This past spring I found a 1965 Bahama Blue beetle sitting in a back yard, knocked on the door and it turned out it was the 75 year old original owner! He said the bug was part of the family and couldn't be sold, but I kept going back and convinced him to sell it!
It has every receipt from its entire life! It is original to my city, Charlotte, NC. I got it running and driving again and was able to use it as my daily driver over the summer and even drive it a few hours on the interstate out to some lakes. Sadly one Saturday morning on the way out to a cars an coffee meet the engine and tranny blew out:( so I decided to do a entire rebuild.
I currently have the body off the pan and disassembled and the pan disassembled. I am starting on the body which will take a lot of new metal and fabrication work. I am keeping the Bahama blue patina look though. I plan on lowering the bug and I want to do a vintage speed build on the original 40 hp engine. After talking with a old Porsche mechanic I know I am considering putting a Porsche 356/912 5 speed tranny in, or at least a freeway flyer VW one. For the engine I want am thinking a Porsche 356 crank and rods or (please don't hate on this) a SPG roller crank. A performance cam any idea on which one, Engle, Norris, or Porsche? For pistons I was thinking either a original 83mm Mahle set or a Porsche 356 set.
If I use Porsche should I use a stock 82mm set or a big bore 86mm set? And then for heads I am torn between either modifying the original 373 single port heads, porting and polishing them, or sourcing a original 40 hp Okrasa set. And then a dual carb set up and full flow Fram filter. So any advice is greatly appreciated!
I need to do this build as affordably as possible as I'm a student, but I have been working on Air cooled for some time now and this isn't my first build by any means so all expenses will just be in parts. I will be starting this same thread on the samba and if you have any ideas or help that you want to get to me quickly just pm me on there. My username is the same there as here: vwhavermahan
Thanks! :d
Haver Mahan
Edited by moderator
8 years ago
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