1962 Beetle Convertible - Baja to Original Conversion

[buntist]

Hello All,

I have just started working on my new project. This was my mothers first car. I believe she got it when it was already 20 years old, had already been converted to a baja, and my grandpa had it painted its current colors.

I drove it around a bit when I was in highschool, and I have now brought it to my place to begin working on it.

I wanted to start this build thread to hope to get a little bit of information out of all the brilliant minds on here, and possibly help out with some others who want to tackle something similar.


Here is a pic of the bug in my garage.

Here is the start of the tear down.

I am going to set up some braces across the doors so that the body doesn't try to fold up when I pull it off the pan.

My plans are to replace the floors in the pan and then work on replacing what was cut off in the conversion to baja. To find the correct rear apron section that was cut out, do i need to find a convertible specific rear or just the convertible specific decklid?


Any notes, questions, comments, suggestions would be awesome.

[bluebus86]

the rear apron should be ok from a sedan, you MUST however use a louvered deck lid or find some other way to vent the engine bay.

beware of aftermarket sheet metal, thin metal, poor quality stampings, bad fit, some can be spotted 100 feet away as fakes.

since convertibles are so valuable, and your labour likewise is valuable, Id only source good used original german metal. this goes for both aprons and the fenders and hoods. most all the repro stuff is junky. do not waste your time with repro garbage.

Bug On!
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[toxicavenger70]

Dang that is a super cool car with a ton of history! Keep us posted.

[joey1320]

I would had kept it as is and enjoyed it.
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**1971 Super Project
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0

[TDCTDI]

It was kinda cool as it was in a historical sense.


If the heater channels & stiffeners are solid, there shouldn’t be any need for additional bracing.
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Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

[buntist]

[buntist]

[buntist]

[TDCTDI]

Dayum! Your mother drove it with that steering wheel?!?
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

[Q-Dog]

Keep the top up and latched and it won't fold up.
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Brian

'69 Dune Buggy
'69 Beetle Convertible
'70 Beetle

[67ctbug]

Really digging the stripe.
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'74 Westfalia
'69 Plymouth "Adam-12"
'63 Ragtop
'73 914
'73 Dodge W200
'72 Dodge Wrecker
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World Series Champions 2016

[cbeck]

I always liked the convertible on the cover of the baja bugs and buggies book.
Shop talk forum user central wash baja also has a nice one.
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My cut in half and rebuild thread
www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=647779

[anthracitedub]

I’d almost be tempted to leave it a Baja, just make it bad ass and put the same paint job back on it.... I think it’s kinda cool.

[vwuberalles]

You're redoing that same awesome paintjob, right? Your Grandpa worked hard on it!
_________________
1973 Superbeetle: 1st car, owned since age 12. Update thread --> https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=9919140#9919140
1967 Kombi: Owned since age 17, Dad's retirement project.
1966 Beetle: My new project. (SOLD) Build thread--> https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=678040

[toxicavenger70]

[vwuberalles]

[buntist]

[aa390392]

That car is so represented of the early 70's.....I had an identical steering wheel in the late 60's in my 66 bug. I personally loved it. Was bad ass.
In early 70's bajas were coming into their own, A writer for Hot VWs magazine (anyone remember it?) It was a custom offroad VW. A Convertible full body car, with that 2" lift kit between the pan and body,
It was bad ass looking then and i think it would be badass now.
Bill Hendricks on the lower Colorado river use to build Bajas with paint jobs that resemble the one your Grand father did..
Good luck with it .
Thomas
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.
getting grumpy & less tolerant!


55 ragtop
56 delux sedan
56 Kabriolet

[TDCTDI]

That car is perfect the way that it is. I think it would be worth more as a period correct piece than if it was taken back to stock. Besides, it would lose all of it's personality & history. I'm sure that your mom has many great memories of it, especially since her father personalized it for her.
_________________
Everybody born before 1975 has a story, good, bad, or indifferent, about a VW.


GOFUNDYOURSELF, quit asking everyone to do it for you!


An air cooled VW will make you a hoarder.


Do something, anything, to your project every day, and you will eventually complete it.

[buntist]

I got the body off the pan, only real surprise was how bad of shape the heater channels are in. Will need replacing.

I think my next step is cutting out the pan halves and replace them.