TheSamba.com :: View topic - Official whine about Late Model/Super and parts for sale

Mon Jul 28, 2008 2:02 pm

Here's a new one.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=635843

Quote: Super beetle steering wheel,nice condition,perfect horn button with no cracks,replace that old cracked wheel,free shipping,please check out my other ads,paypal users add 5% paypal total is 105.00

Is he saying the wheel has no cracks or the horn button has no cracks?

I clearly see cracks in the wheel.

Wed Jul 30, 2008 7:45 pm

Glenn wrote: Here's a new one.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=635843

Quote: Super beetle steering wheel,nice condition,perfect horn button with no cracks,replace that old cracked wheel,free shipping,please check out my other ads,paypal users add 5% paypal total is 105.00

Is he saying the wheel has no cracks or the horn button has no cracks?

I clearly see cracks in the wheel.
I think that the seller has been smoking crack... :roll:

Tue Aug 12, 2008 8:44 pm

hi, sorry but my english it's very bad, ever see your forum, but never write here, i have a 1980 brazilian beetle, i'm from Chile, and liked very much your page. Hellos

Wed Aug 20, 2008 11:43 pm

to ol vwdevotee there $1200. for chroming your bumpers (I take it to be both of them) isn't too bad. I had the front 3 piece set up for my 66 ghia done by the local chrome shop up here in AK back in about 92 and he charged me $300.00 per section. I guess that I will also mention that the car was parked and covered in a garage from 95 to 2003, when I pulled the cover off I found the front bumper was showing more rust than when I had taken it in for repair the first time :( The owner of the shop had told me to undercoat the insides of the bumper pieces after I got them back because German metal isn't as good as ol American and it would rust in the weather. He only had chromed the outside and the edges and not the underneth.He never did tell me that his chrome job would go south in a warm garage with no exposure to anything.(car was washed and dried before the cover went on).I figure if your guy is only going to charge $1200.00 for both front and rear it might be worth it to throw my bumpers on to AK Air cargo and get them done down there as I am sure my guy has raised his prices from when I had him do it the last time,and I'd bet that the quality isn't any better either.
olspeed

Thu Aug 28, 2008 4:29 pm

I'm more pissed about the stuff they don't sell/make. Try finding a strut dampner ring for your Super. I was told by my VW dealership that they aren't made anymore because they are a "non-wearable" item. My ass! Tell that to the ones I have that fell apart. If they did have them in stock they were more than happy to try to charge me $35 per ring.

Thu Sep 11, 2008 7:19 am

Since nobody's posted recently, and I don't know about anybody else here, but I think EMPI is F#*@in junk, and I wish people would quit sellin their shit. I thought "EMPI" was the real deal since I see their shit everywhere, but everything I've bought that's empi is mickey mouse taiwan junk. That's my two cent's worth.

Thu Sep 11, 2008 7:25 am

rushr7 wrote: Since nobody's posted recently, and I don't know about anybody else here, but I think EMPI is F#*@in junk, and I wish people would quit sellin their shit. I thought "EMPI" was the real deal since I see their shit everywhere, but everything I've bought that's empi is mickey mouse taiwan junk. That's my two cent's worth.

You must be new. EMPI has been crap for years.

Thu Sep 11, 2008 8:26 am

Yeah, I'm new. Been a mopar guy for a long time, and watercooled vw guy for sometime. Thanks to everyone on here, I've learned a thing or two from everyone else's expericance. Thanks

Wed Oct 08, 2008 7:21 pm

so i just found that yellow "frankenstein" bug and was going to post a comment, only to find that it had already been done. here goes anyways...

$20,000 for that????? WHAT THE F*#$?????

Tue Oct 14, 2008 5:03 pm

Maybe that should've been posted in a different forum...

Sorry...

Tue Oct 28, 2008 1:05 pm

Fiberglass is fairly simple and easy to use, wear a mask, because of the fibers that can float in the air, and damage your lungs, much like asbestos. It costs some money for a good mask. Put your mind to it and be creative if you need to form anything. Search the hardware stores for cheap bulk items that resemble the thing you need. Like asphalt roofing tar for sound Deadening. Although it could be a little smelly. Often the factory used a similair product. Just use a different year part that is not of the engine, transmission, suspension, or brakes. All the other things not related to those areas can usually be safely created, modified, etc.

I would caution about the brake light rear assembly and turn signals since those if not working properly can be a safety issue. For example use a cheap similar turn signal asembly that fits on one of the front fenders. Just drill some holes to make it fit and work correctly if you need to. There are cheap hand drills and drill bits that you can put into the drill they are interchangeable. You can always modify the connectors learn to strip wire and then put on any kind of connector that is needed, for the different part you selected. Even something similair from a different car that looks like it would work could be modified. This means that your car might have less value because it is not stock, however if you need to save money for your daily runner then that could work for you. Some people seem to get an awful lot of money for completely stock autos. But then again who wants a stock model T, it seems that there is a laugher curve( a statistic) that indicates any autos least value and its highest value(around thirty five years or so), that changes when people realize this, however, same thing for antiques, about 18 years after a car model in general, the value is its lowest, across the board. Because they are old and the cost to repair them is too high, unless you do it yourself, safely that is.
I once encountered a mechanic who could put a similairly sized carbureter from one car make to another, because old cars, like bugs have simple carbureters. He would carefully join the the cars gas line, to the different similair carbureter, or same make but slightly altered carbureter. For example a holly two barrel, that was not oem for that car but was similair to the origonal carbureter. He would make sure that it did not leak, could cause a fire. Obviously the gasket was wrong, you can form a gasket or find one that is similair, that allows no air leaks, you could form it from a semithick and sturdy rubber if they sell it anywhere with an exacto knife, be careful those things are sharp. Or use JB bond to form extra surface around the intake manifold until it fit the different carb, plane the surface and do not get any debri in the engine. It might be that easy, or things like vacuum lines, other contraptions on the carb would not make it work. Studying the general characteristics of carbs would be helpful. Just buy a new one for that model, that it is supposed to have, thats the simplist way. Or rebuild it. Anyways this carb he hooked up didnt exactly match the intake manifold, it was close, and airtight and it worked. Did the car run less efficiently because everything was not fittingperfectly as intended, probably. It worked though. The car ran fine.
Go to the hardware store with the bolt you have, that you need more of, and find something similair. They have trays and trays full of anykind of bolt you could imagine. This idea is for trim and such items, not for engine, transmission, suspension, or brakes. Think, if it broke, could it be a safety issue? Or the simplist way is to order online or at your local reputable car repair store or even repair place, a bag of bolts that are designed for your car and application. A website I visited had such packages available, it was safe because the parts were either oem or carefully selected for safety, fit, and quality.

One item that seems to be drastically overpriced is the outside scrapers for the windows. I have seen prices as much as $36. Usually when capitalism is working correctly without interference some one makes the same item for its real material and time input value plus a proffit, the lobes of the grand nagas, gold pressed latium. The magic hand of capitalism, doesnt seem to work for that item. Or yes I did find some glue on ones, but once again it could lower your cars value, and be much more difficult to put on, do you have the time? The cheapest or most inexpensive way is to find something similair that is low cost, again something from a hardware store might be able to be cobbled together. It might look funny but it would stop the water from rusting your windows at the lower inside. It might look good.

For body pieces a good hammer, mallet or rubber mallet and you can undo dents. My best example of getting a great inexpensive car, with icecold ac to boot, that ran well on the road, was a car which had its bonnet pushed up one foot and one of its headlights smashed. The car handles well and didnt pull to any side, so I knew the frame and suspension was reasonably ok. The person wanted $1200, now remember it had icecold ac. At the time I lived in almost a desert environment. I bought the car and drove it a few miles, made sure the previous owners could not see me, stopped got out and stood on the hood at the damaged point and jumped up and down till it was within one half inch of regular dimensions. After I did this I had a conscious moment because the previous owner most likely was told the car was worthless. I thought of their nice middle class neighborhood and their new car in the driveway, and said to myself it was moral, I needed a car with ac and I was practically living in a desert, temps to 110. This jumping on the hood might not work on beetles with their good heavy steel components. You can take off the hood to do this hammerring work though. I made sure that the latch worked, the hood could fly up, and it would then be a very bad experience, might shatter your winshield. Later for safety I should have put in those racing posts that go through the hood, like metal posts with a sturdy pin that goes through the post, thereby ensuring that the bonnet(hood) would not go up on each side. This is another form of latching the hood. They are called quick releases I think. It might look tacky, it does provide a backup if you suspect the bonnet(hood for north americans) latch is unsafe or may open. This takes time and a little money. Or you can bungee cord the hood down. That would be three forms of safety, most likely unless your life is like a Fellini movie and everything that could go wrong does often go wrong, Fubar, then you should be safe.

Learn to bondo, that is creme filler that when a hardener is added becomes very solid. Once again their are fumes that might be damaging, I cant remember, check the can, this also means that you need to sand the area and your final product will have a pink look to that section, it will look odd, unless you go to a body shop and have them get as close to a match as possible. If you are totally cheap you can paint your car with housepaint, check which type is best. Then your car most likely will never be worth more than $1000, because of the effort a restorer would have in removing the gunk. However, most likely the small area job that you requested the paintshop to do will not match exactly if you chose to do that. The color will be a shade off. It would look better to paint the whole car. It is much better though than using a spraypaint can of a similar color. It usually looks fairly good however. It will not get you a total restored price for your car. Back to the bondo. Work with this stuff in the open. Then you do not have to buy fenders, doors, bonnets(hoods). It can be time consuming to do this, and noisywhen using the hammer, best to use rag maybe wrapped around the hammer, and your flat manager might get slightly displeased. And people often deride those cars with lots of bondo as bondomobiles. The bondo if not done right can fall off.
Anyways that is my two pence.

Tue Oct 28, 2008 1:11 pm

$45k hahahahhaha :lol:

http://jacksonville.craigslist.org/ctd/896635106.html

Tue Oct 28, 2008 1:53 pm

Reason, What I seem to have figured out is that some shady characters seize upon the idea that if they make the price sort of high, this allows alot of calls over an extended period of time, alot of phone calls. Why do they want alot of phone calls? They might be dealing drugs, they need all those people calling to add filler, so that all their drug calls(the drug buyers usual mask their business with everyday common terms). I am not suggesting the ad with the $35,000 dollar car is that kind of thing. It was in Miami though. Anything of high value and interest in pristine fine condition, like a rare old vw, is going to attract a certain shady character, who might be doing that.
I know its slightly off topic, this example is really funny, once at a pay phone I heard a shady character asking the other whether they needed mayonaise or katsup. Now that couldnt have been a real conversation, it is only slightly probable that one would outside of a convenience store, where at times the food can be real old, full of preservatives, and at a bad price be purchased.

One wonders, I mean lets say a rich person has an old tired 25 year old high priced exotic, or very rare porsche, like the one James Dean had, it occurs to that person that they could cover their coke business income. At lower levels cars at the 35 or so level in age, well it seems the laugher curve has been disrupted because of the longevity of the beetle therefore creating an extra long human interest which translates to a modified statistical curve for the beetle prices. So a person, in this scheme through saying, look at that laugher curve, in 11 years your 70s superbeetle will be worth $9,900, because it has reached the high point of the laugher curve. And also because it is all stock, this unfortuneately could be to an innocent patsy. Who might not beaware of this kind of thing. Then later, if that person had a good conscious, tells the innocent patsy that the car is not for sale, thereby saving an innocent from a fraud deal, he does the transaction (money laundering 101, its an interesting read, just kidding) with another shady character who covers the money transaction, either way it could go. The one that needs legal income sells it to his supplier, in a fake transaction, because the person already has a bundle of money to launder. And the person suposably buying this is his dealer and or supplier. The negative part to this is that everyone might seize upon this idea, like the tulip fad in Denmark and some innocent folk might get caught up in this, and they might be left buying something that doesnt have the value they thought it had. The fraudulent land deals of the 80s were most likely due to some of this activity. I mean what expensive things can you trade around? Jewelry, Antiques, old rare cars like a vw split window and especially land. Notice how those items have drastic swings in their value. This is exploited, when certain people need to launder. Just a thought

Fri Oct 31, 2008 12:05 pm

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=640878
"Not only is this one of 4 or 5 Superbeetles of that year still in existence,"

Damn, that's rare. :lol:

Fri Nov 07, 2008 12:58 pm

Rick73Super wrote: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=640878
"Not only is this one of 4 or 5 Superbeetles of that year still in existence,"

Damn, that's rare. :lol:

Awesome, I have one other of the "4 or 5" left. I'm rich!!!!!!!!!!!

Total BS about the sunroof though.

Fri Nov 07, 2008 9:02 pm

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=674886

is this real?

Tue Nov 11, 2008 8:14 pm

19super73 wrote: Rick73Super wrote: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=640878
"Not only is this one of 4 or 5 Superbeetles of that year still in existence,"

Damn, that's rare. :lol:

Awesome, I have one other of the "4 or 5" left. I'm rich!!!!!!!!!!!

Total BS about the sunroof though.

Yeah, and it's also rare in that it has the wrong decklid on it for that year. Guess it would be hard to find the correct one since there are only 4 or 5 left.

Mon Nov 17, 2008 10:36 am

Rick73Super wrote: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=640878
"Not only is this one of 4 or 5 Superbeetles of that year still in existence,"

Damn, that's rare. :lol:

There is a similar logic to make a musclecar seem more rare than it is. You can have 15,000 Dodge Chargers built in 1969. Out of those 1/4 may be R/Ts. Out of those 3750, maybe 750 are B5 blue. Out of those 750, 400 have white interior, 150 that have the four speed. 20 of those came with cruise control. And only 5 came with redline tires. Now I have a one of 5 Charger.

Still in existence?? How could anyone know how many are left?? Maybe still in existence in his neighborhood.

Mon Nov 17, 2008 11:10 am

19super73 wrote: Rick73Super wrote: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=640878
"Not only is this one of 4 or 5 Superbeetles of that year still in existence,"

Damn, that's rare. :lol:

Awesome, I have one other of the "4 or 5" left. I'm rich!!!!!!!!!!!

Total BS about the sunroof though.

So am I!!! So thats 3 of the 5... where are the other 2? EDIT: J/K!

Wed Nov 19, 2008 5:50 pm

I lost the bolts to the front sway bar, have any ideas where I can get new ones?