'63 Ragtop VW Beetle

The original windshield of my '63 Bug had some bubbling of the laminate material inside (as you can see in the pictures below), which looked really bad in my opinion. So I decided to replace it and to also install the chrome molding around it. I got all the replacement parts from my local VW parts supply shop, McNab Foreign Car. The job was pretty straight forward. I did watch a couple of how-to videos beforehand, which I've posted on my Volkswagen videos website.

A few weeks ago I restored the headlights on my 1963 Volkswagen Beetle, they were all rusted inside and looked really bad. I had been looking into buying new replacements but decided to go ahead and restore the original Hella headlight assemblies that I have on this bug. These original German-made headlight assemblies are of much better quality than the replacements that come from China, Brazil, or wherever else they come from.

Yesterday I went to McNab Foreign Car and picked up the engine compartment rear rubber seal for my 63 ragtop bug and installed it myself at home. The old one was all crusted and mostly gone. The rubber seal was just one whole piece and it was pretty easy to install. First I though I would have to slide all of it in through one end of the mounting channel, but ended up just putting it in bottom first into the channel and then with a screw driver I pushed the top in inch by inch all around the length of the seal, which was really easy to do. What I wasn't sure of was how the two flaps of the seal were supposed to go. I decided to put the lower flap under the engine tin and the top flap over the tin, which seemed to me that that's how it's supposed to go. If I'm wrong let me know! :)

So I just finished replacing all the rubber door seals on my '63 ragtop bug. It was a tough job! The left side door, which I did first, took me a lot longer than the right side cause it was my first time doing this. I really struggled with the vent window seals. I had to remove it after installing it like three times cause the vent window was not aligning well with the dividing bar. I did watch some how-to videos before I started working on this to make sure I didn't mess anything up. Everything else went well, I only had one broken screw and it was on the right side vent window catch. I just left it with one screw, I'll fix that when I do a complete body-off restoration on this bug, who know when...

Here are some pics I took of my 1963 VW Beetle before the BBQ this past Sunday at Deerfield Beach's Quiet Waters Park. I hadn't posted pictures of the interior after I got the car. So here are some. I'll have to take more detailed photos some other time.