Two projects are in play:
1. Replace the wiring harness
2. Upgrade the bug from 6 volt to 12 volt

and yes, i should have done this in the winter . . .

Someone asked me why I am wasting my time with the harness, as it is a tough job. well, i got the answer as I was pulling the wires under the hood. there are more splices than wires, some of the insulation broke off in my hands, and some of the insulation was just melted to other wires. Not a lot of stuff to keep you confident. No wonder i got stranded a couple of times when the bug wouldn’t start.

Now that the wires are cleaned out - it looks much better. I also ordered a wire cover for when this is all done.

Yeah - the original cardboard glove box. I think this is getting replaced, as it is kind of moldy on the inside.

The hard part is removing the steering wheel. I need to buy another wrench, as my set stops at 20mm. Crud.

The main buggy in the movie has a Subaru engine installed in the rear. The body had to be totally reshaped to accommodate the air intakes. Turn up the speakers and the sub-woofer for this video.

The next shot is from the Dune Buggy build-off. A team of people were building a dune buggy from the ground-up in less than three days. MidAmerica was helping them with parts throughout the process, as some were found to be damaged during the build.

The music adds to the excitement of the whole thing - don’t you think?

and of course, a few seconds of a really nice dune buggy mod - i love the sound that this one puts out. Loud volume works well on this one too . . .

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.

I love the Thing, I want a Thing, I need a Thing.

Until then, I’ll be happy to just look at other people’s Things.

The Manx Dune Buggy was the theme this year, along with honoring the creator, Bruce Meyers. Here is a great dune buggy mod parking early in the day:

more to come . . . .

If you ever get a chance to get out to the Black Hills of South Dakota - you will never regret it! Deadwood has been extensively restored from the mining/gambling town that it was in the 1800’s. It is an amazing little city, and the main street at night is beautiful.

So, we are walking back to our hotel (Four Aces Hampton, the softest beds in the Black Hills - no kidding), as we just had dinner at Jake’s, Kevin Costner’s restaurant in Deadwood. We walk past the Celebrity Hotel and Casino, and saw a few costumes from Hollywood movies, and did we get a surprise! For the next hour we walked around the casino taking pictures, and yelling for each other to look at the next item we found.

The real find was Nelson’s Garage: Car and Motorcycle Museum. Here’s what we saw:

Herbie, the Love Bug. From the original 70’s Disney movie, complete with the registration made out to Disney Studios! The Beetle is in pristine condition, gleaming under the museum lighting. If you look closely, you can see that the passenger seat faces the rear of the car, along with a steering wheel in the back row for the reverse driving scenes. No CGI back then!

A couple of other really great finds:
The Ferarri from the 80’s show, Magnum P.I. I grew up really loving this car, I had a large plastic version of this - but no Magnum “action figure” to ride in it.

Evil Knievel’s jump bike. If you weren’t aware, Evil didn’t use lightweight dirt bikes they use today, this is a Harley-Davidson, upon which Evil made all his jumps. This bike is from the Wembley, England jump, well, crash . . .

The 1969 Camaro from the movie 2Fast 2 Furious. Regardless of what you may think about the movie, the car is amazing. Enough to make even the most hardened collector swoon.

Some other exhibits that are a must-see:

• A Jeep from M.A.S.H.
• James Bond’s Aston Martin from The Living Daylights
• Peter Fonda’s Harley-Davidson from Easy Rider
• Ann Margret’s Harley
• Trans-Am from Smokey and the Bandit

Make sure that the Black Hills of South Dakota are in your travel plans. It’s an amazing part of the country and there is much more to do there than one could ever imagine. Be sure to enjoy a few nights in Deadwood and check out the cars at the Celebrity Hotel!

So what do you think? Would you buy it? I would. Sorry I don’t have a better picture of it, but you get the idea.

The thing about VW’s is that they are so customizable. You can make a truck out of a VW Beetle. Who knew? But why stop there?

You can do anything you want with any VW Beetle, Thing, Bus or Ghia. All you need is a little bit of know-how, a decent amount of money, and a big imagination. Here are some more customized and modified Beetles, Ghia’s, and Things.

Here is a VW Camper Bug;

A Ghia Barbecue;

A Volkswagen Beetle Limo;

And my favorite the Type 181 VW Thing Low Rider;

There is so much you can do to VW’s. If and when I get my VW Thing, I plan on making it worthy of the off road heritage it was supposed to have. Powerful engine, bigger off road tires, sort of like a Hummer. But a VW Hummer.

Have you done any customizing unlike anyone else? Leave a comment and show us your pictures.

I haven’t seen these catalogs anywhere in stores or VW “graveyards”, but they look like something every Bug (or other VW) owner should have.

I was able to go to the Funfest last year and it was great. Of course, I loved the VW Things, but there are plenty of other VW’s and air-cooled rides.

If you would like to go, here is the Mid America Motorworks registration page for Funfest 2008.

Funfest 2007 Oval Window Beetle Pictures

Funfest 2007 VW Thing Pictures

Hope to see you there!

There are some beautiful cars on this site, and, of course, Things. Including one Kubelwagen built in 1942 and delivered and used in Africa during WWII. They also have a 1944 Schwimmwagen. Just perfect.

The one really great feature about West Coast is that they put pictures up during the restoration of a car. So we can follow along, and see what they did once they are finished. For example, here is a page about Jim’s (I don’t know Jim) 1949 Beetle restoration.

So if you have a Volkswagen that needs some love, and you just aren’t that mechanically inclined, check out West Coast VW Restoration, or anyplace around you that can do the work for you.

If you have no VW, then sorry. But you could, because West Coast sells Beetles, Things, and Ghia’s.