Peter Rood's
1971 Super Beetle
Back in 1995
my '74 beetle took a header off the 401 and
smashed into the inside wall on the highway
at 70mph. A few months after, my mechanic asked
if I
would be interested in helping him build another
beetle as a promo car for our new side business
"Bugs On The Hill". Building a car with other
peoples money is always fun.
My mechanic
new someone who had a beetle out on some property
in the GTA. We had the car picked up and delivered
to the shop and got to work right away. I had
full rein on the overall look of the vehicle
and Ilias was in charge or the engine and braking
system.
The beetle was
taken apart, all pieces were placed in boxes
and the body was bead blasted. We had to fix
a few holes and repair one of the strut towers
on the front. After that it was your basic
one part at a time clean, repair or replace
until everything was ready to go. The parts
for the air-cooled VW's are very easy to get,
they still make everything!
As for the look
of the car we decided to shave all the chrome
trim, replace the bumpers for nerf bars, shaved
turning signals and relocated to the front
licence plate area, add 1 piece front window
kit, 205x60x15 tires, chrome
Porsche
style
wheels,
tinted
windows,
front disk brake conversion, 1835cc engine
with dual 40mm carbs, off set deck lid, short
shift kit, stereo and much much more.
We drove this
car to almost every VW show in Ontario and
cruise nights in the GTA. We Won first place
in the custom import category at Speedorama
Toronto in 1998.
The vehicle
still lives at the shop that it was built in
Richmond Hill. My next project may be another
Beetle, I would love to get my hands on a 1973
Regular Beetle.

