From Hagerty…
Don’t let anyone tell you that rebuilding an old Volkswagen Beetle engine is easy. After countless hours of work, some busted knuckles, more than a few trips to the parts store, some heavy-duty Googling, and another 30,000 photos, we present another Redline Rebuild time-lapse video.
Our 1973 Beetle trudged 2,500 miles from Portland, Oregon, to Traverse City, Michigan, in the middle of a frigid January. It has led a hard life, with a hodge-podge of parts from various years and some obvious mechanical and cosmetic shortcuts taken over the last five decades.
While the beauty of the Beetle is that almost any part from any year will fit in some fashion, we didn’t take any shortcuts when it came to the engine. Many of the original parts were too far gone to reuse, biggest of which was the original VW magnesium case. The Beetle now has a brand-new aluminum case, along with a plethora of other new parts, and she is running better than ever…
