Based on what I've read on here, most of you appear to be loyal to keeping the cars as original as possible, and I commend and appreciate that. I too used to be that way and have restored several other autos to original condition. This 66 however will be different, and I hope you can appreciate that as well. My background is in mechanical and electrical engineering and as such, I like to make a lot of my own custom parts. My previous ride was a 2004 Toyota Spyder that I ordered new and had built to my specifications and shipped over from Japan. Those cars were very nice, but had very little available as far as aftermarket support. I designed, built and sold internationally a whole host of parts for those cars over the 5 years I owned it. My designs and ideas have always been to make something that looks or functions better than the original or never existed, but make it appear to be a factory option. I sold it last August, because I had done about every thing I could think of and had gotten a little board with it.
Thus the new project. I searched for several months looking for a solid VW with a decent price, knowing I would be completely redoing it. This was not that easy. I wanted a 1966 or older, as I've always liked the early design VW's better. To find a solid base car reasonable was difficult, because most have already been semi-redone and I did not want to pay for new restoration parts I would not use.
I finally found my 66 in Garner, NC in Oct. and drove it home the 2 hour drive in a driving windy rain storm (actually remnants of a hurricane that came up through Texas) with wipers that barely ran (thank goodness for Rainex) and no brake or turn signal lights. This was on a Weds. That Sunday the car was sitting comfortably in my garage completely disassembled, pan off restoration already started.
I loved my previous bugs, but I am at the point where I want comfort and modern conveniences. This car will be a 66 VW but with 2010 technology. As of today the chassis is completely done, with a custom 4" narrowed front beam and complete air ride suspension from Pete Skiba, Badd series disk brakes with drilled rotors and wilwood calipers in front and VW calipers with E-brake in the rear. All stainless brake lines, all urethane replacing mounts, bushings, etc. New steering box, all new spindles, ball joints, tie rods, etc. Pro-street close ratio transmission, with new heavy duty axles, all new cables, bearings etc. Foose Legend wheels 18" in the rear and 17" in the front will round it out. Nothing has been left untouched, and either replaced or restored. I'm lucky enough to have a large blast cabinet and powder coat capability, so restoring some of the parts I want to retain is easy.
The body is my next step and it will be updated with all new modern electrical wiring, (spade fuses, relays, etc) power windows, door locks, alarm system with remote entry, and a full compliment of gauges by vintage gauges, etc. I plan to install electric heat and air conditioning all current technology. The interior will be from "Sew Fine" and I am building a 2110 cc stroker motor, so the car will still have good power even with the air running. My color will be a dark burgandy maroon with a two tone camel and tan interior. I was hoping to get it pretty much finished by summer this year, but recently had surgery that side lined me, so now I'm off schedule by a month or more. Anyway here are a couple of pictures.
The night I got it home:
And four days later:
And about a month ago:
I'll post more of the restoration in the restoration forum. Sorry for the long winded introduction.
