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68BeetleDad · 08 October 2009, 01:40

Hi all, I am John from St. Louis, MO, US. (Lee I emailed you on flickr, finally was able to sign up for the forum, woohoo!) Anyway, I bought my daughter a '68 Autostick Beetle for her 15th birthday, she has a learner's permit now and as soon as she gets her full license it will be her daily driver. Pretty cool first car! I have been able to search the forum and find some info that has helped us start getting the car up to par. First thing we did was change out the fuel line and put a metal fuel filter above the transaxle. Then we put in 3 point seatbelts, fortunately the pillars already had bolts in them so it was an easy job. Finally we replaced the vacuum lines and got rid of our "reverse crunch". We have a giant list of things to do, and hope to get the car in top shape in the next year. So, I'll see if I can post a few pics....

John

autonewbie · 08 October 2009, 04:44

Nice looking car. Maybe too nice for a first car. Good luck to her, and to you--- welcome to this forum.

Bookwus · 08 October 2009, 05:11

Hiya 68,

Welcome to the forum!

Beautiful car! Wow!

We'll be looking forward to your participation here at VWAR.

68autobug · 01 November 2009, 05:16

HI

What a nice car for your daughter..

You will need to explain to her that its not really replaceable... lol

Many people [in Australia] buy a cheap beetle for their kids
and expect a 40 year old car to be in extremely great condition..
but if it looks bad... it usually is... lol

then they start complaining about all the things that need repairing etc...

they do forget that there are no other 40 year old cars in regular use on Our roads..

One Very nice Beetle.... most of those live in garages... lol

cheers

LEE

68BeetleDad · 05 November 2009, 02:42

Hi guys, thanks for the nice comments about our car. The previous owner had some work done on the car, mostly cosmetic, like paint, tires, carpet in the bonnet, and he had all new gaskets and seals put in the engine. I don't think he did much maintance judging from the cracked vacuum lines, so I'm trying to find time to change the brake shoes, pack the wheel bearings, maybe change the atf (although it looks ok). I also noticed the front bumper was crooked and found one of the brackets has a hole rusted all the way through it LOL. The biggest repair will be this winter when it goes to our local VW shop for new floor pans and heater channels. So although it looks nice it does have some issues.

So far we have mostly enjoyed buzzing around on the weekends. My daughter prefers driving it to my Honda Civic or her mom's Infinity, so I think I did ok picking her a car. She does understand it's a special car and worries about wrecking it once she's on her own. I do imagine it will get some bumps and bruises, but if it survives 3 years of highschool she'll get a more dependable college car and we'll restore the Beetle. I guess time will tell.

John

Bookwus · 05 November 2009, 15:40

Hiya John,

Quote from: 68BeetleDad on 05 November 2009, 02:42 ....The biggest repair will be this winter when it goes to our local VW shop for new floor pans and heater channels. So although it looks nice it does have some issues.

Yowza! That is major surgery. Make sure your shop-of-choice uses quality sheet metal and parts when doing this replacement. There is just way too much shoddy material out there.

Quote....So far we have mostly enjoyed buzzing around on the weekends. My daughter prefers driving it to my Honda Civic or her mom's Infinity, so I think I did ok picking her a car. She does understand it's a special car and worries about wrecking it once she's on her own. I do imagine it will get some bumps and bruises, but if it survives 3 years of highschool she'll get a more dependable college car and we'll restore the Beetle. I guess time will tell.

The beauty of a VW lies (in part) in its replaceable parts. Smash a fender in a parking lot altercation? Unbolt the old and on with the new. It was recently said that since a VW was often a the first car for a new owner most VWs still on the road have been through the smacked fender routine already. That was certainly the case with mine. But I never would have known had it not been for a small spot of body filler. These guys can hide their experiences very well.

ASBug · 18 November 2009, 16:06

Have her start off in 2 all the time and you'll never have to worry about her getting a speeding ticket!
I live in the hilly NW GA area and I only use 1st sporatically. I have used L only one time behind a Tractor trailer (lorry) doing about 8mph up a 6 mile steep grade. I did this just to keep the RPM's up for cooling. Man that L is really LOW and SLOW.
KC

Bookwus · 18 November 2009, 20:33

Hiya ASB,

Quote from: ASBug on 18 November 2009, 16:06 .......Man that L is really LOW and SLOW.

Actually, Low is the torque converterized version of First and Second in a VW Bug manual transmission. It's good up to about 27mph. Matter of fact, I use the little red hash marks (meant to designate manual shifting points) on my speedometer for shifting from Low to First (27 mph), and from First to Second (46 mph). Works a charm.

CarlIseminger · 19 November 2009, 15:58

I don't dare shift at those points. If I rev the engine that high, it seems to just be screaming. And I really don't seem to get that much power at those engine speeds anyway. I want to baby my car along. I generally use Range 1 up to about 30PMH and then shift into Range 2 if I plan on staying at 35 for extended periods of time. I use L for pulling out into traffic or creeping along in parking lots. I read somewhere one time that L should be used for either "climbing mountains or pulling tree stumps".

Bookwus · 19 November 2009, 18:16

Hiya Carl,

I haven't pulled any tree stumps lately

but I do use Low for a start off. Then I shift through the ranges both up and down.

However, I do need to issue a bit of a retraction to my post above. I mentioned that I shift my AutoStick in accordance with the red hash marks on the speedometer face. Almost as soon as I had that keyed in and posted I jumped in the car for a drive. Lo and behold I do not shift according the hash marks. Hmmm.....dunno where I came up with that idea.

The manual hash marks on my speedo are at 11, 32, and 46mph. I shift from Low to First at 27 and from First to Second at 46. Those speeds are, of course, approximate and will vary on driving conditions and circumstances encountered. Interestingly, my AS shift points at 27 and 46 correspond exactly to the shift points in my Bus from second to third (27mph) and third to fourth (46mph).

By the way Carl, I am what I'd call a pretty darn conservative driver. And while I can certainly appreciate you desire to baby your car, you might want to do some further reading on the nature of this air-cooled engine. This is an engine that needs to be run close to the higher end limit. It really does not like to be run at lower RPMs. That can cause premature failure. This runs contrary to conventional thought, But just consider one aspect, the cooling system, for a minute. If you are turning over lower revs you are also not cooling that engine very well. Heat build-up is not a good thing.

There's been quite a bit written about the VW pedal to the metal approach to driving.

TheZooniverse · 23 December 2009, 01:29

that's a great looking beetle!