There is a group of scooter heads that meets near my home and goes on group rides....... There must be 40 or more of them, It's very cool to see. It makes me think of the Mods vs Rockers in Quadrophenia.

The older two stroke Vespas smell fantastic as most of them are tricked out and burning Castrol R race oil.

My friend and I were going to start a scooter gang called "The President's Choice".

(For the Americans, think "Sam's Choice")

The angry beetle is starting to look a bit more beetley-









I filled all the trim holes and antenna hole (with steel), replaced the rear 1/4 panels (again, steel), filled the turn signal holes in the front fenders (flush mounting turn signals in the front bumper), the entire floorpan has been coated in POR-15. Re-did the Porsche dash panel I grafted in (Wasn't happy with the original, although I don't have a photo of the new version yet), and have most of the car coated in epoxy primer now. The one door and the trunk lid haven't been primed because I have better ones to use that just weren't at the shop. Currently on the hunt for some nice sporty bucket seats to adapt to the thing.

I'm also redoing the Porsche gauges I'm using in the car- split them apart to polish the glass, repainting the needles (the same colour, they're just faded), installing LED backlighting and LED warning lights).

Next comes the engine (which I really need to start building!) and lowering...



^This is kind of an example of the look I'm going for when this car is done. Not entirely what I'll be doing (or it wouldn't be my car!) but this pic is of one of my favourite custom Beetles.

I envy you for the fact that you have space to restore/build cars. Seriously.

Sweet shop setup! Is that a land cruiser or patrol variant I see in front of the beetle?

Posted by Samurai i just noticed... your speedo is mph, but your coolant temp gage is in Celsius.

I had a gauge cluster for my M3 that did the same, bought it from a euro-spec car in the UK. Ended up swapping in a fahrenheit temp gauge from a different year. Was quit the sweet cluster. Then I sold the car.

Posted by cavemonkey Sweet shop setup! Is that a land cruiser or patrol variant I see in front of the beetle?

Good eye! '84 Land Cruiser FJ40, gas... a friend's project. Actually, the friend who owns the shop- It's not my shop but I have full access to it (since it's tough to restore cars in an apartment)

Posted by bandi Good eye! '84 Land Cruiser FJ40, gas... a friend's project. Actually, the friend who owns the shop- It's not my shop but I have full access to it (since it's tough to restore cars in an apartment)

Someday I need to make it up north and pick up a diesel Yota. Cruiser or pickup doesnt matter to me. There are some down here but are few and far between.

There aren't many around here, either... they seemed to return to the soil by the late 80s.

Spent a few hours tweaking the rear apron today, it had a very slight wow in it that was driving me nuts.





Oh, and the FJ-40 is just about ready to rock.


(aka Toyota Jeep)

Where does one purchase fender-beading these days? Can it even be done? Actually thinking about it Scott's Old Auto Rubbers probably still has it... Nice work regardless! Neko.

Thanks Neko!

The beading is still widely available from about 20 different suppliers, actually. Including Volkswagen. Save for some split window parts, you can still get basically anything for aircooleds.

Gone are the days then when the only place to buy stuff for air-cooled was the wrecker or West Coast Metric. Neko.

Posted by Kuroneko Gone are the days then when the only place to buy stuff for air-cooled was the wrecker or West Coast Metric. Neko.

i remember JCWhitney was the Beetle source when we were kids. My friend had, as i've mentioned before, a 72 SuperBeetle that we went through hell and back with. I think I loved that car more than he did!

Posted by Kuroneko Gone are the days then when the only place to buy stuff for air-cooled was the wrecker or West Coast Metric. Neko.

This is still the case with the stuff I play with. World wide junkyard search for pieces and parts. If the parts are located its bought sight unseen because of the rarity. Currently looking for a Turret Traverse hydraulic motor and we are striking out in the US and Europe. The fun part isn't the wrenching(still fun as hell), its the hunt for parts or more vehicles to save.

Posted by cavemonkey The fun part isn't the wrenching(still fun as hell), its the hunt for parts or more vehicles to save.

Indeed it is! I care not about what, just like anything being saved...

This is so true- finding missing pieces for my '52 Bug has been a pretty great experience. I've had fantastic luck and I've met some pretty cool people in the VW scene doing so.

P1080817 by itsbudda, on Flickr

Washed the salt off

sweet daytona

Thanks. It really will be if I can ever get it to run right. It's a basket case. Lee Iacocca would cringe if he saw the wiring. Sure looks pretty though.