Date: Sun, 9 May 2004 18:48:54 +0000
Reply-To: Chris DeLong <green536@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Chris DeLong <green536@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: State of the List... State your ages!!!!!!! :<)
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
>so anyway, tell us how old you are..and what got you into vw's...and what
>you
>use your van for... should be a good read!
>
>chris
Ok Chris, I'll jump on this one too.
I will be 30 next month. At least thats what they tell me. I dont think I am
of the 30 yo mentality. I plan on trying to avoid a birthday party :D.
When I was about 1 yo my dad had an 50's beetle (I think it was a '56). I
thought it was the coolest thing to have the trunk in the front and the
engine in the back. I think thats what started it. When I was about 5 yo
someone stole the engine out of my dads beetle. So he sold it. Around that
time I was pretty much hooked (although, I was and still am partial to the
original Mini Cooper). I still have a drawing that I made in 2nd grade of a
Type 3 squareback with mechanical remote control birds and all kind of other
James Bond stuff. My dad then (in 1980) bought a brand new Diesel Rabbit.
This didnt help my affliction. Of course, the Rabbit was really cool too. I
mean, it was called a RABBIT! Someone eventually hacked it up about a year
later in the middle of the night with a machete. So once again my dad sold
it. He did not get another VW until I got my first one.
When I was 16 yo I started looking for cars (VW's specifically). I had been
saving my money for about a year so I would have enough to pay for insurance
and get a car. I looked at various rusty beetles and ones with blown
engines. But, my dad would not let me have a resto project or something that
didnt run. Remember that 1980 Rabbit that was hacked up? Well, one of my
dads really close friends had purchased the exact same car (well almost, the
colors were different) in 1980. As it turns out he was selling it for $600.
2 door, black interior, and best of all for a kid, 40+MPG! I got the car
from him and proceeded to put many miles on it.
Within months of getting the rabbit I decided that I should have a bus for
camping in. I had always liked busses too. Plus it didnt help that my buddy
had one. So I sought out to get the elusive split window. I found one
walking home from a friends house one day (my dad had taken away my Rabbit).
It was a '65 weekender with a pullout 8 track, complete with the Doors,
Hendrix, and all the other obligatory hippy 60's music. The bad part was
that it was really rusty and had been seriously t-boned on the drivers side.
That didnt really bother me. I got it for camping, not for shows. Well long
story short I lived in it for about 10 months. I had to get rid of it due to
the fact that the place I was moving into didnt have room for all my cars (I
had also picked up a 1969 Econoline panel). So I ended up selling the bus
for $25 not running (I think it needed a battery or a generator).
I still had the rabbit though. I was not bussless for too much longer. About
3 years later I found another splittie. It was a '64. This thing was
striaght from the backyard hotrod hippy bus hack program. The fenders in the
rear were cutout and flared, no bumpers, super huge Cragar chrome wheels.
But it ran really well, So I converted it to camper and lived in it for
about a year.
Once again, time to get rid of it due to another splittie falling in my
hands. This one was a '65 and it was straight, ran excellent, roll cage, and
best of all it was $500. I had this unit for about 6 years. Never left me
stranded. I rebuilt the entire brake system. The generator died on the other
side of the pass. Fortunately, we had a friend with us. Drove it until it
started to sputter then we would pull over and jump the battery to get more
charge to run longer. 126 miles with no generator. No problem. I sold this
one due to me getting my first Vanagon. Sold it for 1500$ measly dollars
about 4 years ago. The guy who bought it works up the street from my house.
He painted it red and white (used to be just white with a brown door) and
recently put the poptop on it. It mocks me every day. Why is it that there
is NEVER enough parking???
My first Vanagon was a '91 GL with 200k on the clock. The PO had driven it
for so long with a bad water pump that it had damaged the case. Well for
$500 I wasnt going to pass it up. Still have that one.
I could go on about all the stories of my busses but it would take along
time to write and likely a long time to read. I have owned 4 splitties (wish
I still had the 15 window deluxe that I sold for 1500$ last year), one
baywindow, 5 Vanagons (two are Syncros), and somewhere in the neighborhood
of 65-70 various VW's. I owned one Ford (never again) and one Nissan (never
again). There is a really old Chevy dually flatbed up the street from me for
700$ that I have been considering. It would be nice to put a tilt/slide bed
on it for hauling the racecar ;)
My goal is to one day have a barn and be able to have my favorite cars. I
currently have about 7 cars. But some of them are resale, and some are daily
drivers. I think I jsut want to keep the Syncro and the Rabbit and the
Sciroccos for now ;)
Chris DeLong
Fine Tuning
206.427.4777
www.finetuningperformance.com
Seattle, WA USA
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