Date: Fri, 26 Jan 2007 06:43:14 -0500
Reply-To: Richard Golen <rgolen@UMASSD.EDU>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Richard Golen <rgolen@UMASSD.EDU>
Subject: Re: now: John Muir Publications was: Death Valley
In-Reply-To: <6F845648-9629-4AD9-B827-3830E79FAF39@mac.com>
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HI,
The Idiot Guide (aircooled) was written by John Muir. I have an
autographed first edition as well as a collection of editions up to
the current one. Muir died in 77 or 78 and the guide was updated from
time to time. John Muir Publishing was his publishing company run by
his wife. Later on another publisher took over the publishing duties.
Also, this John Muir is not to be confused with the late 1800s
environmentalist John Muir.
Ric
At 11:27 PM 1/25/2007, Kim Brennan wrote:
>The books in question were "How to Keep Your Volkwagen Alive" by John
>Muir PUBLICATIONS (I emphasize the last....John Muir was not the
>author) and "How to Keep Your Rabbit Alive". The original book was
>oriented towards aircooled vehicles, though it did reference the
>water cooled ones prior to the 2nd book, at which point most of the
>water cooled material was moved to the Rabbit book.
>
>Since I started with an aircooled VW (71 Super Beetle) I was given
>the Volkwagen edition by my brother (who had learned his trade from
>it.) That would have been about 1978.
>
>Learning how to drive without a functioning clutch (something written
>about in the book) turned very useful when my clutch cable broke on
>that beetle. I had that car for quite a few years until I dropped a
>valve, blew the piston and warped the crank shaft. My brother rebuilt
>the engine...and I used it for a few more years until an engine fire
>finally put me out of my misery.
>
>For those who are from the West Coast, or NorthEast US...I live in
>Washington DC. Washington DC has wonderfullly varied weather. It gets
>toasty hot and humid in the summer, but still gets the occassional
>Nor'Easter and big snow falls (average snow fall is 24 inches yearly,
>but it might all hit in one storm.)
>
>The beetle was perfect for this. No air conditioning in the summer,
>and no heat in the winter. I can remember driving around in a snow
>storm with my window open, so I could stick my hand out, and grab the
>windshield wiper, and beat it against the windshield to knock off the
>ice...
>
>I skinned my knuckles too many times, when changing the spark plugs.
>I got 30 mpg.
>
>To this day I don't miss that car.
>
>But I miss the book, with it's wonderful illustrations. Wish I knew
>what happened to my copy. Yah, you can still get it used. But I don't
>NEED it...
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