Any Volkswagen Beetle fans out there?

[peejman]

21 minutes ago, xtriggerman said:

, I chose the Gen 2 Lincoln Mark VIII.

I've never really been a Ford guy, but those are seriously cool cars. Very space-age rocket ship looking. Modern take on a lead sled. 

[gregintenn]

4 hours ago, xtriggerman said:

A couple years ago I had the retired "wild Hair" itch for the ride into the sunset years. After a lot of thought & research, I chose the Gen 2 Lincoln Mark VIII. Only about 30,000 Gen 2's made.  Its a car that will need some amateur tinkering for sure but well worth it. 300hp under the hood is very easy to bump up from its 280 base model / 290 LSC model. I'v put 7k miles on my 97 base so far and love the car. I have the only one around! Factory 8 JBL surround sound speakers with factory 120 Watt amp is first rate with a aftermarket dbl din head unit.  3.02 gearing = 93mph @ 2500 revs and 23 mpg high way to boot!  On this link, the top ten "How Too" entries are mine under MARK VIII.  Next move is a true 2.5" SS dual exhaust install this winter.

https://www.lincolnvscadillac.com/forum/ams/

Obviously its nothing like the rag top Beetle, but Iv found everything I want in a personal car with the Mark. For what its worth, Iv owned a 2000 VW Golf, 2001 Jetta, 2003 Beetle, 2005 Passat. All of them Diesels. Take away, Real diesels have timing chains. I wouldn't own another VW these days. Good Luck finding one that satisfies that new car itch!  

You don’t make a post like that without pictures! We’re car guys here as well as gun guys.

[xtriggerman]

OK, its in dire need of paint but for the 67K on the clock and 5 grand I paid for it out of Ocala FL (completely rust free) I wasn't going to be too upset over that.  What the pictures don't really show is how low the front of the cars profile is and steep rake of the windshield.  In this shot, I had just completed a coil spring swap in on all 4 A arms and figured out what Monroe Air shocks would work on the rear for a slightly higher rear end.

When I'm done, I it will look like this guy's 98 LSC.

A 98 base model interior. 2 memory driver seat power seats, These cars ran 38K new and now can be had for a fraction of that mostly because of issues that any shade tree dude can bang out like leaking air ride bags, The cars would squat once speed goes over 60 for better handling but to me, it was far more simple to do a coil spring kit for a couple hundred bucks and never have electrical ride sensing issues or leaks with the on board pump & bags.

And off course some folks go ape sheet over these 4.6 engines.

These Lincoln engines became the coveted Cobra engines with slight tweaking of components. Its an all aluminum 281 ci block that rivals the size of a 454 big block. 32 valve intech V8 that howls like a banshi with my air intake mod at its 6K rpm red line.  These cars are real sleepers and still enough yard parts to pretty much get a rough one back into decent shape.

 It didn't take me long to buy a new radar detector........... Just a sample of play time in this older one.

 

Edited September 14, 2019 by xtriggerman

[peejman]

Cool. Is the drivetrain compatible with all the late model mustang 4.6 stuff?

[xsubsailor]

Back in the mid '80s I picked up one of these that had already had the conversion done. It was nowhere as nice as this one but was a blast to drive. The only problem that I picked up on real fast was having all the metal on the rear end replaced with fiberglass made it notoriously wicked on wet roads. It did, however make at least 10-15 trips to Oklahoma City and back with no problems.

 If I wasn't so far along in life and was able to still do the type of work required, I would be all over one of these:

The "New Beetle" was so unpopular that the used ones are dirt cheap now and the kit doesn't cost that much. I'd say less than $5000 for the whole thing.

host images

 

[xtriggerman]

8 hours ago, peejman said:

Cool. Is the drivetrain compatible with all the late model mustang 4.6 stuff?

The trany is a 4R70W and was used in Mustangs also. There was a durability upgrade put in the trany in the last month or 2 of the 97 model year. Luckily, mine was made in may of 1997 so it was barely inside the up grade window. That's one reason a May/June manufactured 97 or 98 model are the ones to look for. Some of the drive shafts go out of balance so I bought a Dynotech all aluminum drive shaft put in mine. They come with new spicer yokes & U joints. The only bad thing on these particular tranies is the porting has a rather slow and mushy TC lock up. Every one interested in a snappier shift can have a good trans shop perform what is commonly called the "J Mod". Its drilling out some valve body ports. Or there is a re program chip that will do nearly what the J Mod does. I'v got to find a trans guy I can trust to do the mod.  Once done, 2nd TC lock up puts rubber into the black top. The mod can be made mild to wild.

[Morgan88]

Learned to drive a manual transmission bug out in the east pasture.  Oh boy, those were the days.  Ours was a little earlier than the 72 your talking about but ours took a beating and never quit. Only thing about it in Northern Indiana in the winter you had to drive and scrape the windshield at same time. Steer scrape shift steer scrape shift.  You get the idea.   Not a bid deal here I am guessing.

 

  Morgan88