NA - So Bad That It's Actually Good (cars)

ArrowFlyer86

ArrowFlyer86

En-Route
PoA Supporter
Joined
Jul 17, 2019
Messages
3,285
Location
Around
Display Name
Flight
The thread on car repairs rekindled a nostalgic memory: driving cars that were so bad that were actually fun again.

This was one that my cousin owned but kept in my garage in Chicago. It was a mid 90s dodge stratus that no one put a dollar into and was still clinging to life in the early 2010s. Rust all over the hood. Made engine or transmissions sounds that no vehicle should make. Turn on the AC and somehow the car gets warmer. Bungee cord holding the trunk shut because that latch failed long ago. Driver side manual window that's permanently jammed so you'd have to open your door at drive thrus. Glove box that pops open randomly when you hit a bump. It turned heads in all the wrong ways.

It was such an awful vehicle that it was actually fun to drive because you and your passengers couldn't help but laugh at everything that goes wrong. Nearly every ride was memorable in some way. People always expected it to give out but it just refused to die; the engine kept running and the brakes worked. So check & check.

And while it was undoubtedly a total absolute sh*tbox vehicle, I realize I actually really miss it! Gonna look through photos later and see if I have a good portrait of that thing.

Anyone else have that nostalgia or just me?
 
1974 Volkswagen Type 181..."The Thing".
1786376540772.png
Bought it from a sergeant for $1200 when I was in the Air Force in 1978. Absolutely, totally, a crap vehicle. Body was just stamped metal, including the doors. No "side guard door beams"; the doors had a large "map pocket" and you could touch the outer metal through them. Metal was so thin a bit of rust around the driver's side rear-view mirror caused the whole unit to fall off. Whole vehicle rattled and banged on the road. Side curtain windows...didn't roll up, but you could open the door and take them off. Ventilation wasn't a problem, since the air leaked all around the darn things. Water too. More important after we moved from Denver to Seattle....

Built in Mexico, only imported to the US for two years ('73 and '74). Chassis was supposedly stock from a Super Beetle... in reality, the transaxle was from a German postal vehicle. Had to replace the rear brakes, and went through hell trying to find replacement rear brake drums. Spilled a bottle of Marvel Mystery Oil in the glove box (no door, of course), so the beast smelled of MMO the whole time I owned it. Convertible roof was shot, was always going to replace it but never did. Throttle cable broke, I installed a new one in the parking lot at work.

Got the "How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive" book, pulled the engine, and rebuilt it. Ran fine for a week, then all of a sudden it seemed to lack power. I had to climb a 600-foot hill to get home, and there's no way it was going to make it. Pulled into a parking lot. Removed one valve cover...and the whole rocker arm for that side fell off. I hadn't tightened it. No torque wrench handy, but kept a pretty good tool kit in the car. The nuts were still in the valve cover, so I slapped the arm back in place, tightened it by feel, and finished the drive home.

But gawd, was it fun to drive. And kids loved it. Got married just before I left the Air Force in Denver, hired a man to drive the Thing to Seattle for me. He tore the plastic rear window on the way, and replaced it with a big sheet of plexiglass. Wife had never driven a manual transmission; when we moved to Seattle, our only cars were my '79 Camaro and the Thing...both with sticks. She learned to drive a manual on the Thing, including going to job intervals in downtown where there are big hills that she had to start out on.

The Thing had one feature that no sedan or little SUV could duplicate: It could carry a whole 4x8 sheet of plywood. Fold down the rear seats, unstrap the convertible roof across the back of the car, lift up the roof's bottom slightly, and slide the sheet of plywood into the back of the car until it nestled against the back of the front seats. Left about three feet of plywood sticking out like an enormous spoiler, but you could easily haul a couple of sheets.

As a military buff, of course the history of the car was of interest. Descendant of the German Jeep-equivalent from WWII, the Kubelwagen. Was always going to bolt the the spare tire on top of the hood and paint it sand color with an Afrika Corps logo stenciled on the side, but never did (fortunately). Previous fun vehicle back home had been a 1946 Willys Jeep, for which I had built a dummy .50 caliber machine gun. Built a dummy MG-34 for the Thing, but never did mount it (probably, again, fortunately). It became part of the decoration in my office.
1786377678082.png
By the mid-'90s, figured it was time to sell. Was tired of having to park it inside; wanted to put the new cars in the garage. It was rusty, rattlely, and raunchy. As was common with older VWs, the battery (under the rear seat) had boiled over one too many time and the acid had cut a half-moon slot through the floor in back. The Plexiglass used for a rear window had cracked and I'd patched it up with duct tape. It never sealed at the bottom, so in the Seattle rains water just slid down the plastic, dropped into the back of the car, and collected on the floor (which undoubtedly contributed to the rust).

So...listed it for sale. Had bought it for $1200, just for S&Gs, listed it for sale (in significantly worse condition) for the same price.

I was swamped.

First guy came by, took it for a test drive. Offered me a thousand for it. I just pointed at the several other guys who had come by to look at it. Gave me the $1200 cash, and that was it.

After he retired, my father (a life-long car lover) went on a car-collection kick. At first, he hunted the cars he owned in his teens... Model A Fords and a 1930 Chevy. Getting up there in age, now, I'll confess to a similar urge.

But not for the damned Thing. I'd love to get an old Jeep like my first car, but no way I want another damn Thing.

Ron Wanttaja
 
wanttaja said:
1974 Volkswagen Type 181..."The Thing".
Click to expand...
My apologies to those who might be offended, but it was a different time: Considering how much the roof leaked, and where the Thing was manufactured, back then I called it a "Wetbug."

Ron Wanttaja
 
I would totally rock one of those. That and a classic Beetle.
 
I wish I had pics of my Datsun 240Z. I actually had a cloth heater hose under the passenger compartment footwell break and steam-clean my date. There was no second date.

I donated the thing after a front wheel fell off. Had it been about 2 minutes earlier, I would have gone flying off of the freeway cloverleaf ramp that I took at about 70mph.

My best speeding ticket was in that car. 135 in a 55. The little I-6 was rung out alllllll the way in 4th gear. 2 points and 6 mo of license suspension on that one. Worth it.
 
schmookeeg said:
I wish I had pics of my Datsun 240Z. I actually had a cloth heater hose under the passenger compartment footwell break and steam-clean my date. There was no second date.

I donated the thing after a front wheel fell off. Had it been about 2 minutes earlier, I would have gone flying off of the freeway cloverleaf ramp that I took at about 70mph.

My best speeding ticket was in that car. 135 in a 55. The little I-6 was rung out alllllll the way in 4th gear. 2 points and 6 mo of license suspension on that one. Worth it.
Click to expand...
Happened to my friends Ford Escort, where the tire separated from the vehicle. Thankfully hers was on a routine turn. It just created more embarrassment than anything!

135 in a 55... You were outrunning most Cessnas at that speed!
 
I almost bought a 1-owner Nash Rambler in the mid-80s. But I was too macho for a car that was owned by a little old lady. :rolleyes:

Beep! Beep!

I did drive a maroon El Camino in high school…hated that thing, and still do. Worthless piece of crap (other than the 350 V8.)
 
I had some fun adventures with a couple of Fiat 124 Spiders. Great cars to drive, "interesting" to work on. Italians just seem to have a different approach to mechanical design (which I've seen in Italian made industrial machinery as well).

A wheel fell off once during rush hour on the Q-bridge in New Haven. The road was curving right and downhill, when the right rear wheel fell off. Centrifugal force from the turn kept the car on three wheels, and I watched the wheel pass in front of me and cross three lanes of traffic as I slowed down and pulled off the road, with the car politely tipping over onto the wheel hub as I rolled to a stop. I ran across, dodging traffic, retrieved the wheel, and reattached it with one lug bolt (yes, bolts into tapped holes in the hub, not studs and nuts) removed from each of the other three wheels, and continued home without further incident.

Another time I was out for a drive on the first warm day of spring when the engine died. I managed to coast and then push it into a commuter lot, where I diagnosed the fuel pump had failed. Now when I bought the car, it came with a bunch of spare parts including a fuel pump packed in and around the spare tire. I pulled it out only to discover the spare pump had a cracked case. I always carried tools in that car, so pulling out the masonite trunk floorboard, I laid it on the ground, and used it as a work surface to disassemble both pumps. The check valve in the first pump had failed, but the one with the cracked body had good valves, so I swapped parts to make one good pump and reinstalled it on the engine. The whole process took maybe 45 minutes, and the rebuilt pump lasted as long as I owned the car.

In the middle of all this, a guy walked up. "What's up?" he said.

"My fuel pump failed," I replied, with parts of both pumps and tools carefully laid out on the floorboard on the ground and me sitting cross legged on the grass in front if it

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"I''m rebuilding it." (doesn't everybody rebuild fuel pumps on the side of the road?)

He just said, "Oh," and walked away without another word.
 
wanttaja said:
1974 Volkswagen Type 181..."The Thing".
View attachment 154118
Bought it from a sergeant for $1200 when I was in the Air Force in 1978. Absolutely, totally, a crap vehicle. Body was just stamped metal, including the doors. No "side guard door beams"; the doors had a large "map pocket" and you could touch the outer metal through them. Metal was so thin a bit of rust around the driver's side rear-view mirror caused the whole unit to fall off. Whole vehicle rattled and banged on the road. Side curtain windows...didn't roll up, but you could open the door and take them off. Ventilation wasn't a problem, since the air leaked all around the darn things. Water too. More important after we moved from Denver to Seattle....

Built in Mexico, only imported to the US for two years ('73 and '74). Chassis was supposedly stock from a Super Beetle... in reality, the transaxle was from a German postal vehicle. Had to replace the rear brakes, and went through hell trying to find replacement rear brake drums. Spilled a bottle of Marvel Mystery Oil in the glove box (no door, of course), so the beast smelled of MMO the whole time I owned it. Convertible roof was shot, was always going to replace it but never did. Throttle cable broke, I installed a new one in the parking lot at work.

Got the "How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive" book, pulled the engine, and rebuilt it. Ran fine for a week, then all of a sudden it seemed to lack power. I had to climb a 600-foot hill to get home, and there's no way it was going to make it. Pulled into a parking lot. Removed one valve cover...and the whole rocker arm for that side fell off. I hadn't tightened it. No torque wrench handy, but kept a pretty good tool kit in the car. The nuts were still in the valve cover, so I slapped the arm back in place, tightened it by feel, and finished the drive home.

But gawd, was it fun to drive. And kids loved it. Got married just before I left the Air Force in Denver, hired a man to drive the Thing to Seattle for me. He tore the plastic rear window on the way, and replaced it with a big sheet of plexiglass. Wife had never driven a manual transmission; when we moved to Seattle, our only cars were my '79 Camaro and the Thing...both with sticks. She learned to drive a manual on the Thing, including going to job intervals in downtown where there are big hills that she had to start out on.

The Thing had one feature that no sedan or little SUV could duplicate: It could carry a whole 4x8 sheet of plywood. Fold down the rear seats, unstrap the convertible roof across the back of the car, lift up the roof's bottom slightly, and slide the sheet of plywood into the back of the car until it nestled against the back of the front seats. Left about three feet of plywood sticking out like an enormous spoiler, but you could easily haul a couple of sheets.

As a military buff, of course the history of the car was of interest. Descendant of the German Jeep-equivalent from WWII, the Kubelwagen. Was always going to bolt the the spare tire on top of the hood and paint it sand color with an Afrika Corps logo stenciled on the side, but never did (fortunately). Previous fun vehicle back home had been a 1946 Willys Jeep, for which I had built a dummy .50 caliber machine gun. Built a dummy MG-34 for the Thing, but never did mount it (probably, again, fortunately). It became part of the decoration in my office.
View attachment 154119
By the mid-'90s, figured it was time to sell. Was tired of having to park it inside; wanted to put the new cars in the garage. It was rusty, rattlely, and raunchy. As was common with older VWs, the battery (under the rear seat) had boiled over one too many time and the acid had cut a half-moon slot through the floor in back. The Plexiglass used for a rear window had cracked and I'd patched it up with duct tape. It never sealed at the bottom, so in the Seattle rains water just slid down the plastic, dropped into the back of the car, and collected on the floor (which undoubtedly contributed to the rust).

So...listed it for sale. Had bought it for $1200, just for S&Gs, listed it for sale (in significantly worse condition) for the same price.

I was swamped.

First guy came by, took it for a test drive. Offered me a thousand for it. I just pointed at the several other guys who had come by to look at it. Gave me the $1200 cash, and that was it.

After he retired, my father (a life-long car lover) went on a car-collection kick. At first, he hunted the cars he owned in his teens... Model A Fords and a 1930 Chevy. Getting up there in age, now, I'll confess to a similar urge.

But not for the damned Thing. I'd love to get an old Jeep like my first car, but no way I want another damn Thing.

Ron Wanttaja
Click to expand...
As soon as I read the title of this thread, the first thing that popped in my head was "The Thing". My buddy has a pristine one parked in his garage. I think he only takes it out on very rare occasions (probably because something always breaks).
 
Dana said:
interesting" to work on. Italians just seem to have a different approach to mechanical design (which I've seen in Italian made industrial machinery as well
Click to expand...
I will second this. (Not in a bad way, just differently. I have worked directly with Italian engineers on industrial equipment design and troubleshooting during equipment commissioning and have learned a lot and also been confused a lot by some of their ideas. But I still don’t like their multi hour lunch break).
 
Dana said:
Italians just seem to have a different approach to mechanical design
Click to expand...
And a novel to interpret car racing rules.

Like the time when they pitched a RWD Lancia 037 against the Audi Quattro in the World Rally Championship, and won.

 
robin ardoin said:
What??? No love for the Yugo?!?! ;)
Click to expand...
Watched the movie "Drowning Mona" last week, the one with Bette Midler as a very nasty woman who gets murdered, and Danny DeVito as the police chief trying to find the killer. Everyone has a motive, including the audience (Mona is VERY nasty).

*Everyone* in the movie is driving a Yugo....the setup for the movie is that the fictional town was a test market.

Ron Wanttaja
 
Friend had a Nash Metropolitan. Slow, so ugly the chicks thought it was cute. And also very handy in that regard as both front seats folded down into a nice flat double bed.
Real passion pit.
 
When the valve train in my '73 Mustang fell apart in 1984 or '85, a coworker was nice enough to give me a Karmann Ghia. As I recall, the car was a '69, but had the engine from a '71 Super Beetle and the front brakes were from some variant of the VW bus. I never could find pads to fit. The headlights were held in with pop-riveted aluminum flashing covered with duct tape, because the fenders had rusted out around them. The rocker panels were rotted out, of course, no no heat or defrost. Electrical system was... "iffy". THe passenger door's upper hinge was broken, so carrying a passenger required me to hod the door for them... as in, hold it up. I could see through the driver side floorboard. Still, it was fun to drive, and would go anywhere in snow... you couldn't get it stuck on a drift.

I was driving this thing for work as a mainframe field engineer, all over northern Ohio - Cleveland, Akron, Canton, etc. One night as I was driving down the Interstate toward Canton in heavy rain, I heard a sloshing noise... switched on the dome light and saw that the passenger side of the car was full of water. Not the driver side, of course, it drained out on my side. Came to find out that the front portion of the right rear wheel well was rotted out and had been patched with a license plate pasted in with Bondo. That had let go, and as I drove down the road the tire flung water into the car. I parked it on a hill to drain it.

Anyway, after a few months I broke down and bought a new car. I listed the Ghia for sale. The guy who bought it for $500 said he was planning to use it as a parts car for one he was "restoring", but he now had to decide what to do because this one was in better shape than his.

Gotta say, though, it was fun to drive.
 
someday I hope to find a good condition Carmen ghia, it was really cool car for its time.
 
wanttaja said:
1974 Volkswagen Type 181..."The Thing".
View attachment 154118
Bought it from a sergeant for $1200 when I was in the Air Force in 1978. Absolutely, totally, a crap vehicle. Body was just stamped metal, including the doors. No "side guard door beams"; the doors had a large "map pocket" and you could touch the outer metal through them. Metal was so thin a bit of rust around the driver's side rear-view mirror caused the whole unit to fall off. Whole vehicle rattled and banged on the road. Side curtain windows...didn't roll up, but you could open the door and take them off. Ventilation wasn't a problem, since the air leaked all around the darn things. Water too. More important after we moved from Denver to Seattle....

Built in Mexico, only imported to the US for two years ('73 and '74). Chassis was supposedly stock from a Super Beetle... in reality, the transaxle was from a German postal vehicle. Had to replace the rear brakes, and went through hell trying to find replacement rear brake drums. Spilled a bottle of Marvel Mystery Oil in the glove box (no door, of course), so the beast smelled of MMO the whole time I owned it. Convertible roof was shot, was always going to replace it but never did. Throttle cable broke, I installed a new one in the parking lot at work.

Got the "How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive" book, pulled the engine, and rebuilt it. Ran fine for a week, then all of a sudden it seemed to lack power. I had to climb a 600-foot hill to get home, and there's no way it was going to make it. Pulled into a parking lot. Removed one valve cover...and the whole rocker arm for that side fell off. I hadn't tightened it. No torque wrench handy, but kept a pretty good tool kit in the car. The nuts were still in the valve cover, so I slapped the arm back in place, tightened it by feel, and finished the drive home.

But gawd, was it fun to drive. And kids loved it. Got married just before I left the Air Force in Denver, hired a man to drive the Thing to Seattle for me. He tore the plastic rear window on the way, and replaced it with a big sheet of plexiglass. Wife had never driven a manual transmission; when we moved to Seattle, our only cars were my '79 Camaro and the Thing...both with sticks. She learned to drive a manual on the Thing, including going to job intervals in downtown where there are big hills that she had to start out on.

The Thing had one feature that no sedan or little SUV could duplicate: It could carry a whole 4x8 sheet of plywood. Fold down the rear seats, unstrap the convertible roof across the back of the car, lift up the roof's bottom slightly, and slide the sheet of plywood into the back of the car until it nestled against the back of the front seats. Left about three feet of plywood sticking out like an enormous spoiler, but you could easily haul a couple of sheets.

As a military buff, of course the history of the car was of interest. Descendant of the German Jeep-equivalent from WWII, the Kubelwagen. Was always going to bolt the the spare tire on top of the hood and paint it sand color with an Afrika Corps logo stenciled on the side, but never did (fortunately). Previous fun vehicle back home had been a 1946 Willys Jeep, for which I had built a dummy .50 caliber machine gun. Built a dummy MG-34 for the Thing, but never did mount it (probably, again, fortunately). It became part of the decoration in my office.
View attachment 154119
By the mid-'90s, figured it was time to sell. Was tired of having to park it inside; wanted to put the new cars in the garage. It was rusty, rattlely, and raunchy. As was common with older VWs, the battery (under the rear seat) had boiled over one too many time and the acid had cut a half-moon slot through the floor in back. The Plexiglass used for a rear window had cracked and I'd patched it up with duct tape. It never sealed at the bottom, so in the Seattle rains water just slid down the plastic, dropped into the back of the car, and collected on the floor (which undoubtedly contributed to the rust).

So...listed it for sale. Had bought it for $1200, just for S&Gs, listed it for sale (in significantly worse condition) for the same price.

I was swamped.

First guy came by, took it for a test drive. Offered me a thousand for it. I just pointed at the several other guys who had come by to look at it. Gave me the $1200 cash, and that was it.

After he retired, my father (a life-long car lover) went on a car-collection kick. At first, he hunted the cars he owned in his teens... Model A Fords and a 1930 Chevy. Getting up there in age, now, I'll confess to a similar urge.

But not for the damned Thing. I'd love to get an old Jeep like my first car, but no way I want another damn Thing.

Ron Wanttaja
Click to expand...
I sold my 43 GPW to a guy in the UK. $20k. Had the Bantam trailer and the canvas water bucket. Thing was a mix of fun and deathly surprises. Whomever put the pitman arm on the front axle shall be tied to the mast and flogged.

My G506 and G508 never reached full restoration, but were a blast to drive. Sold them when I moved. Damn I miss my 1000sq/ft garage. Well, the rented hangar will have to do until the BD is all done up. I still run my restoration site... 23 year online. Still getting hits from people looking up the massive amount of research I did.
 
Flatiowa said:
someday I hope to find a good condition Carmen ghia, it was really cool car for its time.
Click to expand...
As someone who dated a collage girl with a ghia, they are nowhere near as fun as you hope. Massively underpowered, manual everything, and hard as heck to get in/out of. Also no back seat for the play time.

My 74 Comet on the other hand was a makeout heaven. Whoever took away bench seats needs a good talking to.
 
We had a 74 gremlin around 1980. 358 six and 3 on the floor. I'd do the clutch and my girlfriend/wife would shift it. Key was broke off in the ignition, so several us drove it. I tee boned a fire hydrant with it one night late on ice. Took the bumper off and kept driving it. It never broke down and the clutch was going out of it for 50K miles. Towards the end 2 of my friends were driving it along with my girl friend. Never needed a key. Dang thing never quite running. Sold it to a gremlin enthusiast. lol
 
Flatiowa said:
someday I hope to find a good condition Carmen ghia, it was really cool car for its time.
Click to expand...
Friend of mine just completed a 9 year restoration of a convertible carmen ghia. I have only seen pictures so far and it is a beautiful car. Well done.
 
I don’t recall our 124 Spyder, owned in the late 1970’s, as being particularly finicky.

9347867312_a7a1335476_z.jpg


I do recall it failing a Florida state inspection - turns out the rear brakes were totally inoperative. Not something we noticed in normal driving. Something about a clogged proportioning valve and not an expensive fix.

As an aside, that’s a contact print from a roll of 220 film shot in a Rolleiflex I owned at the time. Cool camera, but it had gathered dust on a shelf for years before I finally sold it on eBay quite some time ago.
 
Brad Z said:
As soon as I read the title of this thread, the first thing that popped in my head was "The Thing". My buddy has a pristine one parked in his garage. I think he only takes it out on very rare occasions (probably because something always breaks).
Click to expand...

50 + year old car.... sure something is going to give..

Friend in HS got one... not exactly a winter car as it had this funky gas heater in the front to use while the engine got up to running temps.... when I moved to CA, a neighbor had one that I helped fix a few times... brakes, tune up, new clutch (which was far easier than a VW Bug... etc.. the mechanics on the thing (pardon the pun) was typical VW simple and shared just about all parts with the Beetle.

Tell your buddy he is sitting on a little gold mine they are a hot car with collectors right now

TheSamba.com :: VW Classifieds - Vehicles - Thing/Type 181

Classified ads, photos, shows, links, forums, and technical information for the Volkswagen automobile
www.thesamba.com
 
pfarber said:
I sold my 43 GPW to a guy in the UK. $20k. Had the Bantam trailer and the canvas water bucket. Thing was a mix of fun and deathly surprises. Whomever put the pitman arm on the front axle shall be tied to the mast and flogged.
Click to expand...
'46 CJ-2A for awhile, then a '51 CJ-3A.
1786467050945.png
This was in the early '70s, when they were almost considered trash vehicles and dirt cheap...think my first one cost $600. Taught me a lot about mechanics, as my dad insisted he wasn't going to pay for maintenance. Fortunately, he was an old farm boy and did the heavy lifting (almost literally; threw a chain around a joist in the garage to haul the engine out for overhaul).

Got pretty good at replacing head gaskets, not quite as good at brake work. Lost the brakes going up to a stop sign once, jerked it off the road into a park and let it coast to a stop. Reasonably reliable otherwise, but I always parked it for the North Dakota winters...the CJ-2A didn't have a heater, and the one in the CJ-3A wasn't much better.

Ron Wanttaja
 
Ventucky Red said:
50 + year old car.... sure something is going to give..

Friend in HS got one [VW Thing] ... not exactly a winter car as it had this funky gas heater in the front to use while the engine got up to running temps.... when I moved to CA, a neighbor had one that I helped fix a few times... brakes, tune up, new clutch (which was far easier than a VW Bug... etc.. the mechanics on the thing (pardon the pun) was typical VW simple and shared just about all parts with the Beetle.
Click to expand...
Mine didn't have the gas heater, just the stock VW one, which works just like an aircraft one...manifold around the exhaust, mechanical lever down between the seats to make it work. Damn near worthless. No windshield defroster; when winter came, I had to use some of the self-stick defogger sheets on the front glass.

My commute to work was about 25 minutes; heater was *almost* running by then. Since I was Air Force, I couldn't bundle up in warm civilian clothing, and they weren't issuing parkas in Denver. Heavy overcoat, and I did manage to find an issue fur cap, kinda like the Russian ones. Was nice in the drafty Thing with the winter breezes sneaking around the side curtains. Still have it, in fact.

Ron Wanttaja
 
wanttaja said:
Mine didn't have the gas heater, just the stock VW one, which works just like an aircraft one...manifold around the exhaust, mechanical lever down between the seats to make it work. Damn near worthless. No windshield defroster; when winter came, I had to use some of the self-stick defogger sheets on the front glass.

My commute to work was about 25 minutes; heater was *almost* running by then. Since I was Air Force, I couldn't bundle up in warm civilian clothing, and they weren't issuing parkas in Denver. Heavy overcoat, and I did manage to find an issue fur cap, kinda like the Russian ones. Was nice in the drafty Thing with the winter breezes sneaking around the side curtains. Still have it, in fact.

Ron Wanttaja
Click to expand...
If you were in the back seat, the hot air blowing from under the seat would almost burn your ankles.
 
Not mine, and not the worst car, but all the talk of VW's reminds me of my dad's circa-'73 Squareback. He T-boned a guy running a red light once, and pretty much the entire front end of the car was a crumple zone. It got towed about 50 feet to the gas station on the corner, who put it back together again, and Dad kept driving it for another few years. Sold it to one of my cousins, who painted it robin's egg blue and promptly totaled it shortly before I got my driver's license. As far as I remember, it was a pretty solid car, but it was always garaged (even at work), which probably helped to minimize the rust.
 
Ventucky Red said:
50 + year old car.... sure something is going to give..

Friend in HS got one... not exactly a winter car as it had this funky gas heater in the front to use while the engine got up to running temps.... when I moved to CA, a neighbor had one that I helped fix a few times... brakes, tune up, new clutch (which was far easier than a VW Bug... etc.. the mechanics on the thing (pardon the pun) was typical VW simple and shared just about all parts with the Beetle.

Tell your buddy he is sitting on a little gold mine they are a hot car with collectors right now

TheSamba.com :: VW Classifieds - Vehicles - Thing/Type 181

Classified ads, photos, shows, links, forums, and technical information for the Volkswagen automobile
www.thesamba.com
Click to expand...
Oh he knows. He did a frame-up restoration. It's pristine. But it's also a 50 year old VW.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top