| MaddMatt |
Sun Apr 25, 2010 2:59 pm |
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Hello everyone. I'm Matt.
I've owned vw's since I started driving at 16. 72 bug, 71 bug, 63 baja, 74 baja, 74 Karmann Ghia, and the newest addiction.... my new 71 Baywindow deluxe.
I had been looking for a 68-71 baywindow for a couple months with this perfect candidate came around. I had posted a want ad at the local bug shop and a few weeks later was contacted by a couple that were selling off their 71 bay. He was the original owner, bought it off the lot in 1971. When I went to look at it, I was amazed, straight body except of a little fender damage from a blow tire, barely any rust, and the biggest surprise, a binder in the bus with every service receipt since 1971!!! (that's better the carfax!!)
I had to have it, even though it was a good $500 over my budget, I pulled every string I had to come up with the money. Upon the weekend I brought this beauty home, I pulled it into the driveway, and tinkered around to find what needed to be tended to.
The ignition on the column was no longer functional and a generic one had been installed on the dash. After a night of poking and prodding I reached into the bus from the drivers door too pull the key out.
What happened next dumped a decades worth of adrenaline into my blood stream.
I had simply touched the key and the starter engaged! The e-brake was on and the car was in 1st gear!!! (stupid mistake) The starter was fighting the e-brake and was lurching the bus forward 2 inches at a time. Every cycle of the engine jumped it closer to the open garage!
Our garage does not house cars, it's basically storage and an extended pantry. My girlfriend screamed from the garage and ran out to assist me in deactivating the german machinery intent on making a new home alongside our canned goods. She leapt in front of the grumbling bus of doom and tried to push it back with her body weight.
The bus was unaffected.
Meanwhile, I am sprawled across the drivers seat frantically trying to get the key out of the ignition. It was stuck, of course. I gave up on the key and dove to the pedals, pressing firmly on the brake.
Everything stopped. The bus came to a rest. My heart rate began to normalize. My girlfriend and I sighed in relief and I took my hand off the brake.
IT WAS BACK FOR MORE!!!!!
The second I took my hand off the brake it lurched forward in it's 2 inch battle march, but this time even quicker!!!
My girlfriend ran inside to get the assistance of those unsuspecting family members unaware of the four cylinder fury about to assault the perimeter of our home.
I attacked the key again. Quickly jiggling it free and removing it from the ignition entirely.
It had no effect.
No. The bus growled. I need no key.
At this point the bus decided to punish me for my foolish attempt of disabling it's ability to do what it pleased. It rolled onto my foot. Not only was I pinned, but now my reach has been limited.
The bus began it's conquest of the contents of our garage...
A table and the entrance was tossed over, throwing the piles of items throughout the garage. The metal shelving started to buckle and the refrigerator began it's relocation process. The bus was not stopping. I couldn't reach the brake.
The clutch. Why hadn't I thought of the clutch??!?!?!?!
I grabbed a screwdriver to lengthen my reach and jammed it down on the clutch pedal. The engine started, coughed, then fizzled.
I held the pedal down for a good 5 min before I trusted the bus' plans of a hostile takeover had been thwarted.
I spent the rest of the evening cleaning up the mess and rearranging the garage to it's original placement before the bus' sudden redecorating.
The next day I promptly replaced the faulty ignition.
It's behaved itself since. |
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| mos |
Sun Apr 25, 2010 9:14 pm |
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| i like how your gf jumped right in front of it |
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| MaddMatt |
Sun Apr 25, 2010 9:40 pm |
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mos wrote: i like how your gf jumped right in front of it
Yeah. We got a good laugh about that later. Like a 110lbs was really going to stop the rouge bus. |
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| redeye65 |
Mon Apr 26, 2010 4:38 pm |
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| ha great post! Thats a keeper gf, marry her man! |
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| Greezy Joe |
Tue Apr 27, 2010 7:48 am |
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| The VW version of Christine as in the Old Movie...lol |
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| 66buggie |
Sun May 02, 2010 4:12 pm |
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| damn that was a good story...u had me laughin..enjoy it . |
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| cjmiles |
Mon May 03, 2010 4:21 pm |
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| Good thing you hadn't yet put in the Subaru engine. |
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| chickenjake |
Fri May 14, 2010 5:52 pm |
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| Awesome story! I'm glad there were no casualties, including the bus! |
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