Driving golden era cars in the modern era

[Stearmen]

[video=youtube;1qB0lb401ZU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qB0lb401ZU[/video]

When they drained our largest lake in the city, they found a 1973 Beetle on the bottom. They also found, fifteen guns, 14 pocketknives, 13 watches, and 27 sets of keys. Metal detector people found a lot more. I know my 71 Super Beetle never would have survived a dunk!

 

[Gregg Axley]

At least 55 seconds, given the length of the commercial.

 

[RKidd]

Slamming door thing is bad with my OWN kids..worse than that when we drive our '31 A Ford to town somebody has to walk by and"tap" the fenders..just to "check if they were steel"...

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Yep, that's true. My Dodge Ram has to have either a wing window or the rear window open a smidge, or you gotta slam 'em. That's the only one, though, the rest are spacious enough that there's a decent amount of room for the air to move.

It's necessary to slam the doors on many imports -- even my '69 VW, you had to slam the door with full force unless one of the vent windows was open: the car was nearly airtight and interior air pressure wouldn't allow the door to close fully.

 

[StraightEight]

Moved from LA to Ann Arbor, Michigan for a year or two. Took the Buick to play with, which made quite the conversation piece at the Canyonlands campground. Taped it up to save it from stone chips and all went well except for a stress crack in the driver's windshield, which I'm pretty sure wasn't original anyway. Replacement is $94, so not a huge loss.

 

[Rathdown]

[video=youtube;1qB0lb401ZU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qB0lb401ZU[/video]

VW also had a print ad that showed a Beetle floating in a pond. The headline read "A VW definitely floats. It just won't float indefinitely."

 

[Carl Miller]

DDB made multiple "Floating VW" print ads in the 60s and 70s.

Two of my favorites

 

[LizzieMaine]

And then there were the parodies.

 

[Gregg Axley]

Now that's really funny.

 

[bond]

Nice one straight eight. That Buick looks like it should be pulling an airstream trailer .

 

[majormajor]

The oldest VW commercial.....

[video=youtube;R6SueeernRM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6SueeernRM[/video]

 

[1930artdeco]

LizzyMaine, how is the car coming along?

Mike

 

[LizzieMaine]

They ran into a delay over the holidays with getting a couple of valve springs -- but they're back on track now. The engine is painted and the internals are all reassembled, and all they're waiting on now is the new manifold, which should be arriving this week. I dunno when I'll be able to drive it again though -- we've got ten inches of snow on the ground, a lot of salt on the road, and I don't have snow tires for it. So hopefully we'll get a melt before spring!

 

[Fletch]

Time to put the tank treads on the bicycle, I suppose...

 

[LizzieMaine]

Chains work, but you get your coat caught in them.

 

[Fletch]

I have a sheepskin I could loan out.

 

[LizzieMaine]

That would have been just the thing for my '69 VW.

 

[Carl Miller]

The oldest VW commercial.....

[video=youtube;R6SueeernRM]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6SueeernRM[/video]

Split window vw prices, along with ALL classic vw prices, have exploded in the last 5 years. Lizzie could buy 8 or 9 Dodges for the cost of 1 vw split window with the 3-fold rag. Bassackwards, isn't it? [huh]

 

[LizzieMaine]

I paid $500 for mine in 1986, and drove it until it rusted in half. Only car I've ever owned that still shows up in my dreams.

 

[Rathdown]

I've always been a fan of the air-cooled VW, especially the convertibles; like Morgans, they were the least changed thirties automobiles out there. My next around town car will probably be another Beetle convertible.