He's my daily driver, and hasn't broken down on me once in the 4 years I've owned him.
I figured I'd finally start a build thread for my beetle.
First a bit of backstory:
Elwood is my second car, my first was a '73 Westfalia Bus, which I got when I was 11!
I actually got the Bus for free from a cool old lady in my neighborhood. She was the Bus's original owner, and after I went and asked her about possibly letting my Dad and I buy it she called me a week later and told me she'd give it to me for free, since she didn't have the time to take care of it.
3 years later, I decided to trade the bus for a Beetle. So put the Bus up for sale on TheSamba.com, and ended up trading for this Beetle.
When I got him, he was a corny car-show cruiser, fuzzy dice and all!
I almost passed on the trade offer, especially since before he sent me any pics, the PO said the car was painted Periwinkel blue!
However, when I saw the engine, I knew I had to have it:
That's an almost new 1776cc turnkey engine! It still had the break-in oil in it when I got it!
After several good tunings and a few repairs I'm proud to say it's the smoothest running, and fastest beetle in Memphis!
Now for future plans:
I'm hoping to seriously work though this little car. I'm planning on running it in historic rallies. And I'll definitely be returning it to its original L87 pearl white/pigalle red interior.
I'm planning on keeping the outside nearly stock, except for fog-lights and a 2" lowering, front and rear.
Underneath however, it's gonna be a little monster!
I'm planning on an IRS conversion, bilstein shocks, 5.5 wheels (painted the stock black/white), a 2110cc engine, and a 915 5-speed. Also I'll be doing full urethane bushing replacement, chromoly steering components, etc, etc, etc.
This is going to be a very fun little rally car when I'm done!
