Joined: October 02, 2004 Posts: 129 Location: North West Arkansas
Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 9:06 am Post subject: 75 Rat Rabbit Resurrection thread.
I'm going to need some motivation on this one so I thought I would start a build thread. Purest please click back now or forever hold your hate comments This was truly scrap metal to most normal people so this has much to do with my artistic approach on this build.
The story is this was a moving day gift to me over 12 years ago from my neighbor who quickly learned that I was into these VW's. It was ditched on one of his rental properties many moons ago and he was happy to drag it over. I have been using it as a paintball bunker since a few weeks ago when my sick imagination with the help of my daughter egging me on kicked in. These young kids today and their "water cooled" craze.
Back to the Rabbit. It's an early 75 Swallow tail and in many ways is in great shape.
Seriously I wasn't joking, well the strut towers and and all the doors are rock solid. Window frames. Pretty much everwhere Volkswagen's amazing undercoating didn't distroy. But it took love, some bleach, a mask, good gloves to just get to see it.
After the cleaning I did a little primary rust hacking and trashing of the unusable stuff with a small can of reusable stuff not growing too well
Pulled the trashed 1.6 and went to work on the engine bay.
Freshness 3/19 VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
Rain delay
I have a nice set of early Beetle low backs and some extra pan half's lying around so...
I'll keep this thread fresh as long as I'm making progress and there's some interest going on. _________________ Rob
May the war on Air vs Water end in my lifetime that we may all come together and enjoy the hobby.
Last edited by driverlost on Mon Mar 19, 2012 7:07 pm; edited 2 times in total
Joined: April 11, 2000 Posts: 41877 Location: Phoenix, AZ
Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 10:18 am Post subject:
Wow, it looks pretty bad in some places.
I'm interested in seeing the progress. _________________ How to: Post Photos | Search Everett Barnes - [email protected] | My VWs | My wanted ads
"Water is the only drink for a wise man" | "Communication prevents complaints"
Joined: October 02, 2004 Posts: 129 Location: North West Arkansas
Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 6:40 pm Post subject:
Thanks Boss!
Yeah it is rough pretty much everywhere the famous early 70's Volkswagen Undercoating is at. Its like a surprise every time you run a screwdriver in the loose stuff. This was the only stuff holding my 73 Thing together
Made some progress today so I'll toss up a few more pics. _________________ Rob
May the war on Air vs Water end in my lifetime that we may all come together and enjoy the hobby.
Joined: October 02, 2004 Posts: 129 Location: North West Arkansas
Posted: Mon Mar 19, 2012 8:27 pm Post subject:
Thanks. Yeah we're thinking a little steel wool then clear right over the patina & green.
I'm cleaning the bay area and doing corrosion control with rust stop & undercoating where ever it needs it.
It'll be a rat rod. Lowered but trust worthy for anyone in my family to hop in and drive is the goal.
Thinking of a oak dash. Not the greatest carpenter but going at a project with a nothing to loose attitude makes a project fun so we'll see. _________________ Rob
May the war on Air vs Water end in my lifetime that we may all come together and enjoy the hobby.
Glad to see you putting that lovely green jewel back on the road!!! Don't let the purists get you down, it would take a ton of money to restore that back to any semblance of its original glory, have fun and enjoy!! My '78 came from Springdale, I bought it two years ago. Maybe I'll run into you at some of the local shows, I was at Conway last year. Dave J
_________________ 1962 Ghia vert
1964 Ghia coupe
We have about 5-7 going from our area, OKC, Tulsa and picking up a few more along the way. My daughter will be rolling her 98 GTI and my son is taking his Rabbit vert we've been working on the past 2 years
My son goes to Boot camp for the Marines 2 weeks after so I hope to make it down with them so I can hang out but not be like a third wheel and have my own cool ride
I made some good progress in between rain & work....
but got hit with "Overwhelmness" If that's a word _________________ Rob
May the war on Air vs Water end in my lifetime that we may all come together and enjoy the hobby.
Thanks for the kind words. I'm loving the low-back seats!! Can't wait to see what you come up with for a dash. What are you thinking for wheel/tire combo? Roy Rogers parts here in Springfield has a set of 13" cookie cutter wheels with nearly new tires for sale, they would be the style of wheel found on a Scirocco. Probably would look pretty good. What's the scoop on the Splitty? Dave J _________________ 1962 Ghia vert
1964 Ghia coupe
Joined: February 10, 2004 Posts: 109 Location: DFW
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 9:46 pm Post subject:
^^^^^ I was just gonna post that. Glad you saved it.....but for us purists...please keep the mods to a minimum.....especially on an early car....or you'll break our hearts I've never seen that welded in bracket/holder (?) on the left rear wheel well (in cargo area). _________________ I love old cars
Joined: October 02, 2004 Posts: 129 Location: North West Arkansas
Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 10:00 pm Post subject:
Shadd wrote:
Looks just like the 75 that I am parting out
I will hold my purist tongue except to say that 10/75 is technically a 76
Hey I may hit you up for some parts on that. I figured it was a 76 but so far all my parts put it early 75. When I search 75 over 76 for parts Everything is correct. The gas tank on mine is gone. Rotted out from the inside out. It's the early style with the sender on the side and no access up top behind the rear seat. Plus some other strange early things I'm running into.
Can't be that much different between the 2 years especially as late as an October build but fully agree it's likely a 76.
Update from over the weekend. VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV
My 100 year old barn wood dash Have a lot more to do but some teaser pics.
Gauges are from an 80's Porsche 944.
Found an old school wiper delay in my stash.
And an old 12 volt VDO analog clock.
_________________ Rob
May the war on Air vs Water end in my lifetime that we may all come together and enjoy the hobby.
Joined: September 30, 2004 Posts: 235 Location: Louisville, KY
Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 10:39 am Post subject:
driverlost wrote:
Thanks! Been starting to wonder if my dash idea killed off the interest
If all goes right I would love to make this a daily.
I think it's a cool idea, it's not like you cut up a perfect car or anything...
Mine is pretty fun as a daily, it has vmaxx coilovers, so it's not a perfect ride, but it it's not super harsh. This is my first MK1. I had an mk2 jetta, and 3 aircooled beetles. _________________ 1969 Beetle - Lowered
Joined: October 02, 2004 Posts: 129 Location: North West Arkansas
Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2012 1:07 pm Post subject:
Yeah I'm hoping to go coils to get it pretty low. Not danger to the oil pan low but close
You gotta love VW's and if you really do you'll have or had them all over time. I think once you get to know how consistent the Germans are when they build stuff you just migrate over to other models so easily.
Here's an inspiration shot:
Some progress & playing around pics.
One for the haters
Went with a Super Beetle master cylinder and stuck with manual brakes. Easy mod for sure. I'll work up a write up for the boards after a road test
Just got a gift from my daughter today. I had the rack, its what's on top
Good start for ratty items for the roof rack! _________________ Rob
May the war on Air vs Water end in my lifetime that we may all come together and enjoy the hobby.
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so I thought I would start a build thread. Purest please click back now or forever hold your hate comments 
This was truly scrap metal to most normal people so this has much to do with my artistic approach on this build.
But it took love, some bleach, a mask, good gloves to just get to see it.
I figured it was a 76 but so far all my parts put it early 75. When I search 75 over 76 for parts Everything is correct. The gas tank on mine is gone. Rotted out from the inside out. It's the early style with the sender on the side and no access up top behind the rear seat. Plus some other strange early things I'm running into.
