Parts and sites

[SteveAhnin]

Hi all,

longtime lurker, first time poster. i have a 73 thing that i am in the process of getting running.... again. i searched through the Thing section and The Samba > Community > Businesses, but feel like i still cant find any parts info.

i have had it since 94, but it has been sitting since about 97. i was either too busy, too poor, or didnt have the space to work on it. no i have more time, money and space

i had a 63 single cab before, that tired to kill me the day i bought it, but thats another story....

at any rate where are good resources for parts online and otherwise? i live in the SF bay area

i know
http://www.thingsforthething.com i actually drove down there and traded some parts for a new top
and
http://www.thethingshop.com

any others?
im not trying to restore it to original or anything, more custom.
mainly will need seals, windows, carpets, bumper parts, fenders (maybe), wiring (probably),
luckily its in pretty good shape. little rust here and there.

thanks for any help or suggestions you all have
steve

[gblair]

I have had good luck with Mike at http://www.thingparts.com/
He has always been fair on the shipping and helpful with question I might have

[SteveAhnin]

oh nice thanks.

i think when i was younger there was thingsunlimited?

[Ron Domeck]

Vince at Thingsunlimited sold out to Mike Basso some years ago.

[SteveAhnin]

thanks for the responses.

i hate to ask or stir up debate, but is there one shop that is better than the other?

or rather
if you need "ABC" go to GMW. if you need "XYZ" go to Thing Shop. and for "blah blah blah" Thing Parts is excellent.

basically i want to make sure i stuff from the folks who do it well and avoid the stuff they arent as good at.

[liken127]

I have had a great experience with Mike at Thingsparts.com, he has came up
with some good used parts and some new! Also TTS is got it all! and they
are very nice to deal with also. have fun with the rebuild, I am nearly there
with mine!!

[Rev. Scott]

A lot of parts can be gleaned from the classifieds here on the Samba. Mike Basso and Kuble Man are good for spares too. K-Man has a readable disk that has a comprehensive parts list and interchanges with other "cousin" VW's.
_________________
"I haven't seen one of those since I was shootin' at 'em!"

[SteveAhnin]

thanks for the info.

Kuble man = K-Man? is that a person or site?

funny enough 10 or more years ago i bought the service manual and parts books from TTS. but a list of interchangeable parts would be nice.

[Yarkle]

do you know how to read vw part numbers?

if it begins with 181 its thing only, and is probably best gotten from any of the above vendors.

read thsi to get an idea of what im talking about

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=376951

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/manuals/thing_parts_manual/Type_181_Parts_Manual.pdf

so, if its says 211, its really a bus part, but fits on your thing
113 or 111, its a beetle part, fits on your thing
311 type 3 , fit son your thing
etc.

some places charge a premium on "thing parts" that are actually beetle, bus, ghia, whatevs.

aircooled, has a nice writeup on this

http://www.aircooled.net/vw-part-numbers-explained/

so the best thign to do is ID the part you need, find it in the parts manual i linked to, and read the part number...181, go to classifieds, basso, kmann thing shop

any other numbers and they might be easier to find elsewhere.


BTW Kmann: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/search.php?username=kubelmann

basso:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/search.php?username=mpb181%40aol.com
_________________
Tilda the Mustard Tigress 1973 Squareback (o'''^'''o)

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=771024&highlight=

[SteveAhnin]

thanks all. good info. im sure ill have more questions