How to cut up a VW Super Beetle: Hello Makita Angle Grinder

Sometimes people who are rippin’ smart bother me, like my friend who used a 36-volt brushless Makita angle grinder to cut up a 1971 Volkswagon Super Beetle. Yes, there is a tool review and a story. And yes, you will like it.

It starts here. The Home Depot, with whom we are grateful partners on this blog as part of the ProSpective program, sent us an angle grinder. Big Orange is the partner. The opinions and story are 100% MyFixitUpLife’s. The Tool Star of this story is the Makita 36-volt brushless cordless angle grinder which you can find out more about or buy at the link.

I’ve been a home improvement contractor since the Roosevelt Administration (not sure which one, Franklin or Teddy…probably the older one) and I have only needed a big dog grinder once, so I had to deepGoogle my construction friends to find a home for this tool review.

This 2-battery brushless behemoth is a 7-inch grit-grinding menace to concrete masonry and one very, very banged up VW bug.

I love grinders. Dudes in the trades use them for everything from cutting re-bar to coping crown molding to cutting kerfs for metal flashing. Grinders are the tool equivalent of football’s special teams: You don’t use them every play, but when there’s an onside kick, you have a hands-team to send out. And it’s awesome. An angle grinder is the hands-team of power tools.

Back to the car.

My friend is certifiably unhinged in all the best ways. He doesn’t buy sweaters and fluffy stuff. He buys things he can make into better things. Be like him.

In this case, he bought a banged-up 1971 Super Beetle to bring back to life. He’s my age (236 years old) and doesn’t have any spare time because children than can’t seem to raise themselves like we did and the other seriouness-es of life. But rather than buy something temporal, he endeavors to create something on the edge of eternal. He consumes to produce and if you want to admire something, admire that.

Back to the car.

Car 2 arrives pretty much DOA. If this were an episode of Ellen DeGeneres (see Theresa’s Click-Hum video here that got a Tweet from the show…It’s a thing), both cars would roll out of the garage all spiffy. This, in the words of the Man In Black, is “the gravel in your guts” of real life. Car 2 was a heart transplant for Car 1. Hello power tool. Good-bye Car 2.

After mining the engine and other moving parts, my friend started up top with the Makita angle grinder. He sectioned the top, making a moon roof in a garaged car. He ignored the irony.

Then, he cut the front roof-posts. He found what he suspected: The rust, underneath the rust was rusting. The car donor game isn’t a fun one, but when you endeavor to create, a tree needs to come down. That’s where things like, I don”t know, INSIDE come from.

Back to the car.

Now that it’s a convertible, the the doors just come off. No need to cut them up.

As the body peels away, the Makita angle grinder’s overload shut-off starts to become noticeable. Under duress—and there is rarely a grinder not pushed to the max—it shuts down. There are 2-batteries powering this unit’s 7-inch wheel. With one, I get it. Two?

It did cut the car. He did not need to drag a cord. He could cut through an axle. All good. However, the batteries—unlike other brands—were not backwards compatible with other Makita tools. This may evolve, but at the same time, this is not good. Plus, the 2-battery design feels like some other cordless tools (see video) we’ve reviewed: Sometimes it feels like some companies are going cordless just to stay on the shelf. This Makita angle grinder was back-heavy and the balance was an issue for all-day use. My friend would rather drag a cord than lug batteries and be frustrated by intermittent shut-offs.

Back to the car.

The parts organ-donated by VW 2 are the heartbeat of VW Super Beetle 1. The sparks of grinding the old car apart with the Makita are the lightning bolts that bring the new VW back to a bug’s life.

IT’S ALIVE!