The electrics

I had an interesting time playing with the electrics, which consist mainly of a fuse bank and lots of wiring! Some of the wires to the head lights had to be replaced because they had fried, as well as some in the engine bay. A lot of replacement spade plugs were used (and broken when trying to fit the little blighters!), contacts cleaned and scraped, ignition turned on and off quite a few times. I replaced the battery with a brand spanking new one which, while it was expensive, has a lifetime guarantee with it; basically I have it down on paper that so long as I keep the battery in my Beetle, and I still own the car, I can claim a new battery when this one dies on me.

The windscreen wipers were the cause of much consternation and unnecessary disassembly and reassembly, only to find I'd broken the bushes on the wiper motor which are expensive things to replace. In the end we discovered that the wiper motor worked after all and that it was the wiper arm mechanism which was rusted solid! A liberal dose of PlusGas released them beautifully. A replacement wiper motor was acquired from a scrap yard at relatively little cost. Whew!

The previous owner had fitted a windscreen squirts pump connected to the water bottle, which was originally pressurised by the spare wheel, except the motor in the pump gave up on us after a short while so again we had to go to a scrap yard and eventually took a pump and bottle off and modern car, I think it was a Ford. Wired up and fixed in it worked a treat.

So the lights worked, the windscreen wipers worked, even the number plate light worked; I was overjoyed when I got the interior light to work too! It only works if you turn it on manually though, I think the contacts for door-open activation are too far gone.