Come Home, Lost son...
So lets go WAY back 26 years to a summer drafting job in 1993 and (what I though was) a copius amount of money made. I decided to piss it away as any 19 year old would....on a car.
$10,000 later, I had turned a ho hum 1972 Superbeetle into a cool little cruiser. (You might be thinking "10 grand WTF?" and you'd be right. There was alot of bought and sold Empi and Bugpack sh^t bought for this car that had a short shelf life) I spent the next 4 years wearing the tires down driving all over southern Ontario with friends, in the new found freedom. But by 1998, I needed something I could drive in the winter, as I couldn't use dad's diesel rabbit anymore (met its demise to a food service truck) and apartment living was hard to own 2 cars...a beetle as a second vehicle was hard to hide from the landlord. So the decision was made to sell her, as she needed some work to the pan and frame that I couldn't do with no garage or driveway. So I yanked the engine and sold the rest for $800, figuring I'd never see it again. I did poke my head into the new owner's house in Cambridge a couple years later and there she sat under a tree, not turning a wheel. Like f^ck, big plans....right. I said my goodbyes.
Fast forward 21 years...
I have the Kijiji app on my phone, (like Craigslist to my US friends) hard wired to "Classic cars/Volkswagen/All of Ontario" no sense in searching anything else I'd say...And one day while musing on the litany of Empi-catalogue-built Meyers Manx clones fetching $15,000+ I spot the Chevy Bright Aqua beacon on the page! There she is! And is Local to boot! I call the guy and try not to sound like a blithering idiot (to steal Clarkson's line) and head down to look at her. I got the chance to go over her without the owner there, and man....what a time machine! There was even a mechanical drafting pencil of mine in the glovebox! Nothing has changed? We, err, I did pull the motor, so that was different, and my Sony deck was gone. But anything else changed? nope...not one bit!
As one would expect, the paint is tired, but I did take solace in my bodywork skills that they had help up rather well for 25 years! Only some small rust blisters exist now, a couple of which I saw starting when I sold it. I figure old Neil did the most damage in the couple years after I sold it to him, and the balance of time she sat in a dark dry garage away from the elements.
The framehead is gone, as is the drivers side floor under the pedals, but not to worry...VW bugs are the most supported car in the aftermarket. Which comes to the finagling with the owner...he HAS a new klokkerholm framehead for it. Score!
I'm buried in the GLI build, so I really don't need this. Let's make it clear...I don't want a bug, I have no interest in them, they are slow, they are cold, and I much prefer the watercooled VW variety. But, I put alot of blood and sweat into THIS car, and was cheated by time, apartment living, and an era where aircooled VWs, especially Superbeetles, were worthless. (some would argue still are) So I say again, I would NEVER bring home 'A' bug, but I will bring home THIS bug. I was cheated when I basically gave it away, and now I have the means to fix it. So I gave the owner a somewhat lowball offer, and a sob story on its history and he agreed to sell it to me...
Is it normal to know your tow truck driver by name, and he knows by memory where to bring these old VWs to? (Thanks Emad, you rock!)
But I gotta say (and my brother reiterates the feeling) that even if all I do to it is stare at it, I couldn't have let it go again. There's a reason why it hasn't been touched, or ravaged by time. An omen? Maybe?
And the definition of CATHARSIS, is handwashing a car you haven't seen in 20 years.... ;)
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