Dick's Aircooled VW Page

July 15, 2001

• 1999 - Liz's Yellow 74. We inherited this car and the Blue 73 from Brian Stein (was originally brother Beef's car) when he moved up to Boston to work at ARSDigita. In fall 1999 Charlie and I hauled both cars over to his shop in Westover. Passengers side floor was so rusted out that you could stand on the ground instead of sit in the seat. That winter Charlie and I put in a new floor pan.. The following spring both cars made it out out to the house (under their own power). Parked 73 on the side of the garage and got Yellow car ready to put on road for Liz. Summer 2001, I put new brakes all way around on Yellow and took to Lee at Monro Muffler and Brake to get them adjusted properly. Liz had it at school (SUNY Binghamton) for her sophomore year. Fall 2001 Liz transferred to RIT and car stayed here as back-up car. Alternator went belly-up, ordered new one from BFY (Bugs For You) Obsolete Parts. Installed a set of marine bilge blowers under rear seat to help out with heat and defrosters. Picked up four fenders from body shop that went out of business and put them in the shed for safe keeping.

  2002 - lost reverse gear so NNamdi and Yuan and I pulled the engine and transmission and replaced the transmission with the transmission from the old 2003 parts car (see below).

  2003 - Liz asked if I could put a new headliner in the car, I said sure (not knowing that this seeminly innocent projects would turn into a 3 year oddessy). Anyway, started reading about replacing headliners and found out that for Supers you had to remove all of the glass, no problem and in a matter of minutes the glass was out (with my handy dandy box cutter). Ordered the headliner (Rocky Mountain), six piecer came a few days later; also ordered new window gaskets (also Rocky Mountain). Also picked up two sets of Toyota Celica seats to replace the VW seats with (light gray for Liz's bug and dark gray for the purple '74). Friend from school has a two bay garage in Johnson City that he is willing to rent me for the foreseeable future. Don Blake and I borrowed John Fiorenza's dolly and towed the bugs to the winter storage garage Fall of 2006. Both were actually running when we put them to bed. Discovered in the moving process that reverse is shot in the purple bug.

  2007- Got a used transmission from John Fiorenza for the purple bug (will replace in Summer 2008 effort). Anyway, Don and I towed the the Yellow bug back to the house for the Summer 2007 Effort.
  Yellow 74 - Liz's Car
  Yellow 74 - Liz's Car
  Yellow 74 - booster fans for defrosters
  Yellow 74 - Booster fans for defrosters

  The Summer 2007 Effort

• Blue 73 Super used to be Brian Stein's car and was on road through his career at SUNY Binghamton. It got parked in a garage on upper Pennsylvania Ave until Charlie and I moved it to the Westover shop. Put in a new starter motor ( I was thinking of making restoring both cars but decided much later that the 73 was just too rusted out. Car runs but is in very bad shape rustwise. Both floor pans are pretty rusted out and both heater tubes are actually rusted away (not there). Engine and transmission are in fine shape but carburator needs rebuilding. Stripped out all of the useful parts and called Gary's U-Pull-It to come and take the carcase away (taps sounding in the background).
  Blue 73 - parts car
  Blue 73 - parts car
  Blue 73 - look Ma, no engine or transmission
• Bought the Purple 74 Super(was originally green) from from Brian Conner (Spring 2001) for $200 after a conversation with him over the counter at Advanced Auto (he worked there). Car had been in an accident and driver's door and rear quarter got pushed in about a foot. Started working on purple it by trying to hammer out the rear quarter (decided to replace, ordered a rear quarter from Rocky Mountain (came in the biggest cardboard box I had ever seen). Got orange door from Gary's U-Pull-It as a temp for alignment purposes to try straightening out door post (got a good replacement door from John Fiorenza and put it in the shed). Stripped off crunched up rear fender (ordered a new one from Rocky Mountain). Note, broken windshield and glass is missing (down in the shed now). Not a bad deal for $200 bucks, body is solid, passenger side floor pan is rusted out under battery (ordered replacement patch panel from Rocky Mountain).
  Purple 74 - side
  Purple 74 - side/rear
  Purple 74 - rear
  Purple 74 - front
  Purple 74 - passenger side
  Purple 74 - cut out rusted floor under battery
  Purple 74 - pieced in battry box patch
  Purple 74 - rear quarter cut out
  Purple 74 - rear quarter rough fit