Who influenced your VW/car love?

[vwpimpster]

[moxnix]

We grew up with my Dads '68 bug and '70 Squareback, which he taught himself to fix as we lived off his meager teachers salary. In '78, on my 6th birthday, he towed home a rusty '71 bus with a blown engine. We slowly fixed that bus up, and added a westy interior from the junkyard.. Many family adventures through the early and mid 80's were had in that bus. When I turned 16 he gave it to me and I drove it through high school and college, but sold it in '94 to finance a trip to Europe.(no real loss here, it was a rusty pile by now) In '99, I ran across a decent '70 westy, which I still have and have sunk ontold amounts and time into fixing up... Today my son is turning 4 soon and he loves to ride and play in "Daddy's Bus", as he calls it...and Grandpa drives a Buick
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Morgen morgen, nicht immer Heute sagen alle faule Leute..

[bassam]

my love for vw is basically from my dad. He met mom when he fixed her red 1973 bug & then he left it in his garage until he restored it back in 2005 for my bro. i learned to drive on it, & then dad bought me my own type 3 squareback which im crazy about. Nothing beat the sound & the smell of that car, im really gonna hold on to it.... it's the best gift i ever had
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1973 VW Squareback

[mtalley69type1]

I was almost born in my parents' Bug (unknown vintage, but I was born in 1959 and I'm sure it wasn't very new, so probably an Oval). My father used to have engine parts laying around our apartment. At the time, we lived in New York City. My uncle has told me of the time he came up to NYC to visit my parents and found an entire short block in the bathtub. He always gets a kick out of that story.

Mom told me that we would go to various races in the Bug (not to race, but to be spectators) at places such as Lime Rock, etc. When I was a baby, Mom would line the rear cargo area with blankets and I would ride contented in the back for hours at a time.

My father wrote an article on building your own steering wheel and my Mother posed for the picture in the opening page of the article. This appeared in the November 1962 Foreign Car Guide magazine:



Unfortunately, Part 2 of the article never appeared, because my parents split about that time. It is still a neat momento. My Mom gave me the magazine in 2002 on the weekend before she passed away. It was shortly after we had bought the '71 Super that I've been fixing up for my daughter.

[Thee Midniters]

In highschool there were 2 slammed primered Beetles. I had to have one after I saw that.

[ampegboy1]

There's no doubt in my mind where my love of VW's comes from - my dad has had two 1200's, two GT Beetles (one of which brought me home from hospital as a newborn baby), a Type 3 squareback, a Mk1 Golf, a Mk2 Jetta and a Mk3 Passat.

My first car was a Mk1 Jetta (I miss the boot on that one!) and I'm now on my second GT Beetle.

Michael

[HermanSwanson]

This hot chick had one in high school (beetle), and she talked about how cool busses were.
I couldn't afford a splitty at the time, so i bought a bay window (had to sell and Edsel for it).
I thought I was so cool having this nice, shiny orange bus. She said it was boring because she liked gray or tan busses. I shit you not- WIERD! Then next thing I know, she had this crappy faded- paint gray splittie than ran like garbage, but was pretty cool.
I now have a fond place in my heart for not only all VWs, but for ugly tan or gray 9or whatever) busses, because they remind me of "that girl" from long ago...

[fifty-five]

When I was little (3 or 4) my dad built a rail buggy and I can remember riding in it. I actually have a picture of me in the passenger seat asleep holding my plastic trick or treat jack-o-lantern. I also have a few old pics of some of the bugs my parents had. I can also blame some of it on a guy that went to the church I grew up in. I wanted his car BAD. He had a 63 ragtop that he built himself in his parents basement. It was a burgandy color running centerlines with a 1914cc. I can still remember when he took me for a ride in it. I was hooked! I can remember it pinning me in the seat and the sounds and just the whole experience it was big for a 7-8 year old. I think VW's were ingrained in me from my parents (my mom still has a bug for a daily driver), but I think Tim's 63 hooked me for life. I tried to buy that car a few times, but either he didn't want to sell or I couldn't come up with the cash. Sadly it sold a few years back and I have no clue where it went.

[MissyB]

It was my daddy!! For as long as I can remember we had a VW in our life. From the age of 5 or 6 following him around everywhere(usually to the garage), to handing him tools while he worked on one( guess he thought he'd make me useful while asking him a thousand questions).
Then there was my mom waking me up early, wrapping my like a cocoon in a blanket and laying my in the backseat to take my dad to work. I remember the smell of the seats, hearing the am news and the dimples on my face from the impression of the seats.
He had a VW repair shop at one point. We were into bajas then, we called them stump jumpers. He chopped the fenders and welded this metal plate of some sort and bolted it under the oil pan so he wouldn't burst it while riding in the Smokeys, ripping through mud puddles and creeks and old logging trails. There was this huge hill at Bull Run, a friend of his got 3/4s the way up, then rolled his bug 3 times down the hill, the roof was caved in bad but he wasn't hurt
Next was the trip through the Blue Ridge Parkway in his 66 Split Westy. I mourn that van.... had it until a few years ago. Could kick myself for not keeping it. I did keep the 74 Westy though, in my driveway now.
He restored a 62 Ghia, which I mourn to this day too. I drove it around town some. It was gorgeous. Porsche Red, moon disc hubcaps(know what I'm talking about?) T bars on the front. He always said the thing was jinxed. Wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that I scratched the paint while pulling in into the garage?? Or the time I rear ended him while he was in his 66 Westy, and crimped the Ghia's nose?? Grr.. I barely survived that one. We were in Pigeon Forge for a show I never forgave myself!
Being an only kid... I think VWs were my siblings!! haha

[VW JUNKY]

I can also say it was my dad that got me into vw's. His parents were into Fords and my moms parents were into Chevs. He got a Triumph TR4 and she got a MG just to be different back in the 50's early 60's. Well while my mom was pregnate with me my dad totaled his TR4, got crushed buy a dumptruck with my mom riding in the passenger seat. My dad was racing it thru Richmond VA trying to get to work. Any way they were ok and dad bought his first Beetle a 1966 one. I came home from the hosipital in it and can remember many a trip riding in the back window at night keeping me warm in the winter with the engine just below. When my sister was born they got a 68 bus. Once again riding in the back above the motor will keep you warm and put any kid to sleep! Dad later went thur a few dashers and my first car was his 82 Quantum Coupe! Later, I got a 86 GLI Jetta and drove it for 12 years. First aircoold car was when I drove by a wrecked VW Thing. The front was creased as Evan Olson (singer) was driving it and his dog jumped out and he hit a telophone guide line wire. I bought it and took it apart and soon had another one and put two together into one in the parking lot of our townhouse community! I had great neighbors!
After that of couse one Thing leads to another and VW's just keep coming!
later
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63 crewcab towtruck twin vw motor! I8
61 single cab
61 westfalia caravan camper trailer
66 deluxe hard top bus
68 steyr puch Haflinger
73 german army radio vw 181 "thing"
01 jetta tdi

[dirtbug]

I can contribute my facination for VW's is definitely from my parents. I was born in 1968 and my earliest memory of VW was in 1973 when my parents bought a new standard burnt orange beetle. From then on we have always had a VW in our family. In my younger years, my family would pack 8 people into a '60's Bug and travel to Ensenada from San Diego for the day. I would sit in the passenger floorboard in front of my Uncle. My brother would sit between my Mom and Aunt in the back seat, and my sister and cousin behind the back seat. Of course my Dad was driving. My brother was into the Cal Look scene and Bug-ins in the early '80's. I can remember taking a sick day from school to help him change the clutch in his 1965 cal bug. I purchased my first bug in 1983. It was an og owner 1959 bug for $200.00. I still own this car. From then on, I have owned more than 20 VW's. Some people say they have the bug, but when you are obsessed with older VW's, you have the BUG'S!!!

The interior smell of an old VW brings back so many memories.
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1959 Sedan - Owned since 1983
1959 Ragtop - Owned since 1986
1965 Sedan - 90% restored matching numbers
1970 Mid Travel Manx Clone

"8 dumb guys are smarter than 1 smart guy!"

[Tylinol]

We've only ever had one VW in the family, a '67 Ghia. But I loved that thing, it really stuck with me, more so than the AMX, '54 Powerwagon, or the Camaro, I remember that Ghia. It was the first car I ever shifted, when I was 7 (into neutral!).
I've known I was going to get an ACVW since I was 6.
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75 Deluxe Microbus - Finally alive and kicking!

72 Fiat 850 Spider - Finally alive and...oh wait, never mind...wait there it goes!...whoops, false alarm...oh - wait wait...nope, nothing.

[53 0val]

My Dad was a real car guy. I grew up with Jaguars, Ferrari's, Porsches, Corvettes..........................but no VW's. That's why I bought one. I didn't know anything about them and Dad and I had a great time learning all about that little simple car. After you had to adjust the carbs on a Jaguar or the valves on a Ferrari....................You fell in love with VW's.
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"What a fool believes he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away." Dobee, Dobee, Do

[dirtbug]

This is an interesting subject. The main reason my family was into the bug thing was because they could buy one used for $20 back in the day. I can remember my Dad bought a '62 bug for $75 back in '74 or '75. It did not come with a battery, and we didnt have the money to buy one. Good thing we lived on a hill, and he worked where there was a hill. I think he drove this car for well over a year. Those were the days. Could you even imagine if your cell phone battery died and you were 2 hrs away from the nearest store? I think our world would fall apart in front of our eyes
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1959 Sedan - Owned since 1983
1959 Ragtop - Owned since 1986
1965 Sedan - 90% restored matching numbers
1970 Mid Travel Manx Clone

"8 dumb guys are smarter than 1 smart guy!"

[Patty B.]

Grew up with this in the family:




Altho this is how it looks now--it was once the family VW dealership(it is no longer in the family). Show room, body shop, full shop with pit, lots of tools and best of all a junk yard!
I will always remember the smell and dark dust of the place, the lighting on a bright winter day and the day the brothers from the gas station across the street beat the shit out each other.
I was my grandfather's shop then left to his son (including my Dad) after he died--they got out of VWs when catalitic converters and fuel injection came in. But mechanics go back in the family--to the livery stable days on my Dad's side and fabricators on my mom's side.

If it weren't so impractical I'd buy it back in a heart beat.

[vwone]

It was 1980...I was a big haired 15 year old crusin' the Knight Castle arcade in my way cool '68 Bug. It's been a lifetime love of all VW's since.

Rock on!

[Hobbes]

I just caught a glimpse of Volkswagen Ass and I was like "I'm having that."
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«•Lie Down... Good Bug•»

[djC4]

Saw a 74 Super for sale where I worked. Well... it kinda had the lines of a classic , but naaawwwww...rather make fun of it than drive it .

Two weeks later the disposable car I was driving ('baby blue' 1988 Tempo) just crapped out on the spot beside this thing. hmmmm?..cheap. yeah..it's lookin damn good now. SOLD. Will always own a Bug now and even my daily driver is a Jetta VR6.

[delliott101]

My dad was a VW Certified Air-Cooled Specialst way back when... he always had a VW around. When the Rabbit was introduced we were both bummed.

My first car was a '66 Bug he got me... then we put the engine in a '64 Bug.

Back in January 1980, we drove from Jersey to Disney World in his '69 Bus. One of my earliest memories (back in the '60's) was being driven around in a VW Beetle
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Transplanted Jersey Boy living in Idaho by way of Northern California!

We don't own old VWs, we just take care of them for the next driver

[TheRustySuper]

I'm 16 now, but when I was 3 and 4 years old, my dad had a friend who drove old VW's, his name was Bruce Sparrow. I used to go for rides in his Beetles a lot. I also watched Herbie CONSTANTLY. I had always wanted to have a Bug, and then read this book called "The Beetle and Me." It was a kinda love story, which I didn't like too much. But it had a '57 Beetle in it. When I was 11 I saw a '72 Super sitting at a restaraunt, car was to be auctioned off at a silent auction at MY Boy Scout troop's sphagetti dinner. Seemed like I should get it...and I did
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My '72 Super

"No warranty on repairs. Customer warned of extreme rust problem on car."

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