Beetle/bug Pickup project

Hi all

for a while now, I have been toying with the idea of making a beetle pickup for me to use for work.

It would be more or less a 'standard' pickup design, but with a roof rack capable of carrying full 8x4 sheets .

It will probably take me a year (or more) to complete.

Also thinking of using a type 3 engine/motor for more load space. Are these becoming too rare/hard to find for this to be a good idea ?

Any links or ideas would be muchly appreciated :)

Thanks Rich

hmmm.... just thinking now, that a beetle/bug "van" might be more useful

Reply to
tricky
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Since we're on r.a.m.v.a we can assume you're going to do this with an air cooled beetle?

A thread where someone builds a Beetle pickup:

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A picture of a factory built 1946 Beetle pickup:
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Perhaps something more like what you've got in mind:
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Video about a conversion using a later model air cooled:
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A short article (summary, really) of a '72 conversion:
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Something like the Mini van?

- Bill

Reply to
Bill Leary

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Just wonder what the total cost was?

Reply to
LeRoy

Total cost of which item? Not that I'd know anyway, since I didn't read through all of any of those links.

- Bill

Reply to
Bill Leary

Yes .,.. Totaly Aircooled :)

If I did a van, maybe something like a morris traveller

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a bit of 'woody' going on I have a couple of likely candidates for the project
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I have a 'spare' roof I can use too, and a 72 Type2 pickup to take inspiration from too

I'm in a place where I am fed up with the VW communitiy slowly tuning water cooled, and find myself withdrawing to my own little AC corner

Rich

Reply to
tricky

Reply to
tricky

I haven't owned an air cooled VW in twenty-five years. I had two beetles before that. A '64 which I souped up which ended it's life in a collision with a bridge abutment during an ice storm. And later a '68 which had the engine seize. Since the early '90's I've owned Scirocco's. Four of them overall. I still have two, one driven the other as a parts car.

I'd like to find a restorable late '60's bug to work on after I retire. But I'd want it pretty much just as a bug. I'm not looking for anything like your objective.

- Bill

Reply to
Bill Leary

I just got done cutting a '71 type two down into a pick-up. It was pretty rusty . One thing the transporter has the beetle doesn't, a real frame. a beetle needs the roof for structural reasons.

Reply to
Jorge

I have a couple of beetles with the roof already cut off. The heater channels have the Cabriolet strengthening beams fitted

There are other panels and bracing that need to be fitted too.

Unless I make it into a van

Reply to
tricky

le pickup for me to use for work. It would be more or less a 'standard' pic kup design, but with a roof rack capable of carrying full 8x4 sheets . It w ill probably take me a year (or more) to complete. Also thinking of using a type 3 engine/motor for more load space. Are these becoming too rare/hard to find for this to be a good idea ? Any links or ideas would be muchly app reciated :) Thanks Rich hmmm.... just thinking now, that a beetle/bug "van" might be more useful

I have always wanted to convert a type 3 into a truck.

Reply to
Kafertoys

Reply to
tricky

Arrrgh! I can't find a picture of my "Fonzie" Beetle wagon. It was an aweso me NZ designed and built fibreglass kit to go on the back of a beetle which had been choppedbehind the b pillar down to the bottom of the window, and cut straight out the back. It was awesome retro 80's with a spoiler on the back and a beetle engine in the rear. I could sit inside the and repair the engine. Awesome, as it stopped pretty often! There was louunge suit built innto the back to sit on, at the height of the dogbox in the rear of a beet le... HEAPS of legroom!

Go on, do it!

Allan.

Reply to
AllanW

NZ designed and built fibreglass kit to go on the back of a beetle which had been choppedbehind the b pillar down to the bottom of the window, and cut straight out the back. It was awesome retro 80's with a spoiler on the back and a beetle engine in the rear. I could sit inside the and repair the engine. Awesome, as it stopped pretty often! There was louunge suit built innto the back to sit on, at the height of the dogbox in the rear of a beetle... HEAPS of legroom!

I can see I'm going to have to do two. A pickup, and a woody van :)

Reply to
tricky

That's what you make the cap for the pick up bed look like.

- Bill

Reply to
Bill Leary

Now that's a good idea :)

Reply to
tricky

This was made in Finland a few years ago...

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Reply to
Jan Andersson

Yes, I have that one in my bookmarks too, maybe even from you years ago !

Thanks :)

Reply to
tricky

HAHA! Found a piccie:

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It was actually proper bright yellow though, not washed out like in the pics 8-)

Allan.

Reply to
AllanW

Thanks Alan I enjoyed looking through your photostream :) A good reminder too, that you drive on the 'correct' side of the road ! LOL. The Beetle Van is something completely different to anything I have seen so far !

Richard

Reply to
tricky

Wow! One post with 19 replies. Nice to see Ramva rockin again. I remember back in the late 70's seeing a Beetle pick-up conversion abandoned with no engine that would have been mine for the taking. Should have grabbed it t hen, but was driving a 73 Beetle at the time and still living at my parents house. A VW pickup in front of the house with no motor would not have gon e over very well. I should have just taken it home and asked for forgivness later.

Reply to
Bill Berckman

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