Hi all. Been a fun week so far and I care to share. Due to my trusty vans illness (needs an enginectomy but thats another story!) Ive been drving my 66 bug every day for everything. When I replaced my highly impractical and fun as hell dune buggy for the more traditional bodied bug I was thinking "hey in a pinch this will make a great backup car!!) . And so it is now that I have been forced to drive a car that is in reality a smidge older that I. First impressions? Well for one It is COLD AS HELL!!!  I took it on a nice 2.5 hour drive on saturday to Battle creak and I must say that between all the air that passes through the car at speed (like an old house with leaky windows!) and the sould of the engine and wind noise ripping through the cabin It was fun for around a half of an hour and I was soon deaf afterwards and it didnt matter. Also the veh had its heater that is a simple heat transfer device that has an exhaust tube run through a tunnel and that tunnel would take the excess exh heat (preferably with out the exhaust itself) into the cabin. Well these systems did not age well. Rusted pipes and other age related issues took a very poor design and made it downright dangerous. Like many the heater system was replaced with a HiPo header exhaust system. So in essence the car has not had a heater probably since the 80's. So it is that I have bought a small propane gas heater that I intend to install this week (Ill keep you informed on the fireball it produces!!). I actually had a young lad (17'ish id guess) come up to me at a gas station and say to me, thats a beetle right? DAMN DUDE DUH!!! Geeze the world used to be filled with these things. Well we are in Michigan and furrin cars are not real pleantiful but Sheeeeeze of course its a damn beetle!  So Im very surprised, well maybe not so surprized at the audience this car produces. Im in a clown car so I get attention right? Kids wave and smile. People pull out their camera/phone/thingamambobbies and snap photos, The girls swoon "its soooo cute!" and the guys say gee Id bet itd make a great dune buggy :P  . Anyway other than the cold it makes a fine commuter car. Gotta warm up the engine though. Gotta stab the gas once or twice to get the fuel though the dual carbs to get the thing started. And since she doesnt have a choke I got to blip the throttle a bit after startup to keep her running. After 30 seconds or so its running fine. Im getting 25-27 miles to the gallon. So Im enjoying my beetle runnings and am not really missing the van much (cept the heater). I got my new headliner and side pop out windows but I cant really take the bug down right now. Maybe next month. Im really enjoying the drive though.
Dan.