New resident in Rye Park.

[Farmer]

Hello.
Whats this? A sweet find has endeared itself to us.

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But its not a Bellett!! I can almost hear the chorus!

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Look on my Sweedish friend, I think you have gotten to me with all your bug pictures.

Well, its actually a present for my little girl. She has always liked 'punch buggies'. I remember her pointing them out to me all the trip for the Adelaide Nats in 2009, when she was 6. I remember explaining the difference between them and 'new beetles', and that she liked the original better. Now she is 15 and gets her learners permit half a years time.

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Its a 72 1600 Superbug, the model to get so I'm told. Strut front with disc brakes, proper metal dash without pad, and good performance.
The paint is original and good and there is no rust. Just needs a set of rings and bearings, but all parts are available new, and a front seat swap. I will fit new made inertia reel belts too, and she will be good to go.

I am stoked that she likes an old car, even if its not a Bellett, and grateful to my mate Dave for finding such a great example.
Cheers, Matt.

[Gunna]

Soooooooo excellent!!!

She's a lucky daughter.

[pa_man]

Great First car, Nice pickup Matt,
always had a soft spot for the ol VW, my Uncle was a VW specialist so grew up around them.
He and another fella could remove the engine and gearbox in a Beetle in 20 mins.
I never quite managed that in a Bellett

Josh

[GTtoo]

So sorry I missed this Matt. Perfect first Car for Milli. Can't emagine how mature she is now!! Our family bought a new red one in 1976 from the dealer in Adelaide. I can still remember the smell of new VW in the dealers shop FFFFFF,mmmmmm. It did us proud for many years.....Dackdakdakdakdakdakkkkk.

B.

[Early GT]

Very cool first car:D love the wheels
parts will be easier to get for this ride too.

[Gunna]

The dakdak car

[Stickman]

I still have a few of my old Beetle parts under my old mans house, but they are all for the early oval window bugs (none of which will be any good for Milli's little baby unfortunately otherwise I'd bring them down for her)
They were the spares for my '56 oval window I sold to buy Donkey....... all my mate's (and family) thought I was mad selling such a collectible beetle for as they put it "junker Bellett" but for me it was a no brainer.

Worst thing was, only 6 months earlier my old man came up to me and said "Your never gonna buy another Bellett again are you?"
My reply - "Can't imagine so, I've never even seen another one since"
To which he replied "That's good, here is 50 bucks for your share of what I got in scrap for all your Bellett parts under the house"
I had enough parts to build a 2 Deluxe sedans and half a GT

[Farmer]

Thanks for all the encouragements everyone.
Something that helped us decide was, Shane at our local mechanic shop loves them. Dave took this one to show him while it was on the way home. Shane said it was the best condition one he had seen for many years. I asked him about the motor rebuild. A rings, bearings, mains rebuild including drop and refit to the car, is about $500. He said if it needed new cylinder liners (cheaper than a rebore) and crank (cheaper then a grind) it would still be under a grand.
Every part is available new. To build a complete new motor from all new parts is about 2 grand, including labour, but he added you would never do that unless you were a fanatic, or had too much money.
All it has is a rattly big end, so a minor build should do.

All this is after the Nats, I still have plenty of Elf work to do.
Cheers, Matt.

[Farmer]

See, you look back at a thread and 2 years have gone by. So the plan was to have this car ready for Milli's birthday and license getting in March. I put it in to have the motor done in January. We got it back a few weeks ago after a 6 1/2 month wait. First it was put back every time they got busy, which was often. They replaced every component but the case (block) and liners. Then there was more to do, like the brakes. The spend was much bigger than planned!

Ah well, its back home now and I'm getting final jobs done for rego. Milli bought a parts car and I've swapped out the interior. I put in a new battery, set of tyres, and thought we'd be good to go. But it would cut out randomly and had a really rough idle. So I pulled the carbie off and cleaned it. That helped a bit, but still poor at idling. Turns out the basic thing was from an older 1300. Makes a Bellett carb look huge, modern and complicated! I found a new correct one on ebay for $103 delivered (in 4 days), bolted it on and made the youtube recommended adjustments. What a difference! It goes so well I reckon it would give the Florian a fright! (Well, a little one.)

A few more days of dinky things like getting the high beam working, fitting a blue teeth radio that can use a new fangled battery phone once she is allowed to have it on in the car. Until then she is going old school and buying CDs.

Aunty Mary and Doris haven't been out of the shed in months. Thats bad! Next week!
Cheers, Matt.

[Farmer]

Slack Matt, not finishing off threads.
We put Milli's Beetle on the road, just after Christmas. She has been using it as a daily, and while missing aircon, is pretty happy with it. She even washed it last Friday! There have been offers to buy it already, it seems half the population has one in their past somewhere. I'm surprised how much smaller they are inside than a Bellett, that backseat is narrow! Registers as a 4 seater.

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Cheers, Matt.

[pa_man]

Awesome first car, I grew up around VW's

Josh

[Stickman]

Me too Josh
Although for me it was Kombi vans
Had a couple of Beetles though between Bellets.
I had a 56 Oval and a very tidy 61 also

Still love 'em