TheSamba.com :: View topic

Tue Feb 25, 2003 8:03 pm

Hi all, Just wondering how many of you actually work on VW's for a living? How many only work on them as a "hobby" ( I know that vw are more than a hobby!!!) I work on them for fun, but only when I get a chance. Too busy at work usually, thats why its taken a while to get the 63 on the way!!!

Cheers N!

Tue Feb 25, 2003 9:16 pm

I'd don't know about anyone else but I drive my air cooled as everyday transportation. I could have gotten something else but I just love air cooled VW's too much. I'm out at college 250 miles from home and I drive it everywhere, even the 250 miles home across the Nevada desert. When you use your VW like this working on it becomes a little more than hobby and a lot more than a necessity. I wouldn't traid my stubborn VW for a new Porsche. I love the looks you get when you pull up to a gas station and the people look at the car and then look at the out of state plates. No trailer queens for me!

Tue Feb 25, 2003 9:59 pm

I drive a 69 auto notch everyday, but also working on a 63 rag for the show scene here in Australia, But I will drive it every weekend or so!!!!

Wed Feb 26, 2003 2:33 pm

It's more than just a hobby. It's also a lifestyle!

Wed Feb 26, 2003 2:47 pm

Some of us have turned what was, and still is a hobby, into a full time job. I don't get to actually work on v-dubs everyday, but I do write about working on them everyday (M-F at least).
-Stan Wohlfarth
Product Coordinator/Editor
VW/Audi Service Manuals
Bentley Publishers

Wed Feb 26, 2003 3:48 pm

I wish I could work on my buses for a living and get paid for it but it doesn't work that way. So I guess I work to fund the buses and other interests. It's definitely more than a hobby, but at this point, I wouldn't call myself obsessed. I only own 1.5 VW's.

My bus is my only driver.

Wed Feb 26, 2003 3:54 pm

i do it for a living and its my hobby, most of my friends are connected to vws in some way, so i guess i pretty much live vws

Wed Feb 26, 2003 4:04 pm

VW's are definitely a way of life. When I first got interested in vw's I was still in the musclecar scene. Now I am only involved in vw's, there is nothing else like it. I really enjoy working on them. I do it for fun.

Wed Feb 26, 2003 4:19 pm

I like that fact that one CAN work on them. I'm not very mechanically inclined, but fondly remember buying that first edition of the Idiots Guide when I was really poor and being able to adjust valves and tune my own bus...that eventually led to pulling and rebuilding the engine a few times. It made me feel good and I guess that's what a hobby should do. So thirty years later and not having owned a bus in about 15 years, I found myself with a big garage and an empty space....Porsche? Benz?
Navigator? Nah.....a '66 splittie and who gives a F**k if the neighbors think I'm an eccentric old hippie? I think some of 'em are jealous, actually.

Wed Feb 26, 2003 4:49 pm

I used to work on them for a living, but Then I got so burnt on it I never worked on my own cars. Now I do it as a hobby and it's alot more fun.

Wed Feb 26, 2003 8:59 pm

Actually it is more of a Passion then a hobby but still considerd a hobby. Owned them for several years put them in shows and actually won. They always get looks and they should being they are driven in more countries then any other car.

Wed Feb 26, 2003 9:57 pm

It's a hobby, or a lifestyle for me. I keep trying to come up with ways to make a living out of this, but since I am a crappy mechanic, I would probably starve to death. My 2 beetles and 1 bus are together driven approx. 3500 miles per year. Mostly to shows and for local driving. My insurance prevents me from using them to drive to work, and I think spreading out the mileage over the three vehicles will make them all last longer. I do try to drive them all every two weeks to keep them happy.

Wed Feb 26, 2003 10:59 pm

I learned to drive in my Dad's 60 bug in 1967, and that was it - I've been driving them ever since (mostly just one bug in fact - which I bought brand new in 1970 and still have).

So I guess for me they are a lifestyle - I don't drive/work on them for a living but it's more than a hobby.

Rob
Rob and Dave's aircooled VW pages
Repairs and maintenance for the home mechanic
http://www.geocities.com/aussiebug1970/

Wed Feb 26, 2003 11:19 pm

I've had my 67 Deluxe for almost 13 years. (Long enough to want to go back and fix the stupid things I did to it at 18 when I bought it) But it's only been in the last few months that I have really gotten into learning about my bus.

I can see this becoming a very serious hobby in the months to come and I hope to add to my current collection of one VW.

Brian
Portland

Thu Feb 27, 2003 8:35 am

you've got the whole spectrum here- for some it is a hobby (weekend driver) for others an occupation (fix others, drive and fix your own), for some it is a lifestyle (won't drive anything but VW), for the rest, it is an obsession ( will only drive VW, house is decorated with VW toys and parts, garage is most important room in said house, family activites and vacations revolve around shows and swaps, will drive ten hours through a snow storm to pick up another project that may result in divorce when siginificant other finally sees it... come to think of it, tend to pick significant others based on their air-cooled tolerance.) there are also type/style specific obsessives, who will only focus on one specific type/style of VW, and regard all others as inferior. These people are sometimes known as a**holes.

Thu Feb 27, 2003 8:48 am

I always liked the vw all of them . all but the gawdam water cooled ones, it was just a hobby at 1st but then got out of control with vw parts all over the place then finding out about the early cars and just had to have one , then one day I was asked to come by and check out the guys At KOCH`s and I started working part time for them ever since , Who else has a VW tattoo on their leg besides me? now that must tell you how much I am into the vw scene.
I don`t drive a VW every day but when I see oval going down the road I wish I did .

Thu Feb 27, 2003 9:02 am

I live, eat, sleep, breathe, VWs. Like Stan@ Robert Bentley, Publishers, I made my hobby my employment. I also have 5 aircooled VWs at home (restored '55 Oval sunroof w/78,000 original, documented miles, '57 Oval sunroof with 2016 cc engine, big heads, 48 IDAs, front disc brakes, Real Rader wheels, etc etc, Original Meyers Manx on a 1960 pan w/1776 and Kadrons, 1961 Single Cab truck with 1914, dual Weber 40 IDFs, and an IRS trans and repo BRMs, and a 1967 walk-through Deluxe 21 window , 1600 single port with kadrons and 3:88 r&p trans. And that's just the cars my wife knows about..... So, yeah, I am in waaay deep into VWs.

Thu Feb 27, 2003 4:25 pm

Carlos,
I have been wanting to get a semaphore tattooed on a certain part of my body but I can't figure out how to get it to light up when it pops up.

Fri Feb 28, 2003 11:05 am

Oh, and it's also an addiction like the damn crack pipe!

Fri Feb 28, 2003 11:38 am

THE REAL CRG_OGJHC - i have a vw tat on my leg also, but done with a ghetto have-not setup (hollow bic pen with a guitar string and a RC motor taped to the top) just dab in india ink and bam, too bad i showered soon after and it faded, 11 years ago but still very visible- i gotta get that shiat touched up...

hobbies are stamps and baseball cards-

vw's are the shiat
and if you roll one, you are the shiat,
and, oh yeah, thesamba is the shiat!

peace-
zackG