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?