Oxford Auto Sales
Quality Used Cars & Trucks Since 1990

3641 Wolfedale Road, Mississauga, Ontario
(905) 566-0000 Fax: (905) 566-1441

"Ol' Yeller" - 1967 VW Type 3 - 1600 Squareback

This is my latest restoration project on the day that I got it back to the lot. Someone had spent a great deal of money on a colour-change paint job, and as you can see it was done at the time when it was cool to paint everything one colour including the chrome.

The interior was in pretty good condition except for a worn armrest and a badly cracked dash pad, but was covered in dust. Most of the glass had been removed for the paint job seven years ago and had never been put back in. The windshield was missing.

Here is it with a new aftermarket dash pad and a windshield installed.

The runners for the seats are perfect! No sign of rust at all, I couldn't believe my eyes. The odometer shows about 55,000 miles, I am beginning to think it is correct.

The rail on the floor is also perfect, as is the floor under the carpet.

I have stripped some of the chrome pieces and bought some new ones. A little scrubbing makes a big difference.

	The paint quality is excellent. While I will change it back to it's original "Grenada Red" some day, the car is going to stay banana yellow for the time being. I want to get a "Variant" sign to replace the bar in the picture. The squareback was called a Variant in Europe.
We pulled the engine to do a complete tear-down. It runs very well, with lots of power, but it looks like it has never been touched since new. At the very least we will do a valve job with SS exhaust valves and a re-seal with new push rod tubes etc.
All four heater boxes were badly rusted, I got four rust free ones from California and sandblasted and painted them... they look like new.
Here is a better shot of the wasted heater boxes and rotten cooling tin. When we tore down the engine there was a rat's nest inside the cooling tin, and much of the cooling fins on the two do the cylinders was caked with grease. If I had continued to drive it that way it would have overheated and perhaps even caught fire.
I had a complete set of cooling tin sent from California which I sandblasted and had powder coated. The engine should look pretty good when it goes back in.
The block has been align bored and has had a set of case savers installed. The work was done by John's Bug Shop in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Here it is ready to begin reassembly.
The original crankshaft is going to be reused... it had no appreciable wear at all. We bought a new set of Mahle pistons and cylinders to freshen up the horsepower and a new set of cylinder head studs.
Here reassembly has started with all new bearings and a complete hardware kit..
The engine work is being done by an old friend of mine, Terry Cleland, who I worked with at Horst Kroll's shop in the 70's in Scarborough, Ontario.
Terry no longer makes his living fixing cars (he used to make it building race cars), but he has set up a really good shop in his airplane hanger and consents to do work for me on my VW engines. He uses Hazet hand tools... the best in the world. He is currently starting a new manufacturing operation to build new lightweight composite drums for pipe bands. He has a long history of involvement in pipe bands and is one of the leading bagpipe players in Canada.
I wish I had a shop like this.. it is 3000 square feet and as you can see has all the toys you need.
Speaking of toys, this is his airplane, a Skybolt. It is a stunt plane and I won't repeat what I said to him when he tried to get me to go for a ride in it.

More pictures to come. A link to the "2008 Type 3 Invasion" in Ypsilanti Michigan.

For more information, or to arrange to see a car contact Don Robertson at Oxford Auto Sales We would be pleased to fax you a list of our current stock. (905) 566-0000 Fax: (905) 566-1441 Return to Oxford Auto Sales, current stock page Return to Oxford Auto Sales, main page