My 1958 Bug

In 1970 I sold my Sunbeam Tiger to make the down payment on our first house & bought a 1958 bug. VW blue at the time. I changed the camber to negative camber by one notch. I also had a zoom tube for the exhaust. It ran as good as a 36hp VW can run.

In that era in Portland, OR - 1960's - they used to have car rallies called "Hare & Hound" which involved following flour marks on a corner to make that turn, left or right. The goal was to have a correct time - which I think was a time that if you drove normal & supposedly at the speed limit, would be the time for the complete course. Along the way there would be a different mark on the road from a bag of flour, denoting a spot where you pulled over & ran around looking for a hidden can or jar to put your ticket into - then off to the next turn in the road or another hidden can. Obviously, way before cell phones or Apple Maps were around! I usually just went as fast as I could between stops or occasionally would consider the time when we would be clocked at the end of the race. We completed the race which included MGB's, Triumphs, Fiats or American muscle. It usually ended at a restaurant or bar. We waited around awhile till the last car arrived but thought we would just head home. Someone saw us getting ready to leave & said, "why don't you stick around for a little bit more." We decided to stick around & when they started announcing the winners, I still remember exactly what the guy said, he said "And the winner is, in a 1958 Volkswagen..." I was very proud of our little blue bug.

 Forward on a couple months & we got married & had our 1958 bug. For the honeymoon I had one week off from work. I was 20 & my wife was 19 & we headed to Carmel Calif. About 1/2 way there I decided that drafting a semi was the best way to keep 60 mph. Then it started to rain, or should I say a downpour & then the wipers quit. Driving with my head out the window some of the time, we made it to Redding & stopped for the night. The next day I sourced out a used wiper motor but the one in the car had started working again, so I just had a spare if needed. We talked a bit & found out that it was raining in Carmel, CA so we thought that we shouldn't go all the way down to Carmel & turned around & headed north to Victoria BC. I know, sounds a little crazy, but.... So off we go to Anacortes to catch a ferry. About 3/4 of the way there the engine started misfiring. I pulled over on the freeway to check the engine. I pulled the distributor cap off & found the points had broken. Knowing VW's, I had brought a spare set of points & condenser, changed them out & off we go. When we were about 500' from catching the ferry, we looked out & the ferry was about 1/2 mile away heading for Victoria Canada. We headed for Seattle & spent the next few days there, then headed back home to get back to work. I had several more bugs & still have some to play with now in 2025. Just to note, we are still married & will have our 56th anniversary this year 2026:) That's my story & I'm sticking to it:)