$650 1973 VW Beetle

>>16652789

Also, according to the seller, it has a new headliner, an $80 new carpet kit that hasn't been installed I guess, and "many extra parts." I asked him/her what that means, and so now I'm just waiting for the response back.

>>16652789

tl;dr wan to buy first car, vw beetle on Craigslist is $650 without engine. Should I bite, yes or no?

>>16652789

Great idea for a project.

Did you work on a vintage car before?
Do you have the tools and space to work on it?
Does anyone you know have some sort of idea of how cars work?

Aquiring a running VW engine and putting in the back of a Beetle is not a big task and is not going to cost 3000$.

But I'm sure there is a lot more work to be done before the car actually drives well (will probably require new tyres, brakes, lots of smaller fixes) and all that will add up, and also take a lot of work and time.
Spare parts for these cars are easily available for reasonable prices, there is lots of know how, plus the Beetle is a very easy car to work on

do this:
>buy cheap daily driver like an older civic or corolla for 3-5k
>buy beetle, engine and take your time to get it to run and drive properly
>once it's drivable you can decide wether you can deal with a 73 Beetle as a daily driver (chances are it's too noisy, slow and uncomfortable for you)or not

Also get the fuck away from 4chan for advice on this, join a forum for aircooled VWs

>>16652837

Thanks.

>Did you work on a vintage car before?
No. I have no previous experience with cars, period. I would like to see this as an opportunity to learn about them a little more, though. And also, I won't mess with the paint until maybe much, much later. For now, I would make sure that it isn't rusted to shit behind the back seats, and stuff like that.

>Do you have the tools and space to work on it?
Space will probably the hardest part, but I can ask my friend. As for tools, I don't own them, but I can borrow them.

>Does anyone you know have some sort of idea of how cars work?
Yes. He's not a professional, but he has forced himself to learn enough to where he have a reasonable amount of knowledge on cars. I don't think a VW beetle would scare him. I just don't know when I could recruit him.

Have you ever had experience with beetles before?

I'll try to keep this updated if the guy contacts me in time.

>>16652789

A brand new 0 mile motor will be 3k, but a rebuilt motor shouldn't be over 1500.

Also everyone with a bug has extra parts, because you can find good 500$ parts cars every now and again.

Vw beetle engine and transaxle are so easy to install and swap they have speed contests. The world record is 1 minute and 4 seconds.

You still need room and tools though.

>>16652870
You have to adjust valve springs after every oil change just fyi. Youre retarded if you cant find a decent newer car for 16k.

A beetle is a good car to learn on. But like other anon said, find a civic or corrola or Camry or something in that flavor for a DD.
Its only 4 bolts and a floor jack to drop the beetle engine.

Get underneath and check the floor pan for rust. Poke it with a screwdriver (not hard, but with force). They like to rust around the edges, where they change from "flat" and blend into other components.

>>16652789
Given your budget, I'd do it, and then use the EV West conversion kit to make it into an electric car. Then you never have to worry bout gas.
http://www.evwest.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=40&products_id=168

>>16653058
Okay.
>>16653123
Cool.
>>16653228
Meh.
>>16653758
Yeah, I read about how the rust needs to be religiously checked. Especially behind the back seat, where apparently fires can start if it has rusted through, and the battery touches it.
>>16654067
That's pretty neat.

What color you gonna repaint it?

>>16654148

I don't know to be honest.

I was just thinking that I could give it a quick fix for the moment, and use it as a daily driver because I thought it would be cheap (and it is), but I don't know if I should just choose a different car that's more reliable for a high price.

If I were to paint it, however, I would probably choose that sort of vintage baby blue. The thing is, that baby blue doesn't look good new in my opinion. The worn, blue color that has been sitting down is what I'm talking about.

What would you paint it?

>>16654171
Either harvest gold or baby blue would look great on it. Perhaps a caramel brown too. Gotta stick to the decade it was in.

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>>16654171
Forest green like this would be godly as well.

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>>16654188
Eep. Wrong pic.

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>>16654171
Personal suggestion no.1

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>>16654171
>>16654320
Personal suggestion no.2.
As much as I like red, I'd seriously go with the blue one personally. Just my taste.

I'd never go with yellow, black, white or silver though.

>>16652789
>first car
>project car

pick one

get a small beater truck. nothing is more useful to a young man starting out than a truck.

>1600cc twin-carb is $3000+
Get a $300 SBC on CL, and the adapter kit.

>>16652789
>offering $650
You mean "asking" $650. He won't give you money.

Seriously: if you have $16K to spend, get something newer and functional.

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>>16652789
I never liked the old Beetle, it was poorly designed, badly built and was horrid to drive however, there are people who do like it.

My uncle had two and he said he whipped out the engine out of one in under a hour. So, I guess they must be reasonable easy to work on but if you now what you're doing then go right ahead.

But if need to drive, buy a daily drive and work on this in the meantime. The Beetle is a terrible car though

>>16654344
OP wants a lil' shitbox. Shut up.

>>16654176
Yeah, gold might be good.
>>16654192
>>16654320
>>16654326
These are good too. I really like the blue one.
>>16654330
We'll, I just want to get it to work. All these anons recommending paint jobs are nice, but I'm not planning to overhaul it. And I'm a college student, so I don't know if I need a truck. Something about the shape, and even risk of the beetle attracts me, and for the most part, I think it'll teach me to be a better driver in terms of safety awareness, and road responsibility. Also, braking with no ABS will be a good skill to acquire I think.
>>16654344
Thanks for catching that. Have sleep problems, and stay up too late to a point where I can't always concentrate.
I got about five and a half hours of sleep for today, from 0530 to 1050.
>>16654375
Yeah, I know. There's. I real good reason to buy it other than it'd be a good memory, and learning experience.

>>16654376
Glad to see I have a good line up of support here.

>>16654510
There's no real reason to buy it*

>>16654337

Could you give me more information on the SBC engine, and converter kit?

Specifics and all, if you can.

>>16654510
I'd day don't miss the opportunity, considering your budget.

Also if you have a garage where to store it (dad, grandpa, whatever) you can leave it there and pick it up when you have time for it. You can also save further for spare-parts, engine and bling in the meantime.

You do not need a truck. Probably not a brand-new car either, just take >>16652837 's advice and buy a cheap mainstream car for a day-drive. You will have both the practicability of the daily car and the joy of having one of your dreams.

>>16654834

That's what I was thinking too.

Thank you for your advice and comment.

More advice and comments are welcome.

>>16654564
>Could you give me more information on the SBC engine, and converter kit?
>Specifics and all, if you can.
The SBC is shorthand for a Small Block Chevrolet V8, the most common variant is 350 cubic inches, or 5.7L. It's not going to fit without serious modification.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_small-block_engine

>>16655770

Ah, so it was the one that I saw when I looked up SBC for VW Beetle.

It's tempting, but I'm in no line of work to start cutting a car up.

However, thank you for the recommendation.

>>16652789
Subaru WRX engine, you know you wanna.

It's not a classic Beetle so you can do what you want with it.

EZ30 would be cool if itfitted.

>>16652816
NO THIS IS A TERRIBLE IDEA THIS BELONGS IN THE QUESTIONS THAT DONT DESERVE THEIR OWN THREAD THREAD

R
E
A
D

T
H
E

STICKY
T
I
C
K
Y

>>16657537
>Subaru WRX engine, you know you wanna.
Nah
>>16657549
OKAY
K
A
Y

But too late.

>>16652789
That thing is a literal fucking deathtrap, and is nothing more than a parts car. Whether you have $1600 or $16000 you can do better.

May as well buy a fucking bike man.

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>>16652789
My 73 is for sale.
Pic is a year old it has chrome mirrors now.

>>16652789
i wouldn't for your first car, get something reliable to get you into cars. Its nice being able to jump into a car and just driving when you're starting out

A project beetle might be too much to bite off, but if you still want a beetle you should consider the budget and that buying the car for $650 and add onto a rebuild engine that would cost up to $2000 to put together and add $1000 on all the little odds and ends that need fixing and maintenance items that need to be repaired (ie, complete set of brakes, complete set of tyres, registration, licensing, NOS or secondhand/reproduction parts such as blinkers) and not to mention all the tools and sprays and oils along the way. Just from this list alone and without factoring in a paintjob its going to cost 3500 grand, and we haven't even done cosmetics yet, its just to get the thing driving

Considering this, you could spend the same $3500 on a running, driving and tidy VW Beetle that you can enjoy immeditately and do running repairs as they come up. Doing it this way means you can ease yourself into the car hobby without being overwhelmed with things like an engine rebuild, motor upholstery or rust repairs. It also means you can decide whether the vintage car experience is for you or if its just a passing thought

tl;dr just spend the extra and buy a tidy beetle

>>16658838
Location and how much?

>>16658932

Never mind, for some reason I thought you were in Hungary.

>>16652789
Ez30r conversion

Do it

>>16652789
You have 16-fucking-thousand dollars and you're seriously looking at that piece of shit?

Seek psychological counseling.

>>16659315

This.

>>16659315
>>16659939
t. people that don't really like cars

Follow your dreams, OP. You've only got one shot in this world.

OP I just read the thread and it sounds like you don't even have room for one car, let alone 2 which is what you should buy in this case.

Yhe ONLY way to do what you are wanting to do is to buy the proverbial $3k Civic and also this Beetle as a project car that you really have some kind of a vision for the end result on. Use the reliable car to learn about driving on while you learn about mechanics from the Beetle. Stay motivated and busy.

This is OP. I want to respond to some of you guys, but I don't have the time now. Will be back in a couple of hours.

Bump.

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>>16658054
That's part of the fun.
>>16658838
Damn, that looks good though.
>>16658961
No thanks. Maybe if I ever get enough money where I'm comfortable to spend it on upgrades for cars.
>>16658901
Yeah, okay. I know they're a pain, but I have the fantasy of having a cheap, shit car with personality as my very first.

I'll post the links to a couple other CL posts where they have VW Beetles for sale. One of them is black and gray that looks pretty good, and seems reasonable ($1995) for the condition that it's in. The other is an unfinished project, but runs. It's orange and gray, and doesn't seem to be as reasonable as the black and gray one.

Black: https://slo.craigslist.org/cto/5925989746.html

Orange and Gray: https://slo.craigslist.org/cto/5982587517.html

Tell me what you think anon(s).

>>16659956
Thank you.
I'm new to /o/, but I can already tell that a lot of /b/tards bleed over between here and /pol/.

>>16660267
I actually have one space available, as I'm moving to a different place in town next weekend.
The second place could be at my grandparents, but I haven't looked. I could ask my land lord if I could park one on the street, If I really wanted two cars.


The guy whose selling this gave me some more pictures, and said that he has a carpet kit, and a "glass pack" from a BugHaus.

I will post them just for the hell of it. Here's one.

>>16662026
Here's two.

He also said that the seats are new from CL as well.

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>>16662039

Whoops.

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>>16662047
Three.

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>>16662056

And four.

>>16662026

*I have that image/fantasy of having one's very first car be something they had to work on to get going, and then hang onto it for a while until they're ready for a better one (I live frugally).