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What to upgrade on my daily driver for a longer journey?
shokwave2 - May 1st, 2011 at 07:32 PM

If everything goes well at a medical test tomorrow i'll have a brand new job. But these means i'll be extending my daily drive from 20km/day to 150km/day in my trusty 61 beetle.

I had already planned a few bolt-on upgrades before this job came up and was wondering what else i could/should do to improve my daily driver. Here's what i've planned so far and in the order which i will be adding them:

I currently have a stock 1600 twin port, 34 pict 3 carb, 4 tip GT exhaust.

1 - new exhaust system
2 - twin carbs
3 - electronic ignition kit
4 - ratio rockers
5 - lightened flywheel, clutch and pressure plate
6 - nice rims :cool:

How does this list look? I'll hopefully be installing all the upgrades myself (if they're not too hard), so is there anything i may have missed which would extend the life of my bug? I know not all upgrades are performance enhancing but i want to add those first. When i save up some $$$ i would also like to upgrade my engine internally, but that may be a year or so away.

waveman1500 - May 1st, 2011 at 07:45 PM

None of those things are really necessary for daily driving, but they do sound like fun!

For daily driving all you really need is to make sure that everything is well maintained. An oil filter would probably help extend the engine's life. For comfort I would recommend better seats and maybe some extra sound deadening if you like.

I'm commuting 100km per day and have bought a daily driver to help save the wear and tear on the bug. I have no doubt that the bug could do the mileage but I would need to fix a few things to get it up to proper condition. Now that I have a daily driver I can modify the bug more without worrying so much about compromising drivability.

shokwave2 - May 1st, 2011 at 07:48 PM

My plan is to buy another car to use for work purposes, but we have our third child due next month so funds are tight. I've already budgeted to upgrade my bug, even though not neccessary, but to give it more get up and go.

ancientbugger - May 1st, 2011 at 08:46 PM

I'd go for better seats!

Bizarre - May 1st, 2011 at 09:02 PM

electronic ignition
disc brakes
better seats
decent tyres

shokwave2 - May 1st, 2011 at 09:06 PM

I don't mind my seats, they are nice and springy!

Already have front disc breaks, and new tyres were put on in March.

I'll have to add an oil filter to my list, keep the suggestions coming.

Paulc1964au - May 1st, 2011 at 09:11 PM

good sound system with bluetooth