Introduction David Sydney

Just found the site as I just bought a 1971 Beetle that was sitting in someones yard for over two years and knew would need help. It had been in a collision with a small tree and the Mcpherson strut front end is damaged somehow, as the top of tyre is rubbing against the coil spring. Will be asking tech questions on that soon. 😂 Other than a bent bumper all seems fine though not even attempted to start it yet. I also have a 73 Kombi which I have owned for over 20 years and will be my only car till I die. The beetle is for my wife and son. (Will add a picture of beetle in Gallery)
Anyway I am from Sydney Blacktown area, and look forward to picking yr brains
David

welcome 😉

kombivw wrote:I also have a 73 Kombi which I have owned for over 20 years and will be my only car till I die.

What ya gonna get after you die?????😂😂😂😂

Hopefully wings and a bevy of angels

welcome. i also have a 71 beetle .had been in acident on r/h/f wheel was pushed back.checked under and found that sway bar was broken on the end .found second hand one $20.00 fitted and wheel back in right place ,did find later that stut was also bent .hope this helps

Thanks Ersser. At this stage everything helps. I have had a look underneath and am gonna remove wheel tomorrow for better inspection. I have also started a thread on this called Mcpherson strut and already gettiing some great help and know will get more when post pictures. I really dont understand these struts and could not see any breakages or bends but sure it wont be too hard. It is def not chassis damage anyway. Cant wait for weekend to start on engine! Oh do you (or anyone) have any pics of engine lid? The decals are missing and I have one with VW 1600, but there is still 2 holes left and not sure what goes there on the 71? Centre Strip also missing on bonnet But not too worried about that.

Hi David, welcome along. Since you are in Blacktown, please feel free to come along with us this Saturday night, to the Blacktown Drive-In. It's a Club Veedub run to see Eric Bana's new car film, Love The Beast. There should be lots of VWs there.

Gates open 7:30pm.

after looking at ya ride i think you have the wrong wheel of set on as i have the same suspension and the same problem befor you go out and spend ya hard earned folding try a pair of standard rims first
welcome and good luck

Greedy to be quite honest I would prefer standards anyway. But I got the impression from the previous owner that they were fine before collision and the drivers side certainly has a good inch and half clearance so assume it must actually be amiss on strut.
And phil that sounds cool. Count me in, will see you there.
David

OK YOU ARE PROBALEY RIHT IT'S JUST THAT MAC STRUT AN=RE FAMOUS FO BEING A SHYIT TO TRY AND USE WHELS MANY A YOUNG FELLOW HAS ASKED IF THESE WILL FIT A BUG AND TOLD YES CAME OF MY CAR ONLY TO FIND THAT THEY DONT FIY MACS

Have to agree with you Greedy. They make no sense to me at all these macs ! I have now taken pics and think I have found problem (though why it makes no sense to me yet) But I will continue this discussion at Mcpherson thread http://forums.aussieveedubbers.com/viewtopic.php?tid=75244 as too hard to kreep track on two threads. Make sure you go there. I need all the mates help I can get! Just got to figure how to write this all up and post pictures!

i think your engine cover should have the word volkswagen and the letter S
volkswagen S 🤪🤪

Much appreciated. Gonna go to VW nationals on the Sunday so will get searching there. Hopefully will have a vast knowledge of all the things I need by then lol
S assume is sport and L luzury Yes?

kombivw wrote:Much appreciated. Gonna go to VW nationals on the Sunday so will get searching there. Hopefully will have a vast knowledge of all the things I need by then lol
S assume is sport and L luzury Yes?

nothing sporty about a 1971 super bug, low back seats, doggy big steering wheel and 1500 motor😂😂

It actually has an 1800cc engine. I assumed was a 1600 with rebore? Maybe its not original donk? Maybe the S stands for Shite mcpherson struts :-)

nationals sunday ???????

Sunday yes but the 24th

Yes the Drive-in is THIS saturday 14th Feb.

The Nationals is not until May. Sunday 24th is the show day at Fairfield, Saturday 23rd is the supersprint at Goulburn.

Australian Superbugs were all 1584cc, but in the UK they came with a choice of 1200 or 1600 engines. An '1800' is probably a standard 1600 with 92mm cylinders to give 1835cc. This was a common soup-up size 15-20 years ago, but nowadays 94s are more common (1916cc).

try getting a wheel balance too, might help, should be able to get it cheepish, but get it after you fit the strut etc, maybe at the same time as a wheelie. looks like a decent beetle there. aint nothing super bout it though (literally, its not a super.. yay)

This may help identify beetle. The badge shown was NOT on Boot, I just happened tio have it. But it fits, so I believe its either a 1500 L or S or a 1600 L or S (or maybe at one stage an Auto?). After discussion with Colonel the ful volkswagen badge has only 2 pins so could not have been that one. You will also notice on picture there are two more holes remainiong Thats where I think L. S or auto would go.
Any thoughts ?
And has anyone got a spare passenger side strut?

There is no such thing as a 1500 Superbug.

A Superbug is a Beetle with a MacPherson strut front, which this one is, and in Australia ALL of them had 1600cc twin-port 60-bhp (SAE) engines. They were assembled in VW's Melbourne factory from German CKD kits. They were available in both manual and semi-auto versions.

The Superbug 'S' was sold 1971-1972, and had a flat windscreen and long front bonnet. The 1971 had two sets of engine lid cooling louvres amd horn-ring steering wheel. The 1972 had four sets of cooling louvres and a four-spoke steering wheel. The Superbug 'L' appeared in 1973 and had a larger, curved windscreen and short front bonnet.

That black car IS a Superbug, no question about it, as it has struts and the bulgy nose. The engine lid is not original. The 'VW 1500' badge is off an earlier car - the 1500 Beetle was sold 1968-70 in Australia and was replaced by the Superbug. The badge hole spacing just happens to be the same. That lid would have originally had a 'Volkswagen L' or 'Volkswagen S' badge, but it isn't the right one for that car.

Thanks for clearing that up. I thought at first due to being a 1971 you were saying it is certainly an S but then you state

That lid would have originally had a 'Volkswagen L' or 'Volkswagen S' badge

So how do I tell if S Or L and would it be one badge that actually goes in all holes or still 2 badges?

OK, seems to be some confusion here. Your car is a Superbug 'S' as it has a flat windscreen, which you can see just by looking at it.

The engine lid is another matter. A 1971 Superbug would have originally had an engine lid with only two blocks of cooling louvres, whereas the one in your photo has four blocks of louvres. Therefore it's the wrong one for the car, as that 'four-block' engine lid didn't appear until 1972, when it had 'Superbug S' badges. Yes it was one longer badge with three prongs, whereas the earlier VW1500 badges only had only two, but the spacing between the prongs was the same.

When the big curvy windscreen Superbug L appeared in 1973, they just used the same four louvre block engine lid, and just changed the badge to 'Volkswagen L'.

This is what the 1971 Superbug engine lid would have originally looked like. Note this is a US-spec Beetle, so the badge is slightly different. But see how it has only two blocks of louvres.

And this is the 1972 and later engine lid, now with four blocks of cooling louvres.

Thanks very much for that Phil. NOW I UNDERSTAND. Good job you spoke slow as You are dealing with a moron here :-) At this stage I think i will just get an S badge then and keep wrong Engine boot. I just want the car going and registered more than being totally correct in details. Look forward to catching up at Drive in

BTW came across this if anyone has a Kombi up to 71 vintage and needing one Will swap for an S 🤓

No worries, good luck with it! See you at the Drive In on Sat - I will be in the Kombi camper.

Mine is same as yours. White 74, but a a transporter. But you will see me anyway as I am the one with two georgious woman in it. One my wife other my daughter so know lewd replies to that 😬

Gonna be working on engine all day Saturday so will have a chat then
David

on all 68 on decklids the main badge had 3 pins in the same location regardless of whether it was Volkswagen, VW1500, VW1300 VWautomatic etc

alot have been in prangs and had different panels put on
it should have Volkswagen S originally

as i said somewhere else ill see if i can find the S badge from my old superbug
and your better off keeping the 4 vent engine lid anyway
VW found 2 vents weren;t enough for twin port engines and went 4 vents the following year

Apreciate that Joel. I have pretty well decided to keep the existing boot, and your comment has now convinced me to. So would be good to get the S. Will obviously pay you and or swap if anything your after I may have.

There is no such thing as a 1500 Superbug.

Gonna be the first VW1500 S (with an 1800 donk lol) COOL

as i said somewhere else ill see if i can find the S badge from my old superbug

You still looking for that S joel :-)

Just noticed this. Did you end up keeping many of the parts?

kombivw wrote:

as i said somewhere else ill see if i can find the S badge from my old superbug

You still looking for that S joel :-)

ah crap to be honest it completetly slipped my mind
ive gotta go down there and start taking some measurents and cutting holes so ill have a look for it in the morn

my old Sbug i stripped down and kept everything but the shell altho the steering wheel and speedo went into my black bug but most of the other stuff is still burried here somewhere

its also Davids un-birthday today too

COOL You found it. Happy unbirthday to David. PM me with total cost, and bank details dude. The legacy of yr super bug will live on :-)
David

well I cant believe how easy all the rust came off the mags. A day of polishing the bug mainly and with just a few tiny jobs to do she is pretty well roadworthy. Now what to name her?

'The Superbug' sounds like a good name to me. My two cars are named 'the Golf' and 'the Kombi'.

But it's looking great!

had to sell the Bugh :-(

I recently sold my 71 Superbug to a young guy who is gonna finish customising it with his brother. Owner prior to me had already fitted wide guards, later model boot with more air vents, porsche instruments and centre consule and 8inch wheels with chrome mags. So was a lot to bring back to standard anyway. And I invested in a Cranky kit for better starting.

With mods done it meant a lot of stuff they dont need to buy.

I was pretty sad to see it go, but Gan never wanted it anyway and i did ask if they would send me progress reports.

Never thought they would TBH
BUT... They have been.

They removed foot boards, guards and engine and are at the prep stage of doing the respray in a dark blue. Also going for some body front and rear dress up parts. So respray will wait for these to arrive.

Whilst engine was out they replaced clutch (not that was needed but easier to replace with new whilst out) and have purchased a dress up kit.

The rust is to say the least minimal as i had said but good to know they never found any nasty shocks.

Here is engine before and after







Will add pics as I get them

Really pleased Bug went to a good home.



They mentioned they will be lowering it. I tried to talk them out of this but we will see i guess

Bet you forgot about me :-)

Now to fit badge and new plates



13 years ago



Have had Cymbi (Cymbidium - White Orchid) nearly 30 years now

Thanks for help David, Phill, John, Craig and Martha BTW

kombivw wrote:had to sell the Bugh :-(

Said would send updates..............Never thought they would TBH
BUT... They have been.

......................
Here is engine before and after







Will add pics as I get them

Really pleased Bug went to a good home.



They mentioned they will be lowering it. I tried to talk them out of this but we will see i guess

Never heard anymore from them re my old Bug :-(

wonder what it looks like now ?