In 1990 my brother showed me an ad for a 1965 Baja bug for sale in the Tri Ad. He asked me if I liked it and would drive it. The car was way cooler than the Horizon that I was driving at the time so I said sure but I have no money. That was on a Friday and I was going away for the weekend. On my return on Sunday never guess what was in the drive. It was going to be mine a few easy payments and it was my daily driver. I was just bitten by the bug. I drove it every ware and got to a few shows it wasn't pretty but it was mine and I was proud of it. I felt it needed more power so I started to look into getting something larger than a 1600cc motor. That was when some one said VW made an air cooled engine that was 2000cc I started to do some research and found out this was a bus motor and that in Europe it was all the rage. After some looking I had located a motor from a 914 which was almost the same as a bus I was told it was 2.0. . I then found out all the need Item and built my upright kit. Once that was done someone had dropped off a Garrett T3 turbo and it just seemed to need a home. After one summer of driving I rebuilt the engine. This is when I found it to be a 1700cc.

After rebuilding the engine to stock specs with the exception of the custom ground turbo cam. At the end of 92 the car was disassembled for a complete rebuild. New floors first and change the 65 pan to IRS. Once that was done on to the abused body, I had acquired almost all the body panels I needed accept the frt. bulk head and inner fenders. As the plan was to attach the new one piece frt. end and make it flip. I bought another bug a 1962 to cut the frt. off the shell and discovered it would take less work to repair the other issues with the 62 body than the 65. So this is how I got the 62 body on the 65 pan. I was after a look that would make heads turn and it had to be unusual so in when the 3" body lift and full cage that goes through the body any part of the cage that is on the outside also passes to the inside. The Suspension in the frt. is a raised adjustable king pin frt. end with 2.5" raised spindles stock brakes. The rear is custom built trailing arms with dual shocks. Rolling on a set of 35" tires. To give the car a stance with 22" of ground clearance. Transmission is a 1971 type 2 (bus) stock. I'm looking for a 1.13 or 1.14 4th gear if anyone has one. Paint is RM Base clear with house of colors multi pearl added. All the above work was performed by myself and my brother And a special Thanks must go to my wife for taking the back seat while I continue with this addiction .

-Tim

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