VW Bugs

[CG]

Im not talking about the newest generation of bugs, Im talking about the eleventy billion bugs that came before them. What the heck happened to them?
They made a serious amount of bugs and I almost never see them anymore.

On my way home to lunch there was a beater bug in front of me. Had that very familiar bug sound, and she was having difficulty with her clutch.

Its weird that they were everywhere everyday forever (seems like anyway), and now seldom seen. I know there are a lot of cars you just dont see anymore that used to be around all the time. But Im pretty sure that bugs outnumbered a lot of them put together.

I had a 66 that I built my first engine ever. Did it on some cardboard in the living room. Had another 66 and a 57. Nothing ever came of the 57, typical me lol. I also had a pretty cool 60's dune buggy, again I never did anything with it and the original owner from whom I purchased it called me and asked if he could buy it back. No problem, off to its new old home.

[Ziegelsteinfaust]

Alot of mechanics who understood the nuisances of air cooled went away, and they slid into weekend car status.

Combined with no ac, and effective lack of heater. Being maintenance heavy cars. Altough cheap, and easy to do if so inclined. Would be expensive for the person who doesn't want to do more then add gas, and go.

If you fail to look after a bug. Or any VW air-cooled engine they over heat like mad, and once over heated the block becomes soft. Which cause the studs to pull out or back out even. Plus the heads are prone to cracking too when over heated too. The valves needed to be adjusted often if driven like a modern car, and the oil needs to be changed every 2000 or so miles. Plus due to lack of regulated cylinder Temps. The jugs, or rings wear out at roughly 60000 miles. Usually it is the rings, but i have had bad jugs in as little as 45000 miles. Due to excessive ring ridge. Which cause oil loss due to blow by, and with only 2.5 quarts is it stock? Doesn't take long for real trouble to visit you.

I daily drove Bugs for about 4 years of my life, and probably have 250,000 miles in them total. Most of my engines were 2 liter strokers with deep sumps added.

They are fun, and would mind not owning another.

[Boog]

So many have been scrapped and so many have been tucked away and the ones still running only come out on car show occasions and such. Few folks drive them every day any more. There are a few in our little town. One is tan with some surface rust on the roof and tops of fenders. It's driven fairly often to work. Another looks to have been semi restored in the last 10 years and stays under the carport in the neighborhood behind me, rarely driven. There are at least 2 show cars here.
I believe the total number of beetles produced was something like over 23 million. You'd think there would still be vdubs sitting around everywhere.
My first car was a glass bodied dune buggy my dad and I built. Manx design. At the time I wanted a rag top, 4 speed and custom wheels. It had all that. I sure would like to have a beetle now and I did go check one out last year but didn't buy it. It was in pieces and I don't need another project. My wife concurs.
If I did buy another one I would have to have a big inch motor and dual carbs and ........ there's no stopping.

[Ziegelsteinfaust]

If I get another i will drop in a 2.2 Subaru engine, and shoot for about 165/175hp. Add to it the highway ringbgear, and higher ratio od for crusing.

I helped a friend use aqua pex for his cooling system on a baja he built, and it worked great.

[special-K]

It's been over 40 years since they were sold here. You saw them hang on for regular use longer than the other cars of the era. Of course now they are highly collectible with ridiculously high prices, so not seen out and about so much. So many were torn apart to build dune buggies, build sand rails, kit cars, use motor for other uses, VW-powered trikes, I'm surprised so many were still on the road that were. It seemed to me they hung on longer than most anything else, even vehicle you could get more miles out of.

My dad messed with VWs. We had a '53 Bus around 1960-63. He bought a new '63 Kombi and made it a camper. Then ended up with an old bug or two. He got into the EMPI and other VW performance stuff to build stronger motors for the bus to handle the mountains and got well acquainted with a leading shop in the area. I was his stand-by helper.

I started out with a free '56 Bug sitting in the woods, backseat removed/loaded with firewood, sitting in a creek with a busted axle (or bent) on our friend's farm. I was too young to drive but started working on it for when I could drive. Swapped a transaxle in and ran the 36hp a while, then yanked a 1500 from a '65 Bus. One thing led to another and it ended up with a wider fully synchro '67 transaxle and a 2135cc 200+hp powerhouse, Konis, select-a-drop, sway bars, V-rated Pirellis on Porche rims, Hurst shifter, custom gauge cluster where 6x9 speaker belonged middle of the dash (oil temp/tach/oil press). Never put a gas gauge in it, never went 12v. I ran it on two 6v so it would crank. It was a very fun car that was a sleeper that held it's own with the V8s. I was quick off the line and the cubes would always catch me at speed. But she sure did handle better than any of them. My poor man's Porche. No pictures on this computer. I've shown it before.

I bought a '66 bus to fix up for camping and to drive to CA. I made it a camper, put TR6 seats in it and some wider VW-style wheels/bigger tires. I made mahogany bumpers for it. The interior was mahogany panel with redwood trim. It blew up in the Bay Area after my traveling companion hopped a plane for the Alaska Pipeline. Ended up with a remanufactured engine from REEVCO in Berkley. They built engines for shops that carried a good warranty when their external oil cooler was used. I stayed at the curb out front in it while they built the engine. I didn't like the rear 1/4 location for the cooler so they supplies me the hose and I mounted it on the rear of the roof. I had my own style thing going on with that thing, a baja bus! Kinda silly but kinda cool. It sure would go about anywhere. I had 10" mud tires on the rear. I was going to keep it for a camper, but sold it to buy a pickup to work out of, then eventually the bug sold. That went back to Germany in the early '80s

[Stocker]

Many people loved 'em and many others hated 'em. Bought my '62 in 1967 from a friend, and it seemed to be in very nice condition when I got it. Within months it was garbage. Because of my job (and my girlfriend) I drove it a few hundred miles almost every weekend. We had a very cold winter and that bug had virtually no heater or defroster (I had never heard of the optional gasoline heaters). I have described the heating system as a hamster blowing through a straw, and that still seems accurate. The engine ended up with good compression in one cylinder. A strong gust of wind could literally push it into the other lane. It was good in snow (with snow tires) but otherwise a worthless turd. In comparison, a 1954 Ford I got from a dealer for $50 was luxurious. It had a 272ci V8, 3-speed with overdrive, and a heater / defroster that actually worked quite nicely.

[rharris]

Here are two of them at our cabin. Not quite stock but they’re still alive.

[rgunlock]

Kids these days would get pretty bored on a trip playing "slug bug". Remember that?

[CG]

Oh man I hated it when my kids played that game. It always turned in to a brawl so I forbade them to play it.

Now when my grand kids try it I just give them the Grandpa look and they quit =)

['63GENIII]

I forbid mine to play it too. Same reason except my 18 y.o. daughter would punch my then 12 y.o. son so hard it'd make him cry .

Theres one in our garage still collecting dust and blankets .

20 years ago I started on a '67 twenty one window deluxe. It had the pullback top and all of the aluminum trim. Drilled all of the spot welds for the floor pan, welded a new one in. Was started on bodywork in between side jobs and a regular job. Wife got impatient with the wait. I got impatient with the wife and we sold it. Made a couple of $$ on the deal but nowhere even close to what they're going for nowadays.

5 years ago for her 40th, I found a '60 pullback for a pretty good deal. Matching pan and a ton of paperwork from when it came in from Brazil. The car was tricked out down there in the 80s - 90s "Cal Look" with the cobalt blue paint and Porsche Fuchs Wheels.

She wants it back to the old "Wide 5" wheels with the smoothie caps, slightly lowered, whitewalls and Sea Foam Green and Off White two tone.

I want 4 wheel disc, big, streetable stroker motor with freeway gears. Goes good, stops better.



Its gonna be a little while. Maybe for her 50th birthday?

[special-K]

Originally Posted by rharris

Here are two of them at our cabin. Not quite stock but they’re still alive.

Those things are really neat, and a matching pair!

That trip cross-country in my Bus that led to it blowing the engine is a story. I remember driving from Steamboat Springs to CA the day after Thanksgiving and all night. My feet got so cold frostbite was a concern. I had rag wool socks and hiking boots on but it's just the piece of sheet metal between my toes and the air blasting that blunt front end. And just sitting still doesn't help.

Once it had a nice new motor my friend and I took it south from Fortuna back to SF to hang with friends, then Santa Cruz, and down to a friend's in San Diego. Took the Baja Bus down Baja so it lived up to it's name. Those were the days of adventure for me!

Going from that back to a pickup with heater that can't be beat was sure nice.

[Boog]

Cold feet huh? My dune buggy had no heater and I drove it all year round. By choice mind you. Back then I wasn't as affected by the cold as I would become later. Ah, to be that young again.

[SCHRUMGMC]

I have a 1974 Volkswagen Beetle(Standard)

Love driving it, it’s another daily besides trying to get my 1959 gmc running and back together

[GOPAPA]

[QUOTE=CG;8773881]Im not talking about the newest generation of bugs, Im talking about the eleventy billion bugs that came before them. What the heck happened to them?
They made a serious amount of bugs and I almost never see them anymore.

On my way home to lunch there was a beater bug in front of me. Had that very familiar bug sound, and she was having difficulty with her clutch.

Its weird that they were everywhere everyday forever (seems like anyway), and now seldom seen.

Not wanting to put any one down about their likes for the bug ,.,It' just that I am one of the ones who did not want anything to do with them Bugs back in the day.. I seen to many of them sitting along the road with big long fan belt and what ever else it was used for broke .. plus to me they were to slow, I wanted at least a 283 v8 and wanted big seats ..
I only see them at a car shows now days ,,converts mainly .. and I also believe many of the younger than me guys and gals that did not have a dad that owned one ,,and have history of riding in them as a family ,,well,,all of them might not know what they missed as a kid .My dad never owned one either
I did see one that a guy done up that drew attention, he had a remote to activate a water pump when the ladies got right up near the front window and then he gave them a squirt .

[special-K]

That bug sound. Do you guys mean the tweetie bird sound? Mine never sounded like that. I always ran an extractor (header to muffler with tip). I got this one exhaust system that was split. I thought it would look really cool and it was all equal length. Dual flared scavenger pipes under the bumper like the V8 cars. The sound of dual 2 into ones resembled a Harley. The mufflers were glasspacks. I went about two days before I got pulled over for loud exhaust and the cop said he heard me in the next neighborhood . This was mid-70s when the state was cracking down on loud exhaust and turbos mufflers got popular along with Thrush Hush and other glasspack companies coming out with quiet hi-flow mufflers. I didn't really like the sound of that split system anyway. The engine didn't sound smooth like the 4 into 1. You know, like how Subarus sound. An extractor came out with a turbo muffler and I got that. Sounded fantastic. You could tell it was a sleeper behind that tight strong note. I ate 283s and 289s for breakfast . The only time that Bug sat on the side of the road was the time I lent it to a friend who bottomed out the deep sump on a manhole hauling a bunch of people to Fells Point (old port area of the inner harbor of Baltimore/bars) and lost the oil.

My dad drove old VWs because they were cheap to buy, cheap to run, and cheap on gas. He never had anything nice while raising all us kids (7) on a teacher's salary. He could rebuild the engine in the basement and it cost about $200 total.

My dad had another teacher friend (woodshop) that messed with VW performance as well as fancy foreign cars. He ended up starting a garage with his brother working on the high-end imports in Annapolis, MD. There are a lot of hoity toity sailboat people there and a place where you first saw those type of cars. Jaguars were the biggest pieces of crap. I remember him saying they drive nice but don't take the screwdriver out of your pocket. Meaning they always needed something. Then there was the "Do you know why the British drink warm beer? They have Lucas refrigerators". And "Lucas, the prince of darkness"

[Tom]

Originally Posted by CG

What the heck happened to them?
They made a serious amount of bugs and I almost never see them anymore.

They all rusted away.
Those that didn't still have carbs, which nobody can work on anymore.
They still have no HP, which isn't a great idea with todays freeways.
They have zero crash protection which every Karen is worried about for their kids.
And most of all everyone knows they suck to drive and would rather drive something else just as cheap and way better.

[Zippi]

Back in the day my father in law owned an automotive shop called Arrow Engine Sevice here in southern Indiana and he specialized in VW's. At the time I was dating my wife so I bought a 1972 Super Beetle so I could get the repairs done for free. I always hated scrapping ice off the inside of the windshield in the winter.

[special-K]

They just got old like all the other vehicles of the same years you no longer see around... except weekend cruising and shows. There are plenty of VW Bugs around. They didn't rust any worse than anything else. I noticed there were a lot of Bugs on the road in the '80s when you didn't see other cars from the same time period. Most people, including mechanics, did not understand the different needs of an air-cooled engine. Their skill was in working on water cooled vehicles.

There are good Bug-In events if you like Bugs

Bug In 44 | VW Drag Racing | Outlaw Turbo -...

[Boog]

Beetles are still big world wide. I still watch some utube videos of shows. There are still large bug events out west from Colorado on to the coast.

[1976gmc20]

My wife had one when we were engaged. She rolled it off a cliff and didn't get hurt but the bug was pretty rough. We rolled it back on its wheels, added some oil, and drove it home but it wasn't a highway car anymore. Drove it like a dune buggy on the USFS roads the rest of that summer.

I bought her another one, and we blew the engine coming up out of Denver on a parts run. A friend hauled us home on a flatbed and I swapped the engine from the wrecked bug. Following winter after we got married we discovered the front axle was about falling out because the pan was rusted and the bolts pulled through. I patched it with some big washers, but a few months later I swapped the chassis from the wrecked bug, swapping the engine yet again.

I finally got tired of working on the damn thing all the time, and traded it off to a logging buddy for a bunch of logs that I then hauled and sold. By then we had gotten my mom's old 1971 K/10 and had something else to drive except a C/50 log truck.

My buddy loaned it out to some down-on-his-luck guy, who then drove it out of state forever. I don't suppose the cops are still looking for it 35 years later ...

[special-K]

Originally Posted by Boog

Beetles are still big world wide. I still watch some utube videos of shows. There are still large bug events out west from Colorado on to the coast.

Check out the VW Nationals at Mason-Dixon Dragway in Boonsboro, Maryland

[Boog]

I have watched that one too. I also like VW road racing.

[special-K]

That's how my '56 was set up, handling and speed, a think American muscle cars lacked (good handling).

People are saying it's odd how you saw them everywhere and now you don't, and giving their theories, when you could say the same about Chevy IIs, Falcons, Darts, or any foreign economy car. They were economy cars first and foremost. They were built so people could keep them running themselves, the opposite of the plan for today's vehicles. I totally grasped that concept and that is a big reason I allowed myself to fall for them when I first began driving. Yeah, you look back at all cars in that time frame and you could say the same, but it wasn't as cheap. Other foreign vehicles meant hi-dollar parts and repairs. The USA didn't really offer a vehicle to compete with Bugs. They did come out with compacts that were an economical compromise to full-size cars, but nothing came close to the Bug. People have to realize Europe was still a village economy. VWs were best suited for running around town and country roads, and were great for dirt roads or no road at all. They were "The People's Car"

[Boog]

Yes, the people's car. It was very important in pulling Germany out of the war ruins. Much like the Ford model T the vw was an affordable car for the masses. If I'm not mistaken total beetle production was over 23 million. They must have done something right.
I would say if the little car had a better heat setup maybe the design would have lasted longer. That seemed to be one of the major dislikes of the air cooled cars. I didn't hear of the Eberspacher gas heater until years after I had sold my car or I might have tried one.

[FleetsidePaul]

Originally Posted by 1976gmc20

My wife had one when we were engaged. She rolled it off a cliff and didn't get hurt but the bug was pretty rough. We rolled it back on its wheels, added some oil, and drove it home

I wrecked my 74 Bug going way to fast on a curve. (I was going downhill) My then girlfriend lived at the top of the hill and we had just had a fight. (what else is new) So I took off mad, was driving too fast and lost control and the car spun out and I hit a parked Oldsmobile backwards. I ended up in the passenger seat but I didn't get hurt either. And I drove it home. In fact I drove it around for a while all smashed up. It was my only car and it still ran. But I did get pulled over by the cops because it was such a mess. But they were cool about it and I didn't even get a ticket.

I sold it to my buddy and he fixed it all up and put a hitch on it. Hooked up a little trailer and drove it all over the country. And he weighed at least about 300 lbs. His nickname was "Heavy".

That was a tough little car.