Introduction and new volksrod-ish project car

[krafty]

Greetings!

My name is Alan and I am fairly new here (although I have been lurking off and on for years). I have several friends with Beetles and Busses from the 50s on up and have been in search of a project car for a while.

By complete accident I learned of a shop nearby that was storing a not-quite-complete '74 standard Beetle and they wanted it GONE, so it is now residing in the back room of the shop I manage and will slowly be turned into a volksrod as I have time to work on it.

As I said, this car is fairly complete and turns out to be a Sunbug. It's not really a restoration candidate, although it is solid. Someone in the recent past has begun a Baja conversion but didn't make it far. It has some beefy I-beam style trailing arms, the start of a front disc brake conversion and the pan has been gone through. There's one rust hole they missed in the front of the pan, a few small holes in the rockers as expected, and one in the side of the engine compartment, but otherwise it is a very solid place to start. The car did not come with an engine, but I have plenty of friends with spares lying around, so that won't be an issue.

It is missing seats, front and rear glass, a few suspension bits and one of the sunroof rails (which will probably be the most challenging part to find). I still have hope that the rail along with the glass is in one of the storage containers at the shop it was being stored in, but we'll have to see.

This project likely won't ever be *finished*. I have plans right now to do this as low-buck as possible and then tweak or change the design as the desire suits me. Initial plans include extending the beam forward, chopping out the tire well to make room for it, putting big/little tires on the factory 4.5x15 sport wheels, leave the rear fenders on along with the hood and trunk, and get it running and driving. I may eventually chop the tail, lose the rear fenders, chop the top, etc., but not for a while. The first go-around I think will either be beige or olive primer. Maybe black.

I haven't yet decided if I'm going to finish the front disc conversion or switch it back to stock drums. I need to figure out exactly which parts I have and check on which master cylinder will work best for a disc/drum combo.

Anyways, thanks for reading and hopefully I'll be able to actually start in on this baby.

[mikec4193]

Hi Krafty

I like it...looks like a good start..

MikeC
_________________
Dad bought his first Beetle on Dec 17, 1953.

[sixfootdan]

Good luck and keep the pics coming. I think you will lose the rear fenders and apron right away after cutting the front. They just never seem to look right with only half done in my opinion.
_________________
Schrodinger's cat walked into a bar and it didn't.


GO SEAHAWKS!!!

[krafty]

Arrival at the shop after a short, snowy/slushy trip. As luck would have it we actually found a VW tow bar lying in the scrap pile at the local metal recyclers and picked it up for scrap price, so it made the trip relatively easy.

The guy in the picture is one of our resident VW experts. He has a bus, beetle and a TON of spare parts.