1970 beetle

[85burb]

I have been in the 73-87 section for a few years and all over the ls swap section. I have wanted another bug for years now. I had 2 74s, and a 67. sold the 74s in high school and 67 was stolen in az. Found this one in a local ad and had to have it. kind of rough but I like the style on it. I liked the two tone and the wheels. It also came with rebuilt motor never even been installed. Put that in today with a new clutch set. Body needs one of everything, breaks, suspension, wiring. It is a project for sure but what isn't? My plans are to get it moving under its own power and go from there. Breaks hold fluid now that the master cylinder is connected to the reservoir. It steers now that is actually has a steering coupler to connect steering shaft to steering box. Old one was completely missing. Hope next week end I can start it. Waiting on one more box to come in of stuff I ordered like shifter bushings and fuel line. any ways here is a few pics.

[Kerry P]

Looks like a good start. My first car was '70 Bug, wish I had kept it.

[85burb]

My first car was a 74. Wish i kept it too. Put 88 mm pistons and cylinders and cb performance heads on it. Then alt didnt charge and i could not figure it out so i traded it for the biggest pile of car ever. A 72 nova that was a complat junker.

[85burb]

I got it running. po put the distributor drive gear in a tooth off. so that made getting it started really hard. I got it started and found the carb was leaking. ordered a kit for it and found the accelerator pump bolts were too long and that is why it leaked. got that fixed and then it ran pretty good. Could not get it to suck fuel from the tank so I pulled the tank and replaced the fuel line and put a new filter under it. still could not get fuel out of the line in the engine bay. had a cold in the tube. fixed that and it flows great now. Today I cleaned up the wiring in the engine bay. looks a lot better now.

[Kerry P]

The engine bay looks a lot nicer than mine did back in '73.

[85burb]

Thanks!

[Kerry P]

What's the plan for the outside? I'd drop it about 1-2 inches and go red with flames. I need to stop thinking about it. My wife would kill me If I brought up the idea of another project.

[85burb]

I am not sure what the plans are for the paint. Not real sure what the plans are for the car. So far just running and driving.

[alsriv2]

Very cool project. I had a '68 swing axle up in northern Maine when I was stationed up there for the Air Force.
That car had good bones as it was originally from Florida. My wife wants another one, but I am not ready quite yet to make that happen.

Someday...

[85burb]

Did a full brake job on it last week and drove it for the first time. Just down my street but it was great. Picking up 4 new tires for it today. Will post new pics.

[Russell Ashley]

Seeing your 70 VW brings back memories of a 70 That I had. It was a fun little car and sometimes I wish I still had it. Here is a pic of it. It was tricked out well, with 88MM cylinders, dual port heads, Scat exhaust, a Scat oil pump with a spin-on filter, Hurst shifter, and more. It had flared fenders and I had the wheels widened to match the fender flair. I also put a Karmen Ghia front suspension with disc brakes in it, which is a bolt in upgrade. I also had a 69 bug. Beetles were not actually very good cars IMO, but people loved them for some reason.

[85burb]

That bug looks nice. All the ones I have had except this one were great cars. I had a all original 67 bug and drove it for a year or year and a half and never had a single issue. Up until the day it was stolen it was a great car. This one the previous owners messed it up pretty bad. It took me a few mouths to drive it. Took it out on a real road to day to test the new tires out and it did ok. Probably been 4-5 years since it was driven last.

[85burb]

New tires in the back of my burb. and one pic in middle of test drive and one in garage.

[85burb]

got some work done one the ole bug. installed seat belts, wipers, new oil pressure switch, side mirror, and hood latch. also fixed the break lights again. think I have got it ready for a safety inspection. hope I can pass and make this my daily driver. I love the burb but the bug has to do better on gas. burb gets 14-15 mpg and bug has to do better then that. If not I have a serious issue.

[85burb]

YAY!!!!!!!! Passed saftey inspection today!!!!!! It is now my daily driver!

[Kerry P]

Good deal. Let us know how it does for mileage.

[85burb]

Well it's been a rough road so far. Drove great the first day. Second day I may or maynot have over revved it slowing down from forth to third or a valve stuck and number 3 exhaust push rod came out. The wife came and picked me up from work for lunch and drove the suburaban back to work. After work I inspected the motor cause It was knocking really loud and found the pushrods out. Put it back in and it ran great. Next day I adjusted the valves at lunch and drove the bug home. Ran great. Friday I drive the burb home and a friend at work gave me a ride to work so I could drive burb home. Sat came around and tried to drive the bug to work. Fail. Choked to death on rust in the fuel tank. Plugged the outlet and the filter. Was stuck on side of the road and had to have the wife tow me home with the burb. Drove the burb to work sat and pulled the tank and pulled handfuls of rust and crap out of tank. Not worth cleaning and sealing. Gonna need a new tank. Hope I can get one soon cause the bug was getting great mileage. Put two gallons in and 40 miles later the fuel gauge had bearly moved.

[ssxty8]

My first car was also a VW, a 61 Beetle. One funny/frustrating story I never forget about it is; as some of you may know, the 61 didn't came from the factory with a gas gauge. You had to figure out by looking thru the gas cap, under the hood/trunk?, and/or introducing some kind of scale(piece of wood) in it. Well, I had this car for my entire high school years, (76-79) and got stranded several/lots of times due to lack of fuel. Yes, I never became good at estimating the remaining fuel in the tank. One day I gave a ride to a Friend of mine, who used to have a lot of VWs, and when I was driving up hill, the car started to do the usual jerks as it became out of fuel "again", that's when I noticed my friend bend over under the dash, and moved what he said to me was the reserve level. Know what??? That mother flower had a small kinda bent 3/8" pipe, like 2" long at the center of what we call firewall close to the floor, and when you move it to the right, you had like an extra gallon of fuel on the reserve. Incredible, after several years of getting out of fuel, I never imagined that thing was the holly reserve. BTW, you had to remember to return it to the center after you put gas, or the next time is going to be for real.
My advise: put a hose clamp on all the fuel lines, and keep a clutch & throttle cable in the glove box.
BTW, my brother have nice 68 for around 30 years now.

[85burb]

I have all new German cloth covered fuel line and a clamp at ever connection. I have also replaced the factory throttle cable with a so called bullet proof one from cbperformance. The clutch cable looks new but someone has cut a hole in the side of the tunnel so if it ever does break it will be a easy fix. I had a 67 for well over a year and never had one single issue with it. With the jerks would have not stolen it and stripped it. Was the best bug I ever had. All original except the stinger and tack I put in. Was a one owner car.

[85burb]

Lots has happened sence the last update. Car has been good. I put a holley bugspray carb on it from back in the day. Picked up a few more hp. But runs way better over all. Also picked up a one owner all original numbers matching 59 beetle. Runs and drives. Just needs tires. Will post pic.

[ERASER5]

So what kind of mileage does the bug get? My boss just got a 67 bug. He is stoked.

[85burb]

It gets 29-31 mpg mixed driving

[Kerry P]

I couldn't just keep watching anymore, I bought one on ebay. Should have a '69 here next week.

[85burb]

They are fun cars. They bring smiles to all the kids faces you pass in other cars.

[85burb]

Here is the 59