upgrade engine or not?

Nah, on the bug the VIN plate is on the body so you can register that body, so 57 body 57 vehicle as far as the tag office is concerned. Just think of where the late model vehicles have the VIN, on the dash and Crown Vics have a full frame that can be removed from the body, so same difference.

Still suppose to go by the pan vin.....unless you change pans and keep the og vin off the pan or keep the pan.....

My '57 has never been titled, I have the original invoice where the previous owner purchased it. He also gave me the original loan paperwork where he financed it in 1957. The '68 I purchased with a bill of sale in 1987. I don't think the tag office cares much about older cars, they don't require a title for anything past 1985.

Grifspop wrote:My '57 has never been titled, I have the original invoice where the previous owner purchased it. He also gave me the original loan paperwork where he financed it in 1957. The '68 I purchased with a bill of sale in 1987. I don't think the tag office cares much about older cars, they don't require a title for anything past 1985.

The tag office dont care but what if someone gets the og 57 pan from your car and uses the vin number.....The body is just the body the real vin is on the pan (that is for beetles)....GA doesn't issue titles for 63 and down at all.....

With all that said I have a car that is registered off the body number and not the pan....

I trade the '57 pan for a shifter, and the guy was going to fix his chopped top bug with it, it had been in a front end collision. He probably won't re-register that car either.

Well, I see those points.... but my problem is that the front clip on my 67 had been replaced with an earlier manufactured 67. The pan and that vin plate don't match, but still a 67 model either way.

jmbeaver wrote:So this is probably a dumb question but I don't have the knowledge or experience yet:
can I put my 63 top onto a 68 or 69 chass, motor and trans?
I'm not too decided on keeping it original stock. I'd really like to be able to drive it anywhere more so than being a purist. It would be different if it was an oval or split.

To be honest..... I think if you have to show the officer that is verifying the vin as to where it is located, you can register it either way. As long as the rest of the "donor" vehicle is trashed/non-repairable.

I've decided that I'm going to keep the orig motor and trans and also keep it 6 volt.
If I want more power and 12 volt, I'll get a 67.

jmbeaver wrote:
If I want more power and 12 volt, I'll get a 67.

Just get two 63's.

jmbeaver wrote:I've decided that I'm going to keep the orig motor and trans and also keep it 6 volt.
If I want more power and 12 volt, I'll get a 67.

Nice choice!

fluxcap wrote:

jmbeaver wrote:So this is probably a dumb question but I don't have the knowledge or experience yet:
can I put my 63 top onto a 68 or 69 chass, motor and trans?

Yes. You'll have to remove and relocate the rear body mounts (the mounts inside the rear fender well, one on each side). Other than that I believe they bolt right up. Alex did that with his 63. Here is a write up he did about it. The first few pics are replacing the pan halves, if you have a good donor chassis, you won't need to do this. Scroll down a bit to the see mounts.
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=207023

Sorry to chime in so late...LOL


In my opinion, changing that '63 to IRS/BJ was the best mod I could have done. My cars are DRIVERS. I put over 18k miles on that little sucker in 2009 alone. The taller gearing worked great. It would take corners as good as my old '91 Jetta GLI, too. I plan to remove the pan from the '63 and place it under my '65 convertible ASAP for the same reason. Driving around with a 1641cc engine and a stock '65 swing axle SUX. It feels like I am in 3rd gear all the time and the gas mileage is not so good. 65mph is as fast as I wanna drive it because of the gear ratios. In the '63, I could cruise on the Interstate at 80mph with no issues.

At the end of the day, it's all a matter of what YOU want. Personally, I am a weekend road tripper, so, I built my car to suit that purpose. If you don't take long drives, a 40hp in good tune with a nice little header will do just fine and the mileage should be pretty good, too. There are no wrong answers here. Enjoy the car.

Wow, I guess I just took the PO's word for it. I never looked at the engine number until after I pulled it out and looked it over.

I guess this is a 1300 cc