If you have come this far, you probably already know what you are looking at. This is a 1971 Beetle that spent most of its life in San Diego. The body is in good condition for a driver. It is on its second coat of paint of the original light blue. It has a decent shine and looks nice even very good from 20 feet. Floor pans are very solid, no rot, and they are undercoated. Paint and body are a decent 7 out of 10, lots of wear and tear, but no major damage.
This winter (2015/2016) the following was done.
Body:
New fender welting
New door seals in box still
New full glass rubber kit – new in box
New turn signal lenses installed
New mirrors installed
New running boards installed
New chrome headlight beauty rings
All Door latches, trunk latch, boot latch etc… work great.
New carpet set still new in box not installed.
Rear valence has been made removable and has NOT been hacked up to fit the engine
A thick coating of brush on sound deadening was applied to the entire floor pan and rear bulkhead.
Brakes:
New rear drums and shoes and small parts, new wheel cylinders, properly adjusted
New Ghia style front discs with two piston calipers, new pans, new braided hoses, new wheel bearings, new seals etc...
New master cylinder
Front suspension:
Stock beam with 2.5' front drop spindles - regreased front beam
replaced all steering joints
Serviced steering box
New upper and lower ball joints
Front end alignment
New KYB performance shocks
New steering dampener
Rear suspension:
New inner and outer wheel bearings
New rear seals
New spacers
New hub nuts - properly torqued to 300 ftlbs
New Life time warrantied heavy duty CV shafts
Kafer ¾” support bar ties the struts and frame together
Now for the fun stuff.
Engine:
This is a swapped EJ20G turbo engine from Japan.This is a 2.0L turbo making about 250 hp (about 6 times what the stock beetle engine made).
The engine was disassembled and inspected and reassembled with the following new parts
New MLS head gaskets, heads resurfaced and valve job cleaned up
New metal crank case ventilation plate (to replace the plastic cover that is prone to cracks)
New brown rear main seal
New cam seals
New front crank seal
Turbo (TD04) was rebuilt and balanced with new bushings and seals and new gaskets
Injectors were cleaned and tested
New coil pack, new plugs, new wires
Reassembled, passed leak down test with less than 2% leak down in all cylinders, passed compression test
Oil pressure is 70PSI cold 50PSI hot with 5w40 Rotella synthetic
New Gates timing belt, water pump, new idlers and tensioner
New 36-2-2-2 STI trigger wheel
Oil pan and pickup were shortened 1.5” for improved ground clearance
Fires up easily every time and makes lots of power at the stock boost of 9 PSI. I have not tried to up the boost at this point, although it would be very easy with a boost controller.
The package tray area has been flipped over and made removable for easy access to the throttle body and turbo area.Just undo about 10 bolts and the package tray comes out and you have access.
The turbo and intercooler are mounted in the factory positions with fans mounted on the intercooler controlled by the intake air temp sensor. The turbo retains the water cooling system and factory exhaust on the hot side. A turbo blanket and heat wrap keep everything cool. A custom made down pipe and resonator muffler exit in the stock beetle location.
Transmission, Clutch:
Custom built beetle KCR transmission - super street plus with highway flyer overdrive and super beetle input and first gear. All the tricks and custom bits they do to keep the transmissions together. It handles the power flawlessly.
New Kennedy Stage 2 clutch,
New Kennedy adapter plate
New throw out bearing,
New Flywheel
New high torque starter
The engine and transmission are mounted 2 inches further forward using a custom built solid mount that ties in the engine mounts and trans mount and improves weight distribution.
The shift rod has a new bushing installed and was shortened with a performance transmission coupler
A welded in transmission mid mount take the place of the issue prone front trans mount.
Electronics:
Engine is controlled by a microsquirt controller, with complete custom tune
Innovate Wideband integrated with the microsquirt to control the air fuel mixture
GM 3 bar MAP sensor
GM MAT sensor
Operates the stock idle control valve for smooth cold starts
Uses stock subaru alternator - puts out 14 V - no crappy beetle external voltage regulator
All parameters can be read and tune can be changed using tuner studio free software
Cooling:
New aluminum radiator mounted up front in the spare tire well
Spare tire retained on top of the gas tank
Twin fans controlled by the microsquirt
Custom air scoop to feed fresh air
Gates green stripe rubber hose feeds coolant from rear to front
There are fill caps at the rear (highest point) and front for easy air burping when filling the coolant system.
Fuel:
EFI fuel pump - controlled by the microsquirt - primes on key on like a modern EFI car
All new hard lines, 5/16" feed and return
EFI fuel filter
Uses stock beetle tank with custom EFI sump
Interior:
Custom nicely made seat brackets to fit aftermarket alcantara seats - sliders and tilt control
Stock rear seat
Shoulder harness seat belts up front
Kenwood CD player
All gauges work, Tach, temperature, fuel, charge light, oil pressure
So that is most of the parts.I have receipts for everything that went in the car.What’s it like?It runs and drives like a newer better beetle. It sounds like a Subaru with that boxer rumble.Oh did I mention it is fast?Yes, keeping up with traffic is no longer an issue, this beetle will get up to 60 in about 5 seconds and surprise a lot of people along the way.Also I averaged about 30-35 mpg driving it around.The car is very well put together and doesn’t have any leaks or issues.I was considering painting it, but the aged and used look has grown on me.Not scared to leave it in the parking lot, drive it wherever whenever.I have about 300 hours of frabrication and several hundred hours replacing parts and wiring in this car in addition to about $10k in parts, not including the car.So I am listing it at a very reasonable $9500.Reasonable offers may be considered.
Thanks for looking !