'73 Beetle chassis swapped w/ a '90 Miata - seemed like a good idea at first

For the seat height issue, would lowering the Beetle’s body be one solution, if you keep the Miata seats?  I’ve got a super beetle, and it sure seems like there’s a lot of room to tuck wheels in the fenders, and if not, they could be massaged a bit.

I had the same seat height/dash level  issue with the Volvo. The answer  is to drop the body down as far as possible. Not a bad thing since it allows you to "Stance" the car and still keep the factory travel and geometry. 

How and how much you can move the Miata column depends on how much of the Miata firewall furniture you plan to keep?  In my case, I was keeping the whole Monte and there was no wiggle room that did not trigger a chain reaction of stuff needing moved/modified.

Yes, that is really hysterical. This is fun to watch!

Robbie said:

I am absolutely blown away that you have to make a Miata bigger to fit it under a bug.

Rear seats. 

Wow dude. This looks awesome. Keep it up. I subscribed

Thanks guys for all the helpful comments! As for the seat and steering wheel height - I plan on building a one-off dashboard that will hold the steering column at whatever height I like best. But dropping the body as far as possible is also the plan!

So I have a lot of updates for ya......

First, I got the stretched Miata running and driving again. Here's the video of me going around the block: https://youtu.be/HC-8Pn6ZUlc

Then, yesterday, I drove 10 hours to buy this:

So I'm deciding right now if I want to use this for my Miata project instead of the SB, or not. If not then I can take the SB chassis and use it for this. I'll have to make the pan and little wider or something and there will be other issues but I don't think it would be terribly difficult. But that's only if I can't use it for the Miata. 

It is in fact much wider in the interior which will make it possible to fit the Miata seats without any issues. I did the math and the SB would require the seat to be jammed into the trans tunnel by an inch or two, and that means that it would be an inch or two off center from the steering wheel. Imagine driving a car and the steering wheel is off to the side! 

Anybody want to by a running, driving, yellow '73 Super Beetle?

I vote for the wagon.

But I would wouldn't I!

If the wagon allows you to keep all the stuff that is bolted to the firewall you will be a long ways ahead of the game. Even more so if you also use the Miata dash.

Pete

Alright here's the deal: I was having a lot of second guesses about the Super Beetle. Now that I have one and have entered the world of aircooled VWs and I've subscribed to all the forums and instagram feeds, I've learned that the Super Beetle is not really the desirable option. They even call the Super Beetle derogatory names like "fat chick." Maybe it rubbed off on me as I  looking at trading it for a standard Beetle, which does looks better from certain angles. But I set the Miata's new wheelbase to be 95.25" to match the Super Beetle, and a standard beetle is 94.5" so it would be off by a fraction of an inch.

Then I ran across this Type 3 Squareback and he has a title, it's a good price, but my god is it in rough shape. But I ****ing love the thing. I would be getting myself into a rusty mess but maybe it would be worth it if I like the end product more. And maybe it would fit better with the Miata as well. Except that it's the same wheelbase as the standard Beetle too: off by 0.75". Hopefully that's not a problem. 

But one of the biggest reasons to use the car body over a Beetle or SB is that there's already a dude who is doing this exact same car combo (almost exact, his is a newer miata NB and a Type 3 Fastback) and he has shared on Instagram lots of really helpful photos of where and how he has stitched the two vehicles together. That will be a big help.

Here's his probject: https://jalopnik.com/this-1968-volkswagen-fastback-is-actually-a-miata-1825036646 and his intagram: https://www.instagram.com/pauln321654/

NOHOME said:

I vote for the wagon.

 

But I would wouldn't I!

 

If the wagon allows you to keep all the stuff that is bolted to the firewall you will be a long ways ahead of the game. Even more so if you also use the Miata dash.

 

Pete

my dude!

Do you think it's possible to straighten these bumpers? And what would be the best method? The chrome is still in mostly good shape but they are mangled to hell. Or does anybody make reproduction bumpers? I image that NOS bumpers would be worth a small fortune. Or would bumpers from a Beetle or Bus fit by chance? 

Also, what do you recommend I do to try and bring out the OG color? If I can remove the oxided layer of faded, chalky paint and get back to the maroon red, that would be awesome, but the paint is already so thin and the white primer that is showing is not a good look IMO. 

• CLR? 
• Lindseed oil? It might not be garaged, at least for a month or two, so I don't think it will withstand the weather 
• Wax? 
• Polish? 
• clay bar? 
• clear coat? 

I'm for sure going to patch the rust holes 

If I don't like the result I will paint it but if I can wait a year or two that would help. 

Don't the 944 and the Super Beetle share a non-trivial number of parts? Maybe THAT'S what should go under that body...

Probably no structural rust for a grand: https://modesto.craigslist.org/cto/d/hughson-1971-vw-squareback-bug-bus/6782450837.html

Isn't the fastback guy on here also? I vote for the wagon swap

Found it

https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/build-projects-and-project-cars/project-volkzda-a-frankencar/139051/page1/

In reply to bigfranks84 :

Hallelujah! This is perfect. This is going to be like cheating on a test by looking at someone else's answers. No more guess work!

Let me also just get right to it and say that my ride will not be near as nice as his. 

But reading through his thread I'm starting to worry about stuff. Like how the Miata dash is so bulky that it blocks the use the window cranks. Why didn't I realize that? And why couldn't he use the VW fronk hinges? And why did he do a million other things that I didn't even think about like reverse lights and body vents and relocating the seatbelt mounting points after the chassis stretch.

I keep thinking to myself "I will come up with a more clever workaround for problem xyz that will be easier/cheaper/faster" but at some point I'm going to have to get real with myself

In reply to mannydantyla :

I may have mentioned it on this board once before, but it bears repeating in your case..."The best way to focus on parachute design is to step out of an airplane without one"

Based on where I have been and where I am with the  Molvo, I can tell you that there is nothing in your future that is going to be harder than what you have done already. It will be different E36 M3, but its just E36 M3, time and $$$. So, if you have done what you have done so far, it only gets easier as you do more.

Just for E36 M3s and giggles, have you considered sectioning the VW body to bring the cowl down to the Miata cowl level? That would be cool. And solve a problem with cowl height mismatch.

Pete

So, "Meetle the Super Beetle" is out. Now I need a new name. The seller of the T-3 was telling me that he was going to name it Frenchy after his grandfather. It was his grandfather's car, after all. 

So I've decided to call it Frenchy the Frankenwagon. 

I've been thinking a lot lately about how I'm going to get the vw body lifted up and suspended over the Miata where I can easily raise and lower it as many times as needed. Here's the plan:

1. Detach the squareback body from it's chassis (duh). Remove the doors, fenders, etc. Brace the door openings with some angle iron or something.
2. Slide two 4x4s laterally under the wheel arches such that 4 people can lift the body up. Maybe first strap the timbers to the body somehow.
3. We'll carefully walk the body into the garage and place the 4x4s onto some jack stands or something
4. Then I'll construct two small gentry cranes with some 2x6s or 4x4s and some 1-ton hand winches. They will go over the vw body and be all but touching my garage ceiling. I can then lift up the body using the hand winches and get the 4x4s and jack stands out of the way out of the way. 

Kinda like this:

As much as I want to start polishing up the old oxidized paint and see what kind of patina I can get, I should focus on mating the two vehicles together. That's the priority right now.

The 944 is supposed to have some similar but not 100% identical rear suspension hardware shared with the Super Beetle.  This is what I read on the Internet so grain of salt.  

Squareback would be pretty cool and a bit more usable.  

Pallet racks are cheap and up to the task when combined with a trailer winch.

Pete

I made up some immensely better blueprints to help me visualize the project. 

Yeah.... well at least the bottom of the windshields line up, in one dimension, and there will be more than enough room for the radiator, ac condenser, etc. But man, that B pillar! The name of the game will be getting the body as low as possible on the chassis. Slammed. But if I drop it too much, the tires will hit the fenders, which are not nearly as wide and roomy as the Super Beetle's. And I really don't want to cut into them. And I really don't want to use tiny 23" tires. Who would have thought that combining two cars into one would be so difficult??

I know it would be a ton of work, but it would look cool as hell if you could move the B pillar back and fab a longer door. 

I am really hoping this ends with the Bug body on the Miata rollerskate and the Miata body on a shortened bug pan.....  

In reply to mannydantyla :

Did you find those blue prints online and then just put them together, or make them from scratch? 

Also it would look pretty crazy to pull up beside you, it would look like you were driving from  the back seat. 

What is the measurement on the VW front axle to steering wheel? And middle of drivers seat? Vs the Miata? I was thinking everything would be about 6” off, but from the looks of it that isn’t right 

Somebeach said:

In reply to mannydantyla :

Did you find those blue prints online and then just put them together, or make them from scratch? 

Also it would look pretty crazy to pull up beside you, it would look like you were driving from  the back seat. 

What is the measurement on the VW front axle to steering wheel? And middle of drivers seat? Vs the Miata? I was thinking everything would be about 6” off, but from the looks of it that isn’t right 

I got the Miata blueprints from here: https://www.miata.net/faq/First%2025%20Years/Photography%20-%20Design%20&%20Development/1st%20Generation/1st%20Generation%20Artwork/?C=N;O=D

and the squareback blueprints from here: http://neil.us/type3/scans/

I made sure that they were correct in size to each other by measuring how many pixels long the miata was on the screen, doing a little math with how many inches long it is in real life, then doing some more math with the length the vw to get how many pixels long that one should be. 

In reply to NOHOME :

Careful with those pallet racks. There is no diagonal bracing side to side at all, and they are designed to have several levels of cross beams, and to be bolted to the floor. 

In reply to mannydantyla :

That firewall/ steering wheel is looking like a big issue.