This project VW Type 3 Squareback seems like a great deal for a good looking little wagon. Listed here on craigslist in Rapid City, South Dakota for just $950, you can’t go wrong at this price! Could this be the one you are looking for? The owner wants this gone in just a few days, so you better act quick if it is!
The owner offers a list of the work he has completed: replaced the fuel injection line and fuel injection rated clamps from gas tank to engine, installed new vacuum lines, new plugs, cables, cap and rotor and more. e says that there is some faulty wiring that needs to be sorted. A fuse blows when the headlights are turned on. The emergency brake handle is missing, and the front seat belts, the rear belts should be replaced as well. The front turn signal lenses are also missing. And you will need new throw out bearing. The list goes on.
These are the only images that are posted with the ad. The car does run but will not engage into gear. There is some body damage as show above. There are no images of the interior, the underside or the engine compartment. The reason the sells says he is selling: “too many projects, too little time.” Is there an opening in your project schedule?
Cheers,
Robert
One of the biggest if not the biggest
pieces of crap I ever owned. Bought it for my at the time 16 year old daughter. Slush bucket trans that gave up the ghost for $2500. The guy that sold it to me wanted it back. There is a god. He got the same car with a new trans. Good riddins.
Absolute rubbish, not even good for a field car. The fuel injection in these turds was guaranteed to fail sooner than later. The Yugo was a better car!
I’ll never forget my brother in law’s early 70’s fastback with fuel injection. It failed and raw gas was pouring out the tailpipe! He replaced the car with a ’73 “Thing”- a most practical family car for the North! (sarcasm)
My friend just got his grandmothers wagon, square back or whatever that she bought new. 1969 I think that’s what he said. All original and orange. He didn’t mention fuel injection so maybe his is better that those lemons mentioned above.
VW put fuel injection in starting in ’68 and those first models were PsOS. Prior to that they had dual carbs and were great automobiles.
Sorry to say it, but I had the exact same thing in a carb version. Absolutely indestructible!! Was a rust bucket, they all are to some degree. Was hot in the summer and cold in the winter but never ever left me stranded!! I even broke a valve in it and drove it on three cylinders for a year or so until it finally blew apart. Pulled the tags off of it and left it sitting on the side of the road. Kind of miss that car. I will say I also had a F/I VW and that this was a POC (crap not $#!+)! Gosh forbid you try to start it when it was hot, that was a pipe dream! Had to cool or you had to get lucky by just trying, trying, and trying some more!
FI is not as bad as some of the above would suggest. There is a great thread on thesamba.com (type 3 forum) with how to troubleshoot and repair the fuel injection. I believe I read somewhere that VW was the first to install fuel injection in large numbers.
Doug
My Dad had a ’70 Square Back, he absolutely loved the car, it never ever failed him but the “Iron Moths” took up residence on its sheet metal, rot & rust everywhere except for the floor pans, it always started & ran dam good, 30+ MPG, when he retired it in ’78 it had well over 200K on it with an original clutch and original (never apart) motor, save for routine maintenance, oil changes, valve adjustments, tune ups etc.
My younger Sister and her Husband had one of these POS. Sally and Joe got it from his Mom as gift to help them out not long after they got married in 1988. An like was stated before, they would have to leave it running if they had driven it very far, because it would not start for a long period of time. I got called in the middle of the night and asked to come get them, they were returning from a vacation in Florida, and stopped in Arkansas for a break, they went inside to get something to eat, and as usual the left it running locked the doors or so they thought, anyway somebody being a nice person, saw that it was running walked up to it, and turned it off, and brought the keys into the diner, and handed the to the waitress, who asked who the car belonged to, so needless to say they had been driving for over 9 hours, they ran out and it would not start. They called and I loaded up the trailer headed for Arkansas, took me over 4 hours to get to where they were at, their kids were being rowdy because of not being able to sleep, it was a normal hot muggy night in rice country, even after the amount of time that stupid car would not start, I tried to convince them to just push it in a ditch, but it was all the had at the time, so we loaded it up and brought it home. A few days later it was running like normal, Bill would drive that car to St Louis everyday until he finally got enough money to afford something different and dumped that POS at a junk yard to just get rid of it.
I worked at a vw dealer when these were a year or so old and the Tech’s would roll their eyes and almost run and hide when these rolled back to the shop!