Thread: Road trip and new project.

Tweet

My Son Dan is getting very close to finishing his RPU (FINALLY!) and is starting to think about his next project. He is kinda burned out on building one from the ground up, and has always loved VW bugs. His first car at 14 was a Cal Look VW that he kept for about 20 years. He only sold it a few years ago to help fund his RPU, and to make some space. So he has been looking for a good bug body to start with.

We have been looking locally but were finding only rust buckets, plus, he wanted an early one, preferably in the early 60's. Last night he found one on Craigslist in the Tampa area, and today we rented a U haul trailer and took a 3 hour drive to check it out. It turned out to be perfect, only some minor rust in easy to fix places, and it is a 1963 and came with a later 1971 floorpan and running gear. It came with all the fenders and stuff, but he thinks he will put all new ones on it when the body is cherried out.

He plans to put the body back very stock, only dropped in the nose, Porsche wheels, stroker engine, and stuff like that. He also figures with this one waiting in the wings it will push him to be less fussy and get his RPU done and on the road.

Here are some pictures from our little trip today. Sorry they are so dark but it was almost midnight when we were on the way home.

Don

My wife and I had a couple of "Bugs" back in the early days of our marraige. First an orange '61 and then a tan '70 with an 1800cc bus engine, mag wheels, and flared fiberglass fenders. A couple of friends had Bugs, too. We got to where we could swap engines in one of them in less than an hour... I took my wife to the hospital in the '70 when our son was born (35 years ago). She loved that little car; drove the wheels off of it. Every time we see an older style Bug now, she comments how much she enjoyed that car. My son's first car was a '73 Superbeetle. It was lowered all around and red-oxide primered.

Hey, what about the '49 Ford that Dan was working on? Did he sell it? Also, don't you have a '47 or '48 sedan? No shortage of projects there, huh?

What self respecting rodder doesn't have air cooled VWs in his past?
On another forum I frequent aimed at traditional style rods someone put up a thread asking if anybody else had been involved with air cooleds........it's become one of the most hit threads.
My first was a '56 bug with an Okrasa kit I got in '65. Type 2 van, and a moderately long string of 50s and 60s (including a manx style buggy) in the 70s. Every once in a while the temptation "bug" bites, but....................

Great find Don!!! Guilty as charged on the owning a Dub thing Had a '68, stock with an exhaust system, then a couple buses, and last was an '84 Vanagon!!!

Great Score, Don, Kudos to your Son !

My Sis has an early "cherry" ragtop and it's so much fun to drop the top and run down to the coast 30 minutes away !

Ihave had, honestly, over 100 bugs and Buses and Type 3s.
I used to work for both the US-based aircooled VW Magazines.
Had 11 of them at one time
Now, only have one (well, not including the wife's Jetta...)
Yeah, they get in your blood, almost like an infection...
still have a Polar Silver 57 Oval sunroof, with a pretty healthy 2 liter, big heads, twin Weber 48 IDAs, original Rader wheels, and lotsa other stuff.
Fun to drive along the ocean or through the redwoods, and it will surprise quite a few cars, with how quick it is...

We were just talking during the trip about the point Bob and the rest of you make. Even hardcore hot rod guys accept VW bugs as being pretty cool, most other imports do not share that respect it seems. I guess the reason is exactly what we have said, most of us have fond memories of one we owned in the past. My first car when I was 16 was a 57 oval window, all 36 HP of it. I beat that poor car to death and it never quit running.

As I mentioned, when Dan was 14 we bought a total of 8 bugs (this was back when they could be found for $ 25-$100 everywhere) and we built him one Cal Look bug out of all of those. Over the years he rebuilt it 4 times, at one time Porsche Lime green with flames, and at the end with suicide doors. He and Don also had a blue stocker they drove through a lot of high school.

All I have to do now is convince him to push it into a corner of the shop and cover it up until the RPU is really done and running.

Jim, you asked about the 49 Ford.....it's gone. It really had some rust issues and was a fordor we were converting to a tudor, so I talked Dan into letting me cut it up and get rid of it. We kept the good parts for future projects (motor, dash, good tudor doors, etc.) so it will be incorporated into something else some day. It just would have taken too much to make a decent car out of it,as opposed to starting with a cleaner one.

Don

Don,
That will be a fun project, easy to work on, lots of stuff available for them.
Had a '56 with a 1835 in it.
I hope John Palmer sees this, he can tell you a few things about VW's.
I love new projects, good luck Dan
Ken

You've hit all the points why he wants to do a bug this time, Ken. As you know (only too well , I'm sure. ) building a car from scratch burns you out sometimes. After 5 years, Dan is a little tired of having to fabricate every little bracket on his RPU. It will be a nice change to reconstruct a car from readily existing parts (every nut, bolt, trim piece, etc is available in the aftermarket) so all he has to do is refinish the body and pan, build an engine, and start bolting on new parts. Those kinds of builds are fun IMO.

Sounds like the one you had was cool........and quick.

Don

Here is sort of what he has in mind.......stock looking, but cleaned up a little.

LOL, Just could not stay away could you!

I'm not sure that I can explain the VW attraction, and how it gets into peoples blood. This weekend we will be racing at the VW Bug In #35 and many old racers are now restoring their old race cars back to original for show. Two cars were shipped (back) over from England for this show/race that were originally raced at Orange County International Raceway in the 70's. One of our local specialty tool manufacturers is SP tools, Schley Products in Anaheim. The two brothers got into the tool business through their VW gasser racing efforts during the 1960's and 70's. I just saw their newly restored 1970 dragster at the header shop that they will be showing this weekend, very nice. All of their cars were called the Lightning Bug and were metalic blue.

Don, here's some advice from an old timer. First, you picked the right year to restore. 1967 or earlier is a "good rule of thumb" so you can get you money out of it when you sell. The early cars will always have a much higher resale demand. Also, don't bother with after market steel fenders, they do not fit, are thin, and require a ton of rework. Search for originals, and fix them, a stainless shrinking disk works wonders. There is a company down your way called Creative Fiberglass (or close to that) that makes the best quality parts by far, fit is as good as O.E.

Originally Posted by 26Tudor

Ihave had, honestly, over 100 bugs and Buses and Type 3s.
I used to work for both the US-based aircooled VW Magazines.
Had 11 of them at one time
Now, only have one (well, not including the wife's Jetta...)
Yeah, they get in your blood, almost like an infection...
still have a Polar Silver 57 Oval sunroof, with a pretty healthy 2 liter, big heads, twin Weber 48 IDAs, original Rader wheels, and lotsa other stuff.
Fun to drive along the ocean or through the redwoods, and it will surprise quite a few cars, with how quick it is...

Let me just add, because "Humble Dave" won't admit it, LOL.

His "Polar Silver" 1957 Oval window, is a car to "die for". That car could go to any kind of a car show and the workmanship will draw raves. Maybe you could ask him to post a photo.

Also, he's a great resource for any VW questions that you might have come up.

John, thanks for all that insight. Dave, lets see some pix. John, you are right about Creative Car Craft. It was owed by a good friend, Stu, who very unfortunately passed away about a year and a half ago. He was the salt of the earth, and without a doubt the best fiberglass guy around. His parts were heavy layups with only the need to scuff and paint. He built the firewall and dash in my 27 roadster, and did a fantastic job. In fact, the guy who just redid the firewall for my new engine to clear called me and said "did you know Stu used 3/4 inch plywood for the firewall?" He had to use a sawzall to cut it.

Stu sensed he was getting ill, I think, because he sold the business to his long time employee (Bob I think) because Stu said he was the only person he would trust his good name and good products to. Dan is talking about buying some fenders and maybe his early trunk lid (engine lid). They are in Tennessee now I think. I would bet the quality today is just as good as always......not cheap, but quality usually isn't.

There is also a guy Dan heard of who sells very clean original vw ragtop roofs, and he is thinking about buying one to graft into this car. He had a Britax (sp) rag top on the last one and wasn't overwhelmed about the quality, but the originals are very good.

But you are right about how these little cars get in your blood. They are Model A simple and everything on them has a purpose, no fluff. I not only had the one when I was 16 but in about 1978 I bought a 65 with a good body/bad engine, and a wrecked 70 with low miles. Put them together and drove that car for years before a girl pulled right in front of me at 50 mph. I knocked the back of her car off the frame (literally) and yet I drove the bug off the road. It wasn't until I noticed the imprint of my head on the smashed windshield that I realized I was hurt. But I survived (obviously) and I think the toughness of the bug helped.

Don

Don, Interesting background about Creative Car Craft. They made/make "street weight" and also a thinner "race lightweight" fenders, deck lids, hoods, etc. I know they sold and relocated a while back but did not know the reason. Funny, how in each hobby area one company always rises to the top in quality. They do still have a high quality reputation in the VW hobby with the new owner. All the "high dollar pro built" VW drag cars "only use their fiberglass". Out west, it costs a good more in shipping because they are bulky freight, so they usually come out here in batches.

Yes, If you do a cloth sunroof, make sure you start with "an original" donor car roof to graft in. There are quite a few used cloth roofs around. Check on The Samba.com for used parts. The harder part is finding all of the hardware if it is not complete when you buy it. The "go to place" for the cloth sunroof parts is Wolfsberg West in Corona, CA. We have had one of their Hartz Stayfast cloth top covers on our car for the past ten years and it still looks like new.

Okay, here's an engine for Dan...........just a little putter!

John, good info on the Wolfsburg stuff. Dan has mentioned their name as having somewhat costly, but very high quality stuff. When we were deep into Dan's last Cal Look bug, we had to rely on a lot of the parts that came from Brazil and other places. Stuff like flash chrome that lasted about a week and parts than never fit right. We had to modify lots of stuff to make it work. He is committed this time to using either NOS parts or from companies like Wolfsburg. He also mentioned Samba.com and I think the guy who sells the oem sunroofs is on there.

Bob, that mill is fantastic. I think it was Dick Landy who was selling a setup to put a 371 or471 blower on a bug years ago. Looks like B&M has one too. I've hinted to him that a turbo would be cool too.

Don