A Boy can Dream
My first car after meeting a deer.
As I started preparing for getting my learners permit one thing I had to decide on was a first car. My eventual first car was a Toyota Camry that got me through the second half of High School, all of College, and the first part of starting my current job. While it was a great car and probably a good choice it wasn’t my first choice.
I wanted to get either a classic Beetle or a Prius, the Prius for the novelty of a hybrid as they were first coming out, and the Beetle for the classic look and simple mechanics. The idea of a car that could be taken apart in a weekend with a small set of tools really appealed to someone who grew up taking everything apart.
Recurring Thoughts
Over the years the thought of getting a Beetle moved more to the back of mind. I made a small step in the right direction with my second car getting a manual transmission Mazda 3. Not only did I learn how to drive stick I also went a little further into handling my own maintenance. Over the years I’ve replaced brakes, a rear light cluster, and an engine mount, each a learning experience, some in how not to do things. This was also the time that I picked up John Muir’s book on care and maintenance of a Beetle. That book would provide a great resource to learn more about Beetles.
Recently I have been considering getting a new car as my Mazda crossed 200k miles. My search for a potential new car happened during the pandemic, which meant my commute went from 100 miles a day down to zero. My search for a new car lead to my wife Loren encouraging me to at least consider getting a Beetle since she knew how much I wanted one.
Loose Tin and a Rough Engine
I started the search lightly until I found a nice looking 1969 Beetle. I went and took a look and found the pictures did not accurately reflect the state of the car. There were some broken sections of the exhaust tin. Worst of all was a very rough idle to the point I couldn’t do a test drive.
Despite not being a car worth the price I learned a lot just by looking. All of the information I had read from Muir and videos I had watched from Chris Valone made a lot more sense.
Finding Rosie
The second Beetle I found that I considered going to look at was a red 1967 Beetle. Now red wasn’t my first choice, or my second to be honest, but it still looked good enough to take a trip to Cleveland, GA to have a look and give it a test drive. When I showed Loren pictures of the car she said I had to buy it due to the color and bulldog sticker on the air cleaner. Loren is a big UGA fan while I’m a Georgia Tech fan, so you can see why her enthusiasm, and mine not as much. With all of that I scheduled time to go take a test drive, and planned to spend the afternoon in Dahlonega with Loren so the trip wouldn’t be a complete waste if there was an issue.
The day came and off we went to take a look and drive a Beetle. When we arrived I started taking a look around walking through the mental checklist of all the major pieces to look over. Floor pans looked to have recently been treated for rust and painted, no major issues overall that I could find. The heater channels and the engine tin were in the same good condition. The only issue I could find was the upholstery on the rear seat and rear parcel area, both of which I considered a small issue. Starting up the engine sounded great and there was no abnormal movement or shakiness to be seen.
Out on the Open Road
After looking it over the time came to take the Beetle out for a test drive. To say it’s a different experience from a modern car would be an understatement. The lack of power steering means you have to work for your turns at a slow speed. The drum brakes had a slower feel to them from disks, but that might be more attributed to me than the brakes. Finally the small engine with only four gears made for a very different feel accelerating and working my way up through the gears. I took it easy during the drive, but was still able to easily get up to 55 and cruise along with no issue.
The test drive sold me on this spunky red bug, all that was needed was getting to a price I felt good paying. After a fairly short negotiation I was the proud owner of a 1967 VW Beetle. Now that I owned it all I had to do was take the “short” drive to get it back home.
That drive home also featured going through a few rain storms. Those storms helped me get a better feel for how the Beetle handled along with showing that the window seals are no longer doing their job, another item to add to the list. I also discovered the horn did not work when trying to answer a honk from another driver.
Showing Off and Naming
Once we were home I started building a list of things that either would need fixing or replacing. Thankfully, the only major issue I could find was the windows seals. That wouldn’t be an issue in the short term since I could just drive when there wasn’t rain in the forecast, but it would still need to be a sooner rather than later item. Before any repairs start Loren decided she needed a name. The name Loren suggested and that I like is Rosie, so Rosie the Red Beetle she will be. Next up was taking her to show her off to the family. As luck would have it my family was having a large get together where we could drive her up as a surprise, and oh was it.
My dad had a beetle as his first car, but his dad had gotten rid of it when someone they knew was killed in an accident. My uncle had spent time riding in the back seat of another relatives bug and remembered it fondly. Overall the response was positive with some caution about being safe. Seeing the reaction made me feel even better about buying Rosie, and made me determined to repair and restore her as best I can.
First Issue and Repair
On the way home from spending time with my family we ran into our first issue. While climbing a hill Rosie started to sputter and finally die. I was able to get her onto a wide driveway where we were on level ground and out of the way. At first I thought I had just stalled climbing a hill since I’m still getting used to the feel of the engine, but when she died while idling that was ruled out. Next to check was the oil, which was low, but still between the marks. After that I went to check the gas tank, the gauge showed a full tank, but could be wrong. Finally I guessed the engine may just be hot so we waited while Loren called her grandad to come help.
Roy’s Roadside Assistance
Once Nana and Poppy, Loren’s grandparents, had arrived Poppy started to help me take a look. Eventually we had the air cleaner off checking to see if the issue was a clogged fuel line or carburetor issue. Poppy was able to see that fuel wasn’t coming in, but didn’t see why. Finally he went to double check the fuel tank and found the issue. The tank was empty; I had mistaken the level due to how shiny the inside of the tank was. After adding gas from the can he brought we were able to get her started back up. To say this breakdown was a little embarrassing would be an understatement. The embarrassment wasn’t so much from needing to call for help, since getting gas would have needed some help, but from the fact I had missed the issue when I was looking.
Sticky Floats and Easy Fixes
Once we got Rosie home I started reading up on what could cause the gas gauge to not show correctly. I figured worst case I’d need to replace something, and how hard could that be to do. As I read more I found the gauge for my year model is entirely mechanical. To me that was a good sign since mechanical objects are easier for me to think through and work on.
Once I had a decent understand of how the gauge worked I went to work clearing everything in the trunk to get to the sending unit. After popping the sending unit cap off I saw the connection from the float to the pull wire. Pushing the arm just a little it suddenly dropped and I heard the float bottom out. Checking the dash I could see the gauge was showing empty. To confirm that the issue was just a stuck float I had Loren watch the gauge as I moved the arm to confirm it showed the full range.
Next Steps
In the next post I’ll start work on the first potential repair not prompted by an issue. I’ll also be posting a list of issues and fixes pending and completed on Rosie.