Rome
Samba Member
Joined: June 02, 2004
Photos: 4423
Location: Pearl River, NY
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| Beetles in 1976 |
Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2017 5:12 pm Views: 346
Rating: Not rated
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My 1960 and 1962 Sunroof Beetles in early 1976. The '60 was my first car, bought locally from my dad's co-worker in '74. Was a reasonably solid rolling shell with lots of spare parts. My cousin helped me alot with the wiring, such as coming up with the idea to add the taillights to the W decklid; both of which came with the car. The '68 taillights were junkyard parts. My dad helped with the mechanical rework- brakes and engine. We had some welding work done at a body shop in New Milford CT (shop is still there as Modzelewski's)- the shop welded the lower corner of the left rear fender to the apron (WTF) instead of simply welding the cracked edge back to the fender, some rust work in the bottom of the left rear quarter panel, and 3-point seat belt mounts. Car still has a front fender mismatch; I ended up buying a 67 left fender. CT plate was from a '60 Ghia rusty parts car from which we removed the 40hp stale air engine which we installed in the '60. Later that year my dad had the '60 painted Saturn Yellow, the '73 SportsBug color which was my favorite.
The '62 I bought for $100 in '75 from a local man who used it as a daily driver but the brake line rusted out, causing him to crash into a car ahead of him. The cracked windshield was from his head... Dad borrowed a porta-tool from work and we pushed out the crunched front apron and banged out the hood. Friend welded up some rust holes. It was originally anthracite grey which I considered a very drab color. The sunroofs on both cars were leak-free.
Dad towed both cars home with his '75 Audi Fox (background). That's me with the yellow ski jacket. I ended up selling both in the fall of '76 to buy a '71 Fastback as a more reliable car to go to college. |
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