How Many of Us Owned Beetles in Our Youth?

[s2per]

This thread shows that being an airhead starts at an early age in most cases. Lots of desirable VWs mentioned here, but.......
What about us guys who learned to wrench on "the other" air cooled flat six? You know, the one with the Bowtie?
For the record, I enjoyed (and rebuilt my first motor on) a '65 Corsa convertible--140 horse, FOUR one-barrels and dual glasspacks. And in college, I had a '67 Monza coupe with 14 x 6 front and 15 x 8 (!) Chevy rally wheels on the rear.
Ralph who?

[cegerer]

" ...who learned to wrench on "the other" air cooled flat six?"

Well, I learned something from the Corvair! I was walking through a rural junkyard one day with a friend, looking for parts for something I don't recall. This was in the early 70's. Found this strange thing on the ground. Cast iron with chrome pipes attached?? Didn't know what it was, but it looked cool. So I bought it for $5. I eventually found out it was a Turbocharger for a Corvair!! (this was before turbos were generally known of!). I think I sold it to a guy for $25. Wonder what it's worth now? -- Curt

[JuiceMan]

Yeap my first car was a 69 Kharman Ghia

[ejm914]

I was 15 and living on Long Islands south shore when my uncle got me hooked on the Bug. He'd pick me up on Saturday morning and we would scout the back roads and dead ends for abandoned bugs to supply replacement parts for his aging Beetle. Everything came off with a few bolts and I quickly learned how to get the goodies off a new "find". Sometimes, using a shotgun out the window, we would hunt rabbits running out in front of us on the dirt roads. Front fenders had 13 14mm bolts IIRC.

Beetle based dune buggies were the rage at the time and I started looking for a parts to build mine. Success finding an engine came first, after removing the rear bumper and cutting the fire gutted body away with an ax, I dragged a 40hp engine on a furniture cart the several miles home. My paper route financed an engine rebuild while I sought a chassis. A bug with red vinyl seats but no engine turned up and after unbolting the body the chassis was pushed across town with the help of friends. Soon I was screaming up my parents 60' suburbia driveway and into the backyard on a daily basis. I was the coolest kid in the neighborhood.

After getting my drivers license I bought an oval window, rattle can black '57 Beetle with all of 36hp. One of the first places I took it was to Fearn Motors in Huntington Station to check out the Porsches in the showroom. I wanted one soooo bad. Needing a daily driver but wanting a 'performance" car too I soon dragged home another oval window bug. Modifications included a 1500cc engine, dual carbs, extractor and gutted interior, this thing flew! Using a number punch set and a couple of black spray bombs I could swap my plates onto my "track" car which was a regular at Islip Speedway's 1/8 mile dragstrip for several seasons.

Over the years I had several more bugs and a '64 bus. My last Beetle was a red '71 I bought in '77 with 91K miles and drove 'till around '83 when it turned 300,000. Still running on it's third engine, I sold it to some kid for $50, said he wanted to make a dune buggy out of it.

[David Bahr]

There seem to be a lot of rolled bugs. Did they get rolled during a collision, or did they tip over during hard cornering? Someone told me once I had mine up on two wheels but I didn't believe him. Maybe he was right?

[gaijinda]

Originally posted by David Bahr
There seem to be a lot of rolled bugs. Did they get rolled during a collision, or did they tip over during hard cornering? Someone told me once I had mine up on two wheels but I didn't believe him. Maybe he was right?

Mostly when you are goofing with friends, cutting the wheel and yanking the hand-brake!

[avi8torny]

Gaijinda, remember how quiet it got in the car after I almost rolled mine? Those were the days....

[gaijinda]

:-)

[toolhound]

well , how about fifty to a hundred ? could not help myself going to auction's . next thing i know the city of Seattle was not liking all the cars. So i cut back to five or so. Had alot of early convert's and my favorite a 1966 sunroof bug that Woody Allen was the original owner . Have fun !!