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Joined:
November 2002
Posts: 28
Location: Oregon USA | I'm 6'3" and amazingly I never had much trouble driving the Ghia. You just have to "lead with your knee" when you sit down, to get underneath the gigantic steering wheel.
I drove it from New Hampshire to Maryland on only one stop once... seems almost insane now. |
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Joined:
August 2002
Posts: 8307
Location: Tennessee | Ole' Red, my first Ovation, made many trips in old VWs. Yes Bailey, that was me you were following up that mountain road ... must've been my '69 Bus with the Kombi camper package ... by the way, we were probably flashing the peace sign at you (not the California Freeway salute) in hopes that throbbing vein in your neck and forehead would dissipate. :D Also had a '72 convertible, a '67 with a sunroof, and a couple of Vanagons.
John Muir's book was an important part of that life. His mantra of "Know your ass for it bears you" is so true ... all repairs to all of my veedubs have always been done by yours truly.
Muir's book is currently open and in use on my workbench. Kid #4 is getting the learners permit next month so the 1974 Thing is coming out of hibernation for him. We're doing a bumper-to-bumper looksee and refresh where required. The Thing has been the car all of the children have had to drive for the first two years they had their license. It has taught them all how to DRIVE a car, not just steer them. No distractions ... no a/c to fiddle with, no power windows, no auto trans, no stereo to switch on and off, etc. 0-60 time is somewhere around a week and a half. It goes plenty fast for the surface streets up here in Northern California, and they can get where they need to, but it's not nearly fast enough to take on the freeways. And most importantly, they know what it takes to keep it running properly (i.e. they know the ass that bears them) ... and (knock on wood) it has never, ever stranded any of them anywhere.
And, yup, they all whined about having to drive it. Especially since their friends were getting Mustang 5.0 liters, Mistubishi Spyder Turbos, Integra RS-X, Nova SS350, and the like. It's a shame parents think it's a good idea to give 300HP to a kid with 20 hours of time behind the wheel. Every year there's another local kid who's killed himself (or herself) and a couple of friends, with another couple maimed, in a high speed encounter with an immovable object. Of course, the same was being said when we were those stupid 16 year olds.
After a couple of weeks, my kids all stopped complaining ... since everyone else in the school thought The Thing was the coolest car on the planet. ;)
Alas, Nils ... I've gotta agree with you about the new models. We also have a 2001 Golf Turbo (fun and FAST!), but there's absolutely nothing I can do for this one without a connector for my laptop and a whole bunch of codes dwonloaded. And then all I could probably do is scratch my head. |
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Joined:
November 2002
Posts: 3651
Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | Y'know, Paul, you're probably right. I didn't get my first VW til I was 49. Now, that's truly insane. At least I don't get overwrought about the repairs, like when I had that '66 Mustang in the halcyon days of immortal adolescence. Too bad it tangled with a Pontiac land yacht, far out of its weight class. |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 15678
Location: SoCal | Maybe the best thing about old VW's was that they always seemed to be self healing. Give 'em tune ups and change the oil. Something seems wrong, drive it awhile and let it take care of itself. |
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Joined:
May 2004
Posts: 2850
Location: Midland, MI | Originally posted by stonebobbo:
Muir's book is currently open and in use on my workbench. Kid #4 is getting the learners permit next month so the 1974 Thing is coming out of hibernation for him.
Things RAWK! (But not as much as five-piece neck Elites!) Every so many years, I get a hair to find one to fix up. Being in Michigan, however, they're few and far between. At least in the condition that I would consider buying one. :)
My oldest son (14) is already making noises about a car. I've told him repeatedly (haha, I think he's sick of hearing it!) about how I had to buy my own car, my own insurance and my own gas...no free rides for me. I learned a lot going through that. Like the lesson I learned when I dumped my first ('73 Super) Bug and bought a '77 Camaro. Complete with 350, 4-bbl, and best of all...an 83mm Borg-Warner 4-spd racing tranny! I had to put new tires on it when I bought it (didn't think much of it at the time). Four months later, I couldn't afford it any more...I was averaging 3 MPG, yes you read that right...and it needed new tires. Luckily, the city snowplow backed into the drivers rear quarter panel and I got a check...then sold the car. Bought a Ford Fiesta after that. Lessons learned. Sort of. I kept the Fiesta for a year, then traded it for a...ready?...'64 Impala SS 409 with 2-spd Powerslide...with no exhaust. That lasted two weeks and I got the Fiesta back (whew!)
Ah, the stories I could tell about all the cars I've owned...but, I still want a VW Thing. In bright orange....just to annoy my kids/wife. :) |
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Joined:
July 2004
Posts: 60
Location: Havertown, PA | Back in the day,'84 I think it was, my buddy and I quit our sucky low payin jobs for a road trip.
He was chasin' down a girl, and it was just time to split a two horse town, so we packed up his '67 bus and his '79 Cust. Balladeer and trekked through 11 states in route to the Mex border. Down on the Rio. That was a blast. Makin stops, pickin up cool people on the way. Hung a sign in the rear "Nivana or bust". Somehow, I think we made it! Vdubs and "O"s just go together, somethin like Fred and Ginger, or is that Gilligan and Ginger?!! |
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Joined:
June 2004
Posts: 271
Location: Ft. Lauderdale, Florida | Let's see I remember a Xmas card with 4 VW's on it:
'65 convertible
'66 van always loved that manual widshield washer...to the left of the steering wheel...
'67 w/sunroof
'69 Super Beatle
OH Yea a '60 Beetle I wanted to make into a Meyers Manx fiberglass body dune buggy... (never finished it and '60 never made the xmas card line up...)
Those were the days... When I was 18, I took my '66 Van and my date to the "drive it in" movie with a plywood train table stuffed into it. The middle seat was removed and turned upside down to support it... Complete with quilt and lot's of pillows... Funny thing though... I don't remember the movie, but I'll never forget Sandy...
Remember a wierd look on my older sisters face as I jammed the train table into it... (as our folks were out of town...)
I must have driven that van 300 times to the Jersey shore...
AB |
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Joined:
August 2003
Posts: 27
Location: Palm Desert, CA | Nils, got to agree w/ you on these newer foreign cars as my uncle has been a body man for the last 40 odd years. Just out of curiosity which cars do you recommend? |
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Joined:
March 2002
Posts: 1380
Location: Central Oregon | Originally posted by Glockaxis:
Nils, got to agree w/ you on these newer foreign cars as my uncle has been a body man for the last 40 odd years. Just out of curiosity which cars do you recommend?
Do you mean to work on or to drive?
/\/\/ |
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Joined:
May 2002
Posts: 3005
Location: Las Cruces, NM | Stonebobo
OK, I lied, I was going up that mountain in my 64 Ford Econoline with the back fitted with a 4 inch pad and carpet for camping in the desert, full of our bluegrass instruments and our band heading for a gig on top of the mountain and happy to see someone as slow as us that we could blame for the traffic jam. You would probably see a high five at each curve as we made a few hundred feet more. We used that Ford turtle for 2 0r 3 years in southern CA to get to our gigs and I even drove it to NM on a vacation, scouting out Las Cruces before we moved here, my only "big block" was a 64 Olds Cutlass 350 CID 2 door, that our band used to drive to Borrego for some jam sessions at our banjo players brother's house who was a Park Ranger living in Gov't provided housing on the desert in which we violated many regulations. We knocked a hole in the gas tank off roading on those desert roads which we plugged with a piece of wood, and had to drive 80 miles an hour back to San Diego to get there before the tank went dry, there were few gas stations out there then in the old days.
We looked like a bunch of long haired hippies also in those days.
Bailey |
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Old Volkswagens
