1. Home
  2. Home Repair
  3. OT. No more Beetles

OT. No more Beetles

VW is ending production of the second version of the Beetle. I remember my dad shaking his head at the first version of those bugs passing us. Forty horsepower is all they had if I remember correctly.

Reply to
Dean Hoffman
Loading thread data ...

I rode in some of the old ones and had to drive one once and did not feel comfortable with practically nothing between me and the road. Nice thing about them was cost less than $1,000 and friend that had one could replace the engine himself. Don't think a lift was even needed.

Reply to
Frank

I rode in one a couple of times and drove one about 50 yards to move it away from a loading dock. I would mind having an old Beetle. The new one was too cutesy and overpriced for my taste with the cachet of a chick car.

Somehow i don't think the I.D. Buzz will be the ride of broke hippie kids and rock a psychedelic paint job, at least not for thirty years of so. Then instead of dealing with worn out engines they can nurse batteries on their last gasp.

Reply to
rbowman

Close, 36. I had a dune buggy built from a 1958 pan that had 14" cut out of the middle and welded back together. With the dune buggy body on it you could go about 55-60 on the highway. If you hopped it up with the 1600cc "squareback" engine it was more like 70. Yes one guy could lift that engine but you needed something or someone to hold it up when you were putting the bolts in. These things also had the infamous carbon monoxide heater. No real heater fan but they took some of the cooling air from the engine and routed it back into the car. They did have threaded fittings on the manifold and cast iron parts to mitigate the CO problem tho. The only problem was sitting at a light when the wind was behind you.

Reply to
gfretwell

The heaters that I remember were "gas heaters" which could throw out just enough heat to keep the winshield clear .. and also had some safety issues. The Bugs had good traction in snow when compared with the old rear-drive boats with bias tires. The pipe-frame < no body > dune buggies that my brother & his friends made were fun - old 1200 cc engines were slow but simple & durable. One guy got a newer VW wagon with the 1500 or 1600 engine - it was a huge difference in power around the fields - bat-out-of-hell compared to the others. 4 bolts, throttle cable, fuel line - to change the engine -

2 guys could do it in about 15 minutes. John T.
Reply to
hubops

When they came out again with the Beetle several years ago, a woman pulled up next to me in one at the post office. I asked her if they were still less than $1,000 and all I got was a blank stare.

Maybe the bug will be revived in a few years. Bugs are hard to kill.

Reply to
Frank

Not as bad as the corvair, which redirected the heated air from the cooling system into the car. At least the VW used fresh inlet air, blownthrough heat exchangers on the exhaust, to heat the car. Getting oil or exhaust fumes into a VW that wasn't rested to pieces was pretty rare.

In a Corvair it was very common (as the pushrod tubes were very prone to leaking oil all over the exhaust)

Reply to
Clare Snyder

The gas heaters were easily capable of driving you out of the car with their heat output when running properly. When not running properly they discharged copious black smoke from the right front wheelwell, and cackled and backfired as well.

Reply to
Clare Snyder

On Fri 09 Mar 2018 05:57:47a, Frank told us...

I owned two Super Beetle Convertibles during the 1960s and loved both of them. Even had air conditioning installed in both of them. The A/C units were actually aftermarket and made in Mexico. The design was such that it looked totally incorporated into the design of the dashboard.

Reply to
Wayne Boatwright

I had a 1949 Splitwindow bug back in 1974 in Zambia. Semaphore signals, cable brakes - with the handbrake operating all 4 wheels with the same cables.

Joked about 45MPH wide open downhill with a tailwind until it "got a breakaway" on the way home to Livingstone from Chobe Botswana on the Naketindi highway. I think I was doing almost 70 by the time it got to the bottom of the hill and I didn't have the courage to step on the brake pedal as one never knew which way it was going to head when the brake was applied, and I didn't want to be surprised at that speed!!!

Didn't need a heater or defroster over there - I think it got as low as 38F one july night

Unlike my Peugeot I didn't need to worry about water getting in when it rained as the floor was pretty well sandbl;assted through in a few spots that let the water out.

Also babysat a Danish friend's mid-sixties bug, "shorty" when he went home on furlough. It had been rolled so he took off the roof, and while he was at it he sectioned it, shotening it about 10 inches.

Had a few interesting experiences hitting loose sand on a corner - I ended up backing out of the corner - thankfully nothing coming the other way.

Lots of other VW experiences in those 2 years - like the heads falling off a 1600, and the motor falling out of the school Kombi, the spline coming out of the rear brake drum, caburetor icing and vapor lock within about 20 minutes or half an hour opn the '49 - Never a dull moment with an air cooled VW in the "bush" of South Central Africa - - -

Reply to
Clare Snyder

HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.