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Hey all.
got a guy down the road who has a vw thing. Had it for years. I stopped today to look at it. Floorboards are gone and paints flakin off it. Has engine but don't run. tires are rotted. Has nice doors n seems pretty solid other than that.
What's the goin prices for these? He said $1600 and has title.
id like to maybe put a rear fiero v6 or front engine v8 in it.
if nothing else just to save the thing.
Anyone ever saw a hot rodded one with v6 or v8? Tnx...

As far as a front engine goes I think you will find that it would be a lot of work if based on the stock pan.

An engine in the rear is another story but still would require a fair amount of work.

Lee

Have you priced this things at all? Part it out and double your money no problem.

I'd buy it and remove all of the Thing suspension components, brakes and drivelines & flanges which are in demand for use on Bajas, replace all of the above with regular Beetle parts and sell it to some fool that wants a "slammed" Thing (you'd be surprised how many there are). Making the engine run, replacing the floorpans (they're unique to Thing but Karmann-Ghia pans have the same dimensions, just less stiffening stamped in) would be variables but even with no repairs I wouldn't be surprised it it'd go for more than $1600 like that, then you could peddle off the leftover parts for fairly good money - there is a good demand for them.

But for what you have in mind the VW chassis needs to go. One way to go would be to drop the body over a Detroit chassis compatible with the drivetrain of choice - something like an S-10/S-15 pickup frame for the front-engine V8 shouldn't be too challenging, for mid-engine I can't think of an easy plan, you'd probably have to fabricate the rear section (at least). The Fiero guys I know say the automatic is preferable to the 4- or 5-speed but I don't know why (clutch & shifter control issues possibly, something you should be able to improve upon). At least you wouldn't need to unbolt the mounts and raise the engine to change the sparkplugs like they have to do in the Fiero body

Check out the components... The transaxle might have a LSD in it. that is worth $1200.00 just for the lsd. Heck Im half way looking for some trailing arms.

No Things sold in the US had LSDs. It should have an "AV" trans. Nothing particularly special other than the 100mm drive flanges. SHOULD have the stronger "O" ring & pinion but some do not. Gear ratios are the same as `73-up Beetle AT but the R&P is 6% shorter.