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.