Congratulations from Wisconsin on the marriage. May you have all the happiness my wife and I have had in the last 35 years.
If you extend the chassis, how about making it such that Bus cables fit without cutting? I've used large size US brake line to install a clutch in an auto stick shift Ghia before - worked out real nice. You could use a chunk to extend the factory tube. A Bus shifter tube might save some fiddling, too. I tried to make a pickup out of a '67 Squareback back in the '70's, but ran out of cash, and had to sell it off. A type 3 or 4 motor would be the hot setup - an air cooled 2-liter out of an early Vanagon, and it's transmission would be really neat. You could find an automatic, and not have to worry about a shifter tube or clutch cable. Chuck Kuecker On 3/1/2011 5:33 PM, No Quarter wrote: > 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 >> >> _______________________________________________ vintagvw site list vintagvw@lists.sjsu.edu http://lists.sjsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/vintagvw
