The Classic VW Beetle

More fun from the Aircooled VW Funfest, Day 1.

Day one of the Air-cooled VW Funfest was an excellent day. Updates soon to come, but for now – video updates!

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 . . . .

So Mrs. Beetle Fan and I were in Deadwood, South Dakota last month for some business meetings.

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!

Has anyone else heard that Volkswagen is now making a truck for 2010? However, unknown to many people, there was already a VW Truck years ago. I have proof. And here it is;

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 saw this catalog on The Samba today. It’s the 1974 VWOA Accessories Catalog, subtitled “84 Interesting Things You Can Do to a Volkswagen.” What a great title.

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.

Yes!! I get to go to the Mid America Motorworks Air-cooled VW funfest again. This year Mid America is honoring the Dune Buggy, and in attendance will be Bruce Meyers, creator of the Manx Dune Buggy.

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!

As I was searching for a VW Thing in good condition, I came across a great site for people like me who (although I would love too) just don’t have the time to fully restore a Beetle or Thing. West Coast Classic Restoration restores and sells VW’s.

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.

Let’s have a moment of silence.

I have seen too many of these car graveyards (shedding a tear), and many of them are almost exclusively VW’s. Why is this? There really is no shortage of Beetles for restoration projects.

I know, the ‘Bug-erceptor”? It’s bad, but that’s what they’re calling it.

This Beetle, seized in a DUI, has been transformed into a Police Cruiser. But don’t let the name, “Bug-erceptor” fool you. It’s not an interceptor. You won’t be getting pulled over by this cop car unless you’re on a bicycle. At a top speed of 70 MPH, this Bug will be seeing action only in parades and schools.

In case you are wondering, the number on this police car is 53.

My brother, The Beetle Fan, asked me to do some writing for him on the Classic Beetle. Unfortunately for him, I’m a Thing Fan. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Beetle, but the Thing is what does it for me.

The VW Thing was built in Germany (obviously) during WWII, but was stopped after the war. In the 1960’s, the German military wanted a light duty vehicle, and from that came Type 181 Kubelwagen. It started production in 1969, and moved to Mexico in 1973, the same year it was marketed as the Thing in North America. Production stopped in 1980.

It’s not powerful and fast, it’s not really that great for off-road use, but it sure looks cool. My favorite Thing that I’ve ever seen is already here on The Classic Beetle on the post about the pictures we took at the Mid America VW Funfest

I just found a company in Vancouver, Canada that is actually making new Kubelwagens, or Things if you prefer. Intermeccanica Custom Coach Builders is also making new 1959 Porsche Roadsters, ‘55 Speedsters, ‘58 Speedsters, and other custom order vehicles.

I gotta get me one of those.