Thursday through Friday morning rains were heavy in North Texas with a lot of standing water in my yard. However, by the Friday afternoon I had decided to pull Sea Blue out of the shop and put her under the overhang as far back as I could since it was still misting outside.
Tammy and I left at about 7:00 AM while it was still quite dark. We grabbed Tammy a latte at Dunkin Donuts and then proceeded on our way to the VW gathering in Garland. It was another very long ride due to getting just about every red light on the way there.
If, by chance, the stars align perfectly on the way to Garland, I can make the trip in 45 minutes. If I get bogged down with red lights, then we are looking at the very least an hour and fifteen minutes or longer. Don’t get me wrong, I love driving the beetle, just not sitting in it at red lights. Regardless of the lights, it was nice to drive the sea blue beetle again.
We rolled into the lot at Whataburger late enough that everyone was already inside. This was probably a good thing since it wasn’t warm outside. We walked in and everyone was hanging out talking by the entrance. There was some usual banter/ribbing regarding my bug and the tire that had come off a few years back. Click here to read about that mishap.
Jay mentioned he wanted to show me his tool for removing wheels. I said, “My issue isn’t removing the wheels, that happens by itself, my issue is keeping them on”.
I still don’t have complete confidence in that drivers’ side front wheel, so I check the lug nuts regularly. However, having replaced the drum has made me feel better about things.
It was a small group, but as always, a lot of fun which lasted until a little after 10:00 AM.
There was still some discussion around the back seat retaining strap which I just installed. Jay and Scott both looked at it and agreed that there are not many beetles on the road that have that strap anymore. Personally, I think they just dry rotted apart and then went the way of the trash can. You can still find originals online in fairly rough shape. I would love to be able to reproduce something close to the original as the replacement straps are pretty horrible in appearance and function.
Jay also gave me a spare part for the belt. It is the part that would go under the metal top rail with the belt around it holding it in place. In the picture below, notice where the belt disappears into the top rail slot? Under rail is where the part that Jay gave me would be located.
I am going to see if I can get that part replicated, as no one seems to offer it.
Just before we left Jay showed me some of the VW specific tools in his trunk. I don’t have an original VW tool kit in my car. They were very basic, consisting of a few screw drivers, wrench, pliers, hub cap remover, spark plug socket, lug nut removal socket with a pry bar. Just about everything you need if you get a flat or in need of a minor repair. There are a few reproductions of the original online, all at or around 100.00 USD.
I have to say that I do like the hub cap removal tool, and I would prefer that lug nut socket vs carrying a torque wrench with me. I’d like to get one of those kits eventually.
After the meeting it was back in the sea blue beetle and home. The ride was uneventful, thankfully. Then as always, I let the bug cool off in the street before I pull it into the shop. If I don’t do that it smells like hot beetle in there for next few hours. Anyway, that sums up my Saturday morning.
So, what’s next for the beetle? Scott and I are going to do a transmission fluid change before the next meeting. I’ll most certainly post about that with some pictures.
