got a 69 sardine top beetle - 1500 (now 1600, or 1.7 or something - how to tell would be good - rego'd as 1.7, but the mechanic reckoned he put a stock recon 1600 into it several years ago)
back to my real question - got a bit sidetracked there!
I need to fix the floorpan, what years can I use? assuming I can get either a complete floorpan or a complete rust free car with a blown motor and swap the bodies and all the nice bits off mine
I can bolt bits together, but I can't weld, so getting a good floorpan is the best solution for me
I gather from my earlier post that a 66 is different
what are the differences?
can I use a later model?
is there a resource anywhere on the web that tells you the different models, and the variations?
ta
terry
karmannghia60 ·
The obvious difference is the wheels/drakes. '66 are large 5 studs drums all around while '69 are disks/drums 4 studs. As far as I know, the floor pans on chop-tops were re-inforced by welding steel channels to them. If you just find a floor pan from another "hard top" Beetle, it won't have the channels welded to it. I would say you are better off sourcing the floor pan halfs and getting them welded to your existing chassis
Raf
[Edited on 22-4-2004 by karmannghia60]
battybat ·
so the rear suspension etc is the same?
no channels on the floorpan on mine that i've noticed, not that there's a whole lot of floorpan left on the drivers side!, probably not needed as the sides are still there (it's not a full convertible, just the roof, you can see it on the avatar) - has an engineers report to say it was safe when done, though that's about 7 years ago
think i'll get a quote for the welding then see what I can do - the floorpan halves are reasonable at around $130 per half
thanks for the info
battybat ·
just a thought....
so a 66 floorpan would be the same as a 69?
Anthiron ·
ahh....it would have the re inforcements if it was a karmann cab but as its a conversion its got a hardtop pan....i am with karmannghia60 though.....buy new floor pans and get them welded in it will work out cheaper
karmannghia60 ·
Suspension should be the same unless yours is/was a semi-auto. They had IRS
battybat ·
the wheels are at a silly angle so I reckon it's standard swing axle stuff under there.
This is my first beetle, and I'm slowly coming to grips with some of the peculiarities of the breed
got a ballpark price of $500 a side to have new halves welded in, assuming the heater channels etc are OK - sounds reasonable to me