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Mon Feb 17, 2025 3:53 pm

I've never owed a VW before, but have wanted a beetle for years. I really was looking for a "stock" beetle, but a near by Baja bug that just looked cool popped up on facebook marketplace and I ended up buying it. The seller has been awesome in answering all my questions since I bought it. He really did a great job on the car. From what I gather, the chassis is a late 1965/early 1966 and the body is from a 1975. This thing is super fun to drive!

Mon Feb 17, 2025 4:53 pm

Awesome looking Baja! Congratulations!
The front suspension is ball joint as seen in your pics. So that makes the chassis 66 or newer. Is the rear suspension swing axle or IRS? In other words, one boot near the trans or two boots, with the 2nd one near the wheel? That can ID the chassis, some. The body is definitely not a 75. I’d say 68-70. Does it have wheel adapters? It could have started life as wide five or 4 bolt wheels. Just trying to help you narrow down the year for buying parts.
Next, maybe a close up of the engine. It looks like some kind of dual carbs. What does the previous own say about the engine specs?

Mon Feb 17, 2025 6:51 pm

NJ John wrote: Awesome looking Baja! Congratulations!
The front suspension is ball joint as seen in your pics. So that makes the chassis 66 or newer. Is the rear suspension swing axle or IRS? In other words, one boot near the trans or two boots, with the 2nd one near the wheel? That can ID the chassis, some. The body is definitely not a 75. I’d say 68-70. Does it have wheel adapters? It could have started life as wide five or 4 bolt wheels. Just trying to help you narrow down the year for buying parts.
Next, maybe a close up of the engine. It looks like some kind of dual carbs. What does the previous own say about the engine specs?

VIN on the body comes back as a 75 body. I was confused because there is no dash pad, but that was removed. Parts of the old dash are still there such as the seat belt light (painted black). Chassis VIN comes back as early 1966. The previous owner rebuilt the engine. He said it is a 1641cc with basically everything new except the block. Dual weber idf carbs.

Tue Feb 18, 2025 6:21 am

And…maybe the crescent vent behind the 1/4 window was filled. There would also maybe be the remains on the ‘75 outer seat track on the inner rocker panel/heater channel.
1966 pan makes sense. Ball joint front and swing axle rear suspensions.

Mon Feb 24, 2025 4:25 am

Nice looking car! The tires look a bit tall for a 1641, how does it handle the hills on the highway?

If it is a '75 body it will have a serial number tag on the driver's side of the dash at the bottom of the windshield. It will also have a serial number on the floor pan tunnel under the rear seat. If it is indeed a '66 floor pan and a '75 body these two numbers will be different. Which serial number is it registered to?

In my part of the world the year of the car is what determines what safety equipment and what emissions standards it needs to comply with. It is beneficial to register the car to the older serial number to avoid having to meet some of those standards.

Sat Mar 01, 2025 6:32 pm

The body VIN is 1152162141 which returns a 1975 body from the tables
The chassis VIN is 116586434 which returns a 1966 model.

For the engine, I think I have a 1974 block. There are two numbers on each side of the engine. On the passenger side the number is 211 101 102E and also as AS41 on it. The driver side has 211 101, can't make out the rest and also has AS41 on it.