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Jan 10, 2019 22:21:23 GMT
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School project? Yes, I'm a teacher and this is my 1971 1200 Beetle. Donated by a good friend and work colleague, with the purpose of helping these kids learn skills related to their Automotive Studies course, and saving the car from being turned into a series of body cuts for other projects. I've told the students that the progress they will see depends on the effort they put in, and we've already got some very interested young people.
The car is a 1200 model Beetle, so blade bumpers, small rear lights, partial headlining and other detail differences, and came with a few modifications already done. Pre-'67 front wings and lowered front beam are the obvious ones along with dechromed sides and those wheels. Inside the seats have been chopped down to just the bottom frame to mount some Opel Manta Recaros and the dash has been chopped out to fit a modern stereo. The thing is, the last tax disc in the window ran out in August 2000, so before any of the students working on it were born! Condition is as poor as you'd expect, but it will have a full nut and bolt, body off restoration with a few more modifications along the way.
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1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim
1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started.
1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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Jan 10, 2019 22:23:55 GMT
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For some reason I'm struggling to add pictures - bear with me!
While I try vainly to get photos from my phone to add onto here, I'll add a bit more about me and my car history.
Started with a 1968 Beetle at 17, way back in 1995. Crashed it after 13 days, so when the new front axle went on it just happened to be a lowered one... some rust repair turned into quite a bit of work, ending up with the car being dechromed, backdated to a US-spec '67 look and painted the brightest white I could find.
When I went to uni I signed the car over to my brother, and over the next 18 months or so we did a full body-off resto on it, eventually sticking a warm 1600 in it. In my second year at uni I got a student loan and bought a '61 Beetle, which was written off by being t-boned with a few months. This was replaced by a GP LDV beach buggy, which got swapped for a Karmann Ghia, later owned by VW of this site. It got a bit silly after this - I decided to go drag racing in 1999 in the Ghia, but during the season thought I'd be better off with a Beetle so picked up a '66 Bug, felt guilty that the ring binders full of history meant that chopping it into a race car probably wasn't a good idea, so tidied it up and sold it on, then bought another '66, this time with a roof chop and flip front already started, and raced it in primer in 2000. Another student loan got me a '70 bay window camper, which I used to tow the Beetle for a couple of seasons until it too got written off and replaced with an '81 T25. Over the next couple of years I picked up and sold a '70 1300 bug (loved it), a '71 1200 (went to a mates son, who still has it in bits 15 years on!), a '51 split window Beetle, a 1970 1500 Beetle that got fully restored for my cousins husband and a few donor cars along the way.
In 2006 or so I took back my first Beetle as my brother had given up on it, and put it back on the road. I'd stopped drag racing in 2005 but kept a lot of bits, so initially put in my 15-second 1600 motor. It was repainted for my wedding in 2011, but spun a big end bearing soon after. The replacement 1500 was horrible, so the car sat on the drive for a few years before getting my spare 12-second 2007cc race motor stuffed into it! That livened it up a bit, quadrupling the horsepower and getting a couple of 14 second timeslips, which I was pretty pleased with!
And now here we are with this one. Its rotten, but nothing I've not come across before. Just got to get these damn photos to work...
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1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim
1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started.
1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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Jan 10, 2019 22:52:18 GMT
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Sounds awesome, how long will it take? and will the students see it through to the finish, or will it take longer than their time at school?
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Jan 10, 2019 23:08:17 GMT
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Sounds awesome, how long will it take? and will the students see it through to the finish, or will it take longer than their time at school? It'll take longer than they've got. I work in a Key Stage 4 Pupil Referral Unit, so I've got a maximum of 18 months with the Year 10s and only 6 months with Year 11. I've told them that I'd like the floorpan rolling by the summer, and the body started next academic year. |
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1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim
1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started.
1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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Jan 10, 2019 23:30:02 GMT
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1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim
1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started.
1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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Jan 10, 2019 23:58:13 GMT
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Here's some pictures of those previous cars too: My first car, post crash repair. Not cal look yet!  In 2006, 8 years after the resto. Paint went flat within months.  Ended up like this by 2011 though!  The '70 1300 that I loved. curse word picture, but I don't have any others.  Race car - best time 12.097 at 109.77mph. Scrapped 8 weeks after I sold it...  And the '51  My wife's stalled Karmann Cabrio project  And the '70 1500 straight after a full resto.  |
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1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim
1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started.
1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
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Jan 11, 2019 14:56:42 GMT
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Ooooh, this is gonna be good  So many things to say; like why didn't I go to a school where there were cool teachers who taught you to rebuild Beetles? And... now I feel old because there are teachers apparently about a decade younger than me  . You're brave putting the lift under that framehead closer, looks like you could easily jack the front of that 1200 up while the back stays firmly on the floor  That BigBoysToys dragster used to be in VolksWorld seemingly every month. The 1500 '70 is gorgeous (even with the EMPI 8s  ). So nice to see a show-quality Beetle that doesn't have the stance and offset of a wheelbarrow! I didn't know you could get indicator-delete late wings, or did you plug them yourself? ....breathes... I'm watching. Continue  |
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Last Edit: Jan 11, 2019 14:59:05 GMT by luckyseven
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Jan 11, 2019 18:03:12 GMT
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Cal look? Yes, another topic to follow Previous cars look great. This one will be the same! Keep the updates comming  Yannick |
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Jan 11, 2019 19:25:38 GMT
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Get really jealous - the blue 1200 on the lift, that's in my classroom! There's a lot less metal than I thought in the front of the channel, but the lift is on the pan, not the channel! It will be moving next week though.
Going round with the WD40 this afternoon has revealed a couple of bolts have been welded over, and one corner of the pan at least has been welded to the heater channel. The bulkhead looks the same. The bottom of the rear wing on the right hand side was also welded to the body, and every wing had several bolts replaced with self tappers! It's had a pretty hard shunt in the front, and although the spare wheel well has been replaced, I'm not convinced its quite square. In more positive news, being off the road for the last 18 years has meant that it hasn't been repainted several times - in fact, other than blending in the front, it looks like the metallic blue is the only paint job its had.
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1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim
1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started.
1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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Jan 11, 2019 19:38:03 GMT
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Hi Yannick, nice to see you over here! I'll do a thread on the Lounge when I'm a bit further in!
Thanks for the nice comments about my other cars - I wish I'd been able to hang on to most of them, but each of the ones that moved on allowed me to build the next one.
Nick, it seems that 8-spokes have fallen from favour, but I really like them! I even had a set of five genuine 2 piece Empi wheels that I nearly put on the '68, but I sold them to pay a vet bill for one of my cats! I like them so much I may be getting another set for the 1200!
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1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim
1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started.
1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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Jan 19, 2019 12:05:48 GMT
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End of week two, and students still interested! Not much to show other than rust, and a bit more investigation into repairs. One class had a go at the floorpan bolts, with not a lot of success! The two large ones under each side of the napoleans hat at the front each ended with a score draw - one removed and one snapped on each side, and the M8s around the perimeter of the floorpan broke the captive nut out of the heater channel on every single one, so I've now got the Year 10s using angle grinders to take the heads of the bolts off. The passenger side channel has had a rusty crappy piece taken out which roughly welded the pan to the channel, and the driver side will be the same next week. I'd like the body off by the end of next week, and now that lesson observations for performance management are out of the way we can really crack on! I've spoken to a local soda blasting company who have agreed to blasting the floorpan in a couple of weeks, when it's fully stripped down and the old pan halves are off. Thanks to horrido on here I also had a very productive phone call with Andy at www.vwheritage.com who has agreed to help us out with parts and panels, so a huge thanks to both of them. Rather than me just deciding what we need, I've got a couple of students looking through the website and trying to work out exactly what they need, although it is hard to stop them just ordering one of everything... |
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1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim
1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started.
1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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Jan 21, 2019 22:21:59 GMT
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1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim
1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started.
1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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Jan 21, 2019 22:31:52 GMT
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Did I mention that l love my job - this is my classroom with another Beetle in there that belongs to the head of the Key Stage 3 school next door, and his 1915cc motor almost ready to put back in. Waiting on a rollcage to be delivered to school for that this week too...  |
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1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim
1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started.
1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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Jan 21, 2019 22:51:09 GMT
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That’s quite rusty! But I like the workspace a lot  |
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Yeah, it's pretty bad but nothing that can't be fixed. This academic year we're concentrating on the floorpan and get that fully done, then body next year. I'd like the body off the pan by the end of this week and ideally soda blasted before half term.
I'm incredibly lucky with the facilities I've got access to! Still looking out for more though - if a cheap blasting cabinet turned up I'd be on it like a tramp on chips...
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1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim
1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started.
1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
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Damn, that's crusty Dat jacking point  I want to work somewhere like that when I grow up |
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I never fit the jacking points to new pans, and quite often hack them off old ones too! I've seen more than a couple of creased quarter panels where the jacking point is moved up but the car stays stil...
I work there because I refuse to grow up! I'm in my 17th year of teaching and it's changed so much in that time. This school has a really nice feel to it, and although the students are incredibly challenging at times, the staff always pull together to make their time with us as beneficial as possible. I'm really glad I made the leap out of mainstream schools.
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1968 Cal Look Beetle - 2007cc motor - 14.45@93mph in full street trim
1970-ish Karmann Beetle cabriolet - project soon to be re-started.
1986 Scirocco - big plans, one day!
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Race car - best time 12.097 at 109.77mph. Scrapped 8 weeks after I sold it... I remember this from back in my VolksZone days. Shame to hear it got scrapped :/ |
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luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
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Jan 22, 2019 17:53:55 GMT
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I work there because I refuse to grow up! I'm in my 17th year of teaching and it's changed so much in that time. This school has a really nice feel to it, and although the students are incredibly challenging at times, the staff always pull together to make their time with us as beneficial as possible. I'm really glad I made the leap out of mainstream schools. Exactly what my wife said when she moved from secondary to broad-spectrum special needs teaching. The students might have been able to achieve much less overall, but in terms of their parameters, anything they did achieve was a major result. She said it was the most rewarding time she'd spent in teaching, whereas trying to get bored teenagers to stop texting and thinking about boobs very quickly lost its appeal |
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Jan 22, 2019 18:18:59 GMT
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I work there because I refuse to grow up! I'm in my 17th year of teaching and it's changed so much in that time. This school has a really nice feel to it, and although the students are incredibly challenging at times, the staff always pull together to make their time with us as beneficial as possible. I'm really glad I made the leap out of mainstream schools. Exactly what my wife said when she moved from secondary to broad-spectrum special needs teaching. The students might have been able to achieve much less overall, but in terms of their parameters, anything they did achieve was a major result. She said it was the most rewarding time she'd spent in teaching, whereas trying to get bored teenagers to stop texting and thinking about boobs very quickly lost its appeal Just to clarify... is that ‘stop texting and start thinking about boobs’ or ‘stop texting and also stop thinking about boobs’ Sorry (I’m a scout leader and most of the scouts do it because they want to, the cubs are mostly packed off without a choice....so I do sort of know what you mean, a bit) I’ll get my coat! |
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. You're brave putting the lift under that framehead closer, looks like you could easily jack the front of that 1200 up while the back stays firmly on the floor 
That BigBoysToys dragster used to be in VolksWorld seemingly every month. The 1500 '70 is gorgeous (even with the EMPI 8s 
). So nice to see a show-quality Beetle that doesn't have the stance and offset of a wheelbarrow! I didn't know you could get indicator-delete late wings, or did you plug them yourself?
