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Hi y'all. I'm in Texas... Houston...ish... I've had 3 bugs in my life but that was over 15 years ago since the last one which was a nightmare and before such forums. My most fun bug ever was the 67 swing-axle I had with a narrow-eye baja conversion, 33-inch mudders in the rear, 88mm pistons and jugs, bigger cam, 2bbl carb,stinger exhaust, etc. etc... no spare tire, and I chopped all the metal I could out of the back, narrows the front fenders, chopped and rotated the rear fenders, wires everywhere, couldn't get it stuck... wow that was a lot of fun...

with the giant back tires and beefy engine, I could get the front tires to hop occasionally...

....then I got married and had kids....

My kids are older now so since my wife refuses to let me take them out on my Goldwing, I want to build something... Preferably a street rail.

Which forum is the best for that? I greatly appreciate any help given to this middle-aged Texas man looking to cause trouble in his marriage.

Sincerely,
Crusty.

Good question! Probably the type 1 site might be the best but you might get some info from the off-road site.

Other than a street rail what harm do you thing of doing to one . You can go from a full bolt together one then add state requirements or you can go past "stupid" and into "ridiculous" as this is a very open to "things" question... sounds fun!

Lee

I'd like to start mild-ish... Lots of questions tho. From my brief research, it seems cheaper to add a chevy or ford 4cyl from the wrecking yard bolted to an adapter plate. Engines are feakishly expensive for Type 1's now.... or at least... I'm not finding the right places.

Perfect world - Find an old Type 1 engine that runs and that I can tear down with my kids. Teach them how it works, etc. By the book... putting it together again would be with better cam, jugs, cyls, etc. Then, I would put a frame kit together and make it street legal... but... How do I title it... things like that.. I'm certain there are people here that could help me out, just don't know which place to start.

I replied on your build string. I run a VW pancake motor on my buggy and a Ford/Merc V6 Cologne on my black buggy build. Leather and a couple of others are running other V6 engines. You see a lot of the old Ford I-4s also on older builds. The 4 cylinder I-4 is still a good engine as long as you can find a good starter motor so don't rule them out either.

I don't recommend a swing axle for many reasons but a lot of people run them still.

Lee