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I thought I'd share some pictures my wife recently unearthed from the old photo pile (she's making albums that have some kind of order to them 
)
Has probably been mentioned before, this was my Industrial Arts welding project during my Junior year in high school. Had absolutely no clue what I was doing, just wanted to build a sandrail, so I ordered a kit and dove in headfirst. I had been welding with my Gpa for a few years on little stuff, so I figured this would be a cool project and an easy A. I got the A, and this is what I brought home. Bringing it home was a little interesting. See the Wagoneer in the background? We dropped the tailgate, and a buddy sat in the back on a spare tire, and we popped the front end up in there and he held on to it while I drove the 3 miles home. He started yelling something at some point, I just told him to keep hanging on we were almost there!
The bottom pictures are of the unfortunate donor car. It was in very good shape, hardly any rust, but back then SuperBeetles were even less desireable than they are today.
This was in July of 1988. Wow, that seems like just yesterday and a long time ago, both at once.....
By the next summer I had acquired enough parts to actually have a roller, and eventually even a driver. Well, at least up and down my driveway, 1/4 mile at a time. Here the maiden voyage required handheld ignition connections and footbrakes - keen eyes will note the lack of a mastercylinder. And "starter" chain, for the lack of a starter.
Outta gas.....back to the shed!
I commandeered the old woodshed at my folks place. It was litterally the old woodshed, the floor was about 1' of pure sawdust. Gma remembered when the old beltdriven buzzsaw was setup inside and the belt run out the door to the tractors belt pulley. She said that's why the sawdust was so deep in there. Anyways, it was a tight squeeze, but after some cardboard it made a decent place to work. Sure beat working under the tree in the winter anyways! Back apart for some color.
Finally got some decent paint, and some decent wheels & tires! This was all during my senior year in high school; in between school, work, chasing girls, etc, its a wonder I made any progress at all...
The Baja Bug was my DD, and was involved in some covert nighttime activities some of you may be familiar with? This all went on one house later that night. 
My buddys car is behind the Baja Bug, can anyone guess what it was?
These pictures are from about '92. Finally got it streetable. A friend bought one already built but with nasty paint and wiring, so it got blown apart and redone. Turned out pretty nice.
Finally built a decent engine for it too..... this little thing would do 32 mpg and still turn high 14's in the quarter at the strip. Still needed an good exhaust at this point, I found this one hanging on a wall of someones shop. The stinger/muffler broke off on the way to the dragstrip that day, I eventually added a pair of downturned glasspacks from a rotted dual cannon system that came with my Baja Bug.
The bottom picture is from a Push Drag Race during an all VW event put on by Bill Rathburn, this would have been about '96 I think. We won the dush drag race a couple of years running. The asphalt was so hot that day that a couple of the guys lost their shoes to the sticky surface, and the others were too worn out to refuse a ride back to the finish line. Left sticky black marks all over my paint too! 3 of those guys eventually had rails of their own too, this stuff is addictive.
Notice that they ran the clocks for the 1/8 mile during the push drags? You can see the loosing team walking back, someone finally took pity on them and went after them with that truck.. the clock don't lie, we SMOKED 'em!
That's all the pictures I have scanned for today. Later!
)Has probably been mentioned before, this was my Industrial Arts welding project during my Junior year in high school. Had absolutely no clue what I was doing, just wanted to build a sandrail, so I ordered a kit and dove in headfirst. I had been welding with my Gpa for a few years on little stuff, so I figured this would be a cool project and an easy A. I got the A, and this is what I brought home. Bringing it home was a little interesting. See the Wagoneer in the background? We dropped the tailgate, and a buddy sat in the back on a spare tire, and we popped the front end up in there and he held on to it while I drove the 3 miles home. He started yelling something at some point, I just told him to keep hanging on we were almost there!
The bottom pictures are of the unfortunate donor car. It was in very good shape, hardly any rust, but back then SuperBeetles were even less desireable than they are today.
This was in July of 1988. Wow, that seems like just yesterday and a long time ago, both at once.....
By the next summer I had acquired enough parts to actually have a roller, and eventually even a driver. Well, at least up and down my driveway, 1/4 mile at a time. Here the maiden voyage required handheld ignition connections and footbrakes - keen eyes will note the lack of a mastercylinder. And "starter" chain, for the lack of a starter.
Outta gas.....back to the shed!
I commandeered the old woodshed at my folks place. It was litterally the old woodshed, the floor was about 1' of pure sawdust. Gma remembered when the old beltdriven buzzsaw was setup inside and the belt run out the door to the tractors belt pulley. She said that's why the sawdust was so deep in there. Anyways, it was a tight squeeze, but after some cardboard it made a decent place to work. Sure beat working under the tree in the winter anyways! Back apart for some color.
Finally got some decent paint, and some decent wheels & tires! This was all during my senior year in high school; in between school, work, chasing girls, etc, its a wonder I made any progress at all...
The Baja Bug was my DD, and was involved in some covert nighttime activities some of you may be familiar with? This all went on one house later that night. My buddys car is behind the Baja Bug, can anyone guess what it was?These pictures are from about '92. Finally got it streetable. A friend bought one already built but with nasty paint and wiring, so it got blown apart and redone. Turned out pretty nice.
Finally built a decent engine for it too..... this little thing would do 32 mpg and still turn high 14's in the quarter at the strip. Still needed an good exhaust at this point, I found this one hanging on a wall of someones shop. The stinger/muffler broke off on the way to the dragstrip that day, I eventually added a pair of downturned glasspacks from a rotted dual cannon system that came with my Baja Bug.
The bottom picture is from a Push Drag Race during an all VW event put on by Bill Rathburn, this would have been about '96 I think. We won the dush drag race a couple of years running. The asphalt was so hot that day that a couple of the guys lost their shoes to the sticky surface, and the others were too worn out to refuse a ride back to the finish line. Left sticky black marks all over my paint too! 3 of those guys eventually had rails of their own too, this stuff is addictive.
Notice that they ran the clocks for the 1/8 mile during the push drags? You can see the loosing team walking back, someone finally took pity on them and went after them with that truck.. the clock don't lie, we SMOKED 'em!
That's all the pictures I have scanned for today. Later!
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