My other half's '72 1300 bug

[dubster]

That would be cool retro,wil open a thread in other pictures and ask some of the site vetrans to post some pics of their own cars they have built...impi,bugger,calooker,ect...comes to mind...o well im of in search of pics...

[ZeroAxe]

Retro Custom, one car that caught my imagination/attention is "The Bitch".... Light blue Beetle that have been fully restored(chassis etc) but the body had been left OG. Now that thing ROCKS

[2BugMe]

[quote="forcecooled"]. I love "nice" beetles and have built a few of them in my life. We tend to stick to practicalities when we build a car, so the look u went for there is not appealing to us.

Hi guys, i dont want to start something but i do think that if would be best if Cooled dont speak for everybody on this Forum. I do respect his point of view, but do think that you cant genralise as to what South Africans like in how they build there cars...practicality aside...

Resto:
I for one also appreciate every ones ride and admire whatever anyone does to make there cars unique and special... My observation re: South African cars built is that 1) we have really limited resourses to actually make our rides into something special - well at least the majority of Aircooled drivers in SA. If that wasnt the case we would have a booming VW Aircooled aftermarket with plenty of cars and clubs around like for eg: in the UK, US and Europe. 2) we dont have the expertise in profesional Engine builders, Body and Metal workers/ builders like you guys have over in the UK. Bar a few enthusiast and profesionals in there own capacity like Callooker, Tony Z, Dubster to but name a few... EMPI. CSP and all other fancy high quality parts and accesories has to be imported and this against a very weak currency exchange rate..which makes customising or bettering ones ride outside the reach of many..

Unfortunately VW Airkewld customising, optimising and clubs activities are not even half comparable with you guys in the states... We hardly have any dedicated Airkewld Workshops in this contry bar a few - mostly are servicing and keeping customers' cars stock standard and running...
Very few people owning a airkewld VW in SA will ever consider spending 60-100K on getting a car to the workmans quality your rides represent..

However it is forums like this and people like you that provide those interested to keep their rides; a sense of hope that one day there rides might look remotely up to the standards you guys set...

Thanks for the info re: Resto Cal and beams...

Hopefully i would be able to attend Volsworld Show again and see one of your cars on the show floor again...

[Retro Custom]

Retro Custom, one car that caught my imagination/attention is "The Bitch".... Light blue Beetle that have been fully restored(chassis etc) but the body had been left OG. Now that thing ROCKS

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!



There is a video on the net of me driving it - let me have a look..

Found it! Here ya go.. (needs broadband!)

http://media.putfile.com/THEBITCH

Andy is one of the top Resto Cal builders in the UK, though I'm sure he will disagree when he reads this as he is too modest! lol! He's built several top notch cars - this '59 is one of them..



A few months after that pic was taken, he decided that the car wasn't good enough for his high standards so ripped it apart, shot blasted the body and started again!

[2BugMe]

Resto,

I own a ' 74 that belonged to my Great great grandfather.. this is a picture of what it looked like before i started to begin stripping it...



And this is the look that i would like to make her into... The German Look.. But in a Golf 5 Gti Red colour code






I do have a question regarding aftermarket wheels: I am planning to either use 16" Golf 4 Gti (ET 42) alloy wheels or the Porche 17" ( ET is much wider - 225/45/17 tires) replicas you see in the pics below... The 16" wheels fit under the front wheer arches no problem and not inteferring with the turning circle. However the 17" wheels will cause a problem.







So will i need to narrow the been by 3" in order to make the 17" wheels work. I have Select-a-Drop beem and planning to lower the rear by 1 spline...

Any advice will be welcomed..

[Tony Z]

start a new thread for those questions....
i short, go with a disc brake setup and get the hub and caliper mount made up to match the fitment of the rims. No narrowing needed, but you will loose turning circle unless the rims clear the lower beam (unlike mine)

[Retro Custom]

Resto,

I own a ' 74 that belonged to my Great great grandfather.. this is a picture of what it looked like before i started to begin stripping it...

<a href="http://s265.photobucket.com/albums/ii20 ... C00383.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii20 ... C00383.jpg" border="0" alt="Gti mags"></a>

And this is the look that i would like to make her into... The German Look..


<a href="http://s265.photobucket.com/albums/ii20 ... uge010.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii20 ... uge010.jpg" border="0" alt="German Monster -"></a>


<a href="http://s265.photobucket.com/albums/ii20 ... CN5850.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii20 ... CN5850.jpg" border="0" alt="German Dream"></a>

I do have a question regarding aftermarket wheels: I am planning to either use 16" Golf 4 Gti (ET 42) alloy wheels or the Porche 17" ( ET is much wider - 225/45/17 tires) replicas you see in the pics below... The 16" wheels fit under the front wheer arches no problem and not inteferring with the turning circle. However the 17" wheels will cause a problem.

So will i need to narrow the been by 3" in order to make the 17" wheels work. I have Select-a-Drop beem and planning to lower the rear by 1 spline...

Any advice will be welcomed..

A 3 inch beam will bring the 17 inch wheels in level with the edge of the arches, but you will lose about quarter of a turn of your turning circle 'cos the inside of the tyres will hit the inner quarter panel. The picture of the bug which you posted is a Super (or a 1303 model as known in the UK). I have built a very similar car for a customer - let me have a look for a picture.

Found one..



That car runs 225 tyres front and rear but has either Remelle (or Kerscher - I can't remember which) oversize wings both front and back but this car is a McPherson strut car and not a torsion bar car so narrowing is not an option. I'm aware that McPherson strut beetles were never introduced in SA, so the task of fitting the wheels to your car is a different matter.

I have recently fitted a 3 inch narrowed beam to another customers' car which runs 17 inch Porsche Fuchs wheels and the turning circle is reduced by about a quarter of a turn but they fit. There are a few other cars here in the UK running the same wheels and they also fit, but require a narrowed beam - including Mark Thurston's 2466cc injected Turbo Oval as seen below..



However, you will run into problems with running the 17's at the rear lowering it one spline. The camber you will get will result in the inside edge of the wheel hitting the body mount bracket and stopping the car from dropping all the way down as the tyre rests against the inner quarter panel. On my car I run 5J x 15 wheels with 205/65/15 tyres and there is a 4mm gap between the rear edge of the tyre and the body mount. One solution is to run a spacer on the rear hub to space the wheel outwards, but the width of the tyre will still cause the wheel to foul the lip of the wing.

The best way to figure out if they will fit is to offer them up to the car and see how much room you have (or don't have) to play with and then take measures to get them to fit! In the UK, many people see the issue that they don't fit part of the fun, and some people have even narrowed the rear torsion housing up to 2 inches to get wider wheels to fit!!

[forcecooled]

Hey Mr 2bug me,

Who said that I am including you or any other forum member when I said 'we'
I was referring to myself and my son. Not you and the rest of the VW fraternity.
- So dont jump to conclusions, man

[2BugMe]

Cool Cooled...

Thanks for being more specific this time, man...

tony, thanx dude...just though it more relevent posting here cause the discussion lent that way... No probs to start another thread dude...thanks for the advice anyway... have got the disk break setup but the big wheels wont work i think...

Thanks peeps...

[2BugMe]

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

your shop looks life VDub heaven....

[Blitzkrieg]

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

[ZeroAxe]

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

[2BugMe]

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...

[Blitzkrieg]

http://www.germanlook.com

[2BugMe]

Kewl Blitz...

How things going??? Cloudy and rainy in KZN Durbs man...

Tx