Abu Dhabi Off-Road Club Forums

I think it's time for me to start making a new toy , This will be a long term project, might take more than one year, turning an ugly scraped car wrongly done by the previous owner into a beauty.

My base car is a VW beetle 1960 convertible .. I've been searching for this car in Egypt for the last 2 years, finally found one for sale (there are only 11 Classic convertible beetles registered in Egypt, 7 originals and 4 converted from Saloon car to a convertible).

I will do my project in Egypt ... There are a lot of saloon beetles in Egypt and it will be easy to find spare parts there ... One of my friends is there and to excited to start the project with me. (He doesn't know what he is getting him self into )

Here are some pictures of the base car: You can see from the pictures that the car was really mis treated ... The previous owner upgraded the body into a 1973 He changed the original 1960 fenders, put a 1976 Engine lid, and a 1971 saloon doors very badly cut into convertible doors (Look at the window work). The roof was re-done at a barber shop I think , he replaced the Original 1.2L Engine with a 1973 1.6L Engine and added a 1976 Dash board. He also changed the bumpers into a 1973 look and finalized his work with the worst wheels selection and an ugly yellow color to end up with the ugliest beetle convertible in the world.

My project is to turn this car into a beauty that looks like this Or This I will start by stripping the car into bare metal .. Return every thing back to original .. Original fenders, original Body parts, original doors and wondows .... fix all the rust in the body and the main chassi panel

Replace the existing front and rear drum brakes into disk brakes

Give it a new roof, new seats, carpets and return the interior to original factory type.

Redo the wiring harness and all the electrical work.

For the Engine .. will have a Geox 2110 Performance Engine that is producing 200HP (I think existing 1.6 is producing 55HP Only)

Performance gearbox and clutch from Geox performance

and an A/C from Gilmore Enterprises (yes, you can fit an A/C into a beetle)

What do you think guys and girls? Give me your views, ideas and pictures

GREAT - I have always fancied a convertible Beetle. We have lots of Beetles in Pakistan but not the convertibles. They really are great cars.

Perhaps I could also embark on such a project once I have fixed up my Merc to the desired level. Right now, it's taking time and costing money, but we'll get there insha Allah, slowly but surely!

Perseverance commands success!!!

My first ever car was a 1973 Beetle (not convertible) and I loved it. I have always had a huge soft spot for Beetles.

This looks a great project and I wish you the best of luck and cannot wait to see all the pics and updates.

Thanks MLC and Tillybean ..

I also owned a 1965 sedan beetle when I was 19 years old (Now I am 22 ) and it was a real fun car, thats why now I decided to buy one again

MLC, when you decide to do a beetle project in Pakistan, I can help you, now I have almost all the data, where to get what from and what are the differences between every model ... Due to non availability of Convertibles in Egypt, I was thinking earlier to convert a sedan into a convertible by chopping the roof off and adding all the original convertible parts into it ...

Thats why I am quite on the forum

I have a nice bicycle good brand. Jeep overland. I can exchange you with the beetle.

WOW ... very nice islam!

Just a small remark : you need to get that little bug to AD when finished ... you will catch much more bugs with this little beauty then!

I noticed a small minor "glitch": your beetle is a chopped off one ... not a original convertible!
Disregarding the wrong doors as you said ... in the original convertible the rear SIDE windows are smaller / start further up!
In other words the chrome side/centerline in the original convertible has more metal above until the window line starts
So ... if you get the "right" doors you need to extend the rear part and find the right rear side windows as well to have one line.

Oh ... and the rear engine hood is not the original 1960 one ...

check out this
http://www.oldbug.com/graden60.htm from here
http://www.oldbug.com/sales.htm

Good Luck and for sure it will become a small GTI killer

Gladiator,
You will never understand ... This is higher than your level of professionalism Just drive your Red Rubicon and listen to your 70s music

I just bought the car SSS, didn't even have the chance to see it yet ... It's in Egypt

You point is valid ... But it's not a chopped off, It's original convertible Chassis but with wrong body parts

This is a 52 years old car ... The previous owner could not locate the correct body parts to replace the original rusted panels ... So he decided to convert the look into the 70's type by replacing the front fenders and front side panels which is different from the 60s ... Accordingly, he replced the doors to match the hight of the front side panels and used a 70s rear quarter of a saloon to finish his lousy job ... If you notice in the front, the driver side have the fuel tank door, the original 1960 fuel tank was inside the front boot (Under the hood) and have no latch from outside

The guy could not complete his job to line up the side quarter with the U Shape and the convertible mechanism, so he had to cut the rear quarter a bit higher at the end ... Look closely behind the rear quarter window, there is an extra metal there .. The original convertible is streight cut

Yes Engine lid is also a 1976 one ... The only original part of this car is the front windshield, the front hood and the chassis.

The main difference between the saloon and the convertible is the support rails welded under the heater channel on the chassis panel ... If this does not exist it means that the car is chopped off Yes, it can be welded, but I do not think that the experience of the previous owner (Seeing what he has done to the car) would lead him to such a very technical detail.

The car is registered in teh traffic as a convertible as well ... Chopped cars are registered as saloon

Check the saloon cars of the 1960s and you will see that the rear quarter panel is also higher than the 70s

A cousin of mine has an old Beetle 1500cc that's been in his mom's family since Adam's but I think it is now just gathering dust. It's a lovely orange colour and I will check if it's still there this time when I get to Lahore. If yes, I might make him an offer!

So I will start the beetle bug Good luck MLC .. And if you wantto chop it off to a convertible ... I can assist you with all the technical data.

Love the pictures, very cool looking car, finished product would look nice in red too

You mean like this Jayne? I already have the color in mind

L I K E !!!!

I see

The Beetle is in good and knowledgeable hands congrats and lovely project!
Will follow this thread with lots of interest

May the bug bug start ... ad2xBug

iguana wrote:You mean like this Jayne? I already have the color in mind

beetle 6.jpg

Stunning colour! Would look great parked at the beach with a surfboard hanging out the back

Jayne wrote:

iguana wrote:You mean like this Jayne? I already have the color in mind

beetle 6.jpg

Stunning colour! Would look great parked at the beach with a surfboard hanging out the back

just put the beetle chassis on top of a tj frame ...
then you wont get stuck on the beach as well