Saturday, November 29, 2008

Cars I Have Owned #4 VW microbus

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Randy Burman said...

My 4th (& 5th) car(s) was - a split window, air-cooled, VW microbus. First one was 2-tone black & white, followed by an all white. Iris, baby Ben and I left Fells Point, and moved to Churchville, MD where we lived out of the van while parked in a sheep pasture. After rebuilding the Midget engine, felt confident enough to use the VW Idiot book and Chilton's to rebuild engine myself. (Typical Idiot Book tip: Don't have the right size wrench to get that highly torqued nut off? If you're very careful you can use a hammer and chisel! Proceed cautiously, you'll need to put that nut back on.) Talk about an education. Later changed transmissions on a somewhat regular basis, and eventually switched the engine from the 4th to the 5th . On one memorable trip to West Virginia with Cowboy Foulke and Danny Mills, we had to hold the gear shift in 4th gear because it kept popping out. Soon it started to pop out of 3rd gear too and we had to hold it in 3rd as well. Coming back, it started to rain violently and the windshield wipers stopped working. We tied a cord around the driver's side wiper and ran the ends of the cord through each vent window and had the "shot gun" passenger, Cowboy, operate our "manual" wipers, while Danny from the back seat, and I took turns holding the gear shift lever in place. Eventually Ruth and I drove down to Florida in the black and white. Drove it down here in Florida for many years. Always wanted to paint one of those kitschy murals on the side that used to be so popular. Dramatic red-orange sunset background with a silhouette of the van in front, with the back engine lid opened and someone working on it. That' was a relatively common scene - a VW van pulled off to the side of the road with the owner trying to figure out what was happening now. A lot fun for a death trap

November 29, 2008 at 6:08 PM

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