Installed the new lap belts that I purchased from Wolfsburg West. Would love to have found real retro replacements or a good set of originals, but for now, these will be fine. I’m pleased with the quality and look. I probably hang on to the originals for now, but will probably sell them some time down the road. I spent yesterday evening rebuilding the donor ’69 speedo for practice and to use while I rebuild my ’68 speedo. I was very pleased with result and couldn’t wait to put it in the car. So the temps were high enough today and the garage was warm enough today, I headed out early to swap out the speedos. An hour or so later, the ’68 speedo was out and the ’69 speedo took it’s place. Gave everything a quick test and it looked wonderful. Nice bright gels, very clean looking speedo. Still don’t know if this is going to cure the speedo whine that I experience. Roads were still to nasty to get the Beetle out. However, this setup is only temporary. I immediately began to break down the ’68 speedo. Only thing I really notice that differed from the ’69 speedo was the bezel. The bezel on the ’69 was aluminum and easy to lift the lip to remove it from the housing. The bezel on the ’68 is probably made out of brass and it was a bit harder to lift the lip. It didn’t want to bend nearly as easy as the aluminum. So a little more time and patience and it finally decided to come off. Did the same cleanup procedure that I did on the ’69 speedo, repainted the speedo needle and fuel gauge needle and repaired the house on the fuel gauge where it was cracked. The gels on this speedo are in a lot worse condition then the ones on the ’69. I’ll be heading to Office Max tomorrow to try and find colored folder tabs that I can use to replace all of the gels. All in all, a very productive day!

Liked it? Take a second to support John Boyd on Patreon!