Aircooled VW South Africa

Acording to Eben's chassis number decoding, i've bought an October 67 Sunroof Beetle.



As can be seen from the photo, its been around the block a few times.

The main reason I bought the car is for the sunroof and heated rear window.





The plan is to transfer the sunroof to the white body in the photo and also to convert to Right Hand Drive



and repair the vrot pan with parts from a donor pan that i've got in order to retain the balljoint suspension and OEM 4 stud hubs.

Plans for the car calls for a Jaspis Blue (Mercedes colour) body with grey and charcoal interior. Some extrnal shiny bits will be used to highlight the body colour.

Decision on the engine to be taken later.

I know that this is a massive undertaking, so wish me luck

Good luck! Unique (for SA) beetle you have there.

*keeps an eye on this thread*

Good luck with the resto. Take lots of pictures for us

We have started stripping the car and found some horrors, but also some gems.

What a leaking sunroof will do when left for a few years





I knew it would be bad so was prepared for the floor, but not the rear shelf.

Check out the dual circuit master cylinder



The silver pipe in the foreground is the vent from the fuel tank to the filler - a bit different from the flexible pipe used on SA Beetles.

The front suspension is in decent condition and does not appear to be bent.



We definitely disturbed some creature's home - tough luck to the greenies



All the removable bits have been taken off and with some luck the body will come off tomorrow.

This mountain of work was done in one day by my colleague Andre - Kudos to him

All that in one day! nice work so far.

Does this import 67 not have balljoint suspension and disks in the front, I am sure I saw the 4 stud rims on there to indicate as such?

Personally I would try and retain as much of it as possible, leave it left hand drive, its unique. Looks like you are working up a storm there, keep it up! And please keep those pictures coming, even if you decide to make it a RHD.

Well spotted on the front suspension.

The reason I wanted to change to Right Hand Drive was the recent change in legislation. However, I was told that vehicles that entered the country before 1995 are exempt and can be registered as per the normal procedure and used without limitation.

I am in the process to verify this with the authorities

If the information is correct, I am going to keep it LHD

If I was you I would rather just cut the front end of and fit the right hand drive front end on much esier as changing roofs

and remember that the 67 front suspension will not fit normal SA pans the H beam spacing is not the same as our king and link pin suspensions

Today we removed the body from the pan and now the fun starts.





First step is to get the pan clean and then the surgery can begin.

I've decided to keep it left hand drive and keep the balljoint supension.

What a scraper, wire brush and some Prepsol can do to 42 years worth of crud.



At least I can now see better what i am dealing with

Looking good. Good luck with the resto, you surely got a lot of work there

Y'know, I get so jealous sometimes, where do you guys find those lekker big places to work in??!? I'm always f...ing around in a garage with two other cars and a load of camping gear in it. Check out those pics, man!! I go green!!!

I was getting tired of people telling me "but its got a lot of rust. What are you going to do?" So it was time for some radical action.

As I wanted to see where the floor pan joints were, I stood the whole assembly on its side and disected the beast......



A nice cutting disc made short work of the cancerous bits ...



And now I have a Beetle with backbone



The hard work was getting the spot welded edges that remained chiselled off.

Fortunately the tunnel escaped the ravages of the tin worm.

If you wanted to change your mind and build an swb buggy instead, the time is NOW

Thanks for the info, Pine.

This one will go back into the Beetle, but........

We also have a pan that is earmarked for a buggy in the future. (or a 356 Speedster replica) We'll see.

One thing at a time though.