1969 VW Type 1

Ahh, the VW Bug. Or, more properly, the Volkswagen Type 1. This is my oldest car (manufactured in 1969 – as of writing this, it’s 54 years old) and I’m very much looking forward to restoring it.

“But Delta, you mean to say you have a car that doesn’t run?”

Yes, this is a common thing in my household. Of the 14 cars on the property (not all of which are mine!) only about 9.5 of them run and drive (the Camaro counts as half a car).

The cool thing about this car is the history. I spent many a night drinking beer with my next door neighbor, who was the previous owner of the Type 1. At the time, I owned a 2016 Kia Soul EV, my first (and to date only) electric car. I was amazed at the performance, but saddened by the shoddy warranty and lack of customization options. For a guy who almost exclusively buys older cars with manual transmissions and gobs of aftermarket tuning/upgrade options, this slick new EV was a major letdown. To top it off, the battery failed less than a year after I bought the car, and Kia refused to honor the warranty.

Never buy a Kia, folks.

But then I had an epiphany! EVs are clearly the future, and they have some major advantages over ICE (that’s Internal Combustion Engine for the folks in the back) cars. But they’re often overburdened with nannyware and obfuscated control systems, meaning I couldn’t truly modify an existing EV to fit my standards. Unless, of course, I had an unlimitted amount of money and time - sadly, I lack both.

But what if I built my own?

The Type 1’s previous owner couldn’t get the car running – the engine was shot, block cracked, connecting rods bent, tons of rust. Meanwhile, I had a nice EV motor but no battery to drive it – at least not far for a 3600lb car. But we talked, and talked, and I did a bit of reading, and we talked some more. And I came to the conclusion that I could strip the motor and some supporting hardware out of the Kia Soul EV, and strip the faulty cells from the Kia's 27kWh battery pack to build a ~15kWh battery pack that would fit in a Type 1, and fab up a transaxle to EV motor bracket, and upgrade the brakes and suspension, and run a bunch of heavy-gauge wire everywhere, and steal the accelerator pedal assembly from a Nissan Leaf, and rig up some gauges for speed and battery capacity, and build some mounting brackets, and maybe cut into the body (but not too much), and maybe build the most insane runon sentence ever.

No wait, sorry, build the most insane VW Type 1 EV swap ever. Less than 1500lbs, 210 ft/lbs of always-available torque (about three times the rating of the stock engine), and an estimated range of about 90 miles. To make things even better, the battery weight would bring the Type 1 very close to a 50/50 weight distribution between the front and rear wheels. On top of that, given the age of the car it would only cost about $40 a year to register, and that's for an extended registration (2-3 years, I can't remember which at the moment).

So why aren't I showing pictures of a slick VW EV conversion?

Well, I managed to sell that lemon Kia Soul EV back to a Kia dealership during the COVID-induced spike in used car prices – even a lemon was worth 95% of my original price during those years. And sadly, the previous owner of the Type 1 passed away a few years ago. He was a wonderful man, and he is sorely missed. But I managed to purchase and register the vehicle myself! Now it sits in my driveway, waiting for my current car project before I dig in, tear everything apart, and rebuild it to my specifications. In honor of the previous owner, I’ll keep the color – and in honor of our many drunken conversations, I’m going to do my level best to complete that EV swap.

We’ll never forget you Andy.