Nothing gets wasted!

 One of the things you find when you are in an automotive 'circle' is the turnover of people who buy a certain type of car (in our case a VW) but after a few years get out of the hobby, mostly thru external life changes.  In reality, their love for certain era VWs has been thru a need for cheap transportation, that evolves into something more.  But by the time they can afford something better, they move on.  Most of them do.

In my case, it's been a doctrine since birth, having come home from the hospital in a customized '66 beetle

and you can blame me of alot of things, but VWs have been woven into my DNA. 

There have been many people come and go, and Shawn B was one particular guru in the VW scene of the late 90s and early 2000s, he's out of it now.  A couple summers ago I picked up one of his many wayward VWs for a basic part out.

The US rabbit chassis I affectionately called Rabby, cuz for a while I was thinking I could put the hardtop body onto a cabby chassis... it never happened due to the Superbeetle coming back.  So I cut out pretty well every usable part; the front clip went to Andrew for his red Caddy;

The rear quarters went to my brother for his 84 GTI build;

The roof has gone onto the GLI build;

And the list goes on, H&R springs sold, hubs sold, and the doors are in my hoard for now (still can't decide which doors are best for the GLI)  Nothing gets wasted!

So to go back to the original thread about the turnover of VW fans of the mk1s (or beetles) it is definitely waning.  Because both the classic bugs and mk1s are no longer cheap transportation, its only a matter of time before they move into obscure practical classics.

In my case, the purchase of a house in 2005 (with a garage) was the catalyst to keep my VW collection-ing alive.  It makes it very difficult to keep these old cars alive without a means to work on them, like a garage.  If you are living this hobby out of a self storage locker, it doesn't take long when the rent eclipses the value of these vehicles, in fact if left long enough, rent could obliterate a Ferrari's value!

I know, what's my point...well I'll be 50 in 2 years, and can see myself waning in this hobby as well.  The push of finishing these 2 projects is well on their way and I hope to have them done by then.  There will be a massive dump of parts, and I'm contemplating to even move to a house with a smaller garage and definitely a smaller driveway!  I know that if I am left with alot of extra room in my driveway and garage I'll bring another wayward VW home.  Its in my DNA...