I'm getting the Buick back together, after dealing with a bunch of smog equipment that was in the way and some rather hard to access parts, and sometimes I've joked that the next car I should get ought to be the simplest and easiest car to fix I can find, like an air cooled VW. That is more of a joke than anything, but just how bad an idea would it be to use one as a daily driver? Are typical repairs significantly less time consuming than on a modern car, or do they have just as many bad parts layout choices and other little frustrations?
Not sure where you live and if you need heat. If you need heat, it is a horrible idea. Same if you need a/c.
Otherwise... well besides the obvious "old car" problems of stuff being worn out or breaking, it wouldn't be bad. I summer-daily-drove a VW based kit car for several years. It only left me stranded twice- once because a wheel cylinder blew out and once because the old dry-rotted fan belt finally disintegrated. But honestly, the car was super reliable, would start and run pretty much no matter what.
My thought has always been, when the car was made it was designed to be driven daily. As long as you're not making a race car out of it, you should be able to drive it daily.
To answer your other questions, parts are really cheap and it was pretty damn easy to work on.
I have DD'd air cooled vws several times in my life. As long as you can handle points ignition, carb cleaning/adjusting, and setting valve lash at every oil change they are not too bad at all. That is all the maintenance mine ever needed. The only thing that was really difficult was replacing the rear brakes, and only because I was 16 and had a hard time figuring how to apply over 300lbs of torque to get the axle nut off/on again.
Also dealing with no power accessories, no AC, no ABS, no power steering/brakes. Do it!
I see zero reasons not to.
An A/C VW is a completely do-able DD. Hundreds of thousands (millions?) of people used them for that very purpose. Keeping them running in tip-top tune takes a bit of maintenance, but they will run poorly for nearly forever. Heat can be effective, as long as the channels are non-rusty and the heat exchangers are in good shape. Don't expect much help with defrost though. (When I had my 73 Superbeetle in IL, I always had a credit card handy to scrape the ice off the INSIDE of the windshield!)
They are fun, well built and every kid will wave at you. They are also about the most simple automobiles ever made. I love them.......and there will be another A/C VW in my future. Also, like the Model T Ford (which I also covet) the Bug is one of the most important machines in the history of mankind.
I'm thinking a Baja Bug would be a ton of fun.....and I notice nice ones are sub $5K..........
Classic Beetles are the easiest, cheapest car to build and maintain and they have a high cool factor. I live in Winnipeg and my only car when I was 18 was a Beetle. I winter proofed it by putting a layer of foam in the trunk and floor and had one of the gas heaters, too. It was tolerable on all but the coldest days.
When I lived in Michigan I drove a bug as a daily, Delivered pizzas on the weekends for a couple years too. I blew up the engine one weekend at Silverlake Snad Dunes. I thought about scrapping it but ended up swapping in a 2.3 ford from a Mustang 2 and drove it for a few more years like that.
When I did the engine swap it fixed a couple things, Since it was water cooled I gained a real heating system! I also converted it to a Hydraulic Clutch since I put a monster pressure plate in it.
The guy I sold it to put the whole HVAC system from a Pinto so he gained air conditioning.
Daily driver maintenance on an ACVW is easy but constant, and you have to respect it. By that I mean you have to recognize that you only have 2.5 quarts of oil doing double duty as cooling and lubrication, plus generally some oil leaks and consumption, so you have to check the oil weekly or daily or even every trip depending on how far you drive.
Similarly, the oil change interval recommended is generally every 1-1.5k miles, which might be monthly. They also feature points and the type of fuses that have to be turned once in a while to get rid of corrosion and get a good connection. Nothing difficult to deal with, but when did you last have any periodic routine maintenance on a cars electrical system?
Basically you have to assume a more mechanically sympathetic attitude and it's all easy after that. How expensive it is for you to get there is entirely up to you.
I commuted 30 miles,one way, six days a week for one year. through a NE winter.
Heat was not really a problem if the system was in good condition and the heater box's adjusted correctly.
One flaw was that the engine cooling fan also supplied heat. So sometimes a down shift helped bring more heat.
Summers in the NE usually are not too bad. The vent wings helped.
The worst part would be after being used to modern HVAC and going to something from the '50's might come as a shock.
Could you do a larger capacity oil system and use the heat in the oil to heat the cabin? Use an oil cooler as a heater core?
also, lots of mentions of points here. Aren’t there good electronic ignition retrofits available?
dculberson said:
Could you do a larger capacity oil system and use the heat in the oil to heat the cabin? Use an oil cooler as a heater core?
also, lots of mentions of points here. Aren’t there good electronic ignition retrofits available?
Oh yeah a call to Pertronix, or Advanced Distributors will make those points go away
Pertronix
Advanced Distributors
dculberson said:
Could you do a larger capacity oil system and use the heat in the oil to heat the cabin? Use an oil cooler as a heater core?
also, lots of mentions of points here. Aren’t there good electronic ignition retrofits available?
I ran a oil cooler under the dash with a fan and hoses to defrost the windshield. It worked well enough, I also had a deeper oilpan so I was running about 6 quarts of oil. It took a long time to get it up to temp if I forgot to plug it in.
Keep in mind too with small oil quantity and the oil cooler being bigly important, the correct style of oil cooler and fan shroud (called a doghouse) is the best way to ensure a lasting engine. Adding an oil filter in the system is easy and cheap and an additional oil cooler is sometimes a good idea.
My experience is the points system is easy and parts (points sets, condensers) are at every parts store and cheap. A set of files and feeler gauges will keep the spark going without any real trouble. The pertronix systems were troublesome for many and too much money for 16 year old me, especially when new points and condenser were less than $10 at the closest parts house.
Yeah, the sweet spot for me was the 1/2 qt mini sump plus the spin on oil filter conversion and a decent filter. That brought the capacity up to right at 4 qts and it heated up fine. I ran an oil cooler and fan inside the rear cargo area as a rear window defroster and general cabin heater during the winter in SD and that helped a lot.
There are a lot of updates for a lot of the stuff that makes them maintenance heavy, but if you start adding all that stuff you lose the simplicity you were looking for and add more stuff that could go wrong. You can also fall into the trap of spending more money upgrading a cheap car than you would have spent buying a better car.
I have done old stuff as a DD. I love the simplicity, but I don't love the "crap, I can't get home from work because the old technology failed again."
For that reason I like either newer stuff that is still simple and proven, or older stuff that I have upgraded with some more modern tech. Like ditching the points in my distributor for an electronic sensor, replacing the Carter carb with a Qjet, upgrading to disc brakes and a power booster, or adding a newer single-wire alternator with a built-in regulator.
My current 02 F150 is about as "new" as I'm comfortable with. It has ABS, power windows and locks, and 4x4 (but I'm ticked that its the switch-selected instead of the floor shifter version). It has EFI and some other modern (but time-tested) goodies on it, but it doesn't have lane departure, automatic braking, rain-sensing wipers, and heated seats. Those (to me) are just failures waiting to happen. Its an old-school body-on-frame truck that is stoopid reliable.
Older cars work great as DDs, if you solve some issues that might pop up from time to time. They are old, after all.
Thanks to all who responded. I'm not sure I'd actually do something like that, but you've given me more to think about.
I'm more or less doing that (very slowly) with Duke's old LeMans. Its getting EFI, disc brakes, A/C, and then I'll drive the whiz out of it.
MadScientistMatt said:
Thanks to all who responded. I'm not sure I'd actually do something like that, but you've given me more to think about.
I'm interested in the thought of megasquirting an ACVW. No distributor, or carbs, only valves and oil to do for maintenance.
Hint, Hint.
You can probably go across the border to Mexico and likely find tons of parts and there must still be lots of beetles being daily driven there.
MotorsportsGordon said:
You can probably go across the border to Mexico and likely find tons of parts and there must still be lots of beetles being daily driven there.
Mostly Supers with fuel injection, but yeah they were still being made there until pretty recently.
wheelsmithy said:
MadScientistMatt said:
Thanks to all who responded. I'm not sure I'd actually do something like that, but you've given me more to think about.
I'm interested in the thought of megasquirting an ACVW. No distributor, or carbs, only valves and oil to do for maintenance.
Hint, Hint.
That’s what the last of them had (a Bosch EFI solution, but about as advanced as an MS1).
Stefan said:
MotorsportsGordon said:
You can probably go across the border to Mexico and likely find tons of parts and there must still be lots of beetles being daily driven there.
Mostly Supers with fuel injection, but yeah they were still being made there until pretty recently.
Plus the most vehicle still in the baja 1000 etc down there is various beetle based cars and classes
Parts are not nearly as cheap as they used to be. (Some parts for low light Ghia's are very hard to find, but that's only an issue for me). Pick up a HotVW mag and that will give you a good idea of what is around.
Heaters are not that bad. They make electric heater boosters if you need them.
Don't even bother trying to get a bus, the prices have gone completely ape sht (and if you think the heaters are marginal in a bug...).
SUPER easy to work on (with practice, you can drop the motor in less then 30 min), less to brake = reliable.
They make great little stoplight / intersection drag cars. You can beat a lot of cars to the other side of the intersection, just make sure you stop there!
My first car and highschool DD was a 74 Beetle. I loved to hate that car. The engine was reliable except when I built an engine for it and slipped a pushrod seal(whoops). It always ran. In the end I had rewired it, installed fiberglass floors, rebuilt the front suspension, rebuild the rear suspension and built two engines for it. When I finally sold it it started great, ran great and was pretty darn reliable. I would not be angry with another ACVW in my life. The simplicity is awesome. They're not fast, comfortable or even fuel efficient(25mpg city) but they're tons of fun.
I see this guy around town on weekends making a little extra cash with his
