SuperBeetles.com | Archive

"Hermann" - Owner: Carsten Grundel

I'm Carsten Grundel and I come from Rosrath, next to Cologne in Germany, and this is my 1970 Volkswagen 1302 LS Super Beetle. The options ordered on this VW were the sunroof, pop-out windows in the back and the "Gearshift" - semi-automatic transmission. The original color was L20D Clementine Orange, since the restoration, 22 years ago, it remains Coral Red. This is my second Beetle. The first I got as a graduation gift from my parents in 1993, a 1200 Standard Beetle colored Lofoten Green. I loved it very much but had to sell it just two years later. But at that time I promised myself, that I would own a Beetle again. It took me 23 years to deliver that promise. In 2017 I found my Super Beetle in a small village near Cologne. The former owner restored it in 2002 and after that drove it about 400 miles, then parked the Beetle in his big garage and nearly forgot about it.

We love our "Hermann" and care for him as much as we can. We just drive on sunny days and he has not seen any rain or snow in the last 25 years. "Herrmann" is a member of the family that drove us to our wedding in September 2023. We've given him some updates in appearance, safety and mechanics. We changed the alloy wheels from Lemmerz Sprintstar to Kronprinz KPZ, lowered the front about two inches, and gave him additional instruments for RPM, oil temperature and oil pressure. We restored and added a rare steering wheel from the 70s, called a Raid 1, with new leather and stitching in a matching car color. We finished the interior with Porsche 924 seats, restored and coated with new original Porsche leather and velour in black with orange-red stripes. The door, back side panels and backseat were changed to a similar trim. We added rare Italian turn indicators, a high flow exhaust, and a Blazecut fire extinguisher.

The last and possibly final update in was in the winter of 2021-22. The original AD engine and the semi-automatic gearbox got an update. Both were fully restored by specialists here in Germany. The engine increased in size from a 1600cc/50hp to a 1776cc with 65hp, for a little bit more fun and speed. The VW transmission specialist changed the 2nd gear to a larger one, so the maximum speed is now 155kmh or about 96mph. But top speed was not the real aim, we just wanted to go 120kph without going deaf. For engine protection we changed the internal oil cooler to an under floor oil cooler by Cagero. With an A1 appraisal we are very lucky and we hope that "Hermann" stays with us as long as possible.

Big Beetle - Owner: Duane Brayboy

My 1974 Sun Bug is 49 years old in 2023. I am a Bus man by nature, but possibly by necessity being 6'3" and 235 pounds. However, my first car was a 1973 Super Beetle and I never lost my love for the 1303 Super Beetle. I wanted another Super Beetle, so after 30 years without one, I traded my beloved, long term 1986 Vanagon Westfalia for a Sun Bug in early 2020, just after Covid arrived. The Sun Bug was originally purchased in Richmond, VA. After the purchase, the young couple drove the Sun Bug to New England, then to the Pacific northwest, then down to San Francisco, where they settled, circa 1975.

The SBSB (Super Beetle Sun Bug) somehow made its way back east to NC, where it sat in a garage and for many years not driven. The previous owner had it painted, but nothing else towards the restoration. After the trade, I immediately began accumulating restoration parts, focusing on the interior, suspension, sunroof and engine. The original Nut Brown carpet was difficult to match in German square weave carpet, so I chose the square weave Honey Brown color. I also sought out a pair of Sports Bug/Porsche/Recaro seats and had them recovered in Sun Bug upholstery from SMS Auto Fabrics in Canby, OR. These seats are much more comfortable than stock '74-'75 seats. The SBSB is powered by a new Brazilian 1600 dp block. The sunroof was just completely rebuilt and operates like new.

My near future plans for my Sun Bug include a Kamei front spoiler, installing fog lights and NOS 1303 fog light toggle switch, a gas heater and installing a genuine VW 1303 dash clock. In NC there are so many opportunities to take beautiful scenic photos. My goal is to take calendar worthy photos of the Super Beetle Sun Bug. It really is an amazing VW and the best driving Type 1 I've ever driven and I say this as the owner of 30+ ACVWs in my lifetime. I call my SE Super Beetle SBSB Ucikewaui, which means "Big Beetle" in my people's language.

East Coast to West Coast - Owner: Edward Medvar

I drove Hondas throughout high school until a neighbor moved in and long story short, it all started out with a Volkswagen Corrado G60 with a turbo. Fast forward a few years and found a 1968 Auto Stick about an hour and a half away in PA. I added some custom touches but could never really get super comfy with the Auto Stick transmission. Then I found a 1972 Super Beetle that was all stock. I was able to sell the '68 and get the '72 shipped from the West Coast to the East Coast. My neighbor and I have made my Super Beetle into to what it is today. I'm running adjustable front struts and lowered springs up front.

The rear has adjustable plates with air shocks. For wheels I chose 15" Sprint Star wheels, dual EMPI 34 carbs, with a stock style exhaust that has just the right amount noise. I removed front and rear bumpers and added black T-Bars, and them powder coated most of the trim and silver pieces to black. I cut the front headrests off the stock seats and installed low back seat covers, removed the vent glass and put in one piece door glass, and it's soon to have pop outs in the rear side glass. My VW is great fun to drive and the 1641cc provides great performance and reliability. I can drive her anywhere.

The Lucky Guy - Owner: Doug Boring

I feel like I'm a lucky guy owning two Volkswagen Super Beetles. I've had the 1975 La Grande Bug for around five years and she's named "Isabella". I'm the third owner and it has only 26,000 original miles. It was truly love at first sight when I saw it. I got it from my aunt after her husband passed away and she was afraid she couldn't take care of her by herself. My La Grande Bug was on "Mark of a Killer" on the Oxygen channel a couple years ago, has been on the JBugs website and the cover of three different Volkswagen club pages. My plan for for the "75 Super is to pull the motor and having everything on and around the engine powder coated copper and adding a new tan and saddle brown interior.

Now the 1972 Super Beetle I bought for a daily driver while I was working on my Bay Window Bus. But I enjoyed driving her so much that I just kept working on her. Both Super Beetles have 8" pop out side window extensions, I added the roof rack to one, the Jrack to the other and found a sweet set of Bullet wheels to complete the look I was after. The all white interior in the '72 Super is in very good shape so I'm keeping it for a while. I'm also dropping this engine during my spare time, adding dual carbs and doing the engine and anything around in chrome, it's going to look and drive amazing.

Das German Look - Owner: Jason

This my 1975 German Look 1303 Super Beetle. I've owned this Volkswagen for twenty four years, but it sadly sat in a garage unloved for nearly sixteen years before I purchased it. It has Porsche Boxster front and rear calipers matched up with 911 front discs and Porsche Cayman rear discs. The front running gear consists of Porsche 924 spindles and modified 924 slim line coil over shocks. The rear suspension includes 924 rear hubs with adjustable trailing arms. The body has been completely dechromed and painted in a beautiful Volvo Saffron Pearl.

The interior is a one-of-a-kind custom installation, consisting on modified Porsche tombstone front seats and modified rear seat to match. The door panels have textured build outs all are covered in orange and black Nappa leather with gray alcantara highlights. The engine I'm running is a 1776cc with Engle 110 cam and twin 36 Dellorto carbs with a Porsche fan kit from Bernie Bergman to keep it all cool. The wheels are also a one-of-a- kind custom billet 3 piece split rims with 7x17 on front and 8.5x17 finishing off the rear. Hope you like it!

32 Years - Owner: Eamon McArtsney

My name is Eamon McAtarsney and I live in Armagh City, Northern Ireland. This July 1971 Convertible 1302S Formula Vee was special to me for some reason. I acquired it from quite a character who lived close to me in Ipswich Massachusetts. Dave's Foreign Auto shop was where I spied it and it hasn't moved in years. The four fenders missing, no bumpers along with many other donor parts removed to get someone else back on the road and a blue tarp covering the convertible top. Dave's German Shepherds home for a while too. One Saturday night..well Sunday morning after sampling quite a few beers and around 3am Dave finally gave in and sold it to me! My now, wife and a very close friend Maria are in the pic. Both are thinking..."Is he just crazy?" Within a few weeks I had a Mass Inspection sticker and she was ready to be brought down to New York for the boat home as I was returning to Ireland to get married and settle down.

Once on home soil in the early 90's I started the real restoration and stripped the car to its bare basics as at this time I had opened an auto body shop as it was my profession. That's as far as it got for several years! Marriage, a new home, kids. In the meantime other Bugs with less work involved were restored and moved on, while this poor soul lay in a dark dry shed, stripped and unloved. I knew someday I would restore it to its glory! So moving on to 2015 I decided it was time to at least start a restoration and now being out of the auto body biz. I had a friend who let me use his workshop to restore. Although not much rust was on the body, the shell was blasted to bare metal and two new floor panels were fitted. Heater channels etc. were fine which was a great bonus! After several weeks of sanding and painting the wee girl was starting to look as she deserved again. I loved working on it but only when no other jobs needed done.

My son announced his engagement in 2021 to get married and so it was the kick in the behind I needed to say "OK that's it!!" Any chance I got I put some quality time into the rebuild. EVERY nut, wire, screw and clip was either restored to its original glory or replaced. The bumpers were originally chrome but the quality wasn't great so I blasted the chrome off and done them black too as to me it suits the overall aesthetics. Doing a restoration of this quality takes many...many man hours and for things people will never see too! It's just me ....I'm picky. I got a new hood sock commissioned and piped in yellow to match the paintwork as well as splitting the new seat cover prior to fitting to embroider in a VW emblem too in yellow. Back to Dave who I bought the car from and his German shepherd who had chewed on the heater control levers knobs. Moving on to the present day. We made it to my son's wedding! My son's dog Leo made it too. Only took me 32 years LOL

The Inheritance - Owner: BR Struguzzi

When I was 18 years old, I inherited my first Volkswagen Beetle, a light blue 1303 with no extras from my mother. But soon the joy of the crawler grabbed me, and I started to tune the car step by step. Unfortunately, my Super Beetle gave up after 10 years (rust, engine, gearbox, etc.) and so I had to sadly "scrap" him. Back then I swore to myself that one day I would buy a Beetle again, convert it and drive it. In 2020 the time had come and I got the chance to buy a sweet 1303 Super Beetle Convertible. Since then I have invested a lot of time in the car.

In addition to a complete restoration of the Type 4 / Porsche 912 engine, which included a Weber IDF 40 double carburetor, cylinder head reground, new valves installed, new camshaft, ignition switched to electronic, and a new Ahnendorp exhaust system was also adapted and installed. On the inside, the Recaro seats have been reupholstered, the door panels have been replaced and the dashboard has been updated. The body also received some updates, CIBIE auxiliary lights were installed, a Albar (Porsche 911) rear spoiler adjusted and attached, California mirrors mounted, the bumpers were painted in body color and a '73 foil applied. My 1303 VW Beetle gives me a lot of pleasure on various trips. Last but not least, the car also inspired me to draw some graphics... and the latest one even made it onto a T-shirt!

The Awakening - Owner: Jim McDermott

Not too long ago, I woke up and had a thought. Wouldn't it be cool to own another Beetle? I had owned a 1970 Baja Bug back in the 80's when I still lived with my parents, and I had a lot of fun with that car. So much fun, I rolled and wrecked it. I've thought about that first Beetle a lot over the years. It wasn't your ordinary Beetle either, it was custom. When I purchased it, it had a home made sun roof, a tiny steering wheel, red shag carpet all on the inside, including the seats, a Baja kit, and a set of big fat chrome wheels on the back. What I didn't know when I bought it was the engine was about ready to blow and the front beam was all rusted out, along with the floorboards and the heater channels. I just didn't really look at the car when I bought it. Oh well, live and learn, and boy how I learned. After the engine blew, my buddy and I set out to rebuild it. I bought new pistons, cylinders, bearings, etc., and rebuild it we did. It even got taken apart twice after I dropped a nut into the crankcase. Once the engine problem was tackled, we replaced the entire front beam. Now I had something to bolt my shocks to. We learned an awful lot about Beetles with that car, and if my dad were around today, I'd thank him for putting up with the mess and the noise that we must have put him through. But that was the end of the Baja Bug.

Fast forward to about 18 months ago. I had this sand rail in the garage that still needed a lot of work, and I was feeling a bit overwhelmed. I suddenly had a thought. How about if I try to sell the sand rail, and buy another Beetle? So I went and put an ad on Facebook Marketplace, and within a couple of months, I sold the sand rail I had the transaxle rebuilt and everything, so in a way, I was sad to see it go. Right away I found a yellow 1971 Super Beetle being offered for sale by a guy who lived just 12 miles from my house. I called, then went to go look at it. He had owned it for the last 28 years, and I could tell he had a passion for the car. Turns out, he knew the entire history of the car. He told me that it was purchased brand new from Canyon Volkswagen in Corona California on 12-3-1970. It was sold to the parents of Jodi Runsburger of Ontario California, as a high school graduation present. They even had the dealer personalize the car with "western" style pinstriping and the name Jodi written on the doors. Jodi drove the car for 20,000 miles and in 1972 sold it to the Edwards family of Pomona California. The Edwards family used it as a commuter car for the next 22 years. Later it was passed on down through all of the four Edwards children, ending in Michael hands (the youngest) around 1984. The car sat behind his house on 14th Street in Columbus Ohio, waiting for him to save up the money for some needed engine repairs. After a short while, Michael decided to sell the car "as is", and in June of 1994, with 345,260 miles on it, it was sold for $250 to the 3rd owner, Keith, the guy I bought it from. Keith had new front struts, new wheel cylinders, and a used 1500cc single port engine installed by Jan's VW in Westerville, Ohio.

The winter of 2004-05 saw the build up of a street hot 1776 engine. It's built using an SPG roller crank, Berg/Cima/Mahle 90.5 pistons and cylinders with Total Seal 2nd ring, all balanced within a gram of each other. A Crower VW284F cam, fly cut heads, 40mm intake and 36mm exhaust valves with dual springs, 9.2 to 1 compression, dual Weber 40DCN14's on rare Deano Dyno-Soars port matched intakes and Gene Berg Linkage, Shatek 30mm oil pump, plugged for full flow oiling, with a Gene Berg pump cover. A ten pound lightened flywheel with a Gene Berg Equalizer power pulley, Pertronix High Energy Ignition, and Kymco 1.5" equal length header with dual quiet pack mufflers. The transaxle is a close ratio monster with Weddle Engineering main shaft, Weddle Engineering side gears with Porsche 914 style output flanges, Bugpack heavy duty side cover, steel caged bearings, steel shift forks, welded and gusseted, Gene Berg mid mount, GEM gears, keyed and welded (3.78 1st, 2.25 2nd, 1.48 3rd, and 1.04 4th with a ten tooth Super Diff with four pinion gears and a 4.12 Gleason ring and pinion), and Gene Berg shifter. This bad boy moves. The interior has also seen new carpeting, seats, and a dash pad. It has received basically everything it needs to be a reliable, fully functional and fun summer driver. The car is 100% complete, and everything works except the rear window defroster. (A far cry from the sandrail.) The paint has great shine with hints of patina. Cosmetically, the car is unrestored. But this car has been taken care of, that's all I can say. I'm happy to be the 4th owner. Who knows, maybe I'll be the guy that get's it painted one day? Meanwhile, in the summertime, I'm just driving it, and the car has over 367,000 miles on it. Pretty cool, huh?

My Baja Champion - Owner: Jim Kilgo

In 1990 I was looking to purchase my first-ever VW. I had zero experience with VWs but I had a friend that owned VWs over the years and was very knowledgeable. I enlisted his help in finding one that was in decent shape and could be used as a daily driver. We spent a little over a month checking out the various VWs for sale in our area. Test drove each and every one we found looking through them from top to bottom. I thought I wanted a convertible but everyone we found needed a lot of work to use them as a daily driver. I changed my mind and instead concentrated on a sedan. After refocusing we found a really nice red 1972 Super Beetle that fit my need. The body was in great shape no dents and almost zero rust. There was an area in the engine compartment that had some rust that ate its way through the side panel and along the top edge of the compartment. It looked like Swiss cheese but the current owner had ground off most rust and coated it when they painted the car red. It was not actively eating the metal away so I felt it would not be a major issue. Besides this, the floor pans were solid except under the battery area where the prior owner patched it with fiberglass. Everything else seemed solid. The engine ran exceptionally well and the odometer read 85K+ miles I felt this was reasonable for an 18-year-old used car. The transmission ran through the gears easily and no 'abnormal' sounds when shifting and driving. There was AC also installed on the car and it work very well. A nice addition I felt especially here in Florida where temps and humidity can get out of control. With all the searching behind us, I purchased the car, and the wife and I agreed on a name "Lil Red".

Fast forwarding to around 2006-ish I started to wonder about the history of the car. I took to the internet to do some reach on the car using the VIN and other codes like the paint code found on the car. During these searches is when I discovered I had a Marathon on my hands and the original color was Marathon Blue Metallic. This information lead me to sebeetles.com where I started to get really excited about my car's pedigree! My wheels were identical to the car on this website! I did not have the little silver wheel center caps the 'Baja' strip was gone and no Bosch halogen driving lamps. But wow I had a unique car then I found information that there were 1,000 of this model shipped into the US market that was considered a 'special edition'. I quickly checked my VIN, but I was disappointed it was not 1 of 1,000! But after reading about this particular model for this year it remained as a unique car since I had all the makings of the 'special edition' model just was not in the VIN lot number. Outside of 1972 this was going to be the only model used to commemorate the running and winning of the Baja 1000 by VW from 1967 to 1971. Now after being educated about this particular vehicle, I had decided that I would restore her to her once original condition. In 2009 I parked her in my garage and did not drive her until I finished the restoration which began in December 2020, getting a little ahead of myself now so let me back up some. She was parked because of a clogged fuel line and I had to tow her home. Then between work which I traveled a lot and not having the desire to take on a large restoration project, I just told myself and my wife I would do this project once I retired. In preparation for the start of the restoration project, I found out that I could request a certificate from Volkswagen Classic Parts located in Wolfsburg Germany. The details told me that my car came out of the Wolfsburg factory on May 31, 1972 and was shipped to a dealer in St. Louis, MO. It also detailed all the configurations and specifications from the factory. My goal was to put her back to the original or as close as I could given the availability of items. First, was to completely strip the car I pulled out the complete interior, and in doing so I found out there was more rust to the floor pans than I knew. The driver seat was only being held in by a very thick undercoating and some very rusty floor pan that was left! I knew we would be replacing both pans I was glad I never fell through while driving the car. After removing the interior I pulled out the old wiring harness, and fuel tank and removed the engine. Now the car which was still a rolling shell went off the media blaster to have the red paint removed. She was primed and returned awaiting metal bodywork.

In the meantime, I tore down the engine and started to inspect the wear. I decided that a complete rebuild should be done. So I purchase all new parts with the exception of the cases and the original crank which were still in good shape and only had to do an align bore on the cases. Since I had zero experience in putting a VW engine back together and hoping for a long life out of it I turned to a recommended air-cooled specialist in the area Dennis of Aircooled Haus. He assembled the engine and bench and started it even before the car was painted. Then we set the engine aside so it had to wait a while for the rest of the car to be completed. After some research in my local area from a local import shop and VW enthusiasts I found a custom car metal shop and a custom car painter. Both of them had years of experience with VWs along with other custom cars. But I was mainly excited that they were 'VW guys'.

So off to Jason David of Davis Customs Restoration and Fabrication for the floor pans and the little areas of rust through to be fixed. After this, it was off to "OB" of OB's Classic Car Restoration for painting. I recommend both of these guys to anyone restoring a VW or any classic car they do fantastic work. Now came the time to reassemble the car. My first priority was to install the new wiring harness. I had nightmares about this since I had never done a complete wiring job before. So I turned to YouTube University and studied every video I could until I finally felt I had enough knowledge (LOL) to tackle the job. The best thing was the new harness matched the Bentley manual wiring schematic perfectly. So fuse by fuse I made all the connections and then triple-checked my work. The bottom line was the only thing I had wrong was a tail light and front turn signal ground and positive crossed. So no shorts or fires! LOL The interior was pretty straightforward for the dash, switches, seats, and carpeting. I hired an experienced guy to install the headliner and the windshield, backside windows, and rear glass. I felt this was best since I had zero experience in all that and it would be best NOT to do an On-The-Job training possibly costing me time and replacement of parts. Finally with all the details in place it time came to install the engine, and new clutch (the transmission was perfect so no change there). Again I reached out to Dennis of Aircooled Haus and he slipped the engine in place. At this point, it had been two years since beginning the project and I was getting too excited about driving her! So on December 16th, 2023 almost two years to the day when I began this project, I drove her home from Aircooled Haus for the first time driving her since 2009! Was I excited and oh ya... I took a long way home.

The Right One - Owner: Dan Harnum

I have been into VWs as long as I can remember!! My mom loves to tell me about when I was a baby, sitting on her lap in the car, barely able to talk, I would freak out every time I saw a Beetle and would shout, "BUG!" at the top of my lungs. Drove my parents crazy!!! I have owned several VW Beetles over the years, but they were all very rough. Most of them I drove until they fell apart, and none of them every had any pans by the timer I got rid of them. Most had no heater channels whatsoever. Favorite memory is having a Bug in Atlanta during one of the 1st snowstorms in years. Drove circles around everyone and did donuts all day!!

I was without a VW Beetle for approximately 25-30 years. Came close a couple times, but never pulled the trigger. Trolled the internet constantly. While traveling for work in 2016, I placed a bid on eBay and I won. Bought this car from a shop in Maryland, sight unseen. Holy crap! I hadn't told the wife and was in the doghouse for a LONG TIME. After driving my '79 Super Beetle convertible for a couple years, redoing the interior and rebuilding the engine, I really wanted to get it repainted. I answered an ad by a gentleman that worked at a Porsche/VW that was taking a break to take care of his wife who was ill. We found a ton of damage under a pretty façade, including a couple poorly repaired accidents. My car was completely stripped down to metal. This individual had my car for almost three years and never completed it. I had to get a court order to get my own car back and took it to a local hotrod shop in pieces and boxes. Motor City Solution, in Taylor, Michigan, had my car for almost 2 years. They repaired additional damage, repaired mechanical, and repainted most of the vehicle. They redid all the chrome and added a new convertible top. I added chrome spoke wheels. I have had the car ceramic coated.

The car is not perfect, but, in my opinion, it is for me. Her name is Jezebel because my wife calls her the "other woman." Future plans for the car are to put in a better sound system and maybe a new front suspension. I may lower it a bit. I absolutely love this car and the VW culture. The BEST part of owning this car is that no matter where I go... the grocery store, Lowe's, the library, anywhere... people come up and talk about their VW experience. "I used to own one" or "my parents had one" or "I had one in college", the list goes on and on. It is the best conversation started EVER and I have met some pretty cool people owning this car. I also like being between two muscle cars at a car show and watching the owner's faces as my little, tiny car gets way more attention than theirs!!!!

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