The missus' new ride: 1960 Swedish import beetle

K@rlos · Nov 1, 2015

Thought you all might like this, took the girlfriend to Ninove in the bus in March (her first ever vw show) she loved it! Then all the way back to suffolk all I got was 'I really want a beetle'

This persisted for a couple of months so we started looking about, had a look at a couple then my mate Si Henty sent me the samba link to this:

So 1 baking hot summers evening we jumped in the bus and went to north London to have a look, the moment she saw it she wanted it, I knew I wouldn't be leaving London until I struck a deal for her :roll: so after a bit of bartering I got it for a good price with the OG steels thrown in too :mrgreen:

We ended up with a 1960 Swedish import bug, had only been in the country a year and the last owner brought it from the original buyer in Sweden, got lots of history and is a lovely genuine little car

She loves it

First job was ditching those awful rims!!!

lil_azza · Nov 1, 2015

Very cool

K@rlos · Nov 1, 2015

It sporting a 4" adjustable k&l beam with dropped spindles, slam shocks and was a 3 spline twist at the rear but it hit EVERYTHING in the road so I made that a 2 and put the adjusters up a notch. So far I've rebuilt the brakes, fitted electronic ignition and given it a tune up but it will be getting a lot of TLC over the winter. Has been 12v'd but badly it seems so a bit of wiring is needed and although the 1200 single port motor runs sweet it burns and leaks a bit of oil so that's getting rebuilt too along with an alternator conversion. The motor brief I got was I want twin Webers and for it to make that whining noise the bus does :lol: (straight cut cam gears).
So all that with a balanced bottom end and little ported heads should give a nice little hp boost whilst still being nice for her to drive. Only thing is 1200 heads are different and you can't get ICT manifolds so after a bit of research I've discovered 1300 sp heads are the same bore but have the more conventional intake ports therefore ICT's will fit

Gearbox is gonna get a check over, as well as new window seals and the seats recovered.

Should be fun!