In my short baby years, I drove pops 1968 bug. Here's a pic of a 1968 with the big ugly bumpers, upright headlights and candy ass wheel cover fake chrome rings. I guess you know how i feel about it. :) My father's paint looked nothing like this. I hated it and so did my friends.(they made sure to let me know)HEY! shut up bitches, at least there's no space between my front teeth!Dad's bug looked like a rusted,oxidized, bubble afterthought, the paint was pealing to the primer. It smelled like burning oil, oil drenched soil and smoked while randomly honking when you turned corners...say for example, in the middle of an intersection. I'd be like, "Hey, hi...yeah i know, don't look at me! (everyone's looking of course)... it's normal,(I'd try and convince myself) everything's cool, it always does this...you know... the dying goose sound... its a horn... OK fine! curse word all yall! I'm a broke college student with no $ to fix it!"... then I'd drive on hoping i didn't have the same experience in about 20 yards.
My Old schooler definitely couldn't stand next to the other yuppie commuters in the school parking lot (...this is what kids did in their 30k BMW's when they drove the entire mile from their house to the school, commute... in their "beater car"...that their parent bought them.) My parents DID provide me with a car, i never should have complained. The car I was driving was truly an authentic beater. My pops drove it many years after purchasing it new in '68 for 1200 bucks @ Volkswagen. Deep down i was kind of proud of it...in a timid sort of way. Besides, those other peeps had NOTHING on me. Hell, my car stopped in a zigzag and left skid marks on the ground! yeah bitches!... I bet other peoples cars couldn't do that...under normal braking circumstances when you weren't trying too hard.
As time went on and i realized id be stuck with the thing. I did manage to find my own "cool" in the car...and ohhhh yes, there were some good fun stories too, like the time in the blizzard and the 360 spins. ...or the time I was a kid and got to shift using my left hand while dad drove us up to Tahoe with a broken arm... on old school tires that were bald...and there's more!... but those are other stories. Ironically, I believe these are some of the reasons I've stayed loyal to Vdubs over the years, all the great stories, and near death experiences. (I'm exaggerating)
Then there was Volkswagen Bug 2.0.
A noise I couldn't quite put a finger on caught my attention in the college parking lot. It sounded familiar only, I knew the sound as a high frequency, pathetic, bubble like whimper, spitting through two narrow pipes the circumference of a number 2 pencil with a few bangs here and there when you let off the gas pedal...i couldn't quite place it. The sound i heard in this moment was the same except...it growled and set off car alarms.I turned around to meet eye to air cooled VW bug. Now this is what 'dubin should be all about. Bright red seduction with the appearance of something simply put, I just had to have. This beautifully restored Cal Looker would be mine even if I had to skip all my classes, fail out of college and sell crack on the side walk. If I had to own a bug (at this point in time i brainwashed myself into believing the only car id ever want to own was this bug now in front of my eyes in the college parking lot... i mean my father owned one, i knew then and there I should too...it could be one of those things that runs in the family) It had to be this one, because it was cooler than, "the other blistering blue smoking one" i was driving at present. I could see clearly how it would improve my quality of life in that very moment.
Subtle yet suave, packin' a bit more power (1641cc) dual carburetors with velocity stacks (36mm Dellorto's) a stout look and just the right amount of attitude, begged me to grab the power shifter and drive the hell out of it.
Ironically, after convincing the guy to sell it to me, "everyone" said, "it'll catch fire, it'll smoke, it'll break, they're dangerous, etc..." I guess at this point I knew these were um..."possibilities" (based on prior experience of course) yet brainwashed and blinded, I suppose I just didn't care. I was juiced to own my own ride and none the less, a classic 1965 VW Cal Look Bug.
Seriously though, I couldn't see how I wouldn't love it, the paint looked so nice. Later on when I got stuck in an intersection with my buddy's father in the car (a pissed off 6'5" retired police officer with a handle bar mustache and Dirty Harry 44 Smith & Wesson) I still didn't care, I was in love...and if it broke, I'd learn (somehow) to fix it...intersection or not. Plus, it was nothing compared to driving that 68 honker. :)Originally purchased for the sellers wife who never drove it, he sold it to me after some cute college kid, "it's my first car commmooooon!" bargaining. Apparently this isn't the best way to bargain. I admit I paid more than I should have but that's old news now. Oh and I wont mention that it was rear ended the day before I agreed to buy it. CRIKEY!(crushed deck lid and minor-ish bruised rear clip) He had it fixed and I still bought it. I was addicted to the velocity stacks on the carbs.
The individual my seller purchased from lived in the East Bay. Many years later I'd cross paths with him locally, closer to my home, farther from his. He recognized the bullet style license plate bolts he'd left on the car years and one driver earlier. He also remembered the plate.I kept the spiked bolts for sentimental reasons but they also described my displeased attitude towards the 68 Honker and appealed to the mayhem I was about to get into.
Anyhow, I happened to catch him stalking my car one day outside of Subway. I struck up friendly conversation after threatening to kick his ass if he didn't back away. As it turns out, he was responsible for the bugs first restoration and the fresh looking paint I was lucky to have with my purchase. Thank god for that! Later I learned how expensive paint can be.
There are 3 ways to paint a vehicle, the cheap way, the right way and somewhere in between. This is something you learn from experience (I have very little experience, but the little I had was a PAIN IN THE ASS!...I think it sucked up a year of my life)
What I did learn ~ it's all in the prep work. Later in life, around the time my paint job was authenticated, I did a forced mentor ship with an auto body shop in the East Bay after wrecking my motorcycle. I begged them to teach me, not only to learn because I enjoy picking up useful skills, really so I could save $$, I mean how hard could it be???...uh pretty intensive I found out.(to do it right) Here's my bike project, it turned out pretty well
Anyhow, at the time I was convinced mine was done right. Many years later, closer to present day, I'd authenticate my previous interpretation of the paint job on my ride as, "somewhere in between". It was no ice cream paint job, well in some places it was, only in between the areas it wasn't. Oh well, it got positive comments for a while when it mattered the most I guess. (Mainly college, where unsuspecting girls got in my car thinking it was cute and innocent. Then BAM I'd take em for a ride. All the vibration and noise threw them for an exciting loop, got them disoriented...the rest, private.) hint: See the window sign in the background of the red bug pic above...just kidding, was'nt that serious. The good ole days, got to love em. I mean s**t, it still gets comments, but just not the same positive type.
The guy in the parking lot went on to reveal the history on the first seller, who was the son of a woman living in the Santa Cruz mountains. The son's mother purchased the car in 1965, the year the vehicle was manufactured at VW in Germany. Original color, red. (original VW color name, I dunno...what is it?) OEM paint can still be seen here and there in covered areas.
So as it turns out, I would be the 4th owner of this historic 1965 air cooled Volkswagen bug, AKA Mowgli. (named by one of the aforementioned)...and that was the beginning.
