My Volkswagen addiction.

Grandson Luke

1992 Mexican Bug

My Volkswagen addiction started at an early age. I remember as a small child seeing the odd little cars and asking my parents about them. Their reply was "oh those are foreign cars". I kinda let it ride with that until when I was 14 years old I saw one setting beside a house in our neighborhood. The home and the car belonged to Mr. Camp. I watched for it each time we went by the house.
After a good bit of time I asked my mother if I could go see Mr. Camp and ask about the car. I visited the Camps with my older brother Jack. After a bit of discussion I bought the car for $350 and took it home.
It was a 1963 bug and had a lot of problems. It sat in our yard for about a year and eventually was scrapped (I still haven't forgiven myself for letting that one get away). Actually it was kind of interesting about where the car got off to. I pulled the engine out and cut the front and rear clips off to look like the BAJAs I was seeing in the magazines. The car was in the shed where my father worked on his front end loader. One day Daddy told me I needed to move the car, "I know Daddy" I said and let it ride a couple of days. This went on a couple of more times with him finally telling me "you really need to move that car". Well, I came home one afternoon and Daddy's front end loader was in the shed and the car was gone. There was a fresh pile of Georgia red clay right out of the shed! I knew not to say a word and never really found out if the car was under that pile.
I was 15 by then and that summer I got a job at Six Flags Over Georgia (I lied and told them I was 16). I met a lot of good people there.I realize now many of those people made an impact on my life.
One of these characters was a guy named Morgan Johnston. Morgan was as straight as an arrow. Among other things, he taught me how to sweep. That's right I said he taught me how to sweep. We were on the groundskeeping crew at Six Flags and when Morgan swept he actually moved things and swept under them.
The biggest impact Morgan had on me was he owned a brand new 1970 VW Bug. It was yellow with black interior and it was gorgeous! Morgan kept the bug immaculate.
Morgan took me home from school often and I was glad to ride in the bug.
When I was seventeen I had saved enough money for a down payment on a new bug of my own. My brother-in-law Albert Cox took me to Schoenfield Volkswagen in Marietta Ga and the deal was struck on a brand new 1970 red bug with black interior. I was $2280 drive out! The one thing I did not realize was I had to save money for insurance next so the car sat for a few weeks. I drove the wheels off of that car and like many other kids I did not take the best car of it. I loaned it to a friend one Sunday afternoon and he got in an accident with it. He was ok but the bug suffered a smashed rear end. It never was quite the same after that. It just kind of drifted away after that.
Some time later There was a maintenance plumber at Six Flags that had a couple of things I envied. One of them was a 1970 red bug. He later sold that VW to the fire chief at the park and I eventually traded the chief out of the bug. Shortly after that I changed jobs and went to work 70 miles from where I lived and I drove the bug 140 miles round trip every day until the engine gave out. I traded it away when I, my wife Debra and my daughter Amy moved to Colorado for a year.
In the years that followed I had several more bugs and Karmann Ghias of various different conditions and vintage. But the time required to raise a daughter and feed a family won out over my addiction.
By the time my daughter was in college money came a little easier. I traded a man out of a 1967 that had been smashed in the front. I pulled the fenders out secured the fenders with sheet metal screws and I drove it for several months. I actually drove it back and forth to seminary for two months (a 80 mile round trip three times a week). Eventually I found a donor car and sawed and welded until it looked pretty good. I found a rebuilt dual port, set it in with a new clutch. sanded and painted the wheels put on a new set of skins and I was riding cool.
I sold that car to pay for a camcorder and new camera when my granddaughter Hope was born. Suddenly my grandchildren became my new addiction.
The urge to have a bug still nagged at me and I bought a 1970 roller and did a lot of work on it until a gentleman made my an offer on it I could not turn down.
Shortly after that I came across a 1992 bug from Mexico. It was blue and needed some tlc. I put new fenders on it. had the front seats restuffed and detailed the engine. It turned out to be an attention getter but the legal side of it worried me a little bit so I traded it for the 1973 Karmann Ghia convertible.
Later I came across a 80's vintage 356 Porsche kit car that had sat unfinished in a man garage for several years and I bought it. I detailed the pan and sat forth on finishing the kit when I received another offer I could not refuse. I let the 356 go and I used the cash to purchase all of the sheet metal parts to repair the rust on the Karmann Ghia.
I had enough cash left over to pick up a 1967 bug what was in good condition other than the fact it had no engine and no interior.
Today I picked up a 1970 bug convertible that was covered on more than 20 feet of water during the floods here in north Georgia.
The time that lapsed in the events I laid out is more than 40 years and my love for the little foreign car grows stronger.

Well since my last entry the Karmann Ghia body was sold to a man in Battle Creek Michigan. I have now obtained a 1970 Bug convertible and the work is in full swing to make this a solid daily driver. I will update later.