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?