My Next Project: 1959 VW Beetle

UNSTUCK

But stuck more often.
Well I was thinking I would get more of a break after finishing the Sunbeam, but here I am. John approached me a month or two ago about his next project he was working on and asked if I'd take it over. Me being a glutton for punishment jumped on it. I was told the car was ready to go as far as body and paint. The upholstery would be a simple website kit that I would install. Yeah, no. :D

To his credit the body work is finished, minus paint. He likes the look of the earlier bugs with the smaller windshield and back window so he found a beat up 1957 turned Baja and cut them out and then grafted them into this '59 body. He had a buddy in Arizona do that work and the first couple of blocks and primer sprays. It actually looks pretty good. So the body just needs a few more blocks and then paint. For that he ran across a beautiful bug in Huntington Beach with a "light mint" paint job. We will copy pretty much the look of that car.

The pan, or frame of this car has not been touched yet, and where I will spend most of my time. I really knew nothing about Beetles before this (still don't really) but am quickly learning. I didn't know the pan was separate from the body. So being able to separate the body will be great. There is 60 years of grease and dirt caked on all the suspension parts (and random dead mice and poop) that need to be cleaned off and the entire pan needs to be blasted and then probably just sealed up and painted, but there are talks of modifying as well.

The main plan: This car will be all electric powered. I don't have a lot of information on that at this point as we are juggling a few ideas, and learning as we go. There are a few kits out there, but they aren't exactly what John wants. Not unique enough. There is a kit coming out in a couple months that will be awesome, if we want to wait, that will be totally unique and mind blowing. There is an awesome VW engineered kit that we can't get our hands on. That one would be awesome, keeping it all VW. Oh well.

We are also talking about adding an IFS kit and also an A-arm rear suspension. At a minimum, upgrading the stock suspension will be a must as we add battery weight.

In theory, everything should be bolt on for this build. So don't expect too much fabrication. The tech should be pretty good though as I learn and pass on information about converting to electric drive. I have learned a ton in the last two weeks and it really is awesome what these electric motors can do.

My main goal: Don't let it take 5 years to build!!! Although 5 years from now it will be fun to look back at this and reread what I thought the plan was and see how it's changed. Realistically I see this going much faster. I can have the body at paint while working on the pan and installing the suspension and motor parts. I could also have the seats getting rebuilt at the same time. I'm just going to throw this out and see what happens: Autorama 2020. :rofl:

Just need a catchy name for it. Thinking something like the Lightening Bug, but would prefer one word that means the same. Something that hints at electricity. Let me know what you got.

So here it is as I received it October 12th, 2019.

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The end goal, just quieter and hopefully 2 to 10 times the original horse power. ?

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RustEoldtrux

RustEoldtrux
Location
Evanston, WY
Forget the all electric power and find one of the turbine engine kits that were advertised in Popular Mechanics magazines back in the '60's that you could bolt into VW Beetles.
 

I Lean

Mbryson's hairdresser
Vendor
Location
Utah
While I fully agree that "Voltswagen" is an excellent choice, it has been done.

1991: https://www.newsweek.com/power-voltswagon-202058
2012: https://mad-science.wonderhowto.com...now-eco-friendly-electric-voltswagon-0138388/
 
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Pike2350

Registered User
Location
Salt Lake City
Looks cool. Ive always loved the Cal-look bugs/busses. My dad refused to let me do it with one of the many bugs he had. Although he favors '67 model year....i like the oval window and such...but most older then '67 are alright with me.

I have work to do in my dad '67 vert...the pan rusted through behind the driver seat...plus all the weather stripping is old and missing or rotted out. Otherwise its a fun driver
 

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shortstraw8

Well-Known Member
I like the idea of the electric, I know a guy who went electric and loves his. I would like to do a 1.9l TDI swap, I think that would be fun too.
 

UNSTUCK

But stuck more often.
This project has really stalled. Not much has been happening in the last couple months. John and I flew out to San Diego back in December to visit the company we want (wanted) to supply us with the conversion kit: EV West. Dealing with them has been a real pain. I'm practically throwing a huge wad of cash at them and they act like they don't want it. Must be nice I guess. There are a couple of other sources out there for kits so we are looking into them now. That Yamaha motor looks nice. I really like the Tesla-like small packaging of a motor/transaxle all in one unit, but that's not the direction John wants this build to go. The two most popular motors are the AC-50, which is a much simpler install and upkeep and a bit less power, and the Hyper 9 motor. I guess it requires more end user input, which might not be so good. But it has more power for the same run time. Both of these motors bolt up to the stock transaxle. The neat thing there is it does not require first or second gear, or reverse. In fact you can also get rid of third gear and just use fourth. I kind of like that idea. It would get rid of the clutch pedal and gear shifter. We test drove a VW bus with the Hyper 9, more batteries and three guys in it. Fourth gear starts were a bit slow on take off but it only took about 50 feet or so before it really started to move. The guy driving it kept his foot in WAY past what I would have done. It was FAST. Well for a completely COOL, complete BEATER of a bus. Three of us packed into the front bench seat with me slammed up against a door that I was sure was not latching properly....and no seat belt, while sliding around corners in the rain! That was scary fun!

So we are trying to source a good Hyper 9 kit. I will rebuild the front suspension and possibly replace the rear swing arm suspension for a later IRS suspension/transaxle kit. John likes the idea of removing the shifter so we'll probably come up with some kind of hidden access to the shift mechanism just in case he ever needs to shift to third. For instance, he could lift a cup holder up and drop the shift lever in place, shift into third, remove the lever and be on his way. No clutch would be needed as the transaxle is not spinning when stopped. A supper cool idea would be to somehow install a solenoid to do that shift for us. Been sleeping on that for a bit. Third to fourth gear is just straight up and down. Might make something work.

We met with a few painters this weekend (John was up from Arizona). We picked a company we feel did a good job of grasping John's wants from this build. So we are happy there. Paint is two months out and will take "2-3 months" to complete. If we use the EV West motor parts they are 6 weeks out to ship the parts. So I hope to have the motor installed and ready to drop the painted body on by the time it's finished.

FYI: Don't show up to a meeting with a potential paint/body client with alcohol on your breath. It's a turn off. :rolleyes:
 

Gravy

Ant Anstead of Dirtbikes
Supporting Member
I've had a slew of bugs.
If you remove the body from the pan there is a super sticky nasty gasket that sticks them together. It's a pain to scrape off. Also the body WILL flop all over and tweak and bend so make sure you support it first.
IRS handles way better than the swing axle but is not as robust (unless you get some updated axles).
I 100% would upgrade to a bus trans (or even better a Weddle since Jon can afford it). They are significantly stronger but you wont need the bus portals (more reduction) with electric.
The IFS super beetle front (with coils up front) handle marginally better (on road) but won't fit a very wide tire before it gets into the coil.
 
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