OK...

 

Just because a good deal comes along, doesn't mean I should accept it. Right? Wrong. Evidently, I should not be allowed to inspect potential automotive purchases without proper supervision... ie: don't bring girls with you when someone says, "hey, come check out this VW, you can have it for $100" because they will go "oooo isn't it cute.... BUY IT" which is not the kind of influence someone with an addiction to buying buckets of shite should have around them.

 

 

Oh well.

 

So now I own this little blue beastie. For 100 snails, its actually a pretty good buy. I think I'll just be restoring it to relatively original condition... but we all know how these things happen so it may end up becoming a beach buggy yet... I bought it off a filthy mexican (hence the nsw plates) who decided to move up here cos he wanted to live in a tree or some crap like that. Its been sitting under someone's house for a couple of years.

 

The interior is pretty shagged (no tacky '70's pun intended) so that will ALL be coming out and retrimmed by my housemate, who happens to be a seamstress as well as possessing many other useful domestic talents.

Seats will be donated by something about 30 years younger with two doors and a flip-forward mechanism so as to still permit access to the rear seat. (insert mallrats quote here) Even has a sunroof and a dinky winky little sports steering wheel :dance:

 

The Suspension is excellent, steering has no play, clutch feels fine and brakes are firm and seem to work well. Its a 71 so it has discs on the front. Bonus.

 

It has very mininal rust, just a couple of external bubbles and a few small holes in the floorpan/internal sills. No major dents, bits falling off or potential headaches as far as bodywork is concerned, so that should be relatively easy. All the aluminum trims around the windows and doors etc are in good nic and aren't bent or broken or gone completely like most I've seen.

Everything works... doors, boot, bonnet all shut properly, windows wind up AND down, switches, glovebox, ashtray... all good.

 

Now... one smallish problem.... at some stage in the last couple of years, it had an engine fire.

 

The engine still reciprocates, and there's oil in the sump, which is good. So first step is to swap some new ancillaries onto it and see if the little bastard will run, or whether I need to get another engine.

Luckily, I have access to 3 other parts donor bugs :y:

 

Stay tuned

 

Jarad

Not a bad buy for $100, ive bought alot worse for that price. Motor shouldnt be too bad if you can still turn the engine, maybe it just had a simple fuel leak and by the sounds of the previous owner he couldnt have been bothered to fix it? lol!

what ? like in the back of a volkswagon ?

 

lol

Apparently engine fires are quite a common occurence in the volksies... the fuel pump is right next to the dizzy. Fuel lines get old and perished, bit of a squirt onto the dizzy and fwooomp you got yourself a toasty bug.

 

I'm actually enjoying this as a bit of a learning experience.... did you know you can get a bellhousing that adapts a 13b rotary to the VW transaxle!? How cool would that be....

man that sport steering wheel is nice! and yea engine fires are pretty common, there was a vw kombi van that totally burned down in the middle of the traffics some years ago back in my country.. so this engine fire wasn't too bad compared to that kombi van. lol.

did you know you can get a bellhousing that adapts a 13b rotary to the VW transaxle!? How cool would that be....

 

 

yeah, its old but check this shit out

yeah, its old but check this shit out

 

 

HAHAHAHA thats f@$kin sweet

you can also get kits to fit ej20 or ej25's out of subies...

 

i have a 67 convertible :dance:

its not just a bolt in swap for a soob engine. VWs are air cooled, Soobs arent. you need all the extra plumbing to get coolant to the radiator at the front of the car, all the way back to the engine and around again. to mush potential for air locks and cooked soob engines. it has been done before, but it is so much work considering an old 1800cc VW donk (34kw standard) can get up to about 70 - 90 kw with some simple engine and zorst work. nice beetle tho. good project car, its just a shame its got the later model taillights as they are the suck.

 

cheers.

The suck indeed... but at least being a later model it has the disc brake front ie: it actually stops. I'm considering removing the taillights completely and using some LED strips a la hotrod stylee... bumpers are pretty munted so I might leave them off too. Should look pretty phat with some wide whitewalls and moonies.

 

 

this is my mates 'cal look' its a 59.

dry weight is about 750ks

got a mildly worked 1916 in it with a porche fan and alternator and sexy lookin fan shroud.

it now sports an exhaust off a bon-trike. (VW powered trike that billy connoley scoots around on.)

he has also put disks on the front from his brothers old later model.

 

 

point of the story is it goes real hard, and will beat a wrx to 60ft every time, it just runs out of gears to quickly...

beetles are awesome. considering only recently did the corrola outsell the VW in total sales.

Edited July 2, 200719 yr by Wood§tok

Awesome buy... Beetles rule

Mr Woodstock... That is EXACTLY the look I'm going for. Wicked. :no2:

 

I've started stripping the thing down... I've never really played with bugs before... my experience is limited to driving one from Brissy to Cairns and changing a buggered generator in Rockhampton.

 

I'm amazed by the simplicity of these things... they're fantastic to work on, I don't have a gregory's manual or anything but I haven't needed one as yet, you can work out how all the components function just by looking at them and using a bit of common sense.

 

And, you only need 2 spanners and a screwdriver to disassemble the entire car... which I reckon is f@$kin brilliant :lolcry:

 

When I was in Mexico a few months ago they were EVERYWHERE... I think they built them there until 1988 or something silly like that.

 

Heh... I just realised something... I'm one of the boxer boys now... bwahahahaha :D

Edited July 2, 200719 yr by 7shades

Apparently another cause of fires in those things was battery under the back set in some models, when some fat ass sits down it shorts the battery with the seat springs.

 

On the up side g/l with the project :lolcry:

Apparently another cause of fires in those things was battery under the back set in some models, when some fat ass sits down it shorts the battery with the seat springs.

 

On the up side g/l with the project :lolcry:

 

Heh, not sure about the fire thing, but yes, having the battery under the back seat does give you a rather big shock when the seat springs touch the terminals! And I'm not even a fat bastard! :no2: