New Member with V8 Convertible beetle project

[zbhover]

Hello, I recently joined this group and I thought I would introduce myself.

I'm 23, married, and live in central IL. I work as an industrial mechanic, I woodwork and also build hovercrafts (lots of fiberglassing experince)

One of my current projects is building a 350 powered 69 convertible beetle.

My wife and I bought the beetle about 9 months ago, she didn't think the 1500 vw engine would have enough power so at first we were planning on putting a small subaru in the back of the beetle. Then one night she said she didn't really want a "whippy" 4cyl in the car and wondered if I could put a v6 in it.

I said if I was going to do all that work we might as well put a 350 in it.......... She said ok so here we are... LOL

The beetle was/is in VERY rough shape, but I'll save it.

I also have the 350 for the project, I picked up a remanufactured 350 with about 5000 miles on it. Its a stock remain from a 77 pickup that I put a performer intake on (got if for $25) so we won't be getting any huge amounts of power from it with its smog heads, dished pistions, and small cam, but It should be plunty reliable and last us a long time being practically new. Maybe after we get the project finished I'll build a more powerfull engine for it for a winter projects or re-do this one???

We are planning on using an s10 for a chassis, but I haven't found a cheap one yet.

So far I got the beetle body pulled off of the chassis and sold the chassis, engine, tranny, etc. The heater channels were rusted through so the car was then in 2 pieces.
Then about a week ago I cut off the front fenders of the car. I'm planing on making new front fenders that will bolt on seperatly like a normal car, I'll probably widen them a little also while I'm at it.

We are also thinking of building a custom hard top convertible for this car too, but I haven't put a whole lot of thought into it yet, but it would let us widen the entire car to give us some more interior room........ And it would be pretty cool too (any input on this idea is welcomed)

I put a few recent pictures in this post, but you can also check out the project on my website at www.zbcreations.com just click on the beetle banner at the bottom.



Now would be the perfect time to decided to build a strech V8 Convertible beetle Limo!!



After a little surgery here arethe front fenders and stuff removed, now I have a beetle in 3 pieces LOL



I also got a new cap, rotor, coil, plug wires, new water pump, painted the alt, etc that I didn't have on yet.


Talk to you all later


bye

[Carmen Dottoli]

Great Idea. Never seen a convertible V8 Bug yet?

[bighoov]

I can say that widening the car is a cool idea .. since I have done mine 12 inches down the center and 4 inches on the fenders gives me 20 inches total widened can seat 3 if I run a bench seat, there is a lot of work to it, but worth it in the end, also if you lived closer , I got a whole s-10 parts truck in my back yard , As far as I know I got the only bug that wide in the world .. hehe , mine was widened to make room for the 500 cid cadillac motor and transaxle assy which is in the rear of the car also.

[zbhover]

I was actually thinking at first about widening the beetle to fit on a cut down full size truck chassis, since I had one from the engine donor, but it was a 3/4 ton and it would have made for a heavy car........

Dec 10, 2008 22:29:09 GMT -5 bighoov said:

I can say that widening the car is a cool idea .. since I have done mine 12 inches down the center and 4 inches on the fenders gives me 20 inches total widened can seat 3 if I run a bench seat, there is a lot of work to it, but worth it in the end, also if you lived closer , I got a whole s-10 parts truck in my back yard , As far as I know I got the only bug that wide in the world .. hehe , mine was widened to make room for the 500 cid cadillac motor and transaxle assy which is in the rear of the car also.