Tuna Can Org - totally irrelevant stuff

My VWs of yester year...

Let's take a look at some of the VWs I used to own.

Scirocco 16V | 1965 Baja Bug | 1960 Bug

Over the years I've had the opportunity to have a few other VWs. If you are want to see what I owned back then, here's your chance to see.

1987 Scirocco 16V

I bought the Scirocco 16V (wikipedia link) in April of 1992. I was working for Unique Supply at the time and going to school full time. I wanted to have a car that I could drive everyday and use my spare time (and money) on the Bug. After looking around the local dealerships, I found out about this VW partsman from the San Bernardino VW dealer who was selling his 1987 Scirocco 16V and was planning to update to the new Corrado G60.

The Scirocco was a fun car to drive, though the parts were expensive to purchase when it broke down. The unique nature of the car (the only A-1 class VW to ever get the 16V engine) made the parts difficult to find and expensive when found. The car featured Fittipaldi Monolith wheels (15"x7"), 195/50R15 tires (the Avons that were on it when I bought it were the stickiest I've ever had), numberous Neuspeed parts (lowering springs, upper strut tie-bar, short shift kit, weighted shifter rod, spark plug wires), Momo steering wheel and shift know, Techtonics Tuning high-flow catalytic converter, numerous stereos (theives kept taking it), and eventually an Alpine alarm.

I owned the Scirocco until 1998 when I traded it to my brother for his Westy and his EMPI Imp. He was moving to Colorado and needed a car he could drive in the snow. He didn't want to subject the Westy to the snow (and resulting rust), so we worked out a deal.

1965 Baja Bug

This Baja Bug came through a co-worker of my Dad. He had this '65 Baja that he had built many moons ago, but he had lost interest in it and it was sitting at his father's house. His father passed away, so he needed to get rid of it.

I had no intention of ever keeping this car. I got it primarily for the engine and a few odds and ends. The engine was built many years before, feature a Holley Bugspray carb, Isky camshaft, 92mm pistons (1835cc), and single port heads. Yes, am 1835cc single port!! I tore the engine out, had the heads redone with a valve job, chromoly retainers, heavy-duty springs, and a good cleaning. I also converted the engine to use dual Kadron carbs. We honed the cylinders, installed new rings, and then installed it in my buddy's buggy.

The engine did well!! It was running strong until my brother decided to put it into the Imp. He didn't know his air gun was leaking, and while attaching the flywheel, it didn't get torqued on enough. All it took was going down the street and the crank, flywheel, case and bearings were toast!!

1960 Bug

For a while I owned a 1960 Bug. It was a project that I got from my friend Tim. I was working on collecting the necessary parts for it, as it was missing quite a bit. I had plans to fix the rust on it, lower/narrow the front beam, paint it the original light aqua blue color, and of course install a Type 4 engine. The '60 would probably still in my collection if it hadn't been for another project, something even rarer, a Type 3 Karmann Ghia. :)

The '60 was a very neglected car. I speculate that the guy Tim bought it off of used this car for the early style parts, in a vain attempt to make his '64 Bug look like it's an older model. (I never understoond that mentality, as each year is a cool unique combination of parts.)

The 1960 model year is one of my favorites. It's got a lot of unique features (like the only year to feature a vertical key hole on the door handles) and it was also a transition year. Sometime I'd like to build another '60, preferably a European ragtop sunroof model with semaphore turn signal indicators.