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Tue Apr 27, 2010 2:11 am

Bought my 72 sedan on Ebay for $1000.
Was advertised in the auction as a Super.
Turned out to be a standard.
I like the standard better so no complaint there.
Here are my bragging rights.
PO took off all of the engine tin.
What is that junk good for anyway ?
Ran j-tubes so no shroud hoses.
There were no heat exchangers so I guess that made sense.
No engine seal.
What is the point of running a fan here ?
Might as well take off the fan and shroud.
Tail lights were wired up to the wrong lights so the tail lights were the brake lights.
Other stuff I can't remember.
Beat that :)

Tue Apr 27, 2010 4:41 am

69 'vert.

No support rails (didn't know about them when I bought the car)
RTV sealing the pan to the body

Holes the size of my arms in the rear crossmembers covered with shoebox cardboard and bondo.

Rear brake line running across the center of the floorboard with pieces of sheetmetal screwed down over it to protect it.

Floorpans attached to the tunnel with screws.

All defrost vents removed, heater cables removed, y-tubes removed.

Nine (count them - nine) dead ended wires running through the body, found when unwrapping the electrical tape from the harness in the engine compartment.

Numerous electrical connections made by twisting wires together and covering with electrical tape.

and the list goes on......

Tue Apr 27, 2010 5:07 am

I had a "For Sale Sign" from someones front yard and plexi glass serving as patches screwed into the floor pans and heater channels. Doesn't feel the safest when on the road I might add.

Tue Apr 27, 2010 8:41 am

I had an old license plate under the battery covering the holes in the tray, all air ducts removed and 1-1/4" holes drilled in each side of the fan box for who knows what? extra air intakes for gas fumes directly into the fresh air ducts?? and lying his head off about severity of rust and leaks...also, the base for the antenna was fashioned out of green bondo like substance and painted black?.....then he pulled a classic disappearing act after the sale too, even changed e-mail, at least the title was good....looking back, they all seem funny now that I am an informed (thanks to Samba and others) bug PO (as in Present Owner!)

Tue Apr 27, 2010 9:28 am

2 words... Great Stuff

All the flexible air vent hoses had been removed and the tubes and cavities were filled with that expanding foam.

Tue Apr 27, 2010 9:40 am

Somebody along the line, not the guy I bought it from, pulled the vin tag out of a standard 74 and rivited it to the dash of my 73 SB, then used the 74 title to sell it. I traced it back 4 owners to a car dealership and it was altered when they took it on trade. VIN was grinded off the frame tunnel.
I didn't know enough about VINS when I bought it to recogize it, I just checked the title against the dash and it matched, so I bought it.

Tue Apr 27, 2010 9:42 am

The PO of the bug in this thread must be a contender...

Michael

Tue Apr 27, 2010 10:37 am

Wow, some of these are outrageous! My car's PO wasn't too bad in comparison I guess:

*Said the engine was a 1600...it's a 1500
*Said he rebuilt the engine...but the case nuts above the pushrod tubes were finger tight. Started leaking oil the first few weeks I had it.
*Same with the oil screen plate nuts...finger tight. And two were missing.
*Fresh air box cables were backwards...so when I used the left knob it opened the passenger side vent door and vice versa

That's pretty much all I had to find out. Like I said, not as bad as some of the other PO hack jobs listed above!

Tue Apr 27, 2010 11:37 am

These are no competition to some of the above, but a VW I bought had plywood floorpan halves covered in shag carpet and no brake shoes in right front drum.

Tue Apr 27, 2010 12:01 pm

donny1973 wrote: and no brake shoes in right front drum.

Circle track car? :lol:

Tue Apr 27, 2010 12:08 pm

Plywood floor pans? what a great idea, rust proof, especially with a little polyurethane finish on them! probably stronger than the sheet metal too.....LMAO....

Tue Apr 27, 2010 12:39 pm

Bought my first bug, '74 SB Vert, last Oct.
Looked a little rough and needed work but that was fine with me, it had a top in great shape.
Got it home and parked it for the winter.

Recently discovered it is a Franken-car, hacked together from 3(or more) different cars.

Chassis is from a sedan, so I think I got some work to do there.

Rear frame wishbone cracked in half and fixed with angle iron welded on as a splint. ( I wondered why the engine was tilting to the left? )

But the top is in great shape!

Tue Apr 27, 2010 12:46 pm

All I had wrong was a completely messed up wiring harness and my floor pans were patched with lots of rtv and in some places even pieces of aluminum! But I knew it all going in so no big deal

Tue Apr 27, 2010 12:56 pm

donny1973 wrote: These are no competition to some of the above, but a VW I bought had plywood floorpan halves covered in shag carpet and no brake shoes in right front drum.

The plywood floor reminds me of a Baja I had 20 years ago. Somone had replaced all of the steel running along the outside edge of the pan with 2" x 2" box steel then welded angle iron from there to the center tunnel. Then they laid plywood in for the floor pans. The work was all very well done. That car was rock solid. The box steel went all the way to the front of the car where there was a custom front bumper. Looked very cool on a Baja. But when I got it the trans was shot, motor was running on 2 cylinders and the wiring was a disaster.

Tue Apr 27, 2010 1:42 pm

Well mines by far not the worst here but still should be added:

1970 Std

*PO did a horrible weld/bondo over gas cap to make the lines smoother, then added a 61-67 tank, now its cracked from the bad weld job and looks like s***

*added a 74 AH engine with 1 bolt holding it in

* tore up all the wiring, redid most with stereo wiring

*did horrible weld job when adding seats out of a 74

* added a 74 steering column that didnt fit right, and wires shorting out all over

*did a horrible clear coat 2 tone green paint job with flames thats now cracking that looks like total s***

*tore out all front heater piping

*had horrible purple butterfly steering wheel cover, seat covers, and floor mats

If i think of anything else while im out working on it ill add later.

Tue Apr 27, 2010 1:49 pm

MY list is ongoing, but for my '73 SB:
- no thermostat, thermostat mount, or connecting rod
- no bell housing tin
- fuel lines that are from '73
- coil cannister flipped upside down so that the wire from the coil to the middle of the distributor cap has a kink in it
- paint job that got overspray on most of the engine

Tue Apr 27, 2010 1:49 pm

Some pretty crappy floor pan repairs. I dunno what they used, but somehow it's pretty solid, so I'm not going to replace the pan, although I will need to patch a spot or two and have some of the welding fixed...they did a half-hearted job of it. And instead of welding the seat pedestal back, they bolted it with an angled bracket. I'm going to take off the bracket and have it welded on.
Also the body is covered about 50% (I think) in bondo, but they did a great job of it and put a good paint job on top...so no worries there.
I think they tried to lower it on the front, cause it sat noticeably lower in the front when I first got it (look at the picture) and I found clamps on one of the springs.
And last but not least they covered the whole thing in gray spray paint, supposedly to protect it from rust (and it worked pretty well, minimal rust on this Bug). I've spent a lot of time removing it though and it's down to the original color again (the aforementioned repaint was in the original color)

Tue Apr 27, 2010 1:51 pm

vanhoecke wrote: MY list is ongoing, but for my '73 SB:
- no thermostat, thermostat mount, or connecting rod
- no bell housing tin
- fuel lines that are from '73
- coil cannister flipped upside down so that the wire from the coil to the middle of the distributor cap has a kink in it
- paint job that got overspray on most of the engine

Forgot to mention - removed most of the pieces of the A/C

Tue Apr 27, 2010 3:18 pm

<y first car was a 70 Beetle. When I, innocent of any knowledge of how to solve an electrical problem, opened the dash (by removing the cardboard taped in the trunk) I found that he had saved money when he rewired it.....

by using nothing except brown extension cords. No color codes, no labels, just a bulging rats-nest of identical wire.

I've lost count of the different kinds of "creative" rust patches I've seen - license plates, a street sign, part of the hood of some other less-curvy car, wood, plastic, fiberglass-resin-and-astroturf (though that wasn't a VW).

My current DD only had two of the four bolts holding the motor to the trans. It now has all four, along with other "creative" mods removed. I'm not trying to make it stock, but I AM trying to make it reliable!

Stray

Tue Apr 27, 2010 3:24 pm

zebratangozebra wrote: Bought my 72 sedan on Ebay for $1000.
Was advertised in the auction as a Super.
Turned out to be a sedan.

Sooo...you can't have a super sedan? Or did you mean "standard?"