Look what followed me home on Friday night... Baja Bug content

[unclebilly]

I bought this 60 beetle with a 70/71 dual port 1600 engine on Friday night. It s really solid. It has a few minor issues but it otherwise really nice.

This is my first vw Bug...





I spent most of today sorting out a few things. I ordered some odds and ends for it... parts for these are so cheeeeeep.

[rcooled]

Looks pretty nice! Here's a link to TheSamba...most anything you'll need to know about your car can be found in these forums. Good classified section for parts too.

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/

[GH85Carrera]

My first car was a 1960 Bug. Whopping 36 hp was a real tire burner. It was the base model and did not even have a gas gage. I bought it for 600 bucks, and sold it two years later for 600 bucks. It was 100% stock.

[nvr2mny]

Very cool. Lots of great hs memories in one of those bugs! Congrats.

[herr_oberst]

Woot!

[Racerbvd]

Very cool, I had a 64 baja, no where near as nice as yours.

[ckissick]

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

My first car was a 1960 Bug. Whopping 36 hp was a real tire burner. It was the base model and did not even have a gas gage. I bought it for 600 bucks, and sold it two years later for 600 bucks. It was 100% stock.

My first "real" car was a '60 bug too, and I paid $600 for it!
If it was sold in the US it was probably the Deluxe model, not the base model.
The Standard (base) VW had painted bumpers, hubcaps, and door handles; cable brakes; the seat didn't have a slide to adjust it fore and aft. Only 2 fuses in the fuse box.

[rfuerst911sc]

Congrats ! Very nice charcoal color and I like the black accents on the hood and rear fenders . It looks naked without rocker bars that would complete the look . Nice touch with the roof rack . Enjoy

[drcoastline]

Very cool.

[BK911]

That's cool. Well done!
Yup, part prices are relatively stoopid cheap, and many can be found at the FLAPS.
Part way through a project but still need that widget?
Drive to advanced auto, pick it up.
No need to order and wait a week.

[Seahawk]

You won the weekend!

Glen, seems we had the same VW!

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

My first "real" car was a '60 bug too, and I paid $600 for it!
If it was sold in the US it was probably the Deluxe model, not the base model.
The Standard (base) VW had painted bumpers, hubcaps, and door handles; cable brakes; the seat didn't have a slide to adjust it fore and aft. Only 2 fuses in the fuse box.

The car I had was sold to some Air Force officer in Italy originally. My dad talked about the first time he encountered a VW in the mid 1960s. One of his pilot buddies was in the hospital from intestinal issues. He had driven himself to the hospital. Dad when to see him and the guy asked if dad would take the car home to his garage for him. Of course he said sure.

It was parked facing a wall so dad hopped in and tried every possible position to get reverse. No luck, so he got a couple of guys walking past to push him back and dad drove it home, assuming the POS did not have a reverse gear. When dad talked the the VW owner he said oh yea, I forgot, you have to push down on the shifter to get reverse.

We had a 57 bug in Hawaii in 1970. To get up the hill to Tripler hospital it required first gear and no way to upshift. Traffic always backed up behind us.

[wdfifteen]

Looks like a ton of fun - and just in time for summer! I like the paint job!

My experience with FLAPS (NAPA) is that you need to look up the part you want on line and call and see if they have it. They charge shipping if it isn't in stock at the local warehouse. I wanted shock absorbers for my '65 and NAPA has some "will fit" gas shocks for $30 each plus $18 shipping to the store.
Wolfsburg West had OE type shocks for less money and less shipping.

There seem to be four levels of parts quality out there, so you have to be careful.
OG (original German) is the gold standard
Brazilian made OE parts are the next best
US aftermarket manufacturers can be good or terrible so be careful
Chinese parts are all over the place and they are junk.

If you can rebuild, restore, or otherwise salvage a used OG part you are better of that with any of the others.

Spend some - no A LOT - of time reading threads on The Samba to find out what is good and what is junk. Even well respected suppliers like WW can ship you poor quality parts if you aren't careful.
The suppliers I've used are Wolfsburg West - great parts, good customer service
Jbugs - VERY uneven parts quality. Some good stuff at great prices and some cheap trash. Buy with caution.
FLAPS - uneven fit and quality, expensive.

[recycled sixtie]

Congrats on the purchase UncleB. It looks in great shape. My best of 3 bugs was the earliest namely the 1958 VW bought in 1965. Bought it for $200 and sold it $200 a year later. Gutless but totally reliable. I still miss it now but old Beetles in good shape cost big $$. Cheers, Guy

[porsche4life]

Originally Posted by wdfifteen

Looks like a ton of fun - and just in time for summer! I like the paint job!

My experience with FLAPS (NAPA) is that you need to look up the part you want on line and call and see if they have it. They charge shipping if it isn't in stock at the local warehouse. I wanted shock absorbers for my '65 and NAPA has some "will fit" gas shocks for $30 each plus $18 shipping to the store.
Wolfsburg West had OE type shocks for less money and less shipping.

There seem to be four levels of parts quality out there, so you have to be careful.
OG (original German) is the gold standard
Brazilian made OE parts are the next best
US aftermarket manufacturers can be good or terrible so be careful
Chinese parts are all over the place and they are junk.

If you can rebuild, restore, or otherwise salvage a used OG part you are better of that with any of the others.

Spend some - no A LOT - of time reading threads on The Samba to find out what is good and what is junk. Even well respected suppliers like WW can ship you poor quality parts if you aren't careful.
The suppliers I've used are Wolfsburg West - great parts, good customer service
Jbugs - VERY uneven parts quality. Some good stuff at great prices and some cheap trash. Buy with caution.
FLAPS - uneven fit and quality, expensive.

Check out California Import Parts. They stock pretty much everything for old bugs. Same warnings on part quality, but with careful reading of reviews I got good stuff.

Congrats on the bug! Such fun little cars! I miss mine!

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

My first car was a 1960 Bug. Whopping 36 hp was a real tire burner. It was the base model and did not even have a gas gage. I bought it for 600 bucks, and sold it two years later for 600 bucks. It was 100% stock.

Try 36 hp in a 63 Crewcab pick-up!

$275 in 1984.

[look 171]

My Porsche wrench just finished his third Baja race in his Baja bug. he's been around air cool cars for a long time. Transmission want about 400 miles into the race, install another and finished second. His and his son are drivers. All done in his little shop and a whole bunch of black yard mechanics that chipped in their time. That lil' motor (built) with all of 75 hp did the trick and survived. Tough little cars.

[look 171]

I forgot to say, yours is really, really clean compared to his beat up old Bug.

[DaveE]

I had a ‘70 for many years. It was single port. I think ‘71 was the first year of the dual port heads.