couple of '72s for sale...

["Gregory M. Merritt" <gregm@engin.umich.edu>]

	I called about a couple of '72 squarebacks for sale last night.  
Kind of funny...

	The first is an automatic square in SW Ohio.  "$495, 63k miles,
needs help."  Somebody was selling it for a friend... it needs head work,
so the engine's out & apart.  "Body's real good.  I puttied over a couple
of places.  No rust anyplace structural.  There's a hole in the front
wheel well, but you could just fiberglass over it."  What about under the
battery?  "Yup, rust there too."  Ugh.  Fuel injection?  "No, got rid of
that.  Some guy said he'd give me $200 for the f.i., so I let him have
it."  Just as kind of a dig, I tell him that the f.i. distributors go for
$500 new from Bosch (though are available cheaper).  He said it had a 009
on it when he got it...  Huh?  D-Jet with an 009?  No wonder they put a
carb on it.  "I had all of the carb stuff from a Beetle, so I put that
on."  I'm picturing a Solex standing tall on an upright intake manifold. 
Thanks, but no thanks. 

	The other one is a '72 square, manual tranny, in western lower 
Michigan.  "$1,000, runs/drives, needs engine work."  Hmmm, it runs but 
the engine is broken?  I give him a call.  The car is from Tenn., where 
rust is less of a problem, and the guy claims that there isn't any rust 
anywhere.  Well, you never know until you see it.  He says that there's a 
miss in the engine.  Doesn't have any idea as to what's wrong.  Says it 
feels like it's running on 3 cyl. and has no power.  From his 
description, it could be anything from a bad plug or injector to a piston 
with a hole in the top.  How firm are you on the $1k price?  "Pretty 
firm."  No thanks!  Unless the body & interior are *quite* nice, or the 
engine problem is very minor, than this sounds a bit high to me.  Would 
take a look at this one if it wasn't 2.5-3 hours away.

	If anybody's interested in these, let me know & I'll dig up the 
contact info.

-Greg
'71 squareback
'63 Beetle