Garage Sale Specials

01.31.2009

I have been keeping on eye on "bug parts" on our local craigslist and have come across some helpful items in our restoration process...

BUMPERS

The first item was a set of front and rear bumpers off the same 1969 beetle that became a baja and donated its rear fenders to our cause.  They are showing their age, but still sound enough to get us on the road.  The front bumper was too far gone to save the chrome, so I painted the bottom half of it satin black. Also, because the super beetles are wider in the front, we had to use the wider set of mounting points on the blade (this must have been a replacement bumper - it had both sets of bolt holes in place).   Here it is as Stephen turns around his sister's car in the driveway.

SEATS

The next find was a set of seats from a guy up in Bonnie Lake.  He was restoring a 71 Super Beetle Sedan and had an extra pair of seats he was looking to sell to help fund his restoration project.  They even came with an extra set of seat covers.  While he never installed them, he said he purchased them in Oregon, but then decided to go with a different option.  The price was right, and it would help to deal with our bent driver's seat frame, which was keeping it from locking in place.  Here's what the guts looked like:

With the horse hair shoved back in, here's the driver's seat now with extra padding, a straight frame, and a release/locking mechanism that works.  Check out those snazzy floor mats!

Finally, I tried out the seat and just about died. I could hardly fit in the car, and the seat was pushed all the way back.  Was the old seat so broken that it reclined more?  No, wait!  Hey there's a cam at the bottom of the frame that regulates the angle of recline; back in business!

WHEELS

We also have been looking for some lightweight alloy wheels, but there are not too many options for VW's 4x130 bolt pattern.  We did come across a set of "Riviera's" that were pretty rough, but that's never stopped us before....

As you can see, the aluminum has been exposed to the elements for some time, but they cleaned up pretty well.

Here's the final product, with three coats of graphite and two clear, with shiny wheel accessories and some meaty Continentals that came with a $75 rebate.