ and register (you need to copy and paste the link)
Just a thought or two. In my experience (one car) these TDrs are an enjoyable hobby. With help from the great folks at TDreplica and occasional visits to Samba.com for VW based cars even a shadetree mechanic like myself can have a car that’s fun to drive. That said, it doesn’t sound like yours is a good choice for a quick “shine and sell”. As you have already discovered, one thing leads to another and if the builder took a lot of shortcuts you will often find yourself back at square one. I’m not even sure if you could sell your TD as a roadworthy car with all the safety defects you mentioned, although you could sell it as a kit or “as is”. I hope that you will be able to turn your project into fun rather than frustration. 😀
Best regards
Rich
Thanks guys, Paul in particular that is all very helpful.
I checked the fluid reservoir tonight after filling it Sunday and found the rear brake piston side drained. No puddle though! Not sure where it’s going unless the rear pistons are completely dry. I filled it up again and I’ll check on it tomorrow.
I light of that information I think I’m just going to find a radio cutout cover and rip everything out. I’m gonna have enough fun redoing the other wiring he’s messed up.
Ed, that’s not a bad idea about the muffler place. Did you take them the whole panel and have them fit it or did you cut it yourself first? How much fun is pulling the body? I’d rather not if I can avoid it. The rust seems to be limited to the area under the battery. I’m thinking one died in there and dumped it’s acid, the drive side is solid as a rock. If I can pull the seat tub I should be able to get at what I need to.
Kall, at the end of the day this is me being nice to an old friend and helping him fix this up and sell it and I’d hoped not to turn it into a big project. You are right however, we are beyond a simple spit and shine. I drove the car, even liked it, it’s got a lot of charm, but I wouldn’t be comfortable selling it to someone without at least fixing the brakes and doing something to reinforce that floor pan. I think it’s important to go a bit beyond that too though. The car is mostly there and with what I listed fixed properly it’s at least a 7/10 car and with some interior work it would even be a real pretty Sunday driver.
I have yet to pull Bridget’s body off the pan. The repair she needed didn’t require it–it was the pan part just behind the front beam. I bought the part, ground off the old one, made some bracing with angle stock for the other nearby rusty parts, bolted the panel in and drove the car to the muffler place. Then I asked nicely if they could do it and they said no problem and charged me like $200, which i considered a bargain given the amount of welding it needed–and the places those welds had to get to. Some of these welds were less than two inches from fiberglass–and the glass was not even scorched.
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