Bought my first bug part today. A front horn grill. Is it ‘grill’ or ‘grille’? Not sure. I like ‘grille’ more; ‘grill’ sounds like BBQ. Anyway, got it off of eBay from VWParts4Sale.com
Add $10.98 to the bug bill.
PARTS – Front Grill
Author: russell
Birth Certificate for the little fellow
If you go to the Volkswagen AutoMuseum and fill-in their Certificate Generator (oh, and remit 35 Euros), they will research your little hobby car, and send you a birth certificate that tells when your car was made, where is was shipped, and what options were included.
More info can be found in this thread at TheSamba.com
Is it really necessary (and worth the money)? Maybe not. Depends on how much you want to know about your car, its history, and its original color-scheme/engine/configuration/etc. Since I want to try and keep it original, I’m curious to see if there’s something about Beevis that I don’t already know.
Do the Samba
One of the better resources on the web for Volkswagen information has to be TheSamba.com. I signed up today. Accounts are free, and there is a huge amount of information available with the technical data that’s warehoused on the site, and through the forums where other Volkswagen owners ask/answer every imaginable questions.
Get Beevis
Off to Alabama. Just a two-hour drive to Florence, Alabama to retrieve Beevis the Bug. Can’t carry two, so I’ll get the sedan and come back for the convertible. After arriving on the scene, and making contact with Wade, the previous owner (a nice guy), I took a little closer look at the convertible:
May not be much to salvage here. There’s an engine and transaxle — that may be enough to make it worthwhile to come back and get it. It’s a shame, really. Looks like the car has been sitting in a junk yard, and slowly parted-out. Mother nature took her share, too. The ebay auction listing identified the bug as a ’65, but I checked the VIN number on TheSamba.com’s Technical Information page and saw that it was really a 1966. No big deal, either way. But after looking at the engine number, I can see the Volkswagen ‘recycle’ symbol, and the engine number ends with an ‘X’. I think that means the engine is part of the Volkswagen Exchange program. Probably had an engine swap fairly early in life. Not the original engine — too bad.
So I load up Beevis (’cause the other one certainly looks like Butthead) on the trailer, and start to head back to Tupelo. Good sign to see him crank up and drive right up on the trailer.
Across the dam we go….(I think it was the Wilson Dam?). Not sure. Also not sure if I supposed to pull a trailer on the dam or not.
While heading to Mississippi, I came through some town close to Corinth. I don’t remember the name, but there were signs up all through town that said “Welcome Home, Russell”. (my name) Maybe some soldier serving in Iraq? A contestant on Deal or No Deal? Don’t know, but it was one of those strange coincidences like opening up a fortune cookie and thinking that the fortune was a little *too* accurate or promising.
232.4 Miles. 17.86 gallons @ 2.76 per gallon = Add $49.28 to the Bug spreadsheet.