pearl white '66

[exprof]

I wanted a Beetle, but I didn’t (and still don’t) have deep pockets. So, I made my goal preservation rather than restoration, particularly since I intended to use the car as a daily driver. With that in mind, I wanted buy the most solid and mechanically sound car that I could find.

The search for a suitable car led me to some real dogs. I recall seeing an ad posted on the bulletin board of a local laundromat. It was for a black ’63, and judging from the photo, it looked like a very nice car for the $1500 asking price. It turned out to be a bait and switch. Instead of the attractive little car in the picture, the owner led me out back of his house to a rusted out piece of junk that wasn’t even running. The car didn’t run, but I did—in the opposite direction.

Wally, my mechanic, had a ’66 Beetle for sale on his lot at the Joetown Garage in Kalona, IA, not far from my home in Iowa City. The pearl white ‘66 was owned by an older lady named Susie, who had been into the hippie scene in her youth. She told me that she’d bought the car from its original owner in Idaho in 1969, and thus was only the second owner the car had ever had. It looked like a solid little car, and Wally vouched for its mechanical condition. Susie wanted $2200 for the Beetle, and I was hesitant to lay out that much cash. My wife, though, said “you want a Bug, this is the nicest car you’ve found yet, go ahead and buy it.” A wife is a wonderful thing…Well, I wrote out the check, and drove the ’66 home.

It took about three years to save up for the major portion of the work that the car would need. There were some financial/mechanical setbacks along the way, including a job change, the need to replace the Beetle’s front axle beam, and going out the car one afternoon to find the battery lying on the ground underneath the car. The most significant reversal, though, happened on a cold December night in 2005, when as I was driving home from work, I heard the sickening sound of metal on metal, and saw the oil light come on. By this point, my understanding wife was no longer quite so understanding, and she “suggested” that I sell the Beetle. It took a while to persuade her, but she wasn’t too pleased, especially after I got the bill for a replacement engine.

Finally, the time came for the biggest hurdle in my project: the body work. I’d realized shortly after I bought the Beetle that it had some “rust issues.” In giving the car a thorough inspection before going to the body shop for an estimate, I learned a valuable lesson that many have learned before me. No matter how much rust you find, you’ll learn that there’s always more rust than you though there would be. I found that it was going to take more money and effort that I thought to reverse the effects of 38 Iowa winters...