Just Bought A New/old Car Today, '73 VW Options

[mysticrider92]

We just got back from putting down the deposit on my first car, a 1973 Volkswagen Thing.


I have to wait until next Friday to pick up the car. The brakes are basically pathetic (drum brakes that need a lot of attention), and we don't quite trust the engine to make the 200 mile trip to our house, so we plan to get a tow bar and drag it home behind our Jetta (should be interesting, I will make sure to post a picture ).

For those who haven't heard of this before, it is more or less a "modern" (used loosely) VW Kubelwagen, Germany's equivalent to the WWII Jeep. A fairly small number of these were built for the civilian market (only 29,000 were built for the US during 1973-1974), with a total production of less than 140,000. The car was designed to be a go anywhere, do anything vehicle for the German military, and has very little in the way of creature comforts.

A few more pics:






This post has been edited by mysticrider92: Aug 9 2008, 11:48 PM

[bucko]

Nice looks totally different from the Beetle's we have, looks like it needs a bit of work. Make sure you keep the original colours though, and don't stick any crappy sport labels on it pleaseee.keep it original. I'm sure you will.

I have my eye on a certain VW Polo, can buy it for £2K I know it through a friend to, seems my first car might be a VW to .

This post has been edited by bucko: Aug 10 2008, 03:18 PM

[mysticrider92]

Nice looks totally different from the Beetle's we have, looks like it needs a bit of work. Make sure you keep the original colours though, and don't stick any crappy sport labels on it pleaseee.keep it original. I'm sure you will.

I want to keep it fairly original. Some of the parts have been already replaced with repro (the soft top) and Bug parts (the exhaust and a few engine pieces). The factory yellow paint will most likely stay, but it will need a lot of cleaning and maybe a respray at some point.

Grim: The stock 0-60mph time is around 23 seconds, so a dragster Thing would take a lot of work. But with a Type 4 engine and low-geared tranny, I don't really doubt 11 second quarter miles. There are plenty of Bug's and Ghia's running in the 10's.

This post has been edited by mysticrider92: Aug 10 2008, 07:34 PM