Beetle owners have chopped, sliced and diced their vehicles in many different ways but I’d never seen one modified like this. Suffice it to say, K.T. Keller wouldn’t be a fan of this. And if there was a Joe Cocker song about this VW, it’d probably be called, “You Must Take Your Hat Off”.
Apparently it was once a huge fad to chop one’s Beetle and such customizations typically involved seats that recline a little more. I like the no-bumpers aesthetic of this Bug but I’m getting sympathy neck pains just looking at that roof.
Photographed in Old Town Prague in September 2018.
That is really cool looking. But I am 6′ with a large Polish head that I would have to detach and store in the trunk/boot. Great find!
Beetles make excellent foundations for kustomization for two reasons: they are simple and 21 million of the blasted things were made. I wonder what it would be like if I moved the front suspension assembly outward past the bumper, removed the top, used the excess roof material to make a sail panel for a convertible top, and installed a spit windshield 1930s style? It would be AUSGEZEICHNET.
Randy Newman wrote & recorded ‘You can leave your hat on’. on his Sail Away Album. 1972. Joe Cocker covered it on his 1986 album ‘Cocker’.
Etta James also covered it. I heard her do it live once. Instead of “Baby, take off your dress,” she sang, “Baby, take off your mess.”
I too found some squashed bugs in Prague. I seem to think they were available to go for rides in, but it might have been pretty cramped in there.
Love the overall look of the car EXCEPT for the squashed top.
Like this it looks fantastic in this colour scheme and with the other additions. I’d get one.
(Please don’t judge me for the poor photoshop, it’s late at night here)
On the good side, the standard VW windshield “wipers” actually wipe most of this windshield.
If the Beetle was designed in 2018…
Some people take it to extremes…
Confront your claustrophobia in a quick and dirty way. Seriously, how can you even get into the seat on that thing without hitting your head?
No one beats Florida.
Since as Dessert Dave correctly pointed out, the hat song was actually written and first released by Randy Newman, I’d say these are obviously Bugs for short people.
Great find William. I feel bad for the owner/designer when a results has mixed results. I hope the owner is pleased, if this how they wanted it to turn out. As I suspect these design changes would typically get divergent reviews from a general audience.
It’s different, but not especially attractive to my eyes. Makes one wonder how may design sketches, or Photoshops, they prepared in advance before cutting.
About seven years ago, my fifteen year old son and I were driving down a quiet road near our house at night when we saw a weird light pattern up ahead. When we got up to it we found a white Beetle on it’s side. It looked like it had rolled over 1 1/2 times. We walked up to it and there was a disoriented woman inside with blood all over her face and a strong smell of gasoline. There was blood all over the white steel dash and door. We lifted her out while avoiding the blood. My son called 911 and we waited. She said the rear wheel just went sideways all of a sudden and she lost control. The police came and we left. I was wondering if this is a common Beetle thing or just a freak event. It looked to be a really clean car before the wreck. Anyone heard of this?
It must be a lot of work to do this, but I always feel that it ruins the flow at the back of the roof. This one is no exception
Unlike cars like Model A Fords, and 1950 Mercuries, which seem to be just asking for a chop.