Defrost Discussion

It's going to take a while, as I want to do a very thorough job. I'm seriously considering taking the bonnet completely off, both so I can work on it and so I can get better access to the "black hole" on the left side.

Very easy to do, but before you remove the four bolts, place some masking tape or similar just in front of the bonnet bracket as a marker so you can line it up easily when putting it back on.

Took a look at the "black hole" pics you sent - first close up I've seen of the inside "window" - interesting shot.

The difference (with mine) at the top is interesting too. The upright tube on mine ends in a three-way splitter - one to the corner defroster, one to the "inner" vents on the bottom of the windscreen, and one to the airbox for the centre vent under the windscreen.

I'll be interested to learn the condition of your heating system (i.e., can you get warm air all the way to the windscreen?).

Seems to be intact. The tubes up front are all there, and a quick look under the car showed the heat exchangers and body tubes are there. It gets cool enough during winter to need heat, so I hope it's working or easily fixed.

Do you get warm air all the way up to the windshield?

On the left I will as soon as I get the shroud paper tubes reconnected via the new muffler's heater fittings. On the right the vertical tube in the black hole is missing, but I have a spare from my '70 Bug's old body, so an oversize fitting on the bottom so it covers the snout will fix that up.

I had a look under the edge of the old carpet on that side - there's a small inspection hole there for the snout, and I can see that the paper tube is not well positioned, and it's raggy on the end anyway, so I might have to have a go at that soon. I suspect I'll need to enlarge the inspection hole so I can feed a tube down onto the snout properly. The right one is the critical one for you, of course. And you don't have the inspection hole at the bottom of the front door pillar so you can see the snout, do you?

No, I don't. If I absolutely have to I'll cut one, but I hope I can just feel for the snout and get a tube over it. On the flat screen cars you can see down the black hole (just) with the bonnet off, so access is better than on yours (a Super Beetle). So your inspection hole was built into the car -- not cut in later? Interesting.

Yes, I'm sure they were built into the car, as they're nice and uniform -- square with smooth edges, both exactly alike. They don't give much room to work, just enough. I was so delighted to find the inspection hole in our car! Now I have the defroster tubes attached to the snouts with hose clamps!

You have the flat windscreen, so you shouldn't have too much trouble getting at the defroster tube in the black hole.

Not too bad. I had a look under the edge of the old carpet on that side - there's a small inspection hole there for the snout, except that mine is only a 3/4 inch hole - can't get even one finger in there.

Yikes! That's too small to be much good at all! You'll be able to see whether the tube is resting snugly over the snout, but you won't be able to do much to influence it from the bottom end. I guess VW learned in later models.

It's the same on both sides, and looks like it was built into the car, not cut afterwards. Knowing that your holes are larger, at least I know I can enlarge mine a little without compromising the strength of the car then -- it was a small concern. I doubt it will be easy. A cutting torch -- that will probably do the trick quite nicely.

I might have to get a "nibbler" - are you familiar with those? All you need is a hole about 1/2 inch, put the head through, and start pulling on the handle whilst pushing the blade (which works like a reverse punch) against the side of the hole. They cut a small 1/2 moon bite with each cut. You can get powered ones too - they scream through thin metal in a cloud of flying metal chips.

I probably won't get clamps at the bottom of the defroster tube around the snout, but hopefully it will be enough to get reasonable heat up to the windscreen.

I found it a very tight squeeze, but I was able to get the tube over the snout and a hose clamp around it through the inspection hole. About an inch and a half square as I recall -- very tight for my fat fingers. There was much muttering under my breath! :-)