08/06/2024
This is the story of my ‘74 super beetle, Fitz, at least so far.
This has been years in the making between working full time jobs, trying to start my own shop, enjoy time with family and friends, and have a (somewhat) normal life, but finally the end goal seems within reach. I bought this car shortly after turning 16, and with it I learned tons about cars and met some pretty amazing people.
Unfortunately, after taking it every day to high school and daily driving it for years, the unthinkable happened. I was cut off and slammed my brakes and it spun, and man do they spin around fast on you. Of course i hit the only pole around. I walked away with only my pride hurt but my car did not fare so well. When the insurance adjuster came out, he looked at it for about 10 seconds and deemed it totaled.
Being the stubborn ass I am I bought it back from the insurance company and it took to Jersey where my Grandparents helped me start this colossal project. We started with the pan, replacing the pan head, both floor pans, and replacing the bent rear end with a donor. Shortly after I landed my dream job so I packed up everything and moved to FL. After getting settled and finding a place to continue work on this seemingly impossible project, work continued.
I found an orange ‘74 shell for $20, No joke. The guy just seemed happy to be getting rid of it. After lots of mocking up, cutting, fitting, welding, and more fitting, I finally had what was left of my car welded to my donor shell where everything lined up, all the door gaps were perfect, the pan lined up, and the windshield fit perfect.
From there I replaced heater channels, lower rear quarters, sections of the firewall, spare tire well, front apron, rear apron, and many, many more miscellaneous patches all around. I don’t think there’s a patch panel made that I didn’t weld into this car, I doubt more than 40% of the original metal is left.
Painstakingly taking the whole car down to bare steel and shooting primer pretty much leaves us where I’m at today. Finishing the little body work left and blocking the whole car down now, and I’m hoping to have it painted in the next few weeks.
This is definitely the biggest restoration I’ve done myself in this shop, and as challenging as it’s been man has it been a blast.
Maybe hoping to have this car done for BugJam depending on other projects coming thru the shop!
