Thanks for the words of wisdom Dave and for the congrats on getting married. My wife is very tolerant of my VW habit and wants a restored Beetle for herself. :)
My reasons for making a light duty hauler out of a bug is that I have ton of bug stuff and bugs laying around and it wouldn't be too hard to cut up a couple of pans just to use them and get them out of the way. I shy away from hydraulc clutches because it created another point of complexity that is prone to failure. I've only ever broken one clutch cable and that's it. If you keep the tubes lubricated, the cables last a real long time. I know a bug hauler won't haul a heck of a lot but it would still be neat for the occasional time I need to grab a few boards and plywood sheets. It would also be easily repairable and good on fuel. If you look at beetle pickups, their beds always look goofy - way too short. I think much in the way a dune buggy looks that much better shortened, it proportionately would look better lengthened the same amount. It's all in what you have up on top. An elongated beetle would look goofy but if you have a pickup box on it, suddenly it looks kinda cool. I'm gonna see if I can have some fun with photoshop or some CAD program to illustrate my point. I have no idea how to use those programs but I'll see what I can do. Even if it degrades into printing line art and piecing it together on pieces of paper and scanning it in...I'll give it a shot. A baywindow would actually do the job fine but I want to be able to lob stuff up and over the side of the box instead of always feeding it in the end. Thanks for writing back. Appreciate the thoughts! ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dave C. Bolen" <dbo...@shockwaverider.com> To: "Air-Cooled Volkswagen Discussion List" <vintagvw@lists.sjsu.edu> Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2011 1:40 PM Subject: Re: [vintagvw] Making a Beetle truck? > NQ, > > Forget the clutch tube part...much easier to go hydraulic...save yourself > the time and energy of matching it and then making a cable as well. > > I too think they are a little to small to be usefull....would 12-18" > really make that much difference? > > How about using two pans to make one that is longer...no pieces to match, > just make sure you cut them in the right place so that they mate up. > If you do itthat way, you might get more than 18" and would have > everything "matching" > > You are probably going to want to use something stronger than stock > for the shift rod since it would be better to have a single piece > that wouldn't try to sag in the middle so much as two pieces welded > together. > > Sure you don't want to just by a bay window? My 78 handles 4x8 plywood > just fine with the spare tire out. > > BTW, congrats on getting married, you lucky guy! > > > Cheers, dave > > > > On Tue, 1 Mar 2011, No Quarter wrote: > >> I've been doing a lot of thinking about making a light duty truck that >> wouldn't cost as much as a good used single cab. Beetles are still >> relatively easy to find and cheap to get parts for so I'm thinking of >> making >> a light duty beetle pick up. >> >> I posted about this idea several months ago and Tim Osburn sent me a 2d >> drawing of what mating a double cab rear to a beetle would look like. >> It's >> doable but that might be a bit more than I can chew. >> >> I've looked at dozens of beetle truck conversion and one thing most of >> them >> have in common is that the box is too darn short and hangs over the >> engine >> farther than it does in front. It puts too much weight behind the axle >> and >> is not aesthetically pleasing. >> >> So what I think would solve the problem would be to lengthen the pan >> about >> 12". When people do fiberglass buggy conversions, they chop out 16 to >> 18" >> if I recall properly. To get the strength back, I'd weld on rails like >> the >> convertibles have. Along with the lengthening, you'd have to lengthen >> the >> shift rod, brake line, throttle cable, clutch cable, fuel line tube, and >> clutch carrying tube. I don't know how you'd go about lengthening the >> tube >> other than welding a new one in or get a small version of a boiler roller >> and flare out the end of one tube so it would slip over the other tube as >> an >> extension. >> >> It's a lot of work but I've been doing a bit of welding in the shop >> lately >> and my welding skills are getting to the point where I feel more >> comfortable >> tackling something like this....to the point I can see it in my head. >> >> And yes, I own a crew cab but you don't just beat 'em up. I'm talking >> about >> a beater beetle you could haul a few sheets of plywood in, or another >> engine, or lumber, etc. Put in a low geared transmission and smaller >> tires >> and you would have some stump pulling torque - even from a small engine. >> >> If a person wanted to do something with a pancake style Type 4, that >> would >> get that box down nice and low too. >> >> I've seen a nice stepside conversion and full width conversions. They >> really look neat if done correctly. >> >> NQ >> >> _______________________________________________ >> vintagvw site list >> vintagvw@lists.sjsu.edu >> http://lists.sjsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vintagvw >> > > _______________________________________________ > vintagvw site list > vintagvw@lists.sjsu.edu > http://lists.sjsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vintagvw _______________________________________________ vintagvw site list vintagvw@lists.sjsu.edu http://lists.sjsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vintagvw
