Shoptalkforums.com

I have just finished a year and a half long Thing project, before that I mostly built street buggies. With the proceeds from each sale financing the next projet. Each buggy I have built has sold within hours.

It has been a great adventure for me and my kids, not to mention learning a lot from folks like Kman and others along the way. I have also amassed some great tools that my wife thinks were imperative to each project.

I am somewhat perplexed with the Thing project though.
I have it listed it on the other VW web site and it comes off of Ebay today, (I am certain it won't sell) with out so much as a faint whisper of interest. I believe the asking price was more that fair and doesn't come close to what I have invested in it in parts alone.
[img]http://images.thesamba.com/vw/classifie ... 35.jpg[img]

Did I anger the purists gods? Is choppping and slamming a curse? I think it turned out great and I am happy with the chioces I made during its construction. Maybe it's a symptom of the economy or maybe I just over-estimated this great car's popularity. I am anxious to move to my next project which is going to be a mid-travel manx style buggy, the wife thinks I should sell some of the tools, not! Thanks for putting up with the whining. mb

Finally figured out the pic thing.

here is my take on it.

most thing drivers like original cars. if ride height becomes an issue, most are raising, not slamming.

there is nothing wrong with slamming a thing, but you won't find a lot of interest from a typical well-heeled thing prospective owner in my experience. thing drivers with big budgets opt for a perfect original unrestored thing, or a very modified buggy style thing.

i personally like slammed things but the chances of selling one for top dollar are not very good. a slammed split panel bus, that you can sell in a heartbeat, even if it is a piece of junk. your car looks well built and i'm sure it isn't going to make a ton of money for the price you are asking.

I stand corrected, it just sold on Ebay with about an hour left for my Buy it Now price. Now I'm really sorry for the whining!. Thanks again to all of you for helping me along the way. mb

You are lucky; I have tried to sell two cars on Ebay and the winners never showed. One was up 3 times and won by deadbeat bidders each time.

Whatever happened with that cool looking roll bar shown in the pics after you had it painted? I thought it really enhanced the looks....

Mark

Mark,
The roll bar was from a water cooled Cabriolet, I had to widen about 6" and chopped it about 4" ,then hours of sheet metal work later smoothed into the door posts.
You are right it looked really nice when we finished it but, when we put the body on the pan for the last time I somehow let the body tweak a little and the roll bar cracked up one side (actually the body filler cracked under the paint).
It was a horrible sight, any way, when I had chopped and widened it I think I got a little too much heat on it when I was tigging the seams, it was real thin to begin with.

I still have it in the garage, I keep it around to remind me to let up on the tig pedal a little. It's free to a good home though if any of you Thing guys are interested. Mike