Jared Monaco's 1974 VW Super Beetle
It all started with a nasty old 1974 VW Super Beetle.
This is a picture of my bug back when my father owned it. This was taken shortly
after an accident it had been in. Fortunely, no one was seriously hurt.
When I first got the car, I just wanted something that would go. Sure I
wanted it to look nice, but that wasn't my main priority at the time.
My father and I did some body work on the car and re-painted it.
At the time, it was a nice clean bug, and I was happy with it. After a
while I had enough money to by a
SparkO'Matic Stereo from Western Auto. I spent almost $120 on it.
I couldn't believe I wasted so much money on a radio.
About five months later I moved up to 2 twelve inch
Road Thunder subs in a nice little box behind the back seat.
After a few months passed, I grew tired of the close to stock look. I had
to have rims! Then it happened! A few students decided they didn't like the way my hubcaps
looked, so they did some body work on it for me. This incident at Jesuit High School left my car vandalized.
Although witnesses where present, nothing was done by the Tampa Police (They say because it was a
private school) or by the school. The hubcaps were distroyed and the right front fender totally
trashed. My father and I fixed the finder. For my birthday he bought
me a set of rims. Around this time I also installed a set of Scat Seats.
The car still had stock tires. In
order to put anything wider on the back, and still have it low,
I needed new fenders. Then another stroke of luck led me into installing new rear
fenders. A fellow student, (Not one of the vandalous students as in the
previous incident) totally accidentally, just couldn't turn his Bel-Air
sharp enough and clipped my right rear
fender. A pair of 3 inch wider than stock fenders with custom sunk in tear
drop tail lights (through much work of my father) were installed, along with a fiberglass lowered rear
bumper. Both the front and rear bumpers were painted the same color as the car.
Now it was time for a real system, Before I had only 2 12inch Road
thunder woofers, and a few mids and highs.
The new design called for 4 12 inch Blue Thunder subs in a
bass tunnel, with a tunned pipe, fully equipped with green neon and black lights. Scattered
throughout the car were 24 mids and tweeters, of which included 6 steel
drivers. With a total system power of over 1200 watts, this system was anything but tame. The car
now had a major power supply problem. During a sustained hit, the amplifiers would draw over 95
amps. To help combat this problem, two deep cycles were added to the system.
Now the car was getting somewhere. A member of Exotic Dreams invited me to
join the club. From there there was no where to go but up.
Now I was getting a little uneasy about the power my small little engine was delivering, so I went
down the street to Total Performance (AKA Total Screw-ups) and had a set of dual progressive
Webber carbs installed.
During the installation process one of the mechanics dropped a screw, nut or something metallic
into the intake of cylinder 1. They told me not to worry about the noise the engine was making,
it was just the
carburetor on the right side hitting the side of the car. I took off down the street, the noise
only got worse, and the car started to smoke. When I got home I called them up, and was told to
dump a container of alcohol into the gas. YEH that really worked! I pulled the plugs,
only to discover a mangle spark plug. We installed a new plug, and it ran a little better, but
not even close to what it use to.
Now I had the system. All I needed now was a
better interior. So, I did
the dash, door panels, and center council in black crushed velvet.
This is my bug at the first two
day show I entered it in.
SLAMFEST 94
put on my Mini Madness
Now I really wanted power, and I wanted an air conditioner in the car (I recently received many
ASE certifications of which A.C. was part of one.). So when Fisher Buggies had the grand opening of their new
store I picked up everything to make an 1835, The engine now consisted of an 1835 with dual
Dellorto 40mm carbs, Bugpack Cam, 041 heads and a Compu-Fire ignition system. I wouldn't call it
a screamer, but it's sure an improvement over the stock engine.
After having a nice ride for about a year I decided it was time to do something a little more
radical.
I had suicide doors installed, got a whale tale for the back, old bug style front fenders (2 inch
wider) and a set of custom fiberglass running boards.
This page has been accessedtimes since July 31th, 1996.
Last revised:Jared Monaco October 17,1996
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