Deep Philosophical Question re: Keeping it Stock

[Captain Spalding]

I wanted to get an idea where folks stand regarding keeping their 181 stock. To do this I thought I would post a poll and solicit the responses of you, my fellow forum members.

Where do you fall on the keep it stock continuum? And why?

1. Bone Stock:
Just what it sounds like. Your goal is to keep your Thing as close as possible to the way it was when it left the factory. You see your car as a piece of automotive history which, with the care you will provide, will survive beyond your ownership. Thus you see your role not so much as owner, but as custodian of your vehicle, which will eventually find its way into the hands of another like-minded enthusiast who will carry the torch with the same leave-no-footprint mindset that you have.

2. Improved Stock:
Similar in most respects to the bone-stocker, but not so hard-core. You feel that subtle modifications which will help preserve your vehicle or make it more driveable or safe are acceptable, as long as they maintain the stock look. If you rebuild your motor, you might go for balancing or a counterweighted crank, or you might add full flow components to help preserve the motor, or Halogen headlights to make your car safer. But you feel a little guilty about it.

3. Reversible Modification:
If you're in this category, you think that keeping it stock is okay for the other guy, but while you own the car, you will feel free to make a few changes. I fall into this category. I'm in the process of putting a 1915 motor in, with full flow and oil cooler. I'll put a couple of gauges in the dash so I can keep an eye on that investment - but - I haven't totally abandoned the keep-it-stock ethic. I'll hang on to the engine core and rebuild it to stock specs, and find a pristine dash panel so that, should the urge strike me, the car can be returned to stock condition with minimal effort.

4. Radical Modification:
You bought your car cheap because you want to experiment. Built motor, of course. Stroker? Turbo? Subaru motor? Buick V6? All good. Lift it, slam it, whatever. If your car ends up looking like something out of "Death Race 2000" that's your business. Cutting sheet metal for the sake of installing amps and subwoofer is just part of the fun. This is your toy and you'll play with it however you want to. Keeping a car with a 48 Hp motor stock is ludicrous. Stock = Lame. Now where did I put that Sawzall?

[iltis74]

I'm #3 too, as I like the stock body look, except in beetles where the cal-look gets my vote, but I find it hard not to play with the suspension and motor/drivetrain. If I had two Things I would lower the second one. When I repaint in a few years it will stay the same color, but only because I really like it yellow, not because it already is.

[markie61]

I'm a number three, too. My Thing has already been somewhat altered - chrome engine tin, Ghia disc brakes, adapters with GM wheels. Most of this can be undone.

My first improvement will be the front seats. I found a set of Honda CRV seats on eBay and plan to weld up some bolt-on brackets to install them. This will involve shaving the stock seat rails, but I have to do the pan anyway. I got the rear seats, too, and may try to adapt them as well. I will supplement this with a roll/show bar and mount retractable Honda 3pt seatbeats.

I want better (and working!) guages, so I may cut the dash or pull the original and fabricate a replacement. I'd like to afford a new and better heater. I'll redo the engine and tranny close to stock, replace rubber with urethane where I can, etc

But as you can see, all or most of it can be changed to stock pretty easily and at modest cost.

Mark
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Whut is that-there Thang!?
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Chicks dig my Thing - so what if it's little and yellow...!?

[bljones]

I fall into category #5: "It depends"

Are you starting with a solid vehicle, or resurrecting an incomplete pile of rust?

Do you have the funds and/or ability to make the desired mods elegantly, or are you gonna end up with the 181 equivalent of Snorkelstang?

Does it make sense? i have seen some modifications that just make me go "huh?", like covering the ENTIRE vehicle with bedliner. There is no benefit, so why do it?


I am no purist by any means (anybody who has seen the bodywork on my 181 will agree) but I hate to see a perfectly good car bent, torn and spindled.
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OG JHC
Author of Original Rant #1
"It stingd itself to dead... now that is control on you"

2%

[TimGud]

I am a #3 guy for my thing but like seeing things that are modified beyond what is reversable. While the thing isn't as plentiful as a bug or bus they aren't so rare that a few can't be modified.

[germansupplyscott]

#1. i do have guages in my thing, so maybe i am #2.

to me if the look is correct, it doesn't have to be the way it was from the dealer - example - halogen headlights. but it has to look right to make me happy. i put some bosch H4 on the car and took them off because the shape of the lens was too flat. i put back the cheapie sealed beam units i got at the local flaps for 2 bucks each. they are probably exactly what the car had from new. another example, full flow - yes it is better for your engine, but such a shame to spoil the simplicity of the engine with all that plumbing. a well-maintained engine with regular oil changes and clean oil-bath will last as long as a full-flowed engine so long as it is not driven hard. we don't drive our thing hard. we don't pamper it either, it sees major highway miles, but she is well cared for.

many "improvements" you see are not in fact improvements, and many modifications are a combination of cheapness, laziness, poor taste, bad execution or a combination of all four. that is one thing about doing a bone stock car - you can't be lazy or cheap about it and make it work. you have to go all the way or it falls flat. otoh, there are many slightly or highly modified things driving around that are sweet. i would not want one of them for myself, but i appreciate them for sure, the same way for instance i appreciate an outlaw 356 as well as a beautiful orignal one.

the point about what your vehicle starts out as is important. if the car is a beater you are just trying to get on the road for a year or two, all bets are off.
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SL

[amishman]

I felt I was a 1.5 but I put 2 as that was closest to what I want to do. I like bone stock but if a certain part is no longer available, and a newer part is my only option, I will get it rather than keep the vehicle off the road until I find a used part or something like that. So I will use maybe some newer parts if they were improved upon and made a common problem from the past go away. Cosmetically I like to stay as stock as possible. I do consider myself the owner with no plans to sell and not simple the stewart of the car until the next buyer comes along. I will add "add-ons" if the same time period when available so even though the car did not come stock with this item, if the item was available during that same time period or earlier, I would consider adding it. I just try not to put 1980's add-ons onto a 1973 Thing but feel 1960's add ons were available during 1973 so will put those on.

tj

[vwthingrcer]

ima # 5 im going to lift my thing and put a type 4 engine in to it and other great stuff to go off roading with it
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1973 vw thing 1600cc engine ONce agian is a live
1971 super beatle for sell
1964 bug type 4 getting ready to race

[bljones]

[Towel Rail]

#3 here. I love bone-stock, perfect cars, but I don't have custody of any. My Thing has had many "improvements", some good, some bad, some reversible, some not. As I knock this car into better shape, some of the mods will go (the carpet went fast), and some (like the electric windshield wiper fluid pump) will stay. In addition, I'll be doing major bodywork and installing rollbars, three-point seatbelts, and brighter headlights in the near future.

I tend to consider irreversible mods as sinful, but I'm learning to let that go.

- Scott
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1974 Thing -- under the knife
1967 Beetle -- spring/summer/fall driver
1996 Subaru OBW (EJ22, 5-speed, AWD) -- winter car, 3-seasons "don't feel like biking today" car

049 > 070 > 053 > 009

[Captain Spalding]

[bljones]

[chinarider]

I once worked at a museum, where we had all sorts of boats, steam engines, naptha-powered engines (freaky things!), etc. etc. dating back through the past few centuries. This kind of twists my interpretation of pure stock to be something more like museum-quality; to me that means 100% original, down to the factory torques of the last screw.

With this in mind, I'd say I fit into the #2 class for body, and #1 class for engine/drivetrain. The only real non-stock alteration I've done to my Thing is to install the Thingshop stock-type showbar, and add 3-pt front seat belts (VW of course). I also went with halogen headlights (I'm such a rebel).

The engine, exhaust, drivetrain, suspension, wheels, etc. are as bone-stock as possible, 30+ years after manufacture. I rebuilt the 1600 a couple of years ago, and did everything bone stock. The only exceptions: I added hose clamps to my fuel lines, and an oil temp gauge, just to keep an eye on things, but since it mounts in the body, I'm calling it more of an interior mod.

Believe it or not, my spare tire is actually one of the originals that came with this car back in 1973, and it holds air rather nicely!

Comparing this car now to when I bought it, all of my actions have headed in the direction of bringing it back to stock. That's just my personality, though; I get a kick out of restoring stuff. I even made a 1973 soundtrack just for the Thing, but only play it on a portable boombox, as I don't have any kind of radio installed (they were dealer-installed options anyway, right?).

[caspar]

i think i would be in the # two i rebuild engine to 1776 with full flow, and put some fake porsh alloys on. but other than that i pretty much stock. i like the total stock look as well as the cal style look(#5)..

caspar

i also looking to put glove door on too

[radioman]

Ima 2. And BLJ, I have added up my bills (once) and gagged . But that includes things like new wheels, new top, new sides curtains show bar. Actually I could have skipped or put off some of this off...but at the time, it's what I wanted. I love my Thing just the way it is, now. But I am 62 so my expectations are somewhat low.
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It's a Southern Thing, 73, stock.
Bill

[radioman]

Ima 2. And BLJ, I have added up my bills (once) and gagged . But that includes things like new wheels, new top, new sides curtains show bar. Actually I could have skipped or put off some of this off...but at the time, it's what I wanted. I love my Thing just the way it is, now. But I am 62 so my expectations are somewhat low.
_________________
It's a Southern Thing, 73, stock.
Bill

[radioman]

Ima 2. And BLJ, I have added up my bills (once) and gagged . But that includes things like new wheels, new top, new sides curtains show bar. Actually I could have skipped or put off some of this off...but at the time, it's what I wanted. I love my Thing just the way it is, now. But I am 62 so my expectations are somewhat low.
_________________
It's a Southern Thing, 73, stock.
Bill

[suntour]

Personally I think it depends on where your starting point is.

If you happened to run across a bone stock and wonderfully preserved Thing I believe you should do what you can to preserve this. (Or even a bone stock and fairly decent Thing) Cutting up and serious altering a Thing I believe should be left for those cars that are past there prime and it would be economically unfeasible to return to a stock condition.
If you happen to run across a heaping pile of rust that is bound for the crusher, then by all means have a hay-day with it. Build a tube chassis and a suspension to make the Baja 1000 a cake walk. At least you’re keeping it on the road in some form.
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Order of the Voodoo Spoon

[germansupplyscott]

[dborell]

Bone Stock,

Generally speaking I think that factory stock vehicles hold/increase their value better than altered vehicles. What that means to me is that more Things will be kept up and stay on the road, which is a good thing.