Merry Christmas

Christmas is finally here and the year is almost over. During this break from school and work many of us will be traveling to family. Perhaps we will be staying home. We might take some time to catch up on those projects we just haven't had time for. Whatever we are doing I hope we can all remember why we take this time off of work and school each year. This is the time of year where the world takes a special remembrance of the child that was born in Bethlehem, the Savior of the world. Thomas S. Monson said "to catch the real meaning of the spirit of Christmas we need only drop the last syllable it becomes the spirit of Christ." I hope that we can all remember the love and forgiveness that Christ has for each of us, and I hope that we can share that love with those around us. I leave you with this video from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints to hopefully bring the spirit of Christmas into our hearts. Merry Christmas!

Winter Wonderland

I survived my finals so I decided to relax and do something fun, so I drew some winters VW's, since I've been feeling Christmasy lately. I liked the red on black paper with the snow background. What do you guys think? Merry Christmas!

Hiding the Rat's Nest

Before

After I got the mat

My latest little feature I added to my car is a trunk mat. I've gotten tired of having an ugly trunk that looks nothing like a trunk. It really looked like a big mess, the rat's nest of wiring and tubes running all over my trunk were an eyesore. And my gas tank was starting to get scratched up from stuff I was putting in my trunk, so I broke down and bought a cheap trunk mat from Walmart. It actually fit really good, I didn't have to cut it down to size much, and it's big enough to cover everything. Now it actually looks like a trunk.

I have actually been surprised at the amount of stuff I can fit in that trunk. It's actually a lot bigger than it looks. I have large coolers in there. If you are creative in packing the bug has plenty of trunk space with it's front and back luggage compartments.  Not quite as much space as a type 3 or a bus, but it holds its own pretty good. These were really well designed little cars (not that I'm biased or anything).

Another VW From School

Well my finals are this week (wish me luck!) and with the semester finishing up I haven't had as much time for posting. I have some stuff to post about over Christmas break, so for now I have pictures of VW's I've seen around my school.

Here is a blue Vanagon I saw at my school. I used to think they were ugly, but they are growing on me the more I get into Volkswagens. Can anybody help me on the year? I don't know as much about them as the other VW's. If I remember right these were introduced in the 1980's and were water cooled (thus the grill on the front) Is that right?

Well, as you can see all the snow from that big storm that I got a little bit ago has gone. A little disappointing  and it's still cold. I figure if I have to deal with cold I might as well have snow. Merry Christmas!

Retro Sound's New Radio

New Retro Sound Radio

Retro sound recently put out a new radio. Up until now I have thought that their 60's style radios have looked good, but they haven't really put out a good 1968 and up sapphire style radio. A few weeks ago I saw the MidAmerica Motorworks catalog and I was pleasantly surprised. On one of the front pages they showed the newest model, the one shown above. I really liked it, I thought they did a good job on it. The black push buttons and chrome trim really are what does it. I think I will still stick to my stock radio, but they did a good recreation. Who knows maybe someday when I restore my car i'll get a new radio. I think they would look good on a stock VW dash or custom, either way its a good balance between retro and modern. What do you guys think, would it look good in a stock VW or should we stick with vintage sapphire models?

Vintage Sapphire Radio

First Snow... and an Idea for Heat

Christmas is in the air, and I've already broken out my Christmas music. Just in time too, today we had our first real snow storm, and well its a lot of snow. As I was driving back from school this morning the sleet was just turning to snow. It was beautiful, I thoroughly am enjoying the snow.

On my way home I noticed a slight problem with defrost. Bundled up I usually do OK in my car in the winter, but  there is one thing that I miss about a really good heater, that's the defrost. The heater in my car does pretty well on the bottom half of my car, but he struggles to get any heat to the front windshield. I was able to drive OK when I broke out the squeegee to keep the window clear, but defrost would be nice. I was bumming the internet when I found a solution. 

12 Volt Heater

This is a 12v heater from Sports Imports that has duct work coming off of it. If  it were hooked up to the stock Auxiliary heater switch it would blend in perfectly on the dash, but then it could be hooked up to the vents on the dash and have defrost and heat from the dash vents. I've never been a fan of gas heaters in cars, but I wanted added heat in the winter. I think this is a great solution for anyone in need of something a bit more. It could easily fit in the trunk as it is only 9" x 5" x 4" and then easily connected to the vents in the dash, and at a price of $239.89 its a good comparison to the gas heaters, because you would have to locate and restore a stock VW heater. Not to mention the gas heater never hooked up to the dash vents, it only had one vent underneath the dash, which really was a big hole that heat came out of on the driver side.

Another future addition to my beetle to put on my dream list, sure would make driving in the winter easier. What do you guys think, would you bother with it? Or have you done something else to improve the heating in your VW?

Finally Back on the Road & Ready for Another Year

My New Pedals

Last time I actually posted about my car I left you hanging. I mentioned that I had a new set of pedals and antennae ordered. Well that easy fix turned into a slightly bigger problem. When I tried to install the metal accelerator pedal I busted the entire pedal assembly. As I got looking at it I realized that there was a crack there previously and it had started to rust out. So I had to order an entire new pedal assembly. More money than I wanted to spend, but hey it looks nice, and that is one other part I won't have to replace when I restore my bug. So it took another week for that to finally come, and then I got my brand new pedal assembly in with the new brake and clutch pads makes the interior look a little better actually, a little cleaner. The other part I ordered was a stock radio antenna instead of the after market one. Sadly it didn't make all that much difference, I can still only pick up two radio stations clear enough to hear.

New Fan Pulley

OK so my car was running for a few days then I decided to do a carburetor adjustment before I took the car in to get emissions and safety done. I also realized the fan belt was really loose, so I took a look at it and realized the fan pulley was pretty warn and a little loose. I went ahead and ordered that, a week later that finally came, it all went together smoothly and the bug was finally on the road again. To top it all off it passed emissions and safety with flying colors, they didn't have to twink it at all. So he's good to go for another year.


I'm really excited the bug has been running really good lately. Usually about every two weeks I have to fix something else, but he's been running really smoothly (knock on wood). Do you guys find that you have to twink or fix something on your VW pretty regular?

Wow, I haven't posted for almost a month. I have a lot of catching up to do with my bug. I've done a lot quite a bit to it over the last month. This week I'll try to post a bunch about all of this months adventures. Meanwhile I found this video of fully restored bug online. This guy backdated his bug somewhat and I thought it looked really. good. I've also seen some pictures of his bug on the samba online. It is a really awesome looking 1975 bug, with a slightly backdated 1960's look. I just keep dreaming about the day when I can restore mine. Dream on...

I thought I would share this video I made. I made this at the end of last year for school, and since I've been thinking about the new new beetle lately I thought I would share it. We needed to do a commercial for some car in my class, first thing that came to my mind- the new new beetle. So I pulled a bunch of videos from YouTube and compiled them. I had fun making it, it turned out pretty good. What do you guys think?

Brake Check!

New Brake Pads

I was driving home from work the other day, and I heard a rattling noise coming from one of the back brakes. It did not sound good. I reached down to rest my hand on the parking brake and it was vibrating, so I knew the rattling was coming from the brakes. When I got to my neighborhood I tried the parking brake to slow the car down, and it started squealing at me. I figured we needed to buy new brake pads, so I went out and bought some. It made sense, my brakes have never been good. The pedal would go all the way to the floor, and the parking brake never worked well, so I figured pads. When I tore the back brakes apart I realized there was one small pin that held the parking brake to the pads that had gotten loose on one side. That pads were still good, I replaced the back ones anyway. They were worn a little. But all it needed was a clip to hold the pin  in place and a brake adjustment.

The brake with the loose pin

What a difference it makes to have fully adjusted brakes. It stops so much better! And it is so nice to have a parking brake that works. This is the type thing I love about my car. Working on the little things, like the brakes, that make the car that much better of a car. One other thing I have learned how to do, and another good day of working on the bug

The New New Beetle

I've never really known what to call VW's latest rendering of the classic image of the beetle. I can't call it "the beetle" because that will forever be the classic air cooled beetle. I can't call it "the new beetle" because well there already was one of those, and there is a big difference between the new beetle and the newest beetle. With this dilemma I have just started referring to them as "the new new beetle". Anyway if you will recall, at the Last Call VW show I went to it took place on a VW Dealership lot and they happened to have some new new beetles there. I took the opportunity to take a closer look at them. I am quite impressed with the redesign. The car is sporty but definatly illudes to its classic origins. The front seat is quite comfortable to sit in, It feels comfortable but not too big, which is something I prefer. I also noticed that the diesel gets around 40mpg, which isn't bad at all. Even with diesel a little more expensive you save a lot driving something that fuel efficeint.  I don't think you can ever recreate the original bug, but thumbs up to Volkswagen. They did a good job building a modern rendition of the old beetle. I think its a great car. It's styled well, comfortable, fuel efficient, and well priced at $19,795 for its base price. That's what I think, but what do you guys think of the new new bug? I would love to hear your comments.

Volkswagen Bus Commercial - A Box

Volkswagen has always been creative with there advertising. This is a classic example. Back then many people would have thought "A station wagon, it looks more like a box, that's really weird." But Volkswagen was proud of that."Of course it's a box, it makes logical sense." Volkswagen's bus, excuse me, station wagon was very unusual for its day, but that was the point. Volkswagen stood out as the cars that were different, but they were logical. It made sense to have a box, because it can carry more. The bug and the bus were designed to be cars for the people, reliable, easy to work on and operate, and that's exactly what you bought.

Showing off my VW pride with a key-chain

At the last car show I went to I was disappointed to find very few people selling parts. It was a great show, but it would have been better if there were as many spare part vendors as there were at the Wasatch Classic car show. But I did get one thing from the show, finally I got a VW key-chain. not much, just a $2 purchase but I thought it was pretty nifty.I really liked this one, partially because of what it said. It says on it "Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat...". So true, a VW is incredibly tough, it's usually the driver that has the struggles, freezing, trying to see through the window as rain pounds down, and getting way too hot on a drive in the summer. I thought it was pretty cool, I've wanted a VW key-chain for a while so I'm happy to finally have one. Any of you guys have a cool VW key-chain you like?

A few little parts on the way

There are a bunch of little parts that I never really think about ordering. I always think, it's just a small part I'll order it with my next big order, and then I forget. Then there are those things you think I need to fix that, and then you don't think about it for a while. For instance my gas pedal sticks because it's missing the roller. When it sticks I think I'll replace that, then it works good and I forget about it. Well I put together an order of a few of the dumb little parts I need. I ordered a new antenna: I'm hoping it will make a difference on my radio. Right now I have a cheap aftermarket radio that was on the car when I got it. I also ordered the new accelerator repair kit: It should help my gas pedal move more smoothly. And I ordered the rubber pads that go on the brake and clutch pedal: Right now it's just bare metal that can be a little slippery, so those are ordered and should be here soon. I'm excited about it. Now I just need to put together a list of all the other dumb little parts I need to get.

Last call VW Show

Car show #3 for the year! Sadly with winter approaching it will probably be the last one for this year.But I had an awesome time! It was at the Volkswagen Southetown VW Dealership in Salt Lake UT. Besides teh classic Beetles I got a good look at the new ones. I think their pretty cool. There was a lot of VWs there though. I think it had more VWs than the last show I went to, sadly there weren't as many vendors. I took some money hoping to buy a few things from a guy who was at the last car show, mainly some awesome sport seats he was selling. Oh well, always next year. Back to the show there were some awesome cars that were excellently restored. But for the most part a lot of the bugs there weren't in any better condition that mine, made me feel good about my car. My all time favorite Beetle was a yellow 1971 super beetle that was in excellent condition. There were many other great one's too. The close second was a reddish orange early model Beetle. There were some great one's there. My favorite bus was a very nice cove blue westy. I really liked the fact that they had the attached tent with it, it was in very nice condition! There were a lot of buses and vanagons there. Well, enjoy the pics from the show. Any shows any of you guys have been to recently, comment below, I would love to hear about them.

Yep, even a porche

My close second favorite bug

My favorite Bus

My Favorite Bug

Here's a Notch   

Karmann Ghia

Very Nice Bug

A Sports Bug

He's Watching You!

Some Customs

That Thing!

Sorry I have been less than stellar keeping up on my posts, but school has started and I've been busy. But speaking of school, I've seen a couple air coolers around my school parking lot. Among them is one I see regularly the yellow thing. Yep a VW 181, I don't usually see many of them around but this one I've seen at school a lot. I hope I run into who ever it is who owns it sometime. I wish there were more things around, I think they are pretty awesome cars. Designed kind of like the WWII German jeep, kubelwagen, they are made for rouging it. Off road on road uphill, over hill, you name it they were built for it.

 On another note I had one of those moments at the gas station where you run into someone who owned a bug, so you become instant friends. I was just finishing cleaning of the windows when a red truck pulled up next to me. There was an older lady in teh back. She leaned the window and asked "what year is your bug?" I responded "1974, have you owned one?" Turns out she owned a 1974 VW Bug too, she owned it when she graduated from high school. It's the car she learned to drive stick shift in. I have always loved that part about owning and old Volkswagen. Does this happen do you guys pretty often? Any interesting stories from experiences like this?

The Bug Starts

Well over the last couple of days Pacha has become less and less reliable when I try to get him to start. He runs just fine but starting, not so much. Looking into the problem I found it was probably the electric ignition switch. I wasn't sure but my car was taking longer and longer to start each day i waited. Finally I decided to chance it and I looked online for it and wouldn't you know Amazon sold a switch with prime shipping. I was able to order it and it got here two days later. Very Exciting. I checked online on how to change the switch and it isn't two bad of a job actually. You take of the steering wheel, and the entire block of metal that the ignition sits in. Then you undo a screw replace the switch put the screw back in and put it all back together. And I tried it with great success! It starts every time now. Very satisfying to know I picked the right part and I was able to get the problem fixed. I'm just amazed at where you can find parts, like on amazon. I wouldn't have thought that but my dad told me to check there so I did. Pretty cool though.

4x4 VW Bus

I found an article today about an amazing idea for a VW Bus. Check this out, I mean this is awesome. The owner of this bus, Steve Rice, took the body of a bus and put it on the chassis of a Jeep 4x4. Replacing the engine with a 300 hp automatic beast to power this bus. Imagine the places you could go camping with something like this. I can guarantee you would sleep better than all the hikers or backpackers, even those with big trucks. You can go anywhere they can and sleep in classic comfort. Love it, two thumbs up Steve! Check out his blog for the whole story at Off Road 4x4 VW Bus.

This article got the wheels turning in my head. I'm thinking the VW transporter truck but with 4x4. I love those trucks, but if I were to get a truck here in Utah I would want something that could have 4x4 for the snow and mountains.  I'm telling you this idea could be transferable to a truck. I've got to remember that, someday when I have the money to restore one, that may be the way to go. Have you guys heard of any other 4x4 Volkswagens? if so I would love to hear about them. 

Super Sonic Volkswagen Beetle

Ok so I found this video by Cesar Laser while browsing the internet. It's about a supersonic VW Beetle that he likes cruzing around in, and it's one of those songs that's very catchy and gets stuck in your head. This guy went to Britain's Got Talent with this song. It's one of the only songs I've ever found that has to do with a VW Beetle so I thought I would share it. I'll also include the link to the version he did at Britain's got Talent: Supersonic Volkswagen BGT.  I think it's a kind of weird, but catchy nonetheless. What do you guys think? Good song or not?

Finally a Cup Holder

My new cup holder

My Old Cup Holder

It's very hard to drive a stick shift while holding a drink at the same time. I have tried it several times and it just doesn't work for me. And being an old beetle it has no cup holder. For a while I tried using one of those paper cup holders you can get at KFC. It still doesn't work very well unless you get a small drink. I have spilled sprite several times in my car. It makes a sticky mess. I really needed a cup holder, but I just had more important things to but than one of those floor consoles or the plug and chug drink holder that plugs into the ash tray. But while I was buying oil at Autozone a sollution presented itself. I found a product be Bell. It is a cup holder that fits inside the window. The best par was it was only $2. I figured if it didn't work I'd only be out $2, and it did work. I'm actually quite pleased with it. A great fix for the problem. So if you need a cup holder, I would recommend this for a try. What solutions have you guys found.

New Speaker is in!

Well my new 4 ohm speaker got shipped! I got it installed and it seems to work a lot better. The stations that have the best reception are fairly loud, loud enough to hear when the engine is at a lower RPM. Eventually when I want to put a better muffler on it, a stock muffler, that will help to quiet it a bit. But you can here it while driving, whereas before you couldn't here it if the engine was running at all. I think part of the problem may be I also need to replace the Antennae. The one that was in it when I bought it is a really cheep after market one. Not stock. Their only like $8 so I may pick one up sooner rather than later. If that improves reception, I may be set. It's nice having my little radio in, kind of exciting actually. Do any of you still have the stock radio in yours?

New Axles

My New Axle

Well I finally replaced the rear axles in my car. I thought the CV Joints were bad. Now, I;m not so sure. First I noticed a grinding noise about a year ago. I know that was the CV Joints. It made that grinding noise when I took a sharp corner at 15- 20 miles per hour. After about 2 months though it went away. Then I noticed a clicking noise. It always seemed to come from the rear of teh car. THe sound was kind of a clickety clack, I was sure it waws the CV Joints. I finally forked up the $160 to buy two new axles, and after I put them in the clicky sound is still there. I then find it was my rims. The rims on my car have a funky plastic insert that is loose and it rattles as you drive, that's it. But those are something that would need to be replaced sometime anyway. The old one's were pretty greasy and worn. They still worked but they would need to be replaced sometime. So thought I would share my story. Have you guys had the experience where you've replaced something to find out nothing was wrong in the first place? Reminds me of that old adage "If it ain't broke don't fix it".

Jared Norman Fine Art

My brother Jared is going out in illustration with and emphasis in concept art. He is really good at it too. He had some fun with my bug the other day. The pieces he did turned out really good. He did these two peieces digitally with photoshop. They are really cool. Living in utah the bug with the treads would be great in the winter. Bet the flying bug would sure save time getting places. As my other brother said "Put me down for one of these!"

Jared also did another piece for me a little while back. This one was done a little different. He also does some of his art work using colored pencils usually on black paper, they turn out really amazing as well and I wanted to share that piece with you guys. click on teh link here Red Bug. Check out his website and other pieces at Jared Norman Fine Art.

Radio Installed

Well I got the radio installed in my car. I had to fix the dash though teh previous owner had bent it up to fit a different radio I'm guessing, but I bent it back into place and the new radio snapped right into place. Very Exciting. Then I had to work on the antennae a little bit, it was loose.

Then I had to figure out a speaker. I went to autozone and bought a 4 inch speaker that was 4-8 ohms. When I hooked it all up my radio was very quiet, you have to put your ear up to the speaker to hear much of anything. One station comes in clear enough that with the engine off. You can hear it pretty well if you are also very quiet. So the new radio is exciting but I haven't got it to work yet. My guess from some research is that I should have gotten a 4ohm speaker not a 4-8 and if I do that it should be twice as loud, or I need to get two speakers to hook up in parallel. If that doesn't work then I plan on figuring out if my radio isn't getting enough power. Do you guys  have any other suggestions?

AM Stations Still Live!!!

So with my new Radio that I got I decided to check out what stations still exist (If any) in AM, and was pleasantly surprised. In fact I may even use all of my presets. I mainly listen to music, I'm not into sports or political talk station, so I didn't think I would find much to my liking. I was actually quite wrong. The first station I found was a station that plays old radio shows later at night and music during the day. Then I found Radio Disney which plays a lot of the newer songs, which is awesome. Then I found a station that plays christian music, I like listening to K-Luv, which is another christian station when I have FM Radio, and it is very similar. Then the one I am most excited about I found on Sunday flipping channels. It plays oldies from the 50's to the 60's. There are a lot I have heard before, and I like most of the songs they play and have very few commercials. It is an awesome station!

Who knew there were still some decent AM radio stations out there still? Do you guys out there have any good AM stations you listen too?

In The News

So remember that car show I recently posted about? It made it to the local news. KSL did a article online about the bug fest, and my car was in the video. If you look behind the Brazilia its the green bug. That made my day. In the picture I posted I'm the kid in the background with the blue shirt on the phone, and the other two kids around my car are my two friends I went to the show with. I thought that was pretty cool. There are actually a lot of people in my area of Utah that drive aircooled volkswagens.

Here's the link to the video and article: Bug's Invade Car Show. Have you guys ever made the news with your Volkswagen? Or any of the clubs in your area?

Day/Night Mirror

My New Day/Night Mirror

It is possible to live without a day/night mirror. But it is so much nicer to have one! Last week I drove home everyday at 9:30 and the bright lights of the car behind me were quite annoying. When I was at the car show I finally found one from the same guy who sold me the radio. It was in good condition and only $5. The only thing was that it is a little different than the one I had in my Beetle before. The guy who sold it seemed to think it was from a bus. I know that this one hangs down a little more than the old one, but it still fits perfectly. Do you guys know what my mirror came from originally?

My Old Mirror

Anyway it was pretty exciting to finally be able to use the mirror, makes driving so much nicer at night. My car is slowly improving little bit by little bit, it's been fun.

New Radio

My Cardboard Radio

When I first got my car it had two nice Kenwood speakers, but no radio. It just had a giant hole in the dash where the radio was supposed to go. Instead of having the gaping whole I cut out a piece of cardboard and wrapped it in black duct tape to color match it to the dash. After a couple of weeks I got an even better idea, I went online and got a picture of a stock VW Radio and printed it off and glued it to the cardboard. People got a kick out of it and it was a good temporary fix.

My New Radio

But while I was at my most recent car show I found just what I was looking for a Good looking decent condition radio for a cheap price. The radio I got was only $25! You can't loose for that price. When I got home I took a look and the electronics and everything looks functional, just like the seller was telling me. I plan on installing it to my Kenwood speakers this week and giving it a try. It's only AM but a lot better than nothing. And oddly enough I'm very excited about my AM only radio. What have you guys done for your sound systems? Do you go stock, none, or a aftermarket stereo system?

Wasatch Classic!

I've been looking forward to this car show for the last year. It is one of two big Utah VW only car shows. It is put on by the Wasatch Vintage Volkswagen Club. I had a blast, perfect weather. Not to hot, it was actually a little drizzly, perfect.

I took two of my friends up to the car show with me and parked my car in the show. I didn't enter it because it costs $25 and I would rather spend that at the swap meet. Speaking of that I found a couple of items I'm really excited about that I'll share later on in the week. It was like Christmas picking up those parts.

There was a huge turn out at the show. One of the reasons I love going is because of the whacked out things people do to there cars. Some are super awesome (like the Carbon Cab I saw there) and some are just goofy (like the pink panther bug). I also saw some 2000's Mexican beetle's there. It's crazy to think that some old bugs are less than 10 years old. Awesome.

While I was there I also found out about the other VW show that Utah hosts. The last call show up in the southetown convention center up North somewhere. I'm defiantly planning on going to that one as well. I just love VW car shows. What car shows have you guys been to this year?