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1944 German Kubelwagen Type 82

By Thing Fan | August 11, 2008 | Air-Cooled Fun, VW Thing - Type 181 | 16 Comments

I found some great pics today of an original Kubelwagen (or Kuebel-Wagen as the museum writes) at the Heartland Museum of Military Vehicles in Lexington Nebraska.

German Army Type 82 Kubelwagen
This Kubelwagen is a Type 82, and was built in November of 1944 for the German Army. It had a 69 cubic inch engine, with a whopping 25hp.

I don’t think it would win any races.

But it is pretty sweet looking. It is slightly different than the more modern Thing, but still has some differences. The biggest difference to see is the front end, the Kubelwagen is much more sloped than the Thing.

1944 German Army VW Kubelwagen

Finding a Volkswagen Thing For Sale

By Thing Fan | August 6, 2008 | Air-Cooled Fun, VW Thing - Type 181 | 11 Comments

I tell you what, looking for a Volkswagen Thing is stinkin’ annoying. I’m sure everyone knows all of this already, but it’s still annoying.

Things were only made in the US for 2 years, 1973 and 1974. So many others have been imported, or if you want to buy one, you have to import it yourself. I’m not sure i want to get into all of that.

Of the Type 181′s available in the US for sale, I would say that about 90% of them are from California, which is quite a ways from most of the country. Even then, I can’t believe the shape that some of these are in, and yet still demanding more money than many other cars. For a Thing to have rust is like another car having some paint chipped, it’s not that rare.

Now I can handle most repairs and work, but I haven’t done, and am pretty sure that I can’t do, any body work. So I kind of need a Thing that has no, or next to no rust. Of course, those are over $10,000.

Even at the Beetle Barn VW Graveyard, there were no Things.

Why do I have such good, expensive taste?

Lowered VW Bus. Volkswagen Vancake

By Thing Fan | July 28, 2008 | Air-Cooled Fun, Beetle Gallery | 6 Comments

This is awesome. Just another example of how these classic VW’s can be modified, customized and just simply changed in any way you can dream of.

This Volkswagen Bus has been chopped and lowered so that it is only 3 ft 1 inch tall.

Done any modifying of your own? Let us know.

Volkswagen Thing versus a Land Rover in an Off Road Competition

By Thing Fan | July 23, 2008 | Air-Cooled Fun, VW Thing - Type 181 | 4 Comments

I love the VW Thing, but I admit, it’s not really the ultimate off-road vehicle. It’s got good hight, but not a lot of power, and it’s only two wheel drive. However, these videos are showing a comparison of the VW Type 181 to the Land Rover Discovery, supposedly one of the best off-road vehicles available.

This is in German, and is kind of long, but wait till you get to about 4 1/2 minutes into it, and see the Thing whup up on the Land Rover.

This second part of the video shows the Land Rover beating the Thing up a steep incline, but only by a tiny bit.

Unfortunately, in the end, the Thing has to be pulled out of the mud by the Discovery. However, I think that the fact that a 30 year old, 2 wheel drive, VW Thing could hang with, and even beat in some instances, the brand new 4 wheel drive Land Rover Discovery shows the awesomeness of the Volkswagen Thing.

VW Acapulco Thing from the Mid America Funfest 08

By Thing Fan | June 5, 2008 | Air-Cooled Fun, VW Thing - Type 181 | 4 Comments

Going to the FunFest was a great time. I got to see a number of Things, although not as many as I would have liked to. This one, however, was probably in the best condition of any Type 181 Thing I’d ever seen.

Beautiful VW Thing This is a beautiful blue and white Volkswagen Acapulco Thing. The paint job was brand new for this weekend, and it had only 1 mile on it. Inside, it still had an 8-Track player with a Beach Boys endless summer tape. A perfect VW Thing for the beach.