Adding a Rear Speaker Shelf

If you don't mind losing some cargo space and you want good sound in your Beetle a good option is to add a rear speaker shelf. These can be custom made with fiberglass or wood covered in vinyl to match your interior but you can also buy them in a few different vinyl options already made. I picked up this one because It was on sale and I liked the design enough that I didn't want to make a custom shelf. Installation is pretty simple and was easiest by having someone hold the shelf in place while someone else got underneath it with a sharpie to mark the spots to drill the screws for the L brackets (which by the way are not provided due to different mounting options) I installed into the shelf some 6.5" Rockford Fosgate T165 Power Series speakers and I put speaker baffles behind them and they sound much better then having them muffle the extra sound into the space behind the back seat. There is also Dynamat installed back there which helps quiet the engine noise very well as well as reduce vibrations from a subwoofer which i plan to install later. There will be more posts coming about the complete stereo system install including a subwoofer install and the speakers in the kick panels as well as a Kenwood KIV-BT901 headunit that plays videos and has built in Bluetooth. 

Making a Car-B-Q Part 1 - The Car

Have you ever looked at something and thought "That would be great if i could repurpose it and make it do something else"? Well that's what i thought when i saw a 1971 Beetle that had over $1,000 in DMV fees because it was not filed "Non-Op". The car is really not worth paying that in my opinion so it's purpose in life now is to supply it's parts to other Beetles and other purposes and to never be registered again. So far i've got various parts off of it like the selective drop suspension i've put in the '67 and i've sold the engine. Now the next step is to cut it in half and make it into a BBQ. i'm using the front end to make the BBQ and i'm going to use the gas tank to hold the charcoal and put a grate above that. i'm going to paint the inside of the trunk with 2000 degree flame proof paint and i'm going to paint the outside with the same paint in orange with white racing stripes. So far i have started pulling out all the wires in the trunk. Since i haven't built it yet i'm open to any suggestions. Here are some pictures of the car:

The Engine Explosion and Rebuild

One of the best things about Beetles is that they are easy to modify. When i bought my car it had an engine that was nearing the end of it's life. After a couple of months of driving it, it finally "blew up" and literally burst a hole in the engine block. So i had a friend of mine who has rebuilt a few engines before rebuild mine and then i did a few modifications to it later. The new 1835cc engine is running great and is like owning a "new" old car. A few things that make it a little more special then your typical stock Volkswagen engine is that it has dual Kadron carburetors, the cylinders are polished and machined, it has an electric fuel pump rather then the normal mechanical one, it has an oil filter, it has an alternator instead of a generator, and it has a higher performance headers and exhaust then stock headers and exhaust and no heater because of it... It has some decent power for a beetle but not so much that it suffers by guzzling fuel from being so high performance. I think it's a good balance of power and fuel economy for the way i drive it. It gets an average of 26 MPG if you don't push it too hard yet can burn some rubber if you want to. If you have any questions about the engine or would like to share what you have done with your own Volkswagen engine feel free to comment below and i'll try to answer any questions about it.

The Beetle: A Timeless Icon

A Volkswagen Beetle is an extraordinarily fun car to own. If you own one or have ever been in one, you'll know what I mean. Being so unique, there are few cars on the road quite like a Beetle. But owning a Beetle is more than that. Owning a Beetle is owning a piece of history. It is such a worldwide car and so influential that chances are you either have owned, do own, or know someone who owns or had a Beetle. Everyone everywhere knows of the Beetle. It's a car so different and iconic that just the idea of it will long outlive other cars. It's gone through many phases and for years the design remained the same because it just worked. This easily recognizable car was designed by Ferdinand Porsche in the 1930's and was marketed as a "People's Car" which is what the translation of "Volkswagen" is. As the "People's Car," the Beetle was designed to be affordable and reliable. It was originally designed as a war vehicle and had been ordered to be produced in 1933 by Adolf Hitler giving the orders to Porsche. However, in the 50's after going through a few minor design changes to make it more fit for consumers, it started being shipped out to different countries. In the 60's is when the car began to become a "cult icon" and was an influential part of the hippy movement and surf culture in the US. Later, it went on to be an influence in the hollywood movie industry being featured in the "Herbie" movies as well as making appearances in others like "Transformers." Beetles were produced until 2003, when production stopped after 21,529,464 had been made. That's quite a long production run considering how little the design has changed. I wonder if Ferdinand Porsche had any idea of the influence and impact this car would make in the world at the time he was designing it?

Tranquility Base Here: We Have Snow.

Snow. In the desert. Kind of a big deal for us desert folks.

Buying the Beetle at a Sonic Drive-In

I've always liked Volkswagen Beetles ever since i was a little kid. I remember at a very young age telling myself i would own one someday. My grandpa has always wanted one too but never had one. A few of my family members have had Beetles in the past. So my grandpa and i set out to find and purchase a Beetle together. We were going to find one we both liked, each pay for half of it, and share it. So on September 18th 2010 my grandpa and i went to a Sonic Drive-In where a Volkswagen club was supposed to be meeting but no one showed up. My grandpa then asked one of the car hops if she knew if a Volkswagen club was meeting here and she said they had changed the location to Starbucks this week. My grandpa then told her that we were looking to buy one and she said that she just happened to have one that she wanted to sell. She said her dad was working on it so it was at home but she'd ask him to bring it over. So he brought it over and we liked the condition so we decided to buy it. After a couple of weeks my grandpa found another Beetle that he liked too and so he decided to buy that one and let me keep the white one. So now we both have our own Beetles, my '67 and his '72 Super Beetle. I'm very happy with the one i got and don't ever plan on selling it partly because it's the year i want and partly because it's so customized exactly how i like it and that i've put more money into it then i could get out of it if i did want to sell it. For the two and a half years i've had this car i can say that i don't regret a moment of it. It's been so much fun to drive and it's been quite the adventure making it into what it is today. It's been the source of many memories since i've got it and it's taught me so much about cars and how they work and how to work on them.

Introduction to my Beetle

Hello. As a first post I will introduce you to my 1967 Beetle. I purchased this car on September 18th 2010 and it has been a very fun adventure to drive and repair and modify. I've learned a lot about cars from working on it. I have my friends to thank for helping me work on it and teaching me how stuff works on it. Some things I've done to it so far are put a new hand painted 1835cc motor in it with a few modifications like an electric fuel pump, an oil filter, dual Kadron carburetors, and the cylinders have been bored and polished. I've rewired the entire car from front to back with a new modern style wiring harness with a modern fuse box that is now under the back seat instead of the fuses being under the dash near the steering wheel. During the rewiring I installed a car alarm and power door locks. I've also installed a color changing LED lighting kit underneath the car as well as a LED dome light strip and a LED glovebox light. My headlights also have blue LED rings around them that makes it look like the beetle has eyes. If you haven't already noticed, I like to make things light up blue. My window tint is also blue. Most recently I've got the doors reupholstered and I changed out the front suspension to a selective drop suspension so I can raise and lower it. As of right now the stereo is half done, meaning I installed the Kenwood KIV-BT901 head unit and alpine front speakers. I am going to put 2 10" MTX subwoofers in the back area behind the seat hidden under a fiberglass panel with 2 alpine 6x9 speakers and tweeters in the shelf. I hope you all enjoy seeing what I've done to this car and I hope I can inspire some people to do the same. It's been a very fun car to drive and work on and I encourage anyone that wants to learn more about how cars work and wants to see some interesting German engineering to buy a Volkswagen. One of the best things about working on these cars as a first car is that if you mess up a repair and break something it usually not an expensive loss if you have to redo your work. Just remember to look behind things before you start drilling into them. This concludes my first post to this blog and I hope it will be helpful and enjoyable to you Volkswagen owners and fans out there.