The Bug Retrospective

[pdub]

This is really something, but it's a flashback to those days. If this thing was a 65 bug it would draw megabucks from the right fanatic. 12-volt 40-horse plant back then.

Not a 74.

Likely a very young person wrote this story, just my guess. It's a classic because it's old enough to be called so, but it's not so classic. Get into the 70's, no, it all went south from there. Super Beetles that weren't "super," no. The mechanics hated them, they got away from the roots of it all.

[tardis454]

67 was the first year for 12 volt peewee...

[pdub]

67 was the first year for 12 volt peewee...

That's not what I remember, but my remember is not at all in good condition. Had 3 65's over time, they were all 12 volt, but I probably don't remember right.

EDIT: With a generator, not an alternator.

[pdub]

67 was the first year for 12 volt peewee...

Could it have been 57, the first year of the 12-volt? Or 59.....I just don't think it was 67.

[tardis454]

That's not what I remember, but my remember is not at all in good condition. Had 3 65's over time, they were all 12 volt, but I probably don't remember right.

EDIT: With a generator, not an alternator.

Someone likely changed them over to 12v (WHEN THEY CHANGED THE MOTOR(S) ) peewee....

73 was the last year for generators, first year for alternators..

Edit: Oh, and btw, 67 was the first year for 12 volt...

[pdub]

Well, there I go. I had a small bunch of them and don't even remember what I had. Okay, never mind. That's typical for me. Bed. I'm going to bed.

[Barry Donovan]

I have yet to learn them.
I know split window.. ignore everything else.

the fame is not low miles, it is getting 12 volt and 100 more hp out of them.
my dad was "the" 60s hippy who took one across the country.. seized it several times before giving it away.
the more he allowed himself to hate it, the more lovable it was.
that is the beetle's claim to fame.

seized it in utah...the last seize.
knowing him and wits.. the rear hood ripped off left to the sid eof the road, bent fenders or removed entirely.
every move the purpose of simply to continue.
He hitch hiked the rest of the way to cali.
it is for the heart broken.

I still declare him some kinda prophetic about the beetle. He beat a 396 in the mid 60s with someone elses beetle..he was a young teen.
had chevy reversed rims, cuz they could not find the original. simply kids with no money, the car a hand me down, not by choice to have.
who the hell would want one anyway.
it blew peoples minds...one event after another. The go kart handling in the streets or the wheelie popping straights.
Being nerdy, he did learn them..
then the draft card came along.
told to go home.. he has been broken ever since. None of his friends came back.
in fact the friends beetle he was driving, that guy was done for life.

so he decided to hate the beetle, the cross country trip of rage, after the amazing race..and a war.
it only became more famous.

it is lovable for surviving. surviving loved, surviving hated. it was and is still there.


several more showed up when I was a baby, the only little car I liked...my mom was the last one with a beetle when I was 10 or so.
they then kept getting them for fuel mileage of the 70s crunch.. something the 60s never thought about.
I am not going to laugh at my own 3 main expendible history... when the subaru models I have now shows up at $10k some place as special.
VW made an ass of itself too you know..
that poor 3 main bearing boxer.

as for famous mechanical oem beetle..they are not. Same for the subarus. A real guru admits it with tears and smiles and that is that.

[STINEY]

Tardis has it right. Going to be hard to stump him on VW air cooled stuff. '57 was just another year for the beetle.....some minor changes like the weave of the interior fabric and such, but nothing significant.

'67 on the other hand.....a '67 is the best of the best, mechanically and stylistically. Holy grail stuff......if you can't find a Zwitter, Keubel, or KDF Kommanderwagen that is.

I dream of finding a first year barndoor languishing forgotten in the Ohio countryside.

[DanStokes]

I married a '70 bug (wife #2). I hated that little bugger. She had had a bunch of work done to it before I came along (clutch cable tube, etc, etc.) and it wasn't all that old. To be fair, in MI salt takes its toll quickly. Anyhow, the clutch went out so I cut my hands up on the sheet metal cooling system and twisted the heads off of a number of those nasty little sheet metal screws that hold all that together. Following the clutch job I handed her a spare screwdriver and told her to put it in the glove box. "What's that for?" she asked. I explained that if anything EVER went wrong with it again she was to retrieve the screwdriver, walk to the rear of the car, remove the license plate, and call me because I was NOT going to put it back together again. Shortly after that we sold it to a co-worker and we bought a slightly used Volare (318 auto) that was an GREAT little car. Should have kept that one longer than we did.

Dan

[STINEY]

Loved a Volare and hated the Bug?

Harsh man, harsh.



The Volares I was around - - well, I'm pretty sure the factory applied rust before assembly. Honestly, I remember reading how the sheetmetal sat around outside for months bare before paint.

[DanStokes]

Ours was excellent. A friend had one with a /6 auto and it was bulletproof, too. Neither one rusted badly though both were undercoated from new. We sold the Volare to a friend so I have it's history for several years and it continued to hold up well. I know the reputation wasn't all that good but the 2 I was around a lot were great.

Dan

[tardis454]

Loved a Volare and hated the Bug?

Harsh man, harsh.



The Volares I was around - - well, I'm pretty sure the factory applied rust before assembly. Honestly, I remember reading how the sheetmetal sat around outside for months bare before paint.

Asspains and Volares had a voluntary fender and sheet metal recall. Here in rustbeltville Asspain and Volare sheet metal turned to fairy dust after a few winters. My stepmom bought a 78 Asspain for $100 in the late 80's. The slant 6 ran great, but the rest of the car literally had more holes in it than a brick of swiss cheese. The car looked like it was in a salt mine for 100yrs! I don't think there was a more unsafe vehicle on Ohio roads at the time. As for VW Bugs... ehhhh, never really been a big fan of them, but they didn't rot out nearly as bad as a lot of the mid to late 70's American cars did. I swear after 73-74 all American car companies started using the same shitty rust metal AMC was using.

[SuperBuickGuy]

Squish all things from those lying Germans. 12v and 6v alike!

Oh wait, the Germans already did, renamed it the 911.

[ratpatrol66]

A buddy had a bug with a 1200 bus engine. That little bastard was pretty fast.