Thursday, May 21, 2009

"Give Volkswagen an Applause"


Mostly everyone I know has owned a Volkswagen Bug at some time in their life, and I was no exception(orange with scallops on the left). I owned a '64 Beetle from about 1971 to 1974, as a second car of course. I actually drove mine

to work for one winter and went through about 25 windshield scrapers.. for the inside, not the outside as their very dangerous "gasoline powered" heater never worked properly. VW's are a great choice for a hot rod project now considering the lack of

good vintage tin, the fact that they are pretty cool looking and of course better gas mileage. Many Volks Rods are powered by V8 engines but many still use the trusty air cooled engine that came stock in all VW's. The picture on the top left is the one I owned back in the early '70's and the other photos are some of the examples of what hot rodders (rat rodders if you are so inclined) have done with them in the last few years. Some guys build a completely new chassis and extend the front axle to enhance handling characteristics. They use an early Ford style(I-beam or tube) front axle...the same ones as Henry used in his early cars, and the same ones that guys use for their regular hot rod projects. There is also a ton of aftermarket stuff out there. They are still fairly plentiful too, and many are for sale on E-Bay or other sell sites. Volkswagens make VERY COOL hot rods and I like them so much that I made a couple of models of them(last picture bottom right). Be sure to click on the pictures to enlarge....

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