Long ago, cave man era. 2 of my friends pitched in and bought 2 for $150. Cut the bodies off. 5 gallon Oilzum can bolted to the floor on the driver's side. You could reverse the rims and change the track width. 2 long toggle switches in an empty voltage regulator on the hump. Buddies family owned a gas station on the edge of town with access to about 250-300 acres of wild land. No roll bars playing tag at night with no lights. Fun came to an end when someone showed up with a bug with a full roll cage and an idiot was hanging on the back and they flipped it. Dude luckily only gashed his leg. Not sure if they meant to flip it or not because they did intentionally flip it once in awhile. Ahhh, the good old days of having fun in the woods. Dirt bikes, girls, bonfires and alcohol.
I don't have a very good compressor so I used rustoleum professional primer and professional enamel on the pans. For the beam, frame head, rear forks and shock towers I used POR-15. For the trans I used SprayMax 2 part epoxy rattle cans. If I knew about the SprayMax before I did the pans I probably would have used that, at least on the bottom. The paint debates were kind of wearing me out. This is what I did. Of course it's hard to know how it will hold up until that time passes, but the rustoleum did dry really nice and hard and the por-15 dries like concrete. We'll see.
Make sure if you haven't yet to have the transaxle rebuilt by someone that knows what they are doing. Those old swing axles have week revers gear in them, and it's a lot easier to do before body and engine go on.
Front is still link pin. I just added drop spindles (2.5 inch) and the disk brakes. This car originally came with the VW 5x205, 4J (4 inches wide) smoothies all around. I kept 2 of those for the front with 165/65/15. For the rear I picked up some 5.5J smoothies and put 205/60/15 on those. It should have 1 inch or rake if my math is right.
Temporary-Grass-2898@reddit
Long ago, cave man era. 2 of my friends pitched in and bought 2 for $150. Cut the bodies off. 5 gallon Oilzum can bolted to the floor on the driver's side. You could reverse the rims and change the track width. 2 long toggle switches in an empty voltage regulator on the hump. Buddies family owned a gas station on the edge of town with access to about 250-300 acres of wild land. No roll bars playing tag at night with no lights. Fun came to an end when someone showed up with a bug with a full roll cage and an idiot was hanging on the back and they flipped it. Dude luckily only gashed his leg. Not sure if they meant to flip it or not because they did intentionally flip it once in awhile. Ahhh, the good old days of having fun in the woods. Dirt bikes, girls, bonfires and alcohol.
BobsBug65@reddit (OP)
fuckin a
Which_Initiative_882@reddit
Im alaways amazed at how little beetle you actually need for a roller.
Roverjosh@reddit
That is super nice! What sealant/paint did you use for the pan?
BobsBug65@reddit (OP)
I don't have a very good compressor so I used rustoleum professional primer and professional enamel on the pans. For the beam, frame head, rear forks and shock towers I used POR-15. For the trans I used SprayMax 2 part epoxy rattle cans. If I knew about the SprayMax before I did the pans I probably would have used that, at least on the bottom. The paint debates were kind of wearing me out. This is what I did. Of course it's hard to know how it will hold up until that time passes, but the rustoleum did dry really nice and hard and the por-15 dries like concrete. We'll see.
jimbofranks@reddit
Wow. It almost seems a shame to put a body on top of this.
BobsBug65@reddit (OP)
Well it's not too far from being a dune buggy. That would be a fun project.
New-Concept4313@reddit
Make sure if you haven't yet to have the transaxle rebuilt by someone that knows what they are doing. Those old swing axles have week revers gear in them, and it's a lot easier to do before body and engine go on.
BobsBug65@reddit (OP)
You're right. Done.
thepvbrother@reddit
That is a stupidly simple chassis. I love it
BaboTron@reddit
It’s wild that a Beetle is essentially a cookie sheet with 2 lawn chairs and an engine strapped to it.
Smart_Search1509@reddit
I love it, I can't wait to finish my '70
home_cheese@reddit
So it looks like you kept the swing axles and wide 5s but the front looks like ball joints with disks. What pattern are those wheels?
BobsBug65@reddit (OP)
Front is still link pin. I just added drop spindles (2.5 inch) and the disk brakes. This car originally came with the VW 5x205, 4J (4 inches wide) smoothies all around. I kept 2 of those for the front with 165/65/15. For the rear I picked up some 5.5J smoothies and put 205/60/15 on those. It should have 1 inch or rake if my math is right.
home_cheese@reddit
Okay, my bad. The pics are kind of grainy and since I saw disks I assumed they'd be 4 lugs the 5x112? pattern.
Type 1, 66 and older are just gorgeous IMO. Keep posting your progress please!
Old_Peterhof@reddit
Second this. Keep posting progress!
FortuneHeart@reddit
I’m getting PTSD flares from running throttle/clutch and brakes on one of these
SueKam@reddit
Looks really clean! About how long did it take you to get it to this stage?
BobsBug65@reddit (OP)
Thanks. Bought the car 2 years ago. Spent over a year on metal and body work. About 10 months stripping and restoring the chassis to this point.