Parts & Pieces Used

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Parts & Pieces Used

**Ragtop**

My '72, of course, did not come with a sliding ragtop (or any sunroof for that matter). I've always wanted one of those BIG sliding ragtops like on the older Beetles, so we did the most sensible thing... cut my original center roof section out and welded an original ragtop roof section in place from a '56 oval. Keeping about 2" - 3" of the metal surrounding the '56 ragtop section, the hole was cut the same size for the ragtop section to be welded in. The curvature of the roofs were the same for all years, so it was not a big problem. Turned out excellent!

**Suicide Doors**

Doing a suicide door treatment proved to be pretty tricky with the hidden hinges the way I wanted. But, with the work of a very talented friend, they turned out great. Thanks Bob!! Hinges were used from a '54 Ford Truck (trimmed a bit). The hinges were then welded to a common piece of angle bar stock and installed into the body as one piece.

The doors themselves were reinforced to handle the job without ever worrying about door sag. They open and close flawlessly and have a built in "stop" to keep the door from opening too far and damaging the body or doors. I opted to toss the stock latch & striker assembly and bought a nice set of Bear Claw Latches to finish the job. These are a must, in my opinion, to ensure those doors don't fly open when traveling down the highway. They have a heavy-duty double catch mechanism (over and under) and work well with all the power door lock accessories available. I will be using power remote operated door locks and openers since I also decided to shave the door handles to complete the "smooth" look.

**Dash**

Of course, one of the first things I wanted to do to the interior was to get rid of that ugly plastic covered dash. I didn't want to just get a cheap cover or bolt on one of those fiberglass jobbers. I also wanted to keep with the "one-off" theme of the look I was going for, so I wanted to keep it VW but give it some custom touches. What I came up with, was to completely cut out the stock dash and reinforcing metalwork behind it and replace it with a oval style dash from a '56 (same year as my ragtop and taillights). You gotta love the look of that oval style dash with the big ole chrome radio grille in the middle! The finished product turned out great and if you didn't know better, you'd think that dash has been in there since the factory.

**Taillights**

As for the taillight treatment, I wanted to go custom but also wanted to keep it strictly VW. I decided to go with '56 taillights with the "snowflake" glass lenses. To go with my smooth look, I frenched them into the fenders. This is a fairly easy task that looks great when done properly. The taillight housings are simple reversed (lens facing the front of the car). Measure the "footprint" of the original housing mount, center this on the fender, cut the hole to match, and place the housing (again, facing the front of car), inside the wheel well and weld the housing in place. Just some minor modification must be made to be able to invertly mount the lenses themselves facing to the rear. When doing this, remember that the taillights cannot be seen from the side view anymore. That is why I suggest using a conversion to LED lights. These are simply popped into the original socket to replace the stock 1157 bulbs. The use of a 3rd brake light is always a good idea also.


	'72 Suicide Ragtop \| home Photo Page \| Ragtop Pics \| Suicide Door Pics \| '56 Dashboard Pics \| Front end / Nose pics \| Filling the "moon vents" \| Parts & Pieces Used \| History of my '72 Super \| Contact Me \| Related Links \| And for those of you who think I'm "wasting" my time on a Super... Parts & Pieces Used **Ragtop My '72, of course, did not come with a sliding ragtop (or any sunroof for that matter). I've always wanted one of those BIG sliding ragtops like on the older Beetles, so we did the most sensible thing... cut my original center roof section out and welded an original ragtop roof section in place from a '56 oval. Keeping about 2" - 3" of the metal surrounding the '56 ragtop section, the hole was cut the same size for the ragtop section to be welded in. The curvature of the roofs were the same for all years, so it was not a big problem. Turned out excellent! Suicide Doors Doing a suicide door treatment proved to be pretty tricky with the hidden hinges the way I wanted. But, with the work of a very talented friend, they turned out great. Thanks Bob!! Hinges were used from a '54 Ford Truck (trimmed a bit). The hinges were then welded to a common piece of angle bar stock and installed into the body as one piece. The doors themselves were reinforced to handle the job without ever worrying about door sag. They open and close flawlessly and have a built in "stop" to keep the door from opening too far and damaging the body or doors. I opted to toss the stock latch & striker assembly and bought a nice set of Bear Claw Latches to finish the job. These are a must, in my opinion, to ensure those doors don't fly open when traveling down the highway. They have a heavy-duty double catch mechanism (over and under) and work well with all the power door lock accessories available. I will be using power remote operated door locks and openers since I also decided to shave the door handles to complete the "smooth" look. Dash Of course, one of the first things I wanted to do to the interior was to get rid of that ugly plastic covered dash. I didn't want to just get a cheap cover or bolt on one of those fiberglass jobbers. I also wanted to keep with the "one-off" theme of the look I was going for, so I wanted to keep it VW but give it some custom touches. What I came up with, was to completely cut out the stock dash and reinforcing metalwork behind it and replace it with a oval style dash from a '56 (same year as my ragtop and taillights). You gotta love the look of that oval style dash with the big ole chrome radio grille in the middle! The finished product turned out great and if you didn't know better, you'd think that dash has been in there since the factory. Taillights** As for the taillight treatment, I wanted to go custom but also wanted to keep it strictly VW. I decided to go with '56 taillights with the "snowflake" glass lenses. To go with my smooth look, I frenched them into the fenders. This is a fairly easy task that looks great when done properly. The taillight housings are simple reversed (lens facing the front of the car). Measure the "footprint" of the original housing mount, center this on the fender, cut the hole to match, and place the housing (again, facing the front of car), inside the wheel well and weld the housing in place. Just some minor modification must be made to be able to invertly mount the lenses themselves facing to the rear. When doing this, remember that the taillights cannot be seen from the side view anymore. That is why I suggest using a conversion to LED lights. These are simply popped into the original socket to replace the stock 1157 bulbs. The use of a 3rd brake light is always a good idea also.