Welcome to the STF! Please Introduce Yourself and Your Ride

[nodestiny]

Hello everybody, figured I'd give you a bit of history, present status, and future goals in a quick paragraph or so...

I've grown up with 4-cylinders of fury. My first car was a Nissan Pulsar. Sadly, it was an automatic, but I still modded it the best I could for some speed. After that, I built a 98 Dodge Neon with all the bolt-on mods I could get my hands on, getting I believe 14.4 in the 1/4 on street tires. After that, I wanted a sleeper, so I bought an 89 Dodge Caravan with the 2.5L Turbo Auto in it. I got it into the mid-low 13's before retiring it (needed a lot of money to keep it going at that point). I rebuilt my old Neon to be a daily driver, doing all the hypermiling I could and is what I run currently (59MPG is my tank record, 48MPG is life average). Recently, I went to the drag strip to see my old van run. While there, I watched too many cars run and got me itching. I told my wife and she said "You know, I have that old bug you could use..."

So, Here I am. Scouring the internet for ideas. I believe she's a 74. She hasn't ran in 10+ years. Supposedly ran when it was parked, but the key was lost, never was titled, and has been collecting dust since. Engine code is AF454213 and seems to be in tact. I'm sure I have a lot of maintenance ahead of me to get it on the road. From there, I'll start deciding on the route to power for it.

Anywho, this forum seems to be the right choice for my ambitions. Already read through some very interesting threads.

[kharon]

Okay, here it goes: Motivation to register came from a fact that at least every other 412 -related article I could find with google, led either here or thesamba.

OK, type 4 isn't a common car but that can't be a coincidence, so for me, worth while.

So I'm a middle-aged guy from Finland and I've managed to collect one of each types 1 to 4, types 1 and 3 being Karmanns and type 2 a split-window. 412 is the latest buy and some of you might have noticed stories about it in Type 3&4 club - and/or Thesamba 411/412-forums(with nick Kharon or Kharon8). Other German cars too, few motorbikes, a moped, bicycles and everything that rolls on wheels and goes brrrrmmm, I like those.

My first car was a -66 Beetle in 1983 and I'm still hooked to aircooled boxers.

Anyway, the main motivation is the 412 and the new old AN-engine I just bought for it. It doesn't turn so I have to open it up and see what's going on. The car is currently moving with an CJ-engine, 2 liter carburetted van engine (75hp or so when new) so it's not too fast with automatic. AN isn't much more powerful (about 15%) but the behaviour is quite different.

Just a teaser picture, but you'll get a link which basically has all of these, a page per vehicle:
http://kharon.suomiforum.com/www/index_e.html

[Merelyatheory]

Hey everyone, I have been creeping the site for weeks. I just recently joined. If only this information was available to me when I was younger. I don't really have any questions yet as most everything I can think of has been laid out pretty clearly already in the forums. The VW community is pretty amazing. Saturday my 73' Beetle will be arriving from Texas. The owner is cool and several people have vouched for his integrity. Makes me feel better about not getting the chance to kick the tires. It has been slightly modified. I plan to keep it like it is for the winter and bring it back a little closer to stock over spring and summer. I have some upgrades I would like to do, nothing fancy. I will go back to creeping.. Thanks for being a good forum.

[vicoval56]

Thanks for the opportunity to join a resourceful forum - where do i begin; 30 yrs ago maybe when i restored a 61 rag top for cheap transportation, then decided to customise it with a 1835cc motor, then had the novel/stupid idea of fitting a 911E 2 litre mechanical F/I Porsche motor in the back of my vw with drum brakes!! Thats another story.
Brings me back to the present - my Oval 1956 Iris Blue VW, recently painted, soon to be rewired and March 2016, carpet and headlining. This car was rediscovered in a country paddock 'For Sale' 4 years ago. I immediately recognised it as i purchased it off my porsche mechanic as his unfinished project 25 yrs ago. It had the 356 Super 90 motor; long gone, IRS suspension, disc brake front end with flared fiberglass guards and still pearl white!!Fast forward 4 plus years, now full off body resto, as rust in most metal areas, changed every rubber, screws stainless and added Bling! Having researched Type 4 motors, i settled for a 2 litre T4 in a donor boy's toy project shod with porsche rims and other usable bits.But recently I acquired a T4 2345cc with Pauter heads and value train with 48 IDA, Demillo crank,Carillo rods, Vanolea 104mm pistons and dry sump oil circulation. This was a short motor but i'will add a Raby DTM,MSD 6 AL2 ignition box, custom exhaust to complete the transformation.
My Newby Intro is long winded but i have ' bared my VW Soul'. I love the other forum members to offer suggestions on gearbox / big brake set up or sympathy to my depleted retirement funds. I will add pics in later posts and hope to learn from other people's experiences. Hope you found my ride of interest.
Thank you
Ange

[Piledriver]

Welcome to the STF!

You might want to start a thread in type4um.

Oh, and pictures---we love pictures for inspiration.

[ohiostyle]

I've read STF for ages and never registered. I have a slew of aircooleds and sling parts, but am going to the dark side of engine swaps and the drama is not the place for me......

[Piledriver]

I've read STF for ages and never registered. I have a slew of aircooleds and sling parts, but am going to the dark side of engine swaps and the drama is not the place for me......

Our lovely "conversion perversions" forum may make you feel right at home.
http://www.shoptalkforums.com/viewforum.php?f=19

The STF doesn't condone "drama".

[horance]

Horance AKA Rich Goodrich In Toledo Oh
1973 std Beetle stock
The only thing not factory is the wiring and the paint (for now)
I even have the factory spare (bias ply).

[reithi]

Thanks for the add.

I am George Mureithi from Nairobi, Kenya owner of a 1973 VW Bus which I will be restoring soon as well as planting a JDM EJ20 Engine (Non Turbo) from a 2006 Subaru Legacy BP5.

Engine swap and restoration thread will be up in due course.

[spengrz1]

I'm new to this form, I retired from the railroad, as a locomotive engineer, about 5 years ago and I live in Parker AZ. I have swing axle sand rail that is street legal, it has 2332 that was upgraded to a turbo. Previously the motor had twin 48 IDA's, 44x37.5 street eliminator heads, weber fk8 cam, 10.5 compression, Pauter 1.3 ratio roller tip roller rockers, full circle 84 mm crank MSD 6AL. A friend of mine rebuilt the motor recently with a scat forged crank and forged rods both with chevy journals. used the Pauter rockers lowered the compression to 9 to 1 machined the block for a full flow oil system with a 96 plate oil cooler. It has a t3/t4 turbo with a 45 mm weber side draft still trying to figure the jetting out.

[BugBomb]

Hello from sunny Crescent Valley BC. I'm not new to VWs having owned 3 beetles previously, my last being a `64 with a mostly stock 1600 DP. I'm just about to retire from the Railroad and want to resurrect my Dad's `66 bug into a street/strip warrior that I can take to the strip and play around with my buddies and their muscle cars. The old guys beetle has been sitting for 30+ years and will need EVERYTHING. Being retired I will have more time than money, but that's part of the fun. I'm leaning towards a naturally aspirated mid-sized honker (2017 -2110) hoping to see about 150HP. Looking forward to the adventure back into VWdom

[doc]

Welcome all!!

doc

[ChadH]

Hi all, I'm Chad. I have a new VW project and I think ShoptalkForums is going to be a great place to bounce ideas and get advice for what I'm doing.

I've been Autocrossing my Mk6 and Mk7 GTI for a few years, along with my wife in her R56 Mini Cooper S. I even got my kids running in a Kart. While the modern cars are fun, I've decided to build a dedicated Autocross car from a '71 Super Beetle I dragged home last week. I'm planning on a gutted racer, running in X Prepared. It looks like I'll be able to get some more focused advice from some of the VW autocrossers and road racers here, than in the "other" big VW forum.

Here it is in all it's current glory. It has a few rough spots on the body work, but most of the sheet metal is German, and the pan is solid.

[hillbillygary]

This is hillbilly, new to this. I have a 1970 Beetle 1600. After driving and turn off it will not start for about 15 minutes, but it will turn over. New pointless distributor, new plugs, new 34 pict carb

[MaNiaCaL Z78]

Hello,
I'm MaNiaCaL. I have had an interest in VWs since forever. But when it came to get my first car I passed up VWs for the sake of horsepower. I fell into camaros. FFWD a bit and I'm now in my mid 30s. I purchased my first VW project a 73 beetle about 3 years ago. Started on it and got busy having a son and running a business. So I decided to purchase something that was running. So a year and a half ago I purchased a 73 Baja. It was slightly better than a project. But the wiring fried about a year ago and it has sat in the garage.

So the reality is that I own a shop with my wife. And I'm so busy working that I barley have time for my own stuff. A guy stopped by my shop and seen my VWs in the back of the shop. Long story short I purchased a VW junkyard from him. Mix of 13 beetles and super beetles 2 sand rails, a karmann ghia, 8 complete engines, and various parts.

So I started setting a schedule to make time for my projects. So far so good. I'll post pics once I get all this stuff moved. Pullin VWs from a field is its own reward.