'74 Superbug (Beebee)

After 8 years of not owning a Beetle, I decided it was time to get back into one.

I had two attack plans in mind depending on what year model I found.

Plan 1. If I found an "older" (small body) Beetle, I would have been doing a "factory" restoration. Making it look like a Beetle that just rolled off the factory floor with every possible accessory fitted to it.

Plan 2. If I found a "newer" (large body) Beetle, then it would get "tarted" up a bit.

Obviously as I found a '74 Super, it's going to Tartsville 😂

I found her for sale in NSW, listed as "Needing some TLC inside". That much is true. She needs a new hoodlining, and seats (well, at least a recover on the seats), and maybe a bit of a dash touchup. A couple of other parts here and there like a window winder handle, and a rear storage space cover... but I was expecting to redo the interior anyway, so no headaches there. At least I scored a CD player, so I can roll with the tunes going to distract me from a torn roof 👍



At first sight I was thinking "Woah... orange? Gag me with a spoon!" but it's grown on me slowly, and seeing as the paint is actually in quite good nick, I'm going to see how well it comes up with a solid weekend of cleaning, buffing and polishing.

Trying to get her home was interesting as she decided very early on in the piece that she didn't like me yet, and was going to dump her oil just to teach me a lesson for buying her. Of course, it was while I was driving her that she decided to do this... so I wound up in a mad panic trying to get off the Highway as soon as the oil pressure light came on.

After a top up to see where the leak was coming from, it turned out looking like a rear main was the cause of the problem, so a call was made, and a short while later the lazy beast was making her way back to Brisbane on a tow truck.

I used to use Custom Off Road in Brisbane back in the day for my other two Beetles, so I figured that was as good a place as any for the car to get dropped off. I spoke to Peter there yesterday, and he's going to give her a solid look over for me and help me get her on the road as soon as possible.



You can see in this picture my maroon Skyline a few cars back... Sulking about being replaced by a German Frauline.

So the plan currently stands as such (and in no particular order).

1. Clean up the paintwork
2. Tidy up the interior
3. Get a nice set of wheels. Probably 17"
4. Slightly lowered
5. Nice dark tint on the windows to help keep that heat out

Then the extra bits from there that are floating around in my mind, but not yet definite (again in no particular order):

1. Slightly "modernised" interior
2. Different wing mirrors
3. Adding a sunroof
4. Maybe some pumped guards

I look forward to having the car on the road soon, and using what I learn on here to keep her putting along nicely. Looking forward to meeting some of you at a meetup if I can get along to one soon 🙂

-John

hi

Looks like a good start, get the front lowered a bit and it makes all the difference.

Steve

Welcome, may I say that a 74 L is the best type 😀

Look forward to hearing of progress.

Good luck winning your other half over, it may not be that easy!!

Thanks guys!

Craig, it's an S bug. I'm not sure of the difference between S and L?

Hi

The Volkswagen L bug started in 1973 with curved front screen, the flat screen 71 & 72 models were called Volkswagen S. All of them can be classed as Superbugs

The official VW model designation is 1302 for the 71 & 72 models and 1303 for later models.

Steve

Thanks, Steve.

Well, it's a curved screen alright. Maybe it's just had an S badge put on it at some point? I shall investigate further when I get it back from the shop 🙂

Hi John,

You're right, engine lids are one of the easily exchanged panels, so at some point it might have got switched. The confusion between S/L/1302/1303/Superbeetle is VERY commonplace, not helped by the fact that they called them different things in Europe, USA and Australia, and that they continued to make standard Beetles alongside them.

Have you been over to germanlook.net yet?

Whilst they aren't all supers over there, they do have a lot of information that will help with some of your mods, and it's always good for inspiration.

Oh dear... germanlook.net looks like it's going to suck up lots and lots of my time 😁

After a little hard work and a few dollars, she's ready to rock and roll 🙂



More pics to come soon of some of the work done so far.

Oh, and I'm glad I kept my old 14x6 custom rims off my old '73. They look good on a Super (although... the fronts stick out a tad... whoops :p )

Lov'in the wheels there mate! Paint em gloss black and lower the front of the bug a bit it will look sweeter ride already 🙂

From Dylan

Thanks, Dylan.

I'm a big fan of the wheels (even though they're a little small). That's why I kept them when I sold my old '73

...and besides. They only stick out a liiiiitle bit 👍

I realised that I have not updated this thread for an incredibly long time. I have been keeping a progress log of sorts on my Tumblr account, and kind of forgot about this thread. So here are some updated pictures.

These were taken not long after I had her on the road:





After she got a replacement engine that I picked up from grumble in Taree, and got her personalised plates:



Then an useless woman crashed into me, and caused some damage.




After (quite literally) MONTHS with a decent pannel beater, but a bunch of completely incompetent painters, the repairs were done, the rust was removed (good work pannel man)... and then the paint was... well the wrong color*... runs, overspray... orange peel... the whole lot. A completely terrible job and I hope that they have gone out of business and not ruined anyone else's car since.

*The first attempt at painting the car left it two different shades of orange. They simply "had paint lying around from another car" so they didn't even try to match the color that was on there, and it still pisses me off every day when I walk outside and see how dark she is now. They also painted my rain guard... Christ knows why. I didn't ask them to. They also refused to replace it, so it cost me another $120 to get a new one. They didn't remove the chrome trims because they didn't want to replace the plastic clips underneath... so alllllll my trim had paint overspray from terrible masking. I remoed it all and cleaned it up when I took the car back into them the second time. I still have overspray on my window rubbers, and it really F***S me how... but they got overspray ON MY DRIVER'S SEAT! All my boots, drive shafts, suspension, bushes etc are covered in orange paint as it was obviously just too hard to cover the wheel wells as well as the wheels. They also fit that air scoop and painted it... and didn't paint the inside of it. Just left it beige fibreglass 🤪 so I had to remove it, and as I couldn't match the orange they used, I had to paint the inside of it black instead. I am going to stop ranting now before I decide to drive out there and set their workshop on fire.

Anyway... once "repaired":





Then as some of you may know, the black one came along:



And that has been great. Beebee has been able to not have to be the workhorse, and can relax from time to time.

I found a roofrack for her:



I added some low (thanks again to Peter from Custom VeeDub for letting me use his hoist for a few hours to make her sit pretty!):



The two of them together at Action day 2013:



At the moment I am working out what my next step will be. I think it is high time I do the interior and rubbers. I want to install popout rear windows while I have it all apart and a demisting rear window. So I think that soon it will be time to gut her from floor to roof and get it all done in one big job rather than pulling things apart 5 or 6 times.

Nice story mate, nice car too. It looks like you got a good one.
While I was reading and looking at the pics I was humming ".....Take the last train to Tartsville....etc, etc."
Rob.

Nice man, bringing them both to Dubs?

If all goes well, yeah 🙂