1970 Saturn Yellow VW Beetle

1970 Volkswagen Beetle - Classic Additional Info:

This is a Saturn Yellow 1970 VW Beetle coupe. I am only her third owner. Someone who only kept a car for the first year, then sold it and bought a new one purchased the Bug in California. The second buyer was a co-worker who ended up relocating from California to Houston, shipping the car here. The roof of the Bug was damaged during that shipment when someone stupid stood on it. The roof was repaired by the shipper but could still use more work. The Bug was well used and loved by his family, to the point where he ended up with too many vehicles and ran afoul of his deed restrictions, and sold me the Bug in 1999.

This bug was my daily driver for a lot of years, a lovely water tight all weather vehicle. I finally got around to restoring and repainting it in 2002, and the interior is still in darn fine condition (see pics). Then disaster hit, Hurricane Ike made a direct hit on me here in Houston in September of 2008. The 70 Bug and my 78 VW Van ended up holding up what was left of the aluminum carport roof, after multiple pines and oak trees came down on top of it. The Bug suffered a lot of paint and some body damage, dents and dings, multiple scratches in the paint, and a big dent in the roof and one in the left rear fender (see last few pics). I continued to drive it but was so depressed about it that I never found the energy to fix all the paint and body damage. In the end I finally parked the Bug in the barn and drained the gas from the tank, and quit driving it.

The engine was completely rebuilt in late 2001, and now has about 30,000 miles on it. I installed a set of oversize pistons and cylinders and new heads, without remachining the block. The transmission feels good and shifts nicely and I have had no issues or problems with it. As part of the engine rebuild I installed a new centrifugal distributor, a new alternator, and a new alternator style fuel pump . The engine is now twin port but still using the stock single-port carb with an adapter, to get around the 'hesitation' issues that the late model dual port carbs had.

The bad news is that she has rust down low and is losing her heater channels. You can see this as traces of rust under the doors and above the running boards in the side images. The floors are still sound and the interior is in really nice shape. As she sits she should provide good basic transportation for a number of years, and can then be sold for parts. If at some point the new owner decides she is worth keeping, then she could become a project car. In either case her price is set low enough that neither option should pose an economic hardship.

She comes with my usual collection of goodies, and has in the hood a set of jumper cables, a nylon tow strap, a fire extinguisher, a flat military rocket box with a huge collection of tools for side-of-the-road repairs, a socket set, a second rocket box with spare parts, and the VW maintenance manual for this year/model VW.

The Bug has not been driven much in the past 3-4 years, though it had a 2015 registration and a 2014 inspection on the windshield that I had to remove when I put the Antique Auto plates on. I did spend a week plus and have replaced the important brake components, wheel cylinders, flexible brake lines, and master cylinder. I repacked the front wheel bearings at the same time. I cleaned and blew out the carb and put a new battery in her. The tires on it are barely worn but are about 10 years old and essentially at what I consider to be end-of-life. The vehicle is drivable and as road-worthy as I can make her. You should be able to just drive this one home, though a more conservative approach might be to spend the $80 or so for a used VW tow-bar on The Samba and then just tow her home.