Back in 2017 I found myself spending a lot of time looking at for sale Beetles. I had not had once since 1995 (a story in itself) and the search for a car for my 16 year old son got my excited again.
I was searching for a 74 Super Beetle but ended up getting a beautiful survivor totally original Mars Red 1979 Convertible that I named Murbella.
I had never thought of having a convertible, as I had grown up with sedans and that just felt right to me.
Not long after I bought Murbella I found myself still looking at ads for 70’s sedans and decided that since Murbella was to remain a 100% stock survivor due to her purchase condition, my ambition to want to have a car to really tear into and make my own still needed to be satiated.
And thus began The Żuczek Project.
Originally, I had to have a 1974 Super Beetle that I was going to literally recreate into the Brilliant Orange 74 Super Beetle my mother had and that I spent may years riding in.
I was four when she got it and I loved it dearly.
My aunts also had Beetles.
My mom’s cousin Colleen had a what I think was a Yukon Yellow 70 Standard Beetle and my Cio Cia (Aunt in Polish) had a 71 Iberian Red one.
I spent a lot of time with my aunt and a lot of time in her car at a very formative period of my life.
From 0 to 7 I basically was driven around in my mother’s or my aunt’s Beetles and let’s just say it had a major impact on me.
My mother’s 74 was mostly stock, but had a dealer add-on package that I knew set it apart. It had Ansen Mag wheels on it with wider tires and quite a different stance than my aunt’s car had. It also had pop-out rear windows.
And yes… being a 74 meant it had the “elephant foot” tail lights mandated by the 1974 United States Government Regulations.
So many VW air-cooled people out there despise the Super Beetles and especially those wide-circular tail lights. But to me… they are just little bits of heaven.