I was having a serious case of buyer’s remorse with regards to my spur of the moment purchase of the 1968 Spitfire. Beautiful car, but I knew enough to know I didn’t know anything about taking care of a car like that. Around that time, I got a call from the VW service department in Horseheads. They had finally taken a look at my seized engine and told me there was no fix, the best thing would be a new short block. As often happens in these situations, I had just enough money to cover the repairs and told them to proceed.
When I got the bug back, it was like a new car, performance wise anyway. As you may have already figured out, I was not particularly attentive about mechanical aspects of car ownership. I tended to devote my efforts to cosmetic issues, and even then my fixes were often of dubious quality. Rather than make proper repairs which were beyond my ability and budget, I would just hack away at the car. Case in point, the first thing to go when I got the car back was the rear bumper. The bumper was drooping and rather than find the cause, I just pulled it off.
On the front end of the car, rust was starting to work its magic around the left headlight and hood. So I ordered up a JC Whitney primed fender, how bad could it be for $17.95? From that same JC Whitney catalog, I sourced a pair of Porsche stripes, installed just above the running boards to distract the eye from their drooping condition. I sanded down the rusty hood and sprayed some flat black on the recessed areas for that Opel Rallye look. And of course fog lights for the still intact front bumper.
In the fall of 1976, having graduated with a AAS degree in Construction Technology, but not really ready to start working, I transferred to Clarkson College in far northern NY, almost on the Canadian border. It’s important to note that with a short block engine install, you get most of your old parts back. In my case, that included the original heater boxes with rust holes and non-working flaps to control the amount of heat. In those cold northern winters, I had the classic ice scraper defroster for the inside of the windshield. Actually not hard to manage given the flat glass of the non-Super Beetles. And the frozen bottom hinged gas pedal that you would have to reach down and unstick in order to slow down. One very cold winter night, minus 40 Fahrenheit, I learned that while you might not have to worry about a frozen radiator, you will not be able to move the shift linkage through the very stiff transmission fluid.
As many have noted, including this famous ad from 1964, the Beetle can perform fairly well in snow, what with the weight of the engine over the drive wheels. My experience was similar, especially when equipped with snow tires. Unless the snow depth exceeded the height of the undercarriage, in which case it would perform about as well as any car floating on a cushion of packed snow.
I soon restarted my ride sharing service with service to the north fork of Long Island and points in between. The Beetle delivered a very consistent 27 MPG, allowing me to gauge fuel stops with some precision. During this period, prior to pay at the pump, finding open gas stations was a challenge unless you were driving during daylight hours, especially driving through the Adirondacks, where you were lucky to find gas anytime of the day. The trip from Potsdam to Cutchogue took about 9 hours. In order to maximize our time on Long Island, we would leave very early Friday so that we were arriving for our first gas stop around 7:00 AM just as stations were opening for the day. I tended to cut things a little close because the gas gauge was pretty accurate and consumption was so predictable. I only ran out of gas once in 4 years of ownership, about 5 miles west of Riverhead on the Long Island Expressway.
The Long Island run was also memorable for the exciting Tappan Zee bridge crossing, where on windy days, the Beetle would be tossed across multiple lanes. That got old pretty quick and we started to reroute to the George Washington bridge, a bit safer for cars like mine. Once across the Hudson, you had your choice of the Throgs Neck or Whitestone bridge onto Long Island. If I were transporting electrical engineering students, their preference was to take the Wheatstone Bridge.
Another regular rideshare route took me through Syracuse on the way home to the Corning area. I had a regular rider who had a girlfriend back home in the Syracuse area. Frank owned a non-functioning VW convertible of about the same vintage and he would pay me in VW parts. I retrieved a couple of fenders and replacement front seat backs from his car over the course of that first year. At one point, before a repaint, my car was sporting two yellow fenders, a primer gray and an original red.
The Beetle continued to give reliable service over my 3 years at Clarkson, despite my lack of maintenance. The only other major mechanical issue I had was a failed clutch, coincidentally just a block from the Horsehead VW dealer. I was able to keep it moving right into their parking lot. I eventually put almost 80,000 additional miles on the car over the 4 years I owned it. In 1979 I accepted a job working as a project manager for an electrical contractor in Syracuse and decided that I was going to need a more respectable set of wheels, so I sold the Beetle for $300. By that time the floor pan was showing signs of serious rot. I doubt the new owners were going to invest in a new pan, so I suspect that was about the end of the line for my Beetle.
The Tappan Zee was not built at the optimal sight selected by the designers and surveyors which was a few miles down river at a narrower part of the Hudson. The state government was determined to keep the project and its revenue out of reach of Robert Moses and the NYC Transit board or what ever it was called. They chose the wider and more expensive crossing to keep revenue flowing directly to the State of New York. There is more to the story but that is the essence IIRC. I remember getting buffeted by the wind. You could feel movement and vibrations depending on traffic and weather. I though the Tappen Zee was impressive when I was a kid. Then I moved to Cali0fornia and saw the Oakland Bay Bridge and the Golden Gate and learned what a real bridge was. Years later visiting NY and driving across the Tappen Zee I realized what a crummy piece of work it was. It was also in bad repair and overdue for significant work which it eventually got.
I liked the look of the Whitestone or Throgs Neck bidges and usually crossed them going to and from JFK from our home up in Westchester. Ardsley, to be specific.
Thank you for sharing stories about your 69 Bug. I sold mine impulsively in 1986 for $400. when I realized that I owned 6 cars in San Francisco and didn’t have a garage. I thought simplifying my life was the answer. Ha! It just makes me miss my 69 Bug.
The “new” Tappan Zee (officially the Mario Cuomo , built next to the old one) is a cable stayed design, and much better looking. It also gives better views of the river.
The old one, as I remember the story, was built in the aftermath of the Korean War, at a time when steel prices were high. Because of budget-driven design compromises, it was made to last 50 years. As the bridge neared the end of its useful life, it was subjected to a series of emergency repairs that snarled traffic on the already overburdened bridge.
I have memories of many hair-raising trips over the old bridge. Wind, rain, high traffic, narrow lanes, crashes, and long lines at the tolls in the days before electronic tolling sped up the heart and tightened the grip on the wheel. Especially frightening were trips in the rain with my old VW Golf, with its alternator belt that slipped when wet before I replaced the worn adjuster nut. Sandwiched between trucks, surrounded by water, lights dimming in the night as the battery discharged, hoping for a dry spot before the car conked out. It was like having a nightmare while still awake.
My own attempts to look at the river, catch a glimpse of NYC, and, most of all, ogle at the barrier transfer machines moving like giant zipper sliders as they toggled lanes between open and closed to accommodate shifting traffic patterns on the overcrowded bridge, added additional hazards to the ride for me.
The cranes used to build the new bridge were amazing, too, and gave me something to look forward to on rides that were generally unpleasant due to high traffic.
Though the new bridge is better in every way that I can think of, I will forever miss the zipper machines.
Goodbye to the old bridge:
thank you for the photo of the Zipper at work southbound on the Golden Gate Bridge. I ride my bicycle across the bridge several times a week. It is always more pleasant in the morning before the wind picks up. In the afternoon it can be 20 mph wind and sometimes heavy fog… My mantra is “love the bridge”.
I crossed the Zee in a thunderstorm. On a motorcycle. In a strong crosswind.
That’s an experience I have no interest in repeating.
EE students and the Wheatstone Bridge. Very funny!
Sounds familiar; in 1976 I was a Freshman EE (candidate) at rival UVM. Tiny program, there were probably only about 25 of us back then (more Masters than Bachelors there believe it or not)…was there the full term till 1980. UVM was more of a liberal arts school at least back then.
A commuter student, didn’t have too much time other than during my Freshman year but had season hockey tickets (and basketball) and my Dad and I probably saw the UVM/Clarkson match over at Gutterson field house that year (too long ago to remember). Didn’t get to any after that season, unfortunately too busy, due to EE major demands on my time).
Were you up there for the Blizzard of ’78? I had a ’74 Datsun 710 parked outside my parent’s house, and that’s the only week I had to bum a ride into town with my Father, to get to school, my car was like a block of ice. I still remember how the vinyl seats felt when I got in to try to start it. I’m sure if you were still up in New England during that storm you would have probably been affected by it.
The 710 was an automatic (only automatic I’ve ever owned) so can’t commiserate on cold weather shifting problems; now I drive standard but live in the south.
My Father had a ’59 Beetle 10 years earlier (also up in Vermont, though we’d moved to Virginia and back to Vermont in the interval). He didn’t have it long, as it got totalled in front of our house, but it was already a rustbucket when he bought it. Took me awhile, but in ’81 I sold the 710 and bought a ’78 Scirocco, and haven’t owned anything but watercooled VWs since (I skipped the aircooled ones)…own a ’00 Golf currently as my only car.
Don’t think I ever drove on the Tappan Zee but stayed in it’s shadow for a week at a hotel on the east side of the Hudson. in Tarrytown…but think I’ve been across most of the other bridges across the Hudson up to Poughkeepsie. Worked for Hertz while in school and didn’t go too far south (Windsor Locks CT was about the limit) but spent lots of time in Upstate New York, Montreal, Manchester NH, and Framingham Ma fetching one-way rentals back to our home location in South Burlington. Fun summer job, like a lifeguard you have lots of time to think while driving, plus great scenery most of the time.
From what I’ve read, 1969 was the first year that the Beetle had a double-jointed rear suspension instead of swing axles. For those who’ve driven both flavors, how much difference did this make in handling? Everyone seems to rave over the Corvair’s handling improvement due to the analogous upgrade in ’65. I’ve never owned or driven or even ridden in either a Beetle or Corvair, so I have zero first-hand knowledge in this area.
I owned a ’66 and later a ’72.
Both handled better than I expected based on what I had read, and I didn’t notice a significant improvement in the ’72, although I never exactly pushed the ’66 as it was a pile of junk and was eventually sold for parts.
I literally never pushed it even though the 6 volt battery was dying. I lived at the top of a hill.
I’ve driven both, and yes, the full IRS was an improvement, but really not very noticeable except in more extreme situations, which most VW drivers did not explore unless they did, like suddenly braking in the middle of a curve taken a bit too fast.
In 1967, VW increased the track and added something like a camber compensating spring. That already made a substantial improvement when pushing the envelope. And that system was used by Mexico-built Beetles until the very end of production in 2003.
The full IRS was obviously a response to Nader’s book and the growing tort/safety regulation issue in the US. It cost a fair bit more, so it was only used where it was deemed necessary.
The ’66 was the last year for the narrow rear track, and it handled like all Beetles had handled up to that point. Fine, if you knew what its limits were, and knew how not to exceed them. Not so fine if not.
The dune and farm buggy industry was a thriving offshoot of VW handling issues some seemed to flip over for no reason at all one rolled right in front of me at what I considered reasonable pace for the corner and I was driving a Landrover it hardly had sports car handling nobody hurt in the beetle and once back on its wheels it was driven away a bit misshapen but going.
They had exactly the same knife-in-the-back handling as the 911, and worse than the Corvair.
The ’68 Autostick cars introduced IRS for the US market. My ex had one. Mine was a ’67 and I preferred it once I upgraded to Pirelli Cinturato tires, tube type to stay on the non-safety rims when I drove near its limits.
Doing wheel bearing service (every 60,000 miles recommended) on the IRS was more of a pain than you would think.
Electrical-engineering students? Wheatstone Bridge?
I saw what you did there! 😉
I wondered about that, thought it might be an autocorrect thing. Very clever indeed.
I’m laughing so hard it Hz!
Well, we’ll have to rectify that! 🤨
Watt‽ Ohm’y god, I can’t believe you did that.
It was your pun that induced my response; I had wanted to resist such a thing but didn’t have the capacity.
Given all that, my reluctance to conduct this conversation further is mhostly understandable. Honestly, someone ought to smack thyristor something.
I was holding “conduct” back as my ace in the hole.
“Mhostly” and “slap thyristor something” are flipping brilliant!!!
I concede to the master. 😁
Hi Rich! Fellow Techer here. I was at CCT from 80-84 (when it became CU)
Before I got my own wheels senior year (76 Courier), I made the run up and down I81 through Syracuse to Philly a lot in my buddy’s 75? Olds. One time on our way back to school after Christmas, we came upon an elderly woman who had ended up off the road with the front of her car in the ditch. We did the good Samaritan thing, and got out to help. There had been only a few inches of snow when we stopped to get gas in Syracuse, so since the wheels were only down a little it looked possible for 3 fit college guys. I stepped towards the front of the car … and sank to my thigh. Did I mention that there is a band of lake-effect snow just north of the city? In 2 miles, from inches of snow to feet, then the opposite 20 miles further.
We didn’t get the car out, but we did give her a ride to the gas station at the next exit.
Great stuff here .
It makes me want to go drive my old ’59 #113 Beetle .
-Nate
My college roommate’s had a bug whose driver’s door would open on its own in a right turn. Holy on to that wheel!