Kits for 69 bug

New or used? There are lots of VW based kits produced over the years. eBay has several Bradley GT's for sale cheap (Ferrari look), there,s the MG TD or MIGi, Fort GT40 Avenger look-alike, and the classic Porsche 356 Speedster --- plus lopts of dune buggy styles. New kits are $8-12k --- 90% finished ones are $2-4k --- restoreable ones are $400-1500. Our try alt.autos.kitcars NH. Rip off your rusted body and sell off what parts you can - recycle others. Just keep the frame, wiring, sterring column and the chassis. (Speedster kit may reuse the gas tank and the door strikers). Hardly any use the superbeetle without extensive frame conversion.

Maybe it's because of our winters, but I've never seen a Bug with a body rusted beyond repair that hasn't rusted through the heater channels and thus ruined the pan, too. But maybe yours is collision damage.

Kits? Well, go to and and thesamba.com has some, too. Look around. If cheap is where you are at, then an open-cabin tub-type dune buggy is the way to go. Kits are not really inexpensive to build properly. People who go into a kit with the belief that they are going to make something cool very cheap either rarely finish the project or do it very badly. It's all about a critical eye, time, talent and $$$. If you buy one used, do not assume that it won't have to be built all over again. Oh, and if you get a Bradley GTII(not the plain GT), then beware - the windshield is a propritary, one-of-a-kind item and the last of the windshields is almost gone, and they get more spendy by the day, and there is _no_ alternative 'shield that works. (I predict unused 'shields will be around $700 "Real Soon Now".)

Talk to experienced Kit people. Go to the sites above. If you get hooked on one type, then there are specialty lists and groups for many of them.

Heater channel is part of the upper body and not the chassis or pan. For a kit you use only the chassis - so rusted heat channels aren't a concern. When you unbolt the body the rusty heater tubes go to recycle too! Many (like the CMC 55 Porsche Speedster) I have have provisions for heat in the new FG body (a sturdy pipe which is part of the new sub-frame strenghtening). Many kits also shorten the chassis about 11" so idea time to replace rusted out floor boards. As long as front beam mounting horns and the center tunnel are good - it can be used for a kit car.

Here's good site that walks you thru removing body - what to keep - and what you need to do to shorten for a 356 Speedster. Good shots of the pan.

Thanks everyone for such good support. Those sites were great!

We live in the land of rust beast cars...

Before removing the body etc... look very closely at the frame head, front beam and rear fork... about 50% of the cars that I've parted down had these parts in need of some MASSIVE repair after knocking them with a hammer and screwdriver.

If you're doing a buggy or kit -- it's smart to do the pans also... sheet steel isn't that expensive... The joker who did our buggy didn't fix the pans... now its totally disassembling it to put in fixed pans.

Timmyh

Not compared to Ohio! They salt so much that I've seen friggin holes in chrome bumpers! Gads, that state sucks.