I first got bit by “the bug” my second year in the Marine Corps. A buddy of mine purchased what I now know to have been a ‘72 Super Beetle. I had my first ride in it when I was scheduled to go to the rifle range, which required 2 AM drives to the range and 8 PM drive from the range, in the middle a South Carolina winter. The vehicle itself was in horrible shape and I could actually see the road below my feet passing by, but, it got us from point A to point B. Riding around in freezing early mornings / late nights became the highlight of my day!

Although, I hadn’t desired purchasing one YET! It wasn’t until one evening when the beetle broke down on the side of the road and both my buddy and I got out of the beetle to inspect the engine. It turned out that the throttle control spring and the belt broke. At this point I realized I was just standing there, thinking how far of a walk it would be until I reached my warm bed. My buddy then pulled out a spring from his pen, jerry-rigged (pun intended) it to the engine and taped, (YES TAPED, with heavy duty 100 mile an hour tape) the belt together!! Needless to say, I thought this guy was crazy…BUT IT WORKED, well at least enough to chug back to base. From that moment I was sold! I had to get one for myself.

Fast-forward 12 years, I finally got my own! I had been searching on the Samba and various other sites when I stumbled upon ClassicVWBugs.com. I contacted the owner Chris Vallone, and after some long discussions with my wife, placed an order. Chris was able to find me a ‘67, original black, with a solid body and components. What was going to be a quick clean up turned into a complete body off and engine rebuild. I even had the interior redone from standard red to tweed gray with white piping. This really turned into a project, for Chris, not to mention my constant phone calls, which I am sure he appreciated! LoL. I received my ‘67 in January and have amassed, what I believe to be, an impressive tool collection and a library of books and videos. I use my ‘67 as a daily driver and I have even volunteered to go grocery shopping, EVERY WEEKEND, in order to fire it up. Although it is conventional to name your beetle a female name, I went a different route and named it IronSquishy, which I think fits nicely (I even got a small name decal)!

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This quick note was submitted by reader and ’67 enthusiast Jack Hibbs. Thank you very much for your contributions to 1967beetle.com.

Greetings 1967beetle.com,
I really appreciate your site and love for the best year Beetle. I grew up in OC, California where my dad was the service manager of then Garden West VW Motors, and Don Burns VW, Porsche, Audi. In 1979, I became the second owner to a 1967 Beetle and have had it ever since. Keep up the great work, guys!

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Talk about rust. I’m amazed and proud to see what people are bringing back to life. Keep up the good work, Dylan. The ’67 Beetle community is cheering you on.

Hello 1967beetle.com,
A little update. Our convertible is well underway, besides the parts we previously purchased last summer; the parts are stacking up with more on the way. Some of the stuff we have gotten is a good used (Cleaned and painted too! Good for lazy me…) front beam, as ours was both bent, and rusted out. We also decided to upgrade to disc brakes with a wide 5 bolt pattern, because the car will be used in daily service; as well as drop spindles… Yes, I know I know, they aren’t “stock””, but I enjoy them a little lower. New heater channels are en route, and we already have the new pan halves and ‘vert reinforcement rails. We were able to get parts from a ’67 sedan, such as a new front clip, drivers side front quarter panel, and better rear fender wells.

As we were cleaning out the car more, discovering more rust, we discovered some things. First, the original jack. I find this amazing, as the car was in a collision once, and already has a new partial front clip spliced in. I honestly haven’t seen a bug in my area with it’s original jack still in the car. Found random trinkets, old bicycle parts, campaign stickers, couple of corroded batteries (The mud was pretty high in areas, we were scooping and shoveling it out). Secondly, the fact that we are almost literally building this car from the ground up; and we want it on the road THIS SUMMER. The goal is the latest the end of June, paint job or not. I’ve attached a couple pictures to show some of the stuff we have done, and you may see just a hint of the cancer we are repairing; it’s by far the worst one I have ever welded back together.

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