Change of plans! Project Meetle is no more, say hello to the Frankenwagon

Alright here's the deal: I was having a lot of second guesses about the Super Beetle. Now that I have one and have entered the world of aircooled VWs and I've subscribed to all the forums and instagram feeds, I've learned that the Super Beetle is not really the desirable option. They even call the Super Beetle derogatory names like "fat chick." Maybe it rubbed off on me as I  looking at trading it for a standard Beetle, which does looks better from certain angles. But I set the Miata's new wheelbase to be 95.25" to match the Super Beetle, and a standard beetle is 94.5" so it would be off by a fraction of an inch.

Then I ran across this Type 3 Squareback and he has a title, it's a good price, but my god is it in rough shape. But I ****ing love the thing. I would be getting myself into a rusty mess but maybe it would be worth it if I like the end product more. And maybe it would fit better with the Miata as well. Except that it's the same wheelbase as the standard Beetle too: off by 0.75". Hopefully that's not a problem. 

So I drove the 10-hours (roundtrip) to get it.

It is in fact much wider in the interior which will make it possible to fit the Miata seats without any issues. I did the math and the SB would require the seat to be jammed into the trans tunnel by an inch or two, and that means that it would be an inch or two off center from the steering wheel. Imagine driving a car and the steering wheel is off to the side!

Using this instead of the Beetle is going to put me a long ways ahead in the game. Now I can use the Miata dashboard, which would have been an engineering feat to replace it and successfully retain working HVAC controls. And there won't be any problem with the clutch pedal linkage on the driver's side, and the blower motor on the passanger side, which I'm pretty sure there would have been if using a Beetle.

But one of the biggest reasons to use the car body over a Beetle or SB is that there's already a dude who is doing this exact same car combo (almost exact, his is a newer miata NB and a Type 3 Fastback) and he has shared on Instagram lots of really helpful photos of where and how he has stitched the two vehicles together. That will be a big help.

Here's his probject: https://jalopnik.com/this-1968-volkswagen-fastback-is-actually-a-miata-1825036646 and his intagram: https://www.instagram.com/pauln321654/

This is going to be like cheating on a test by looking at someone else's answers. No more guess work! Well, there will still be a little bit of guess work but it will still be easier than going about it blindly by myself.

So, "Meetle the Super Beetle" is out. Now I need a new name. The seller of the T-3 was telling me that he was going to name it Frenchy after his grandfather. It was his grandfather's car, after all. 

So I've decided to call it Frenchy the Frankenwagon.