My 68 Squareback

[Bryan67]

I`ve owned 3 Fastbacks, several Buses, and Bugs, and I currently own a Thing, and a 63 Bug project. but never a Squareback. Not by choice though. It just never happened..... until now. I wasn't even looking but this popped up on Facebook marketplace over the weekend. It looked familiar but the person that listed the ad wasn't the owner. They were doing it to help them out. After contemplating it for awhile, thinking things like "I don`t need it" and " I already have enough cars"... I called the number. It turns out I was right. I knew the owner fairly well. In fact I tried to buy it a few years ago before buying my 563 Bug project. But he wasn't selling. Now he was. I went to look at it the next day and couldn't say no. It`s a very clean 1968 Squareback that he had did a semi restoration over time. Repaint, new interior, rubber, refreshed engine with Solex carbs and rebuilt transaxle, and rechromed bumpers. It has the original black plates and dealer frames, along with service record and receipts from Vista Volkswagen in Goleta, California. My friend was the second owner. Its nice having something that doesn't need a full restoration for a change. I will be doing a few things to it like a slight lowering of the front, possibly a set of Fuchs, or Pedrini`s, a Berg shifter, and probably a smaller steering wheel (I`m 6'2"). But nothing crazy. Here`s a few pictures I took after I got it home.

[Good-Old-Ragtop60]

Wow, thats a nice car!
I´m looking forward to see the small changes you mentioned 

[VWGlassee]

Wauw! Great score  

 " I already have enough cars"
You can never have enough cars  

Yannick

[Larry S]

sweet car, good find. good luck with it and enjoy!

[Bryan67]

Since my 63 Bug project has been in body shop jail for a few years, I need to use these tires. and since I have disc brake setups already.... I think they are going on the Squareback. Along with a slight lowering of the front end.

[BossHogg76]

My jealousy knows no bounds. That looks lovely, cant wait to see it on those fuchs

[Larry S]

awesome find and great car......

[Bryan67]

Thanks. Did a little cleanup on the Squareback this week. Nothing major. Cleaned up the trunk. Pulled out the carpet to reveal the original mats. Did a little mock-up of my Hans detailed Fake Fuchs, took the fog lights off, and gave it a bath. Needs brake work before I can really drive it though.

[Brew 66]

Already looks better!

[Bryan67]

This is where I am for now. I fit new Porsche pattern rotors and calipers on the front, and a CB Performance rear disc brake kit on the back. I still need to figure out the e brake cables, so if anyone has ideas or photos, feel free to post them. Supposedly I just need to make sleeves to extend the housings. Then a set of 5.5" EMPI fake Fuchs. And 175/65 and 205/70 tires. Along with a little lowering of the front end. I like how it sits. And am getting an alignment done this Monday. Put a BERG 6710EB shifter in and replaced the missong bushing and put in new couple blocks.  I also had to rejet the solex carbs as the drivers side was WAY richer then the passenger side. Even more then the original off balance settings. Runs much better.

[Bryan67]

I had the front end aligned so I could drive it wearing my front tires down. And put in my go to LeCarra steering wheel and Berg shifter. Kind of a routine for me.

[stretch]

What a great looking car.  Does it drive as well as it looks?

[Bryan67]

What a great looking car.  Does it drive as well as it looks?

I took it out to the country today. It drives great. And goes 70 with ease. It does take awhile to get there though...

[leec]

Such a cool car. Love it

[stretch]

What a great looking car.  Does it drive as well as it looks?

I took it out to the country today. It drives great. And goes 70 with ease. It does take awhile to get there though...

 

[Bryan67]

Did a clean up and repaint on the Tri Mill exhaust. New flat lenses and reflectors. NOS front signal lenses. Put on my Der Speed Shack plate frame. A set of Flat 4 mirrors.
 Did a heater delete. And ditched the KYB shocks for a new set of Konis. Worth every dollar.

[56BLITZ]

Lookin' GOOD Bryan! 

[jmarkha1]

looking very sharp - a great looking square...

[Good-Old-Ragtop60]

Very good looking Car! I dig your modifications.
In my opinion Fuchs-wheels are the perfect accessory for aircoold cars...often seen, but everytime beautiful.

[Steve67]

Great looking squareback, makes me want one right now ;-)

[Bryan67]

Soooo.... a few weeks ago someone rode up on a bike at night and dumped paint stripper all over my Squareback. It`s put me in a pretty bad place. As sure as I am of who was behind it, I have no proof at all. Nothing showed up on camera. And I have done nothing to deserve this. Anyway. I finally got a weak settlement from State farm, and am moving on with getting the whole car repainted. I started taking it apart today, and it will go in to the body shop next week.

[Larry S]

Stupid bastards, unbelievable what people will do. Sorry to see this happened to you. Man I would like to capture them doing something like this....

[Abadco2]

  I had a similar experience. As you say, you did nothing to deserve this, well it’s unfortunate that some are just done right jealous :-(…… bastards!!!!

[jmarkha1]

Ah - that is so wrong - I hope you get it sorted and can enjoy the car again...

[brewsy]

OMFG that's awful!

Real shame you didn't get any footage of the culprit

[Bryan67]

And the rebuild begins. I really didn`t want another project, but thats what it has become....

[stretch]

Bryan, it sucks that you were forced into painting it.     But, what an amazing base to start from.  UK Type 3's do not look like that when you remove the panels !!  Good luck with the re-paint.

[Bryan67]

So of course, once you start digging in... you find issues. Nothing really major, but there was some rust, and a really bad repair under the right rear fixed widow. whoever painted it before shoved a piece of cardboard in the rust holes and bondoed over it. A small hole on the body at the bottom of the front right fender (Pretty normal), and some surface corrosion under the brake fluid reservoir. Again, pretty normal. But I can`t ever just do something halfway. So, I`m also doing new interior, wiring, a ton of rubber and detailing the engine, and powder coating the tin and a bunch of other parts. since the windshield is coming out I found a really nice original dash pad to replace the repop one in the car now.

[Bryan67]

Slow progress. But here`s an update. The deeper you dig, the more you find...

[Bryan67]

As time drags on at the body shop. I stripped the engine down to a long block. Did a deep clean and pondered doing a bigger engine build. But since it is a good running recent 1600 rebuild, I decided to leave it alone (For now). So I rebuilt the carbs, upgraded the linkage rods, bead blasted and powder coated the parts, and reassembled it with some fresh zinc plated hardware and an alternator conversion. And converted to a standard air filter element.