First off, I want to thank wae, EvanB, and Patrick. Without them, this would not have worked out the way it has. This little adventure took about 14-15 hours yesterday, and had us going from one corner of Ohio to another, and back.
The story starts over ten years ago, when wae and I had just gotten started into rallycross with our $2005 Challenge CRX. One of our competitors had this Super Beetle, pretty much completely gutted, with a built engine, and a bus transmission. Whenever it wasn't having problems, it was fast. Back then, there were only two Modified classes, so front and rear wheel drive cars ran in the same class.
Several years later, the owner put the car up for sale, and I seriously considered buying it, but at the time, I had been accumulating parts to build up my Dodge Neon rallycross car, and decided I didn't need another project. Had some mild regret about skipping buying it ever since.
Then, in late January, it turned up for sale at a VW repair shop in Dayton, with a rather high asking price. However, I didn't want to miss out, so I made an appointment to check it out, the day before I left for a week for the Retreat from Moscow rally. Of course, that morning, our car broke down and left us scrambling to get it running in time for the rally. When I got back, it appeared the car was no longer available, so I didn't try to track it down.
Which takes us to Memorial Day. I was over at the in-laws, and my father-in-law and I have a habit of going on CL to look at older cars, mostly out of idle curiosity. The Beetle popped up, minus the engine and transmission (and a few other parts), looking a bit worse for wear, and only about 25--30 miles from my house. I told my wife, and I think she was more enthusiastic about it than me. It took a day or so to get a hold of the owner, but I went to check it out, and decided I couldn't give up on a chance to grab the car now, as I really didn't want to risk it getting parted out. A deal was struck, but I couldn't pick it up yet. And I needed an engine and transmission.
It just so happened, that Patrick had listed a transmission/rear suspension a few days earlier, so I convinced wae (it didn't take much convincing) to run up there with the trailer on Saturday to get the trans, and a truck cap he'd been holding for me. While there, I splurged, and bought the 944 front brakes he was selling, too.
I'd been in touch with EvanB about a 1972 Karmann Ghia in a junkyard near his place in the Columbus area, and while we were on the road, he let me know they'd sell the engine for $200. We made a bit of a detour on the way home, and hit the junkyard about an hour before closing. It took wae, EvanB, and myself about 45 minutes to pull the engine, and we got out just as they were closing. One of the employees let us know the engine had actually been running when he picked the car up, so hopefully it'll be pretty much good to go. We beat up the clutch a bit getting it out, so I may grab a new one, and I'll want to replace the generator with an alternator, as I'm pretty sure VW'd switched to them by 1974. I also have a lead on a spare cheap, good short block from a friend in town.
Once the engine was loaded onto the trailer, we headed back for home, unloaded, then drove out to pick up the car. It's very easy to load an engineless Beetle onto a trailer, especially with a winch, and when someone else (thanks, wae) is doing most of the hard work. Back in my neighborhood, we unloaded near the top of small hill, and wae pushed to get it started rolling, while I "drove" the car up into my driveway. It didn't make it up the whole way. I was ready to get the S10 out to push it the rest of the way, but wae wanted to give pushing it a shot, and that worked, and no one got hurt. It is now safely tucked into the garage. I need to set off a bug bomb to kill off the army of spiders that was riding along in the car.
What's the plan? For now, the two priorities are to get it running, and to get it somewhat weathertight. It will need floor pans someday, but I think I'll stick with patching what it has, initially. After that, it needs to make it to at least a few rallycrosses, even if it won't be as fast as it used to be. In the future though, it could get a full interior and be a weekend driver, get a Subaru swap and turn into a hot rod, be a last minute $2018 Challenge entry, maybe a Lemons rally car for next year, or something completely different, the sky is the limit. Right now, I'm just happy I got another chance to get it.
