The rebuilding process had take nearly six years (September of 1988 until August of 1994). I was quite pleased with the way it turned out, if I do say so myself.
The color was called "Twilight Turquoise" and came from a 1972 Buick. When I first purchased the paint and showed my mom the color, she said "You'll never be able to sell it painted that color." Myself, I thought it was a step-up from the previous metallic lime. Once completed, I grew to really like the color.
The rims were 8 spoke Empi running Dunlop low-profile tires. The suspension had been lowered three inches all-around.
The engine was rebuilt to be 1641cc (up from the original 1585cc). It had dual-Weber carbs, a Bosch .009 distributor, hi-ratio rocker arms and a performance exhaust. Bugs are fairly light cars, so with this mild upgrade on the engine it would pull hard enough to slide the ashtray open when you hit second gear.
All of the chrome had either been removed or painted the body color.
The windows were tinted with 30% film in the doors, and limo tint in the rear glass.
Originally Bugs came with a triangular vent window in the doors. I removed these and installed one-piece glass.
When I first bought the Bug, it had a single "elephant ear" mirror on the driver's side. I purchase a pair of sportier mirrors and painted them to match the body color.
Between the lowering kit and the performance exhaust, I found myself having to enter my driveway at quite an angle, otherwise I would scrape terribly on the ground.
After my numerous wrecks, there no longer was a straight piece of sheetmetal on the car except for the rear decklid. I wound up replacing all four fenders and the hood with NOS parts. Both doors were messed up and I tried purchasing new ones, but found that those are hard to locate and expensive. So I wound up fixing the existing doors.
To allow the monstrous chrome bumpers to take paint, I hauled them to a local sandblasting shop to have them scuff the chrome. They also sandblasted the body to remove all of the rust.
These photos were taken with an old Kodak "Instamatic 120" camera that I had received for my 9th birthday. The photos sat in an album for many years until they were scanned. Some of them, like this one, were starting to show signs of age.
I never did care for the huge taillights they put on Bugs starting in 1973 (some federal mandate, I'm sure.)
This photo was taken before I had completed my upholstered rear-shelf. You can see the two 8" subwoofers and the rear mid/high speakers. Three amps and an active crossover were hidden behind the rear seat. Two more mid/high speakers were located in the doors, with everything driven by an Alpine head-unit. With the rear-shelf installed, none of the stereo (except for the head unit) was visible. You sure could hear it, though.
Sorry some of these pictures are so dark. It was an overcast day and the old Kodak wasn't very adaptable.
The interior was done in a light beige which I thought offset the turquoise nicely.
I sewed much of the interior myself, and installed all of it. Those two-years of home economics back in jr. high finally paid off! Although it was quite a jump from sewing a pair of sweatpants to installing a velour headliner.
In this shot, the back seat looks like it has a decent amount of space. It's a camera trick. The front seats are tilted forward. In reality, the back seat of a Bug is really only inhabitable by children or people you hate.
The original steering wheel (14" I believe) was replaced by a smaller 10" one. This made getting in and out of the car much easier, but made turning a little more difficult as there was no power-steering. You can see the performance shifter. It had a very short throw (less than 3") and a t-handle for the reverse lockout.
Looking in from the sunroof, you can get a good look at the center console and see the Autometer tach.
Alas, five years after I completed the project I found myself long on vehicles and short on garage space. I had put so much effort into rebuilding the Bug that I had become afraid to drive it. It spent a lot of time sitting and gathering dust. Cars are meant to be driven and I personally don't have enough resources to maintain a vehicle that isn't put to regular use. So, I made the difficult decision to sell the Bug.
Now at the time, the Internet was a fairly new phenomenon. I came across a website where you could list your car for sale, and I thought, "what the heck? I'll put a pie-in-the-sky price on the Bug, and if someone is willing to pay that amount, great. If not, I'll keep it around." I listed the Bug on Saturday night. On Monday, somebody purchased it for my asking price with no haggling. My last voyage in her was in my uncle's funeral procession earlier that same day.
So as of May 1999 I no longer owned the car that had consumed so much of the previous twelve years of my life. Do I miss the car? I'd be lying if I told you on occasion I didn't.
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This page last updated on 07/11/2018