TheSamba.com :: View topic - Do you remember the moment you fell in love with VW's?

Sat Nov 15, 2008 10:47 am

Sounds silly I'm sure, but I was thinking the other day about the moment I started digging these cars and knew I had to have one. Do you guys rememeber? Let's here about it. I'll start.

I was 16 in 1980. My Uncle had a mechanic shop that specialized in German cars, Porsche mostly. We started talking about what my first car would be and he suggested a Bug. I didn't know what I wanted. A week or so later I saw an early 60's Bug lowered with EMPI 5 spokes on it. It sounded awesome with his big Webers making noise everytime he got on it. That was it for me! I knew I had to have one! The rest as they say is history! Here's a pic of my first one. Circa 1982.

Sat Nov 15, 2008 10:51 am

Well, I cant say when I first started liking VWs (Bugs namely), cause I've loved them since I was a child... However I REALLY got into 'em about 6-7 months ago when I picked up my 65...

If only I had known then what I know now about rust in the heater channels :P

Sat Nov 15, 2008 12:52 pm

just yell at me if I have told this story here before ( I think I have). When I was about 8 years old....I used to ride my bike around town and for many years, this red 60's bug sat in a parking lot never moved. I used to ride around that bug and look inside of it. Finally, the owner came out and told me all about it...and gave me the old rusty license plate off of the front that said "Go Navy". MANY years later...being 27 years old....I wanted my own Herbie replica and began the search for a good restorable bug. I found an ad in the local paper right down the road where I grew up of a 1961 bug for sale "needs work". I got there to find a primered bug with red paint under the primer.....it was the same bug from years past!!! It was in horrible shape, more than I wanted to tackle, but it was all orginal with only 30,000 miles on it. I did pass up to buy it, but a friend of mine ended up buying it. I did buy another bug which I still have...my 1965, but I always thought how odd it was that that bug was still around after all of these years. I did talk to the guy who bought the '61 a couple of months back and he said is planning on restoring it and it sits in a barn until then. Small world isn't it???

Sat Nov 15, 2008 1:02 pm

Great guys, keep em' commin...........

If you can dig up pics of your first VW post them too!

Sat Nov 15, 2008 1:19 pm

I don't remember a time before I was into VWs. Could it be genetic?
A few pics of my Grandfather in the late '50s or early '60s, I believe in Africa.

I probably posted these years ago, maybe not. I just recently went through some of my Grandmother's pictures and found a ton more of him racing. Just have to take the time to scan them.

Sat Nov 15, 2008 1:24 pm

Spring 1972.
I was 17 y/o and getting married in June :shock:
My brother bought a orange '63 from a VW dealer and gave me my first car for a wedding present. He gave 300.00 for it.

I absolutely LOVED that car. First time I ever smoked pot was in that car.
There were some other firsts, but I anit gonna get into those...
It always seemed to run better after we'd smoked in it.

We drove it from Nashville to Laredo and into Mexico that summer.
We never got any farther than the border though. The Mexican cops said they were not allowing 'hippies' in thier country.

Back then gas was 25 cents a gallon here. It was about 15 cents in Texas.

I don't have any pics :cry:

I've loved 'em ever since.

Sat Nov 15, 2008 1:46 pm

Sat Nov 15, 2008 2:01 pm

About a week after I got my first paycheck from the VW dealer.
About 3 months later I bought my first VW. A 1960 bug with a bad 36hp.
My first engine rebuild. With help from the engine rebuilder at the dealer.

Sat Nov 15, 2008 2:20 pm

Summer of 1966 at the age of two waving to a passing Bug in San Diego Ca. :D

My first VW, June 1980 a bone stock 70.

My Boss's 66 Drag Bug, 1986 at International Bug & Baja Fresno Ca.

Sat Nov 15, 2008 2:51 pm

I sold my CRX and was looking into a different car, saw one for sale, but it was a primer '66 and they wanted $3200 for it, I was in the more of $500 sort of range. This girl that I have been in love with for years' dad asked me one day (he helped me a few times when I was learning cars on my old valiant) if I wanted a '68 he had in his back yard. I offered $500 + my 86 ranger that had a stripped flywheel (bad starter drive killed it). Rebuilt the motor as I was being kicked out of home midway through my senior year. Packed everything into that bug and have put 11,000 miles on it since spring. Still haven't gotten the girl yet, but that bug has carried everything I own 3 times.

Sat Nov 15, 2008 3:42 pm

My parents had a very faded Turkis '63 bug when I was born - though I don't remember it, I have seen pics of me as a wee shaver with the car in the background. I was probably about 3 years old when I first saw Herbie the Love Bug movie. I was mesmerised and smitten. I had toy VWs (along with my big metal Tonka dump trucks and graders) as well as some other Buddy-L cars. The VWs were always "special" for some reason. (I was very much into Mercedes-Benz cars, too - so go figure!) As I grew up, my passion for bugs and Benzes only grew stronger. My first car was an old Mercedes (a 1961 220Sb) I bought when I was 15 and my second car was a '66 "VW Blue" bug with Platinum interior I bought just before I turned 16. Even today, I still have a very soft spot for older Benzes and bugs. I have owned 9 or 10 Mercedes and 8 VWs (including the ones I currently own.) I also very much like the Karmann Ghias, Notchbacks and pre-70 Squarebacks and Fastys. I will be an A/C VW nut 'til I go to the big car lot in the sky :) .

:vw:

Sat Nov 15, 2008 3:58 pm

Back when I was 5 or 6 my mother used to pack up a super beetle, 3 children, coolers, beach chairs and toys. Don't ask me how we joke about it to this day. We lived in New London, CT. at the time and when the weather got nice enough it was Ocean Beach and Misquamicut Beach every single weekend.

I used to play with my matchbox cars in the back between the back seat and rear windsheild, so much for child safety! We had that car until my parents got hit hard and bowled over a telephone booth, left the scene without a scratch. I bought my current 66' in 1984 at the age of 12 with newspaper and mowed lawn money. I have that car to this day. I can't image my life without one. When I sit in mine I get a flashback of me and my Evil Knievel motorcycle in the back waving at every passerby.

Sat Nov 15, 2008 4:10 pm

This is so amazing to me! There aren't many (if any) other cars that evoke this kind of emotion. This is so cool!

Sat Nov 15, 2008 4:31 pm

yep, i was 14 and my dad bought me a '69 bug. together we fully restored that thing! best time i ever had, and got to spend it with my father! now 23 years later and he still has the bug! what a great hobby.

Sat Nov 15, 2008 4:50 pm

I just got back from the nearby gas station for my weekly Lotto ticket purchase. I came outside to see (yet another) lookey-loo drooling over my car (I took the '63 ragtop). As usual, he spoke as if he had known me for years about his '73 deluxe bus and whatnot. This always happens, no matter what day it is, where I am or what VW I'm driving. Still, it never gets old or irritating - even when they ask if my early '63 is a '72 :shock: ](*,)

The aircooled VW in all its various incarnations seems to be a common denominator for LOTS of folks - the passion for which, in and of itself, connects us all :)

Sat Nov 15, 2008 5:07 pm

Wasn't really instantaneous. I was a little kid who liked reptiles, used to read books on them and shit. My brother made me work on his '70 Beetle, building a 1776. At the time I wasn't enthusiastic except when it started up, but just because it was so loud. Later I got into R/C cars and started remembering those old air cooled VW's, attention began switch subjects and I got my first air cooled, a '56 oval.

Sat Nov 15, 2008 5:44 pm

fastinradford wrote: Packed everything into that bug and have put 11,000 miles on it since spring. Still haven't gotten the girl yet, but that bug has carried everything I own 3 times.

you need a 1965 vw bus that you can put a camper bed in from the boneyard. 65's are plentiful and can be bought cheaper than some others.as long as i have my 65 bus/camper i will never be homeless.

Sun Nov 16, 2008 7:42 am

I dont remember the whys and hows of the matter, but my mom said that when I was around 3 years old, whenever I seen a beetle, I would jump up and down screaming "doodle bug!" I always wanted a beetle for a first car...I still remember not knowing anything about how they were assembled. My first ride in a VW was in my friends KG....he wanted to show me how it could take corners at speed....while doing so the door popped open and I almost fell out...thanks for the OSH on the dash I was safe. A few summers later I did some work and earned a 77 Buick for my pay...got it running and sold it....bought my first beetle...a 75 standard beetle. Ive owned nothing but VW for the next 15 years, and dont plan on owning anything else for the rest of my years.

Sun Nov 16, 2008 2:33 pm

Nope. It wasn't a moment, it was a lifetime. Almost since I can remember, we had a VW in the family. My dad bought a used '65 to drive to work when I was about eight. Before that it was a '54 Ford and then a Rambler wagon.

Then he bought a fastback (that I still drive) brand new--a new VW smell! Then my brother bought a '65 Bug, then a '63 Bus, then a '65 Ghia. My other brother bought a '67 Euro. So was it any surprise I got a '67 Bug in high school? Anything else was unthinkable.

Later I bought a '71 ayto square, a '65 Bug to replace my stolen '67 (still mad about that), and of course innumerable VWs owned by friends. Now I am down to one, my dad's old fasty, revived a couple of years ago after almost 10 years of sitting. Weekend and occasional commute fun!

Sun Nov 16, 2008 2:58 pm

when I was 5 in 1975. I would help my oldest brother work on baja bugs and a rail. then he moved away and I forgot about them. Then when I was 15 I found one in the back Of a closed gas station. At night I would sneak into it and think about what I would do to it.
Then one day I saw someone was buying the place, I ask them what were they goin to do with it. he said sweep the lot for me and it's yours! 20 min later I was pushing it to my parents house. They weren't so happy