Old VW's

J

jackknife

Joined
Oct 2, 2004
Messages
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Anyone here who still has a love of, and drives old beatles from the 60's? I'm not talking about the later stuff like the super beatle, but the ones from 1967 and before. The old 1200's and 1300's. Okay the '67 1500 was a good one too, maybe the last of them.

Some of the old European stuff was so neat to screw around with, like the old 3 cylinder 2 stroke Saab's, bug eye sprites. Plus they were so easy to work on-If you had an adjustable wrench and a screw driver you could do almost anything. Plus they had a feel to them. Now everything in the car seems to be plastic, and forget about getting under the hood on a Sunday morning and "tweaking" it a bit.

Yes I know that modern cars are far more reliable, I have a Toyota Tacoma and the wife has a Honda Element. We love them for what they are, but thier about as much fun as a microwave oven. Its still a kick for me to Fire up my old bug and take a drive in something that sounds mechanical, I have to shift myself, and roll up my own windows with a crank.

Okay, old farts ramble over, I know its the 21st century. (D--m it!)
 
Not VW's, but I do prefer old vehicles. Pre 73 everything for me.
 
At one time or another, I owned 5 Beetles. First was a 1954 (no kidding!) model that my buddy and I bought for 50 bucks in Germany circa 1965.

I had a nice used '66, a brand-new '68, a 73 Super, and a '75 convertible with the dreadful sortof-electronic fuel injection.

Have to admit I loved the little guys. Deathtraps in a crash, and requiring constant maintenance, but still a fun car with lots of character.
 
Honestly, I can't believe those things are street legal. I can't count the number of times I've been stuck behind some hippy's MicroBus on a mountain pass because the POS wasn't capable of driving the speed limit. :mad:

I do recall that some neighbor girls had a Bug when we were in high school. They were jackin' around in a field or something, doing donuts maybe, and the Bug rolled over, the back window popped out, and the girls fell out. No one was seriously hurt, but with the narrow wheelbase and high center of gravity, the rollover was inevitable.

Helped some guys change the engine out of a VW van one time. Unscrewed thee long bolts, dropped the engine onto a milk crate, and lifted the soup-can van over the milkcrate. Took fifteen minutes or less. :)

Best Wishes,
-Bob
 
jackknife said:
Love the bus.

Is that another one of yours in the background across the street? A grey bug.
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Holy crap, bionic man!

I love old vws. I live in the land of retired Vdubs. The guy down the street has a '65 beetle, and a split window crew cab pickup. Yesterday at the gas station I saw another late-ish 60's ragtop transporter, black and lowered with empi 8s on it. Most kids I grew up with built or hotrodded them, as they are the poor man's hotrod, for sure. There is a dofference between a badly maintained bus crawling up a hill and a 1776 turbo bug. @ guys I knew when I was in High school could wheelie thier cars (sqareback and a bug), but they owned or worked at a custom vw engine shop.


BTW, sweet boxer-I have 2.
 
My mother bought a VW bug in 1971, it was actually a 1972 model, I believe assembled in Mexico with a German motor, she gave it to me in 1974 after I finished college. I had it for over 20 years and three turns of the Km meter, it was a nice car that wouldn't leave you down, If you carried spare tire, jack, tire and spark plug wrench, slip joint pliers, flat and Phillips screwdrivers, 10/13 mm wrench, point file, extra condenser, bobbin and generator band (are those the correct terms in English?) you could fix on the spot almost any problem and get going.

I once drove a VW bus from Queretaro to Nuevo Laredo, that wasn't so bad if you don't mind going slow. I also once drove one about two weeks on a field trip around the state of Oaxaca, sometimes I felt like climbing the hills in reverse to get enough power.

Luis
 
Don Luis said:
My mother bought a VW bug in 1971, it was actually a 1972 model, I believe assembled in Mexico with a German motor, she gave it to me in 1974 after I finished college. I had it for over 20 years and three turns of the Km meter, it was a nice car that wouldn't leave you down, If you carried spare tire, jack, tire and spark plug wrench, slip joint pliers, flat and Phillips screwdrivers, 10/13 mm wrench, point file, extra condenser, bobbin and generator band (are those the correct terms in English?)
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Yes, the are correct, but I think That the "band" for the generator is generally referred to as a belt, stateside.
 
Baja Bug. She's a relic of a bygone age. In the 70s nobody thought twice about cutting up '65 and few of them survived. Total Frankenstein's monster. Single port 1600, dual megaphones, remote oil cooler in the roof scoop, oil filter bolted to the side, tube steel rear bumper, 235s in the back and 205s up front. So if you're in Southern California and see a black/tan Bug that makes you go "What the f...?" honk and wave, that's me.

Frank
 
My dad used to own one (don't know model) 40 years ago and we all (2 adults,3 kids) used to ride to Fla. from Tenn. in it, very cramped to say the least, under hood was loaded with suit cases and clothes.

I remember sleeping sitting up for what seemed to be an eternity driving on that interstate with all windows open, maximum speed was probably about 50 if we had wind behind us.....:D



Robbie Roberson;)
 
My first car was a left hand drive 1959 beetle registered in Switzerland. I re-registered it in the UK, so it has the registration number of a 'new' car, FAR 120K it was. Funny how you remember old reg numbers. I wonder whereabouts WTO 127J my Kawasaki H1 is? I thought it was the first year with the one-piece rear window, but the 55 model in the pic has too? It would do exactly 70 MPH, uphill, downhill, it didn't matter. It has the lever inside for gas off, gas on, and gas reserve tank. I only ran out once. It was originally grey, and I sprayed it rallyfleck peacock blue.

My mother had VWs from 1200, 1300 to the 1302s (1600 - I think), through 411s, Karman Ghias, and Passats before she worked for Land Rover and got staff discount.
 
Andrew Taylor said:
It would do exactly 70 MPH, uphill, downhill, it didn't matter.
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Yeah, they would do that. My owners manual for my '66 bug kisted the top speed of the 1300 as 81mph. And that is exactly what it would do, not one mile more, or less. Exept on very long steep upgrades out west like Wolf Creek pass in Colorado. I do remember using 3d gear alot out there.
 
My Lincoln cruises Wolf Creek Pass at the speed limit without even dropping out of Overdrive (automatic trans). Wolf Creek is not a power-challenging climb. A good climb for power-testing is I70 climbing West out of Denver to the Eisenhower Tunnel - traffic moves at 80+ mph and elevation is much higher than Wolf Creek. Speed limit on Wolf Creek is low too.

For a nearby climbing challenge, the steep section of the Raton Pass on the Colorado side. Not too high, but steep. And there's no place for cops to sit, so you can really let 'er rip. Cops don't bother to check for speeders on the uphill sections anyway. :) Vrrmmmmm!!

-Bob
 
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