[94VL]

The strength of the Beetle's roof design is pretty impressive.A massively rusted away '77 was in a junkyard I frequented years back,and a large car was stacked on top of it,except for a dent where the underpinning pressed against the roof,there was no sign of any collapse.I actually had to go inside and unscrew some stuff....I didnt feel all that comfortable doing it,but I'm sure the car is still there to this day with that other one atop it.
I had never seen a VW rusted so badly as this one....it had been last inspected/registered a couple years previously but I dont know how that would have taken place....there was rust clear up to the bottom of the door striker plates...jagged rust.The heater channels were completely gone and the floor pans pushed upward.The car body itself sat on the dirt ground,having collapsed over the pan.To think the '77 was the end of the line...
I also knew of a school nurse that always had VWs,and her last one was a 1977 and it became known as the spotted leopard.Rust blisters showed up on every panel.....and once the front bumper fell off when a car backed into it,seems the bumper itself corroded off due to salt and the absorbers were left sticking out.She wound up throwing the bumper in the back seat sorta like Smokey and the Bandit and the LeMans front door from Buford T Justice's patrol car.
I guess Beetle quality went to heck after 1974.