My other half's '72 1300 bug

[Blitzkrieg]

Sunny and mild here

[Retro Custom]

Hey Resto....Please can i apply for a floor sweeping job in your sho[p man....

your shop looks life VDub heaven....

lol!

Now you mention it, I've got a new guy who started today - a ZA guy called Steve from Jo'Burg!

[Retro Custom]

Build a car according to your personal preferences.

Remember, you are building a car for your enjoyment, not for anyone elses. So if you want a mixture if Cal and Germnan Look, go ahead and do it! It's what you want in a car or Buggy. If you are a purist and insist on sticking to a stock Splitty/Beetle, that's your prerogative. But there are others out there who would like to mod, tweak and tune every little aspect of their cars.

Here in SA, narrowed beams and "panscraper cars" are not practical at all. We have huge speed bumps in every second street here in Pretoria (suburbs). I would hate to rip out the underside of an expensively put-together ACVW toy....

So the bottom line is: If you want a car to drive i.e not a trailer queen, build something that is practical and usable for SA conditions. If you want a show car that is hardly going to be driven on our roads, then slam, hack and panscrape to your hearts content. Just don't expect it to last for very long after going over some speedbumps

I'm with you on the building cars for your own enjoyment - that's what its all about.

We have speed bumps over here too, but you tend to plan your journey so you avoid them! The car on this thread is not so low that it can't get over speed bumps - it gets over them no problem at all. My car on the other hand is a different matter!





It does take its toll though!



Oops! Never mind!

[2BugMe]

Hey Resto,

How does a nearly 40 year old kid apply for a job at your shop...dont think that guy from Joburgt is gonna last...heheheh

Ish, that lowdown ride does make baddass scars on your car man...

Have a good weenend!!

[hitlers revenge]

Hi Resto

What shock absorbers are you using at the front on that low rider? Speed bumps are a real pain in the butt.

[ZeroAxe]

Speed bumps are a real pain in the nose.

Pardon the pun

[karmakoma]

Hi Retro

Love the bugs, love the Resto Cal look. Resto Cal and complete original happens to be my favourite look. I am one of those guys who dont like the wild graphics and mass of aftermarket parts and customizing, to each his own. I am just amazed at the amount of work you put in and the attention to detail. WOW. Also enjoyed the beetle crisis program we got to see locally. Made me a bit jealous at how easy some beetle parts are to come by in the UK compared to here. Would sure help speed up the resto process.

When I find a clean oval one day, perhaps I should sponsor a 6 month SA working holiday for you

Keep those pictures coming, especially on any new builds, you will find we are a curious lot and an appreciative audience when it comes to good , no scratch that, GREAT work.

[eben]

Retro you are propably the right person to ask:
On my fastback the bracket that is part of the pan that holds the front suspension beam has some accident damage(one side slightly deformed) and was never properly repaired.
Would this be cost effective to repair in the UK?
I don't want to bring my car over if that is not the case.

[2BugMe]

Hey Resto,

You havent answered my question re: That job application...lol
What wheels are those on your VDub at the Volkshow??



Shot

[Retro Custom]

That's a fantastic car - belongs to a very good friend of mine called Andy. Many would agree that it was the first 'proper' UK Rat Looker built. Concours quality floor pan, with the original body dropped on top - it ticks all the boxes!

Thanks, that is the one that I was referring to! I spend days reading the whole thread about the car, beginning to end! Luckily for me, I stumbled across the thread once the whole job was completed, so there were no "Any updates please?" questions from me Once the one hand, I prefer to come across completed builds-threads. That way there is no 'waiting'....

On a side note... I remember at one stage Andy had some serious health issues during "The Bitch" build. I hope all is ok now??? I realy appreciate enthusiasts like him... I know of another guy that once he has got an idea in his head, he builds it. Some REAL quality work he puts out. I envy him HE has build some killer stuff in record time. I just dont GET where these type of people get the TIME from, to do builds like that AND have a social life

Unfortunately, Andy still has health issues. He's been in the US at a specialist place for treatment most of this year so I've not seen him for a while. I'm meeting up with him tomorrow as he's back in the UK for Christmas so will get an update on how he is. The US guys from LowlifeVW.com (including the German Folks, Dry Heat Panzers, Vintage Warehouse, etc) organised a benefit show for him a few weeks back to raise funds for his treatment. It went down really well and they raised $10,300.

The other guy who knocks out cool cars in record time sounds like Paul Smoot, one of the US German Folks guys. Sweet cars!

[Retro Custom]

Hey Resto,

2 questions bro:

1: What awesone wheels r those on the bug thats parked at the Volksworld Show??
2: nAny sites you can recommend that gives more info and pics on the German Look speced car??

Shot...

Dude, could you give me some more info?

Which wheels are you referring to? the ones on my other half's car, or some wheels on another car in the picture?

Which German Look car are you after? the Turbo Oval, or the black one I did for a customer?

[Retro Custom]

Hey Resto,

How does a nearly 40 year old kid apply for a job at your shop...dont think that guy from Joburgt is gonna last...heheheh

Ish, that lowdown ride does make baddass scars on your car man...

Have a good weenend!!

lol!

I get around 2 people a week asking me for a job at my shop! We'll be expanding further next year and taking on more staff, so send in your details!

[Retro Custom]

Hi Resto

What shock absorbers are you using at the front on that low rider? Speed bumps are a real pain in the butt.

Hi,

I'm running Austin Mini front shocks on the front of my bug. They're the same size as Bugpack shocks but are a lot less harsh as narrowing the beam 5 inches creates extra torsional stiffness of the torsion leaves, giving a harsher ride. Bugpack shocks are too harsh as they're designed for cars with stock width beams and more torsional flex so Mini shocks give a softer ride.

Before anyone goes and fits mini shocks to their ride, NOTE: You need to press out the small M10 size botttom shock mount bush on the Mini shocks and press in the larger M12 size bush off some VW fitment shocks to get them to fit.

[Retro Custom]

Hi Retro

Love the bugs, love the Resto Cal look. Resto Cal and complete original happens to be my favourite look. I am one of those guys who dont like the wild graphics and mass of aftermarket parts and customizing, to each his own. I am just amazed at the amount of work you put in and the attention to detail. WOW. Also enjoyed the beetle crisis program we got to see locally. Made me a bit jealous at how easy some beetle parts are to come by in the UK compared to here. Would sure help speed up the resto process.

When I find a clean oval one day, perhaps I should sponsor a 6 month SA working holiday for you

Keep those pictures coming, especially on any new builds, you will find we are a curious lot and an appreciative audience when it comes to good , no scratch that, GREAT work.

Thanks for the kind words Karmakoma!

If anyone needs anything sending over to SA, just let me know and I'll do what I can. As a trader, I get a lot of discount on a lot of parts in the UK as I spend around £60,000 a year on VW parts for customers' cars, so if I can help you guys out in any way, let me know.

I'm building 6 different VW's at the moment, and nearing the end of another beetle build so I will post some stuff up when they're done.

[Retro Custom]

Retro you are propably the right person to ask:
On my fastback the bracket that is part of the pan that holds the front suspension beam has some accident damage(one side slightly deformed) and was never properly repaired.
Would this be cost effective to repair in the UK?
I don't want to bring my car over if that is not the case.

Hi Eben,

Do you have any pictures of the damage? I'm assuming that this is the framehead you are referring to? Depending on whether the framehead has moved to one side, it will require the framehead being pulled out straight on a jig, then the repair work done. As far as I'm aware, you can't buy T3 frameheads like you can beetle frameheads (although the new ones you get are really, really shit quality!) so the repair work will have to be done using a donor framhead. I don't think it would be economical to ship the car to the UK just to have the work done then ship it back. You would be better off taking it to an accident repair centre for Porsches of other prestige cars near you and getting it done properly for the money it would take you to ship it back and forth. The actual job wouldn't be that expensive to do over here, its the shipping would be the killer.

Over here in the UK, something like that would definitely be repaired. There is a brown Notchback in the UK which was on hydraulics and it sustained some severe framehead damage. As a result of the damage it constantly pulled to one side when driving - it has since been repaired and is as good as new.