New here and need some opinions!
 

Hi all! I'm new,sorta...I've been lurking for a while now and just decided to pick a new name since I finally got an old beetle of my very own! I didn't post under my other name anyway. So here I am!
I just picked up an old beetle. 1st things 1st. I know my user name is Yellow69 but she isn't yellow right now. She's actually painted almost cyber green like a new beetle but darker. I'm planning on taking her to paint fairly soon. Also...she isnt a 69. She's a 77. 69 is my fave number (and no it's not for perverted reasons! :laugh: ) I'm thinking of painting her reflex or sunflower yellow (More new beetle colors) I always thought that when I got an old beetle I would just have it resto'ed to it's original look but now I'm not so sure. I went to a couple car shows recently and I saw a few german look bugs and I was liking all of them. They were very tastefully done and nowhere near over the top.
I don't want to get too crazy with the look. I'm not going beetle cup racer with her or anything. Maybe just some snazzy wheels and a few tweaks here and there. :p
I was checking out the thread where everyone was giving their opinions on what "German Look" means to them and I still am a bit lost. But like I said...I do want to do the German look as far as wheels but what else can I do to her to make her look a little hotter? Subtle things that don't cost a helluva lot and are easy to do. I'm fairly mechanically inclined for a woman and I can do all the work on her engine myself so I'm good in that area. I'm not so swift when it comes to changing her cosmetically. HELP! Any ideas on wheels or anything else would be greatly appreciated!

Here is a pic of my new toy. I didnt take this pic. The previous owner gave me this. This was from when he was showing her at Englishtown in NJ about 6 years ago. The quality isnt so great since it was scanned into my computer. Her wheels are different now. She has steelies with hub caps...someone told me what they were called and I cant remember. :o Also, the whitewalls are gone.

I'll try to get some more pics up soon.

Congrats on the '77 purchase. Is it a super, or standard bug? I belive 8/77 was the last month for the standard from Germany. So i can't tell from the angel the picture was taken.

Anyway, getting a set of Porsche wheels, and blacking out the trim would be the basics for a GL IMO. You could paint the trim, and bumpers the color of the car instead of blacking it out. Then you could go for brakes and engine mods later.

sweet!

Looks like a standard from looking at the dash. although it is hard to see...

Yup! She is a standard! :agree:
Thanks for the tips! Luckily I know of a recently totalled 911 turbo that I can pick from. Its fairly new and miraculously the wheels have been spared!
This is what they look like:
http://personal.inet.fi/surf/porsche.../wheels/p3.jpg
Now I have to do some more surfing on here to figure out what I need to do as far as mounting em. They're 17s so I hope I'm not going to have a problem with that. They're on low profile rubberband type tires. Can't remember which brand. I think they're Kumhos.
OOhhh this is gonna be fun! :D

For whatever it is worth, the last year for Super Beetle sedans was 1975. The standard Beetles were made in Emden, Germany through 1978 although the last year they were imported into North America was 1977. (One of my favorite Beetles is the Last Edition made for the UK in '78.)

With any conversion you do, it takes planning. Feel free to search. Feel free to ask questions. To utilize Porsche wheels, you are going to change the bolt pattern. That will require making a choice on brakes. Those wheels will also make you choose your front end set-up and the tires you will want. It may even make you ponder on whether you want to keep the stock fenders or go wider.

There are many options. I am not as familiar with standards as I am with Supers so I will not offer one of my own. But plan everything together as they will have to fit with each other together. That means knowing what you already have such as the offset and dimensions of your wheels.

Good luck ... and welcome! :)

Thanks oasis. This could all be alot harder to do if I didn't have alot of guy friends who like get dirty :p And luckily I have alot of resources that I can tap into to make this all somewhat effortless.
I knew about having to change the bolt pattern. That is actually happening tomorrow. The wheels arent going on right away. Theyre going to take everything off, paint her, then put her back together. So hopefully by the end of the week my user name will match my Beetle ;) (I wont be driving her right away to allow time to do more research on the whole wheel/fender thing. Brakes are already taken care of! )
I was actually thinking of color matching the lip of the Porsche wheels with the body color but I dont know. If I decide I want to get rid of them later on then that might make it hard to do so.
I have a friend who does fabricating for his friends (used to be in the hot rod biz) and he told me he would teach me to weld and I could take advantage if all his fabricating equip. so maybe I can come up with some custom fenders of my own...I don't know. This weekend I will be scouring some junk yards for some fenders to play with and practice on. Who knows? Maybe my practice fenders will come out good enough to put on! :D
Anyway...I appreciate all the advice! Keep it coming..if ya got more! :agree:

oasis, i think you meant to say super beetles were made from '71-'79 for the US market. The standard beetle was made from '48-8/77;) this is strait from "the book". The last few years were super only and convertibles only.

Welcome. Those wheels look good. Nice looking car also. For what it's worth. Germanlook doesn't always mean Porsche wheels. They're limited to wheel selection. And very costly, but anything with "Porsche" on it seems to cost more. In my opinion of course. :)

My opinion about your front wheels is; the better thing is to get widder fenders or widden them yourself. A narrowed front suspension will take away form drive-ability. Some people have used narrowed beams and like them, I tried it and I hated it. No turning radius at all.

There is a lot of advice and know-how on this forum. Feel free to ask questions. Try to use the search too, that's a good source of info. Good Luck. :D Don't forget the moto, "Form Follows Function".

From the May 1980 issue of Safer Motoring:
As readers are probably aware, VW model years start after the works holiday in August of the preceeding year i.e. 1978 models were produced from August 1977 onwards. Our own ‘Last Edition’ Beetle, chassis number 1182001585 was first registered on January 14 1978 but, far more important, actually manufactured by Volkswagenwerk’s plant at Emden on August 24 1977. It is reasonable to assume that the other UK-bound 1200 Ls were produced at around this time. Indeed production was due to finish completely in mid-December 1977, but a last minute extra order from Japan meant that production continued until January 19 1978.

I don't know what "the book" is but perhaps it is referring to US-bound Beetles. I have other sources or just do a Google search on "Volkswagen Beetle Emden." January 19, 1978, is a universally accepted date. I chose the above because it is the only source stating Japan got the last ones.

January 10, 1980, is the last date for Super convertibles from the Karmann factory. Interestingly, they are considered 1979 models even though some were built side-by-side to 1980 Golf-based Cabriolets.

guys lets not argue. i love that car! it looks almost show condition. im not really a germanlook kinda guy because of the exspence of all the parts that gointo a full on gl.so the point i was getting at is love your car and sorry i cant help.

IMHO, any car, especially Bugs, need a suspension lowering as a #1 priority! Nothing makes a car badder and nicer - compared with the effort - than a lowering job. So if you are going wild with Porsche wheels, I'd check carefully how much lowering the rims, tires and fenders will allow... just my 0,50 Swedish Kronors :cool:

Thank you all SOOO much! I can tell that later on your bug wisdom will be quite valuable to me.
Thanks for the compliments also. She is in show condition and I am quite lucky to have gotten her for the price I did. She was hardly ever driven from the day she was born. The prev owner trailered her to all her showings...get this....She has only around 15,000 miles. Her original owner was an older couple and they only used her on the weekends.
I wont even tell you what I got her for. You'd puke! :p

Yes oasis i was only talking about the US models.
This is what i was refering to oasis. You said that the last year for the super was in '75? Not trying to make waves here:o just wondering about last super in '75.

Well...my dream is over. My bug was stolen from the paint shop the other day! :bawling: No leads or anything. I think she's gone forever!

damn dude!!!!!! keep us up-to-date

That is indeed awful news. I hope your situation gets resolved or at least partially resolved. :(

Did you bring the car to the shop as a customer or is a "friend" doing the paint for you? It sounds like thier bad. Good luck let us know..JR

A friend was doing the painting for me. He feels so horrible. It was his fault. He left her outside all night because he had "more important" cars to keep inside. :rolleyes: I dont know what the hell to do about this. :mad: I had basic insurance on her and when she was all finished I was going to register her as a "collectible" and have theft added to her. Now I get nothing unless I get her back somehow. I guess it pays to have friends all over the place. I have a couple friends in the local police department and they're checking into it. I have a bad bad feeling about this though. Her paint was stipped so she could be any color now! :bawling:
Thanks for all the comments and sympathy. I'll keep you all posted.

Really sad news. IMO this was the dumbest thing to do(regarding your friend)... leaving a stripped car outside (from colour that is...). Hope things take a big turn towards the other way, and you will be with her again and we can see her evolving in your hands...

Chris

Update:
I got a call from the Pennsylvania State Police today saying they found my car! So I called my dad and told him to go check it out. I don't live in PA (yet) but my family does and I kept the car up there so she could be garaged and I know alot of people up there who were willing to do alot of the work I wanted done really cheap because they are friends of the family, including the doofus who's fault it is that shes gone. Let me just say this. Whatever trooper it was that was "found" my car is an idiot! It wasnt her! He found a stripped beetle wherever, at this point I dont care where because it wasnt mine. My dad went and looked and said it wasnt even a '77! Friggin' idiots! :mad: I got all excited and the man who the car did belong to was PISSED! He didnt have the proper documentation to prove it was his car and the stupid trooper didnt even bother to check the VIN! :rolleyes: I think he may have gone to the Barney Fife policemans academy. Whatever...I called him up and ripped him a new one and told him the next time he calls me to tell me he "found my car" he better make sure it's MY CAR!!
Ugh...I know it's only been a few days but I've already lost hope. She's probably out of the state by now. I wouldnt be suprised if she was hundreds of miles away already :bawling:

last update:

She's been found. Well, part of her anyway. Just her shell, minus everything you could remove from the inside and underside, was found this weekend in a field. :bawling: So...It's back to the drawing board. I still haven't decided if Im going to keep her, or what's left of her, or just sell her and get a whole Beetle. Either way it will be a while before I have a whole bug again :( I don't have the time or money to run out and buy another one or rebuild the one I have.

Thanks for all the nice posts. I really appreciate it and when it doesnt hurt so much I'll be back to check out everyone else's Beetles. :(

That really stinks. It's sad to think those people are in our hobby. I'm glad to see you got something back. I wish it could have been more. :(

Please don't give up on having a vw. :agree:

That just flat out SUX! I'm sorry that it had to happen to you! If the tables were turned and that was my car....I doubt I would have the restraint that you are exhibiting. Nope! I'd be in jail and someone would "maybe" wash up on the bank of some river somewhere wrapped in a tarp with what was left of my car crammed in every orifice! They wouldn't need CSI either because I would carve my name and address in his forehead!:eek: Whoa!! Damn, I was living vicariously through you for a second and couldn't control my rage!
But seriously I feel like crap because this has happened to you! I know this car meant a lot to you. But PLEASE don't give up all together! Keep the shell. Northeastern rust-free VW parts are hard to find! Start over with a fresh pan and drive train. It doesn't have to be done over night. You can take your time and build a kick-butt GL looker with the changes YOU want to make. But I think I would invest in a LOJAC or some other fancy schmancy theft deterrent system. Now I'm not one to condone violence...OK excessive violence.....Well, when it comes to my car the gloves are off!:p You need one of these!!! Click on the link!
HOT car theft deterrent!

I know! I saddens me to think people like that can even go anywhere near VWs! I think owning a VW, especially a Beetle, is like adopting a child; People should have to go through extensive interviewing and background checks before they can own one :mad: Serioulsy!
And thanks for the comment. I definitely will not EVER give up on owning another old Beetle...ever! I love them too much. They were a big part of my childhood and thats something not too many people want to forget, if it was good.

Thank you ;) I needed that.
That one is almost as entertaining as the trunk monkey! :laugh:
And I know what you're saying about keeping the shell...Im probably going to keep it but we'll see. Im going to need to do ALOT of work and I don't know if I can do it all on my own. Im sure I could get some help, but not the amount of help I'll need. My dad was all for tinkering with her but a full on rebuild was not on his agenda.