Tell us your story

[Bob(Herbie)]

Awesome story Joe T It?s amazing how VWs helped shape our lives. Back then they were just a means of getting around. But look at us now realizing how important they were at the time. The difference being now we can look back. Love your story😀

[lovebus (jack)]

Great Stories so far, It's very interesting to hear them...   

[6T5 square]

Great Stories so far, It's very interesting to hear them...   

Haven?t heard yours yet.

[lovebus (jack)]

Haven?t heard yours yet.

   

[VWPANZER1]

                              Piss Ant  

[6T5 square]

Ok- I'll go next

I grew up on Long Island. When I was a youngster my uncle lived two doors down from us. At the time he was the coolest because he worked in the tower at a local big name dragstrip. He would sneak us in for free every now and then especially when he was drag racing his blue 64 beetle. Won a few trophies if I remembe. Later in life when I got married I had the chance to buy a beetle. 71 or 2 Sun bug- looked just like Michelle's " Sunny". I mostly drove it back and forth to the train station. My wife said she could tell when I was about three miles from home because she could hear the muffler from our apartment. I beat the crap out of that car but still sold it for a profit. Forward about 5 years and a friend of mine told me about a 63 beetle that was in a garage a couple of towns over. Needed some work but was cheap. Took it out of a dusty cobweb loaded garage and brought it to my dads house. Stripped down the car, cleaned everything out and started collecting parts. 6 months later, I moved to Voorhees. I moved the car down here, kept it in a rented garage and didn't look at it for a year.
Another phone call- a buddy on Log Island heard I was into VWs and asked if I'd be interested in a 65 volkswagen ? I always say yes so I made the trip up. I met him outside of the garage where the car was and he said to me that he didn't know what the car was but that it wasn't a beetle. At first I said, oh chit, it's going to be a pinto. We rolled the door up and covered in dust, old table clothes and lumber was a black 65 Squareback. All original, some wheel well rust, needed a fuel pump and some cleaning. Still had the original owners manual and the original oil change coupon book with stamps from the garage in Stuttgart Germany. $1000. I'll take it.
I went back down to Voorhees and found a lady who owned a VW junkyard ( tough old girl- always dressed in army pants). She bought the 63 after I had removed some of the valuable pieces for cheap. The next weekend I went back up to LI to get the car out of the garage. Dragged it out. I had brought a Vw tow bar with me not know that you can use it on the type 3 front beam. So we pulled the car home with a tow bar and me in the car working the wheel and the emergency brake all the way to my Dads place 10 mi away. Now my Dads pretty handy so he told me to leave the tow bar with him and he'll figure out a way to hook it up. And he did. The next weekend he towed it down to my house. Coming across the bridge into NJ, he had to slam on the brakes to advoid a crash. The bar folded up and partially crushed the front spare tire area. Just something else to fix.
Kids came along so the square had to sit for years in various states. Finally got it a Macco paint job and got it running smooth and just kept working on it over the next 7 years.
I found Ned on this web site! Matt had talked about it for a while but nobody jumped on it. I thought I might be able to get it at a decent price so Matt made the introductions and Mr Jack Kessle made the trek with me to Pennsylvania. The rest of that story you can see in my blog here on the club web site.

So that's it. A long strange trip it's been.

[Gunterwagen (Nick C.)]

Cool story John! Thanks for sharing.

Is the VW junkyard still in Voorhees? I work in that town. 

[6T5 square]

I lived in voorhees, I think she was up by Trenton