Hawaii VW Wisdom for Air Cooled Engines

This is very cool and very true......I would like to visit this place next time I get out to Maui

When I get home......

Where I would like to be/In my @vw Bus heading to the beach- I'll do it this summer when I get home from #Afghanistan twitter.com/Leadership_One…

— Middleboro Jones (@Leadership_One) March 22, 2013

Blogger.com is having issues / Christmas is coming

For some reason, my blog pages have been displayed oddly over the last few days - It comes up like normal on my IPAD but looks like CRAP on my work PC.  I tried a few fixes but so far " no joy" has been called.

In the meantime, I am getting ready for Christmas, as much as we can have Christmas here in the shitewilds of Afghanistan......Listening to Christmas music while here makes me feel special and thankful for all my blessings.

I found this pic online the other day and it gave me a big smile.....I sooooo want to decorate my bus like this someday ( when she is up and running - and of course, when I am home to dirve it at Christmas time)

For today, I can share it with you and hope it makes you smile too

Time and $$$$ - The two essential ingredients in restoring a classic

Today was one of those days when I was thinking about all the fun I want to have in the new VW BUS project when she is redone -

Here is how she appears presently:

 

 



Here is what she should look like when she is restored to her prior glory days:

Time and $$$ - When I have the TIME, I usually don't have the $$$$ and vice-a-versa.....

Here's to hoping I can get the two essential ingredients together when I am back on the homefront in the future.....Then the real fun of restoring her will begin.

My next project - A tricked out VW Bus

Like any other person who likes to tinker with old cars ( rusty metal), I am always thinking about the next project I can get working on once  I get the chance - I will have to wait until my time in Kandahar concludes sometime in the future...

This is along the lines of what I am thinking about -

Yeah, I am not the " Hippie Bus " type but I have had a serious liking for the Veedubs since I drove a Karmann Ghia in college....I would like to have it stay fairly close to original but add a little resto-mod flare to it at the same time....something like this -

I would have to make sure it wasn't too low to the ground as in my neck of the woods, that could cause issues but you get the picture.  Take an iconic VW Bus and make it something special.

It all comes down to Time & $$$$ - When I have the TIME, I usually don't have the $$$ and vice-a-versa...we will see what we can devise when I get some time at home to hunt down one that needs some TLC.

UPDATE - Here is the one I chose - a good starting point - A fairly rust free body in need of a little TLC - Came with a TON of parts - a 1970 Bus with serious potential - It is not as old as I wanted as getting a "Splitty" would have been cool but finding a worthy one was either too much $$$ or too much rust - This girl will be the right place to start and worthy of a good refit.....ohhhhh yeah.

Having computers control your automobile is NOT a good idea...It's like having a HAL 9000 driving around with you

Read the enclosed article - This is why I am looking forward to a time in the future when the two vehicles I will be driving will be my 1963 Jeep and the 1966 VW Bug I am rebuilding in the barn out back..... I don't need or want a computer in control of my car.



It's a car - not a laptop....The new cars are great, but take a look at a 7 year old computer and how it performs...that is the issue you will be dealing with when your new car gets older....and the cost associated with having it debugged...The computer allows your every movement, your every action to be tracked and recorded.

My old Jeep and the VW will never have those issues.

'Your' Car Won't Be After 2015
By Eric Peters on 4.25.12
After a certain point, it's not paranoia.


The latest brick in the wall is the predictably named "Moving Ahead For Progress in the 21st Century Act," also known as Senate Bill 1813. (See here for the full text of the bill itself; the relevant section is 31406.) This legislation -- already passed by the Senate and likely to be passed by the House -- will impose a legal requirement that all new cars made beginning with the 2015 models be fitted with so-called Event Data Recorders (EDRs). These are the "black boxes" you may have read about that store data about how you drive -- including whether you wear a seat belt and how fast you drive -- ostensibly for purposes of post-accident investigation.


These EDRs are not new. GM and other automakers have been installing them in new cars for years -- in GM's case, since the late 1990s. What's new is the proposed federal mandate, which would make it illegal to not have one -- or (in all likelihood) to remove or disable one in a car required to have the device.


The question arises: why?


Several possibilities come to mind:


First, the EDRs could be -- and almost certainly will be -- tied into your vehicle's GPS. (Most new and late model cars, conveniently, already have this, too.) Then data about your driving can be transmitted -- as well as recorded. To whom? Your insurance company, of course. Progressive Insurance already has such a system in place -- voluntary, for the moment.


When EDRs are mandated, you will no longer have a choice.


We'll be told it's all for the sake of (groan) "safety" -- just like the old 55 MPH highway speed limit and every radar trap in the country. Of course, it's really for the sake of revenue -- the government's and the insurance company's. Your rates will be "adjusted" in real time, for every incident of "speeding" or not buckling up. It'll be so much more efficient than using cops to issue tickets. After all, so many fishes escape! With an EDR in every car, no one will escape. Your "adjusted" premium will be waiting for you when you get home.


You've got mail!


And naturally, they -- the government, insurance companies -- will be able to track your every move, noting (and recording) where you've been and when. This will create a surveillance net beyond anything that ever existed previously. Some will not sweat this: After all, if you've got nothing to hide, why worry? Except for the fact that, courtesy of almost everything we do being either "illegal" or at least "suspicious," we all have a great deal to hide. The naivety of the Don't Worry, it's No Big Deal crowd is breathtaking.


But the last possibility is probably the creepiest: EDRs tied into your car's GPS will give them -- the government and/or corporations -- literal physical control over (hack) "your" vehicle. This is not conspiracy theorizing. It is technological fact. Current GM vehicles equipped with the same technology about to be mandated for every vehicle can be disabled remotely. Just turned off. All the OnStar operator has to do is send the appropriate command over the GPS to your car's computer, which controls the engine. It is one of the features touted by OnStar -- of course, as a "safety" feature.


In the future, it will be used to limit your driving -- for the sake of "energy conservation" or, perhaps, "the environment." It will be the perfect, er, vehicle, for implementing U.N. Agenda 21 -- the plan to herd all of us formerly free-range tax cattle into urban feedlots. So much easier to control us this way. No more bailing out to the country or living off the grid - unless you get there (and to your work) by walking.


The pieces are all coming together.


First, computer-controlled cars. Next, widespread adoption of GPS in cars. Then, EDRs tied into them.


Viola. "Your" car is suddenly under the control of others. Just as "your" other (cough, hack) property -- "your" home, for example -- is under the control of others. It does not matter that you paid for it. Or even that you have the legal fiction of ownership. You do not control "your" property -- hence it is really the property of others. You are merely allowed to use said property -- under certain conditions -- by the leave of the true owners.


And once SB 1813 is passed and signed into law, there will no longer be an opt-out. In fact, sure as the rooster crows in the morning, you can bet the next step will a law requiring older cars not originally fitted with the technology be fitted with it -- or else decommissioned. It is inconceivable that they -- the government and its insurance company cronies -- will allow anyone to drive a vehicle not subject to this monitoring and control. They will insist it's not "safe" -- and of course, "unfair" that owners of older cars not equipped with EDRs are able to "get away" with "speeding" and not wearing their seat belts.


Our cars were once a tangible expression of the freedom ideal. They are fast becoming mobile cages. And the really devilish thing is they're making us pay the costs of our own imprisonment, too.




About the Author
Eric Peters is an automotive columnist and author of Automotive Atrocities: The Cars You Love to Hate (Motor Books International) and a new book, Road Hogs.

And the Bride wore a PORSCHE.....

Diamonds maybe a girl's best friend but one savvy lass in England decided that she would rather have a PORSCHE....one she built herself from an old VW....

Where are girls like this stateside??? She sounds like a real catch.

A bride's welded bliss: How she built Porsche from wrecked VW for her big day
By Sadie Whitelocks - UK MAIL
15th September 2011

For Megan Ashton, it was her childhood dream to arrive at her wedding in a classic Porsche.
Now the 26-year-old has done exactly that – not by hiring one, as any bride might, but by building her own from a clapped-out Volkswagen Beetle.

She spent six years painstakingly transforming the 40-year-old VW into a Porsche 356, the company’s first production model.

The Royal Navy engineering officer paid £200 for the wreck before stripping it down to the chassis and meticulously rebuilding it virtually from scratch, donning blue overalls, getting covered in grime and grease, and spending £4,000 in the process.

The stunning vehicle now features a white leather interior with a mahogany finish, has a 356 body shell, and includes an authentic steering wheel and speedometer. It also boasts an impressive top speed of more than 100mph – and is valued at £25,000.

The proud owner was driven in it by her father to her wedding to Rob Ashton, also 26, a captain in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.

After the ceremony at Sandhurst military academy in Surrey, her new husband took the wheel to drive them to their reception.

‘I loved every minute of it and it was such a special moment to be able to pull up on my wedding day in it,’ said the new Mrs Ashton, from Amesbury, near Salisbury in Wiltshire. ‘It was a close-run thing getting the car finished in the end, but after six years it was well worth it.

‘There were times when I didn’t think we’d get it done in time as it was such a huge project, but it meant so much. I dreamed of driving the car but got carried away buying my wedding dress, which meant it was quite difficult to fit in.’

The 356 was created by Ferdinand Porsche, son of the company founder who had designed the Volkswagen Beetle.

It was manufactured between 1948 and 1956 and shared many parts with the Beetle to save money – making the two cars easier for Mrs Ashton to fuse together.

She bought the battered 1969 VW when she was a student, then stripped it down to the bare chassis before fitting larger cylinders and pistons to the engine, increasing it from 1285cc to 1776cc.

Only the chassis, which had to be shortened, wheels and engine remain of the original car, which was also given a new registration plate.

Mrs Ashton, whose father Viv Beal, 54, runs a garage in Barnstaple, Devon, said: ‘I know people might think it is quite unusual for a girl to be interested in cars but I have always grown up surrounded by it.

‘My Mum and Dad have been buying various parts for the car for birthday and Christmas presents for the past six years – so I am looking forward to getting some girly treats now.’

Her father added: ‘We’re all into classic cars and it was a very proud day for all of us. Megan’s Porsche replica is her pride and joy.