Beetle Bug memoriesfeel good thread.

My dh got his Christmas present early. He has been wanting one of these forever..we finally found one worthy of the price offer. So, here it is .. a 1974 Candy Apple red beetle bug. Purrs like a kitten!

I am surprised at the smiles we get when riding in this car! So many folks have memories about VW Beetles, we are hearing them left and right...

Do you have one to share? (oops, sorry about the title of the thread, I had a dash there between the word "memories and feel" but it didn't come out )

This message was edited Dec 13, 2004 8:30 AM

Now THAT'S what you need for hunting snow in instead of a big ole truck pulling a camper!

Congrats! It's cute as a bug!

Sweet!!!!!!!!

"eyes"

I absolutely love it!!!! And they are such fun to drive! Two friends and a cousin of mine had them so I got to drive one quite often. They are SO fun to drive. Go pretty fast too! Good thing you're down south - they have notoriously bad heaters!!!!!!

LOL, we had a dark red '67 when we were first married. It was Stan's and his older brother's, but when Steve left home, it was all Stan's. It survived a lot - rolled up on it's side with us in it one rainy morning, threw a piston, had a deer commit suicide on the hood (we were rolling backwards trying to avoid her and she literally flung herself on the car!), used to get stuck in third and reverse at the same time - not a pretty sight! We could barrel up snowy hills, though, and it was fun to drive when the transmission was working. We got so Stan ran the clutch and I did the shifting. We could power shift so well that people couldn't tell it was two of us doing it - a match made in four-speed heaven! We traded it in in the fall of '71 on a Grabber Yellow Maverick. The transmission was shot (again), or we probably would have kept it. It was a LOT OF FUN to drive. And I'm not all that crazy about driving!

Enjoy yours!

slugbug red!! really cool lisa!

A real beauty.Congratulations,I'm envious.

Nice! :)

My grandfather had one and loved it so much! My dad with memories of his dad got one about 20 years ago. He would buy them restore them and resell them. He just loved fixing and driving them. He doesn't do it much anymore since he's gotten older but still keeps one to drive.

Have fun!

Lisa .. the VW beetle .. is jes plum absolutely adorable !!

No doubt, that hubby of yours .. is some kinda thrilled !! Apparently, he's been good this year!
.. hee ..

However, I would not recommend using [her] to do any 'snow hunting' in tho' .. unless, all you guys plan to do is strictly 'hunt' fer and find where it is - but don't plan to actually go 'into' it! .. lol ..

Happy Holidays .. and a very Merry Christmas to you and yours!!

- Magpye

Wow, Lisa, that's great! I've had 3 bugs and 2 Karman Ghias, loved them all.

I was amused when I had to replace the gas tank in one to find their "extra gallon" gas tank was a simple short pipe that stood upright in the tank until the gas level was below the top, and turning the lever inside simply turned the pipe horizontal so it could get the rest of the gas.

All mine went well in snow.

Someone must have cared for it well if they spent the $ for a candy-apple red paint job.

This message was edited Dec 13, 2004 2:42 PM

Yep, they go better in the snow that a front engine rear wheel drive car. Having the engine over the drive wheels is a definite advantage but when the snow gets deep the beetle drags it's belly.

Sheesh, stuff I had forgotten. One of my best friends mother had a bug. There were six of us girls that ran around together and when Martha would get her mom's bug, all six of us would get in. One of of us would get stuck "sometimes literally" in the very back rectangle hole thingy. But we didn't care, it was fun to have wheels. My sisters very first car was a brand new 1964 bug and it was blue. Rode in it many times and may have driven it a couple times but if I did, I don't remember. Great car........enjoy it :-)

Had 5 VeeDubs before I had a car that used anti-freeze. Drove a bug from Maine to Florida my junior year of HS. 8 days, $85 . And that was 2 nights in motels and 2 nights in Everglades park. Motels were $7-8 a night then. Carton of cigarettes in NC, $3.50. Dating myself? Gas $0.32/gal. We used to complain to the Sunoco station because they would give away a free Hot-Wheels car with any $3.00 fill-up. The bug only held 10 gallons. Had to be almost empty to put $3.00 in.

Vic, your post reminded me of the time we had 10 people in the bug - two were well over 6 feet, two were well over 200 pounds! It was after a youth fellowship work bee at church - we painted the basement floor (and, yes, one of the boys painted himself into a corner). We were going to Stan's folks' for refreshments and for some silly reason all decided to go in one car. Stan drove, I sat in between the front seats and shifted. We went about 4 miles and I think there were 7 people in the back seat. Stan's dad laughed so hard when we got out of that car that we thought we were going to have to call the ambulance. As soon as he caught his breath, he said that was the funniest thing he'd ever seen, and NOT to EVER do it again!

Oh, wow! Slug-bug! {bap-bap-bap} That car is cherry, Lisa...I bet Jesse is thrilled. We never owned a bug, but my mom briefly had a powder blue VW fastback when I was in high school. That was a neat-looking car, too. I'll have to e-mail Howie a link to this thread at work.

P.S. That horn must be even more pitiful than his truck's was....Mmmmmmmbeep

Oh, I had forgotten how pitiful the horn was!

Looks nice! We got ours this Summer.. my parents had two in the past, and now we've got one again, a nice Summer car. :) Now it's in a garage at our Summer cottage, for the Winter. We will bring it back home on May Day.

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/448786/

Look nice Lisa, that save gas so, we have 2 old Volkswagen Vans here is white and baby blue need to work on it

This message was edited Dec 17, 2004 6:49 AM

Evert, nice to see you -- I was just thinking about you yesterday and wondering how you've been. I bet you can't wait for May Day. :)

Cool car Lisa. I remember my brother wanting one but he could not come up with the money. It was a convertable. As a kid we had a VW bus and yes the heaters were lousy. I remember my mom having one of those little tea candles in the window so it would stay clear of ice so she could pick my dad up from work. Talk about safety. LOL.

Frank I loved stations that gave away hotwheels in the 70's. I remember my mom taking me with her to get gas so I could get a hotwheels car.

Well Merry Christmas Jesse and Lisa! That is so cute, I love them. Had one for a short time years ago and I LOVED driving it. Now I want one.....again.

I wouldn't mind having one again either, Weeds... just not sure I could get in it... much less get out!

I'd love to see a picture of you guys IN that car. :)

GW, do you mean me and Darius or Lisa and Jesse? HA

DH said my next car should be a beetle. I prefer driving compacts with manual transmission. Cool car!

How about all four of you? Road trip!

LOL

Err, FIVE. Sally would have to be there. Can't miss out on Miss Sally!

Great! Plenty of room.

Edited to say: Party at GW house!

This message was edited Dec 20, 2004 5:03 PM

Any time, y'all. We like having DG folks over!

When I was in HS our beloved band director drove a beetle. Several times a bunch of us students would pick up his bug and set it on the steps of the church across the street from the HS and it was always sideways. Then we would hide in the bushes across the street and watch him come out of the school and scratch his head as to where his bug was parked. After he noticed it on the steps sideways he would shout "all right you guys get out here and move my bug so I can get home" He would laugh with us as we came out and put it back on the road for him. They aren't as heavy as one would think they are if there are plenty of motivated HS students to help lift them. lol Interesting that he never got mad at us.

When I was just out of HS my parents bought a Volkswagon Campmobile. We went on several camping trips with it but in Montana it really didn't have enough of an engine to make it up the mountains quickly so we would have a whole string of vehicles behind us waiting to get to a passing lane. My sister and I one day while going down a VERY long (probably 2 miles) stretch of steep freeway got that campmoblile up to about 105 mph. We were laughing soooo hard that it was hard for me to keep the thing on the road and at the bottom of this long hill there was a small hill that we had to go up. By the time we were at the top of the little hill the thing was going under 40 mph again. Ahhhh such memories.

Lisa and Jesse and of course Sally, I am sure you will have a blast with this car. Enjoy

Lani, how funny! Anyone see the episode of MTV's "Pimp My Ride" when they did the old 1958 VW bus? http://www.mtv.com/onair/dyn/pimp_my_ride/episode.jhtml?episodeID=81706

Cool Lisa! Nice bug!

Here is our dusty 60 ragtop waiting for someone to drive it. The garage clutter is creeping up on it!

Oh Ponditis, you made me remember a prank like that my brother and his buddies pulled. They took their history prof's bug and put it in front of the lecture hall he taught in. It was a large hall with the seating sloped down so getting it down was pretty easy. The uphill removal was more work!! lol

I can remember buying a new toilet plunger, cutting a slot in the top of the wooden handle and inserting a cardboard cutout that made it look like a wind-up key... and sneaking out one night to suction it to a friend's brand new bug.

My boss (an engineer) when I was 20 got a new bug. Every day the guys would add a pint or two of gas to the tank... My boss coundn't believe what kind of gas mileage he got, LOL. Later the other engineers reversed the procedure and took some out every day. It was a Hoot.

Hilarious!! That's a real good one!!!

I hadn't thought of those pranks in years, not until Pond started it with relocating a bug to the church steps. Almost had to go change clothes, remembering how funny it really was.

The gasoline prank is priceless! I can imagine the confusion with that! LOL!

I sure wish we had thought of that for our band director. He would have thought that was brilliant!

My DS just told me of a friend he has that has three VW's. One is a van, one is a bug and one is a dune buggy. This fella has one problem though-- only one running engine. So he has fixed all three vehicles to accept that one engine and he can switch it from one to the other in under a half hour start to finish. He uses the van when he wants to go somewhere with a lot of people, the bug to just drive around in and the dune buggy for when they go to the Bruneau Sand dunes for a weekend. I called that guy's mom and she said it is true. I didn't know that before today I thought he had three cars and they all had their own engines. LOL