I thought I'd gotten the whole Beetle Thing outta my system back in the 80s when NICE ones were dirt cheap, but what do I know, eh? Just spent a year and half coaxing life back into the old rust 49 Chevy Fleetline...and getting into the Home Stretch at that...got some new front tires today and brake parts on order...it's winding down all right! So, this really nice kid knocks on the door and stumbles through a hastily rehearsed sales pitch...something about how he is trying to earn enough to pay for a Youth Group trip to Mt Pleasant (some kind of PUNISHMENT???) for a week. He says he's excited to go cuz the hotel there will let him bring his dog. Aw, what the hell...I can spring for a box of gummy bears...my nieces and nephews LOVE those things! So I buy a box to help Junior out...and he proceeds to compliment me on my car... "I really like your Beetle, Mister...must be fun to work on!" Hmmm...so maybe THAT'S why this car has been such a bitch at times...I crammed the motor in the WRONG end!!! D'oh!!!
Ya shoulda handed him a pair of coveralls and wrench! You could have shown him just how much fun it IS!
Just for the hell of it,,,,did ya know there are 13 states that have Mount Pleasents? My contribution to usless information for this month! HRP
That's hilarious. A neighbor brought his elderly mother over a couple of years ago. When she saw my fenderless 32 work-in-progress she asked me, in complete sincerity: "What's the tractor for?"
You should have paid him with toothpaste and told him that in the world were Fleetlines are Beetles.... toothpaste is money!
I remember when I was about 9 or 10 seeing this custom beetle. it was sectioned and chopped and there was a grill in the deck with the license plate in the rolled pan, and the tail lights were like ford tear drops but turned sideways and the fenders werecapped from front to rear so the running boards didn't show and I couldn't tell if it was shortened or not but the back seats were a joke. Then I got to thinking it might be a short production VW since it had the designer's name "Porsche" on the rear above the plate... I too, just thought it was a custom "Beetle"!! At least the kid didn't say something like, "Why don't you scrap that old pile of rusty petroleum wasting crap and get a dependable, ecologically caring car, like a Prius?"
I like the bigger roomier beetles too! ....you shoulda asked for two tens for a five. The braniac probably woulda made change. and whats a "Prius"...is that a freshwater shrimp?
My '34 Ford coupe is called a roadster on a regular basis. I'm pretty sure there isn't a Mount Pleasant in Florida, we do do have a Mount Dora though, it's 14 feet above sea level.
Also when I was loading my body into a haul the lady next door was wondering if we were gonna restore the Beetle.
Haha! I took a kid-- about 14-15 yrs old at the time-- to a street rod show a few years back. On the way home he kept talking about a couple of "Jeeps" he was really digging. I couldn't remember any Jeeps, so when I got the photos developed, I showed them to him, and discovered that "Jeep" meant "34 Chevy 2-door Sedan"!!!!
I was watching the Munsters on the Tube the other day and Herman was looking to buy a car for Marilyn. He was eyeballing a Bug when Shyster Sam the used car man comes up and started talking to Herman. Herman says sonething to he salesman as he was looking the bug over "Some Lady left her sewing machine in the trunk." I need to remember that one to pull on a friend that is into bugs. Dawg
I had a bunch of neighborhood kids ask if my '49 Shoebox was a '57 Chevy. They must have one of those dads that teaches thier youngins that the ONLY cool old car is a '57 Chevy. Then they told me that I should paint it red! Teaching your kids that kinda shit is a form of child abuse. I bet thier daddy's always wanted a new Vette.... hc
O Greg, that was a funny story. One time my family and I were in my dads 41 ford convertable and we were with another family in there 47 Ford Convertable. Well we were just driving up the coast of the Mighty Mississippi and we stopped to eat and these 2 old ladies came out and are like "O wow! Those are beautifull beetle bugs you got there!" -hilarious Nick
Lol... i know what ya mean.... You wouldnt believe the amount of times i had some snot-nosed lil kid point at my 55 buick roadmaster and ask his dad what it was..... "its a cadillac" is the usual reply or its a 57 chevy....I never know whether i should be pissing myself laughing at their 'tardedness or whether i should pipe up n yell "IT AINT NO FRICKIN CADDY!!!!!!!!!!!" hseems like these schmucks tend to pass their lack of Automobile knowledge on to their kids..
I hope some of you looked at the vw paradise site. i haven't been, but have seen the car run in person. it is in-fu**in-sane! cool bunch of guys too. a lot of people think vw's are all slow and crappy. my 56 bug is restored has a nice paint job (when clean) and blows people's minds when i tell them it can blow the doors off a production vette- and have video to to prove it! hot rod guys give a lot of crap to the vw guys, but the vw guys really look up to people and cars that are done right and go fast. check out www.cal-look.com, look at the top 20 and watch some video, it will change some people's attitude toward "the people's car"
Alot of guys on rod n kustom boards progressed from vws to the older stuff...(altho alot of em wont admit it..lol) [] Its a good way to get into hopping up cars as theyre so simply constructed,nd the mechanix are basic.. I've had a fair few trick bugs in the past,that used to impress alot of hipo drivers... The bitchin between rodders n VW guys is mainly light hearted... but anyhoo who gives a shit??? build what ya like n drive it...
Yeah, I get a lot of that "hey nice Beetle" stuff too. Idiots. It's a Super Beetle. And it's not that nice either. Yesterday it wouldn't start because a pin slid out of the fuel pump. Once me and my buddy figured it out, I tapped the pin back into place with a crescent wrench. Started right up. Never had such luck with a car before. Today I ordered an ignition coil, 2 air filters, 2 wiper blades, 2 fuel filters, a new fuel pump and fixings, and a set of spark plug wires. Came to $97 shipped. How can I not love this stupid little car?
Yeah but Michigan is the one where I was born and lived off and on till I moved to the Valley of the Smog.
HaHa! Years ago, I was filling up my 40 Tudor sedan, and this kid pulls up to the next pump in a 'Stang. He says, "Cool car, mister." "What year is that Volvo?" VOLVO?!?!? WTF? Laughed for days over that. At least he got a brief lesson on early FORDS!
The Jalopy Journal
