Hi there, from Trish, Smurfette and Ruby!

Hi there,
my "regular" car was written off by an 87 year old lady three weeks ago, so I decided to follow my dream and finally buy myself a volksie. I spotted this one for sale in a Museum and decided she was it. So introducing Smurfette! She is a 1971 convert with a 1500 motor. I bought it off an man that had brought her back down to bare metal and started again. I still have some work to do under the hood though.







I also have another I bought off eBay a week earlier as a project a 1964/5 named Ruby. She came with a 1200 and a 1600 motor and heaps of spares, panels etc. She's not running and needs a generator and some other stuff, but we are still learning!









I loook forward to making some mates and picking some brains for ideas!
Cheers,
Trish, Smurfette and Ruby!

wheres you @ ??

click on the link below and check out some
of avwnut 30 short vids

Thanks, I am in Western Victoria, sorry I shall edit details now!

welcome aboard!

Welcome aboard! 1500s are really quite modern and make great daily drivers in my opinion. It looks like you've picked a really nice project to keep yourself busy too! Congratulations on the purchases.

Welcome to Aussieveedubbers, you will get lots of information, advice and help here. What are your plans for both beetles? looks as though smurfette is right to go but what are your plans for ruby?

Thanks everyone for the welcomes, yes Smurfette is my daily driver, I live in a small country town and will just be going in and out to take kids to school etc. Probably will pinch hubby's VX Commondore for trips to the bigger towns, as I want to look after her.
Ruby we are thinking of a street legal drag car, we have the Casterton Street drags here and I'd love to compete and blow the locals away!

Just took my top off for the first time😂. Hubby is installing the stereo and speakers today.

1971dubber wrote:Thanks everyone for the welcomes, yes Smurfette is my daily driver, I live in a small country town and will just be going in and out to take kids to school etc. Probably will pinch hubby's VX Commondore for trips to the bigger towns, as I want to look after her.
Ruby we are thinking of a street legal drag car, we have the Casterton Street drags here and I'd love to compete and blow the locals away!

yeah the V8 boys love getting beat by a beetle 😂 ever better when its a girl driving the beetle😂

I used to have a VK Commondore and it was stock on the outside, was always an annoyance for the boys to be beaten by a girl! I'm thinking a little dubber won't look too threatening at first, it should be a load of fun!

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110601294032#ht_518wt_1139
Yeah, just won these on eBay now I'm hoping to work out how the heater works!

1971dubber wrote:Just took my top off for the first time😂. Hubby is installing the stereo and speakers today.

Well you know you alwayss gotta show us pics......with your top off of course 😂😂😂


Welcome to here.....enjoy your Volksies, plans sound great.

lol!
Stereo is in front speakers and back and amp, I definitely need a subby. Going for a cruise now! Meep meep!

matberry wrote:

1971dubber wrote:Just took my top off for the first time😂. Hubby is installing the stereo and speakers today.

Well you know you alwayss gotta show us pics......with your top off of course 😂😂😂


Welcome to here.....enjoy your Volksies, plans sound great.

That's me on the left!

thats awesome and how does the new stereo sound?

Sounds great, even with the top off! Might get a subby down the track. It is soooo much fun to drive, I had the most awesome day and really turned heads. I have wanted one of these forever.

Yes even with my rosie I get so many looks lol I remember one time this HSV overtook me and the guys two kids were hanging out the windows looking at Rosie lol

I had the same thing happen to me today, I thought at first that they were making fun of me but then I got the thumbs up!!

Smurfette's stock standard engine.

Smurfette's AMP

Interior

Stereo, SONY explod, bluetooth handsfree.

Me in drivers seat, my auntie and my kids x

My Auntie is visiting from Queensland and said that her ride in Smurfette was the HIGHLIGHT of her trip!

I dont think it a 1971 bug?????
the multi coloured one below in my pics is a 71

ian.mezz wrote:I dont think it a 1971 bug?????
the multi coloured one below in my pics is a 71

Ian, they were still making/selling 1500 Beetles with the beam-axle front end and '68-onwards style body in 1971, as well as the Super Beetle with the strut front like you have in your signature. Even after the 1500 was discontinued, you could still get a 1300 Beetle with a beam axle and the narrow '68-onwards body. I believe that these had drum brakes and the 1300cc engine only though. The blue car in these photos looks to me like it could definitely be a '71 1500, as it has the later-style steering wheel which wasn't used on the 1500 until 1971.

Well 1971 is what the chassis number tells me, also that it is made in Germany. Possibly it might have the incorrect bumper? I will be changing them anyway as they are quite corroded and damaged. I am not sure what you mean Ian, are you saying it looks more like the older shape?
Today the speedo stopped working, any ideas why? Also went to put petrol in and it started going on the ground, the bolts near the inlet hose were only done up finger tight! Scary! Fixed now!

I hope to not have many more hassles, but I suppose you get that with any car it's just a learning process!

it looks like a 1970 or 1974 bug as 71 didn't have high back seats. does it have disc or drum brakes on the front?
It also has 1972 rear tail lights as I didn't think 71 had reverse lights.
It also has a newer model steering wheel on it.
what sort of seat beats does it have.?
there should be a plate near the spare wheel.
and the vin number under the back seat, the 3rd number is normaly the year.

As Ian stated by bug is a 69 and the vin number is 119_ _ _ _ etc

It looks like a nice car no matter what year it is.

o yeah ,
To check that the cable isnt broken, you can unscrew the speedo cable out of the back of the speedo from under the bonnet, then jack the left front wheel up off the ground and spin it , you should see inside cable spinning in the bit you unscrewed .

Blue beetles original body was so rusted that only the chassis was used and a new body put on top. The vin is 199702102 Made in Germany and the engine number foo18573.

Ruby's vin is 9130940. The engine in smurfette had not been run in 6 years so I think that I am to expect these troubles. After what happened with the petrol I am a little worried if my chassis is bolted down correctly =(

Well, if you've got a car that is new to you, which had work done by a previous owner, it can be a good idea to spanner-check everything to make sure it is tight. When I got my red Beetle the steering wheel had no nut holding it on and the steering shaft was only slid on half-way and not done up tight! 🤪 It was a work in progress though, and wasn't sold as a running car. Yours will probably be fine, but it certainly never hurts to double-check things.

Now that you mention it, the steering wheel is a little wobbly but I have never driven another beetle so I have nothing to compare it to! Thanks for the heads up. Do you have any ideas re the numbers I have given?
Thanks Trish.

Disc breaks and high back seats also.

waveman1500 wrote:

ian.mezz wrote:I dont think it a 1971 bug?????
the multi coloured one below in my pics is a 71

Ian, they were still making/selling 1500 Beetles with the beam-axle front end and '68-onwards style body in 1971, as well as the Super Beetle with the strut front like you have in your signature. Even after the 1500 was discontinued, you could still get a 1300 Beetle with a beam axle and the narrow '68-onwards body. I believe that these had drum brakes and the 1300cc engine only though. The blue car in these photos looks to me like it could definitely be a '71 1500, as it has the later-style steering wheel which wasn't used on the 1500 until 1971.

Blue bug has bits and pieces from various cars on it but the actual body is definatly 69 or 70
its before 11/70 I can tell you that for sure

Joel wrote:Blue bug has bits and pieces from various cars on it but the actual body is definatly 69 or 70
its before 11/70 I can tell you that for sure

Oh really? Please enlighten me, Joel, what did they change after 11/70? My 1500 was built in 10/70 so I'm most familiar with those ones. My understanding was that they were still selling them in '71, or was that just using up the leftover stock of '70 production? Are you suggesting that they started putting those rear plastic vents in behind the side windows after '71?

Either way, as Joel says, most Beetles are a mixture of bits and pieces these days. And, if we're honest, once you've cut the roof off then the car's originality is kind of out the window, so all that really matters is that it's a nice car.

1969 and a 63 bug?????😊
the blue con69 should have a big steel tube frame added to under the body as convertible and the red63 will just be a stock flat under body. 😊

waveman1500 wrote:

Joel wrote:Blue bug has bits and pieces from various cars on it but the actual body is definatly 69 or 70
its before 11/70 I can tell you that for sure

Oh really? Please enlighten me, Joel, what did they change after 11/70? My 1500 was built in 10/70 so I'm most familiar with those ones. My understanding was that they were still selling them in '71, or was that just using up the leftover stock of '70 production? Are you suggesting that they started putting those rear plastic vents in behind the side windows after '71?

Either way, as Joel says, most Beetles are a mixture of bits and pieces these days. And, if we're honest, once you've cut the roof off then the car's originality is kind of out the window, so all that really matters is that it's a nice car.

yeah its just handy to know what other beetle parts ar fitted to your vw. just for in the future when you may need to replace some broken part.🤪😊

Hi ian.mezz
I clicked on the link in your signature, is the Andrew in the video Andres Champness? If so I have a really good pic of him:

waveman1500 wrote:Oh really? Please enlighten me, Joel, what did they change after 11/70? My 1500 was built in 10/70 so I'm most familiar with those ones. My understanding was that they were still selling them in '71, or was that just using up the leftover stock of '70 production? Are you suggesting that they started putting those rear plastic vents in behind the side windows after '71?

The plastic crescent vents started with the first Sbugs in 1/71 but what I noticed is this one still has the small 3 defroster vents on the dash, from 11/70 they had the 5 vents with the bigger side ones

The lastest 1500 bug Ive seen is 4/71