My son and I took a 221 mile drive to pick this little guy up, then drove down to visit CAMP914 for a while and drove it home.

Never missed a beat.

It now has all the break-in miles on a 2275 monster torque motor.

Full of 350lbs of gear and both of us (another 300lbs) it would still pull hard in 4th from 50mph and up.

Yes, those are 31 inch "mudders" on there.

Always a fan of Type III's!

The 2275 was really well done. I was nervous to say the least on the 300 mile drive home. But the thing never faulted.

Abouth the only thing negative was the oil fill boot had a pretty big tear in it so oil was getting thrown out of that onto the exhaust. Stunk a little.

It now only has about 500 miles on it, so time to change the oil and add some gauges to help keep tabs on the temps and oil pressure.

I will paint it, it's been color changed 3 times, so nothing original here. Thinking of that cool Audi color, solid, Battleship grey I think? Might look kinda cool?

These little carbs have been re-jetted, but I think they are pretty small for a 2275.

That is way cool Dan!
What snow? Oh yea, in the mountains.
Did we get snow here last year?
Tom

That looks really cool.

They must not have traffic out your way if you drive your 914 year round.

I love mine when I got open roads and despise it when I am in traffic and doubly so when it's hot as well.

My 914 is pretty much all stock, so it drives nice, even sitting in traffic.....which I don't do very often. My daily commute is all backroads. I don't mind driving the 914 in the rain even, but if it's just pounding rain for days on end (which it does), it'll be nice to just leave the 914 in the garage and drive this instead.

That is all kinds of awesome.

Dunno why I never thought of lifting one of those (I guess its because most of the custom squarebacks out there are dropped).

My cousin got my aunt's one owner squareback wagon, and then sold it for next to nothing, and never told me! It was a really clean CA car too. I love those cars.

That is sweet!!! Very well done. I was always more of a notch fan but that squareback looks great.

Kinda makes me think of a St. Bernard. You know, romping thru the snow to the rescue. Think about attaching a pony keg to the front for life saving liquids.

I did the squareback so I could cram a ton of junk in it.

Also going to source a stock roof rack from something like a jetta or passat or something. That way we can throw our little raft on top, kicker motor in the back etc.

It has a bus tranny and VERY tough clutch. It will tow stuff, nothing too big.

Shoes on the back are monsterous.

I'll probably find some way to put "M" vented calipers on the front.

Tow small utility trailer or small boat.

I also keep thinking of sourcing a Syncro running gear, diff in the front, auto tranny......

buss trany with the portals turned down

it even looks like about the same wheel base as a cj5

Very cool to see someone using a T3, but sad to see it cut up for the wheels.

Too few of them out on the roads anymore...

Looks like a lot of fun to drive, especially in the snow.

Guy I bought it from didn't do the conversion, it looks older. The tires have a lot of miles on them.

Wheel wells have been boxed so the tires can really sink into the fenders if needed.

Front and rear boxing have been tied to each other. It's almost a frame-on-body.

I spent about 30 minutes rolling around on a creeper yesterday, just looking, not even wrenching on anything, just sucking in all the custom work that was done to achieve the final product. Pretty amazing the amount of work someone put into it. The planning and engineering. Rear shock mount was relocated to correct the geometery. Crazy.

I agree that cutting into an original squareback would be bad news. Glad this one was already done and probably back when "good" examples could be had for very cheap.

It's why I won't flare or mod my current 914. They've just gotten too hard to source in good, unmolested condition.

Troy - You'd love this thing, nothing like your Jeep, but still cool.

paddle tires and the dunes!!!!

I'm going to check with the credit union...

That is awesome. I find that any work of art is a joy to behold. That looks like one hell of a FUN vehicle. especially with the performance upgrade!
I bet the speedometer is a *little* off with those tires...

Nice Find!

... plus your 914 is the same color combo as my 73 2L resto will be going back to - OE L80E & Beige interior.

I've always loved the Squarebacks & almost bought one as a 2nd DD in the early 80's - but then divorce crap got in the way!
They were the surfer-dub of choice outside of the Buses here in SoCal back in the day.

I do think you need bigger carbs - maybe twin Weber 40's or 44's, but then that probably leads to a different cam, which leads to .... well, you get the idea!

The big problem with running larger carbs is you lose the luggage space. Is there even manifolds and air cleaners for 40's out there that fit in a type III without yanking off the engine cover?

Looks like my old SB we called "Frieda". if you watch the samba you can get T3 weber DCNF 42mm carbs. I had a set but I sold them, I still use DCNF's on my T1 engine bus.

Cool.

Back in high school (1990 ish) a friend of mine had a square back that was lifted on maybe 31's.

Bright orange. Was kinda cool, had some old school headlight buckets from some older vw grafted into the front.

We were passing people at 55mph.

Some guy (with family packed in) in a larger truck hauling a 5th wheel was behind us for a while. I was trying to keep the speed/rpms/load down on the engine since, hell, it was a 300 mile trip on a 2275 Type1 motor with only about 100 miles on it. So I was scared $hitle$$ of the thing failing on the trip home.

Anyway, he moved to go around me (ridding my tail), I left it in 4th, stuffed it right when we were about at the end of the truck. Just flew by him.

The look on the kids faces as we passed them.

Speedo seems to be around 10mph slow @60mph.

I have the build sheet from the builder, it's got a 120 (Engle?) cam in it.

They make low profile manifolds for T-3's so you keep the lid over the engine.

If I convert my 914 back to FI, I'll use the Weber 40's from that on the T-3 if they will work.

You might be right, DCNF's might be the only option.

It's been a while since I've had a true air cooled VW and this is my first T-3 so things are coming back to me and I'm learning new things as well.

very cool....white with some Zebra stripes might be appropriate

very nice example, I would love a SB or a Thing, but they are getting really expensive in the neck of the woods.

http://www.jbugs.com/product/43-7341.html?...e-3-carburetors

Looks like I should be able to source manifolds and aircleaners and use the 40's off my 914 if I wanted.

Cool, that'd really open up the 2275.