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Mon Jan 18, 2010 6:11 pm

Saw the "removing aftermarket paint to get OG paint" thread, and thought it would be a good idea to do the same on my '72 Super. Spent about 30 bucks on supplies, and when you're 16 with no job, that's a lot of money. Spent several hours stripping half the hood and some of my driver's door, making my car look like complete crap, and then found that a lot of the OG paint was stripped before the car was painted. So now my car is several shades of primer and Rustoleum paint, keeping the rust at bay. I'll probably rattlecan it this summer, so it's one color again.

Before:

After:

I wanted to get out of the house and do something, so I took the Beetle out to get gas in it. I drove a bit farther, because I wanted to get the Beetle on the bypass and wind it up to 60 or so, since it hadn't been driven much lately. Got gas, turned around and left. Wondered why people were looking at me funny, and why the guy in the Ford Escort honked at me as he passed. Got home and realized that my gas door was open, and that I had left my gas cap sitting on the hood, and that it had fallen off somewhere along the way. So...got in my GTI, sped off back to the gas station, and got my gas cap out of the middle of the entrance of the gas station. It was a bit scuffed up but I don't care, it's always leaked and needs replacing.

Oh, and another one. It was about 15 degrees out, and I wanted to drive the Beetle to church. Argued with my parents about it, and went outside in the cold and scraped off the windshield and windows. Got to the entrance of my neighborhood...and the car died, and wouldn't start. Checked coil connections and whatnot, still nothing. About 5 people offered me a ride back to my house, and I figured I'd better take up one of their offers before I was stuck there. Got home, took the GTI to church. My friend and I left early, and went back to the car. We literally poked each of the battery cables once, and the car fired right up. I've since cleaned and tightened the heck out of my connections, no issues since :?

Thu Jan 28, 2010 10:03 pm

Not installing the pedal keeper when trying to replace the clutch cable, and having to redo the entire thing 3 times! I used a rock!

Fri Jan 29, 2010 12:03 am

Forgetting to put the screws on the back of the oil pump and curious as to why I wasn't getting oil pressure for weeks till I finally pulled it apart. :roll:

Fri Jan 29, 2010 5:17 am

dutchsher wrote: Forgetting to put the screws on the back of the oil pump and curious as to why I wasn't getting oil pressure for weeks till I finally pulled it apart. :roll:

Yep, I think that qualifies! :lol: Don't worry - we've all been there!

Tue Mar 09, 2010 11:27 am

Mosparx wrote: ...and we can't forget how many times we have driven around with the E-Brake on. :oops:

Or forgot to put it on DOH!!

Tue Mar 09, 2010 2:56 pm

When I did a valve adjustment last I didn't put the cover back on properly but for some reason I didn't notice and thought it was all good. Maybe it came loose, I dunno. I continued to drive around while leaking oil, I'd see some oil on the street and be like "Wow someone is leaking some oil! Poor sucker glad that's not me!"
The next day I did an oil change and discovered my mistake. Oops! Luckily it didn't all leak out and cause a bunch of headaches. I caught it in time....barely. :roll:

Wed Mar 10, 2010 7:28 am

i am sure i have done numerous stupid things over the years.

one of the stupidest thing i have done (in relation to VWs), i bought a used motor off a local business. the owner assured me it ran awesome. when i inquired about firing it up, he kind of gave me the run around. at the time, i didnt see a real reason not to trust him.
took the motor home, spent weeks cleaning, replacing tin, put it in, a rod was knocking. naturally the owner would not give me back my money. took the motor apart, looked like it had 300,000 miles. nothing was usable.

Wed Mar 10, 2010 3:49 pm

how about cruising down the coast (in my bug) in morning traffic and not realizing that I shouldnt have neglected the fact that I hadn't fixed the latch on the hood. at 60mph my hood flew up and i had to immediately roll down my window and drive like Ace Ventura in order to get over to the side of the road.

I wound up tearing the welds on my hood spring. cracking the paint, and putting a nice crease on the hood.

I guess it could have been worse and I might have ran into someone.

Wed Mar 10, 2010 3:50 pm

Bought a bus in autumn of '08 and Westy in spring of '09, and thought I would have time to work on them. Westy's safe in the garage and I almost ( I mean this close )have the motor for the deluxe ready to install. About 2 hours a week to work on it. Man I can almost taste driving slow in the right lane. :D

Wed Mar 10, 2010 4:44 pm

We probably should have a "how I caught my VW on fire thread."

I bought a '67 bug the PO stripped down to restore. No headliner, no carpet, different colored doors. It was my daily driver just like that for about 2 years.

So, wife is out of town with the good car. I'm going down the street and all the sudden lose power. I back and look and the fuel line had come of the pump shooting fuel into the engine compartment. I sopped it up with an old towel, let it air out for a while (not long enough) put the line back on and went down the road. About a half block later I was engulfed in flames. Some kind motorist stopped and put it out with his extinguisher and pulled me home.

The next day I rode my bike into town for fuel lines, plug wires, distributor cap, wiring etc. After about an hour it fired right up and continued to drive it with burnt bubbled paint and all.

Same vehicle had the odd habit of losing power everyonce in a while. I would let it sit, wiggle and few things and it would start right up. Finally I traced a wire from the coil to the rear luggage area hooked to nothing. Sometimes when I turned a corner the wire would move, ground against metal, and steal the power from the coil.

For me this is some of the adventure of owning a 40+ year old VW.

Wed Mar 10, 2010 10:16 pm

It wasn't stealing power, it was recycling energy back into the metal!

Wed Mar 10, 2010 10:40 pm

It wasn't stealing power, it was recycling energy back into the metal!

Fri Mar 19, 2010 7:46 pm

I was so excited to pick up my first bus! So excited I didn't check the weather before driving from maine to Vermont....
Yup.... First snow storm of the year in Vermont sure is beautiful.... driving through the hills of New Hampshire in an EMPTY 30 foot box truck hauling a car carrier with my bus on it... not so pretty.

Thu Apr 22, 2010 9:08 pm

My wife and I were just starting out a weekend trip in our '77 westy, and the van started to sputter a bit, so I pulled over to the side of the road, checked the engine compartment, everything looked fine, started it up... drove a little further and it died. I checked everything... spending a good 45 minutes trying to diagnose the problem. Right when it first happened, my wife said "hey are we out of gas?" Which I said no... (the gauge didn't work, so I always calculated the mileage), but I guess I calculated wrong. Needless to say, I still haven't heard the end of it!

Thu Apr 22, 2010 10:52 pm

Stupidest thing I ever did.....I bought a 75 Westy in 1995 when I was 19 for $500. It was in ok shape, not a lot of interior was left but I didn't care. Got it running but was having troubles with the carb that replaced the FI and the alternator was bad.
So here's the stupid part. I lost interest in it due to lack of money and when I did get the money I bought an old Jeep. I still have it though and I sold the Jeep to get the 78 Westy I now have.

Fri Apr 23, 2010 1:35 am

parked it in the garage with the engine lid open. needless to say what that crushing sound meant

prepared everything for the holidays, put it in the bus and went on... some time later heard a cat in the back of the bus. I thought: sh*t, run over a cat
looked to the side mirror, nothing. looked to the rear mirror, nothing. pulled over, and didn´t see anything
got on the bus again and looked at the back, and there it was. my kitten had entered the bus some time it was open and fell asleep

Fri Apr 23, 2010 2:04 pm

Not block the wheels while taking a tire off in the garage, little bit scary

Fri Apr 23, 2010 2:24 pm

nezz wrote: my kitten had entered the bus some time it was open and fell asleep

Cats will do that. I was driving down the freeway to work one morning when I heard, very distinctly, what sounded like a cat meowing. I pulled over, looked inside the bus, found nothing. Same with the engine compartment. I got back in, drove some more, heard more meowing. Stopped again. This time I looked up. There was my neighbor's cat, sitting on top of the car, in shock. I coaxed her down into my arms and drove the five miles back home, and let her out.

I'm sure I was hitting sixty mph at times. I did have a roof rack on the bus, which may explain why the cat wasn't blown off the roof...

I don't know if that qualifies as a "stupid thing I've done" but it was definitely one of my more interesting commutes.

Fri Apr 23, 2010 2:39 pm

while I have a number of stupid things i've done, here one from just the other day

thought I could get my bus down off the jackstands with my ford 150 scissor jack, as someone had made off with the bottle jack I used to get it up there... so no problem it lifted ok, dropped the jackstands, and proceeded to slowly let her down, and it started creeping sidways on me, but I had a good 2" to go before the tires hit ground. anyhow, the bus keeps going, I couldnt stop it with my knee (i was under the middle of it doing this) and it kinked the scissor jack like a wet noodle. doesnt work at all anymore. now I currently drive the F150 with no jack....

So now I need to get a new jack for the company's truck :roll:

naturally, I had only dropped the jackstands, not relocating them, so they were still juuuust stuck under the torsion tube. lucky my boss was in the office working this saturday and had a bottle jack in the back of his truck, so I got it down and he hopped in and we took the bus on its maiden 2010 voyage up and down the sidestreet here. yay!

Fri Apr 23, 2010 4:51 pm

I am by all accounts the best damn mechanic ever,
so I do not see how anyone could could accuse me
of leaving the oil filter loose from Nevada to Amarillo Texas
wondering why the back of the bus was accumulating oil dots.
Mo,
Mo Ron
:oops: