No more wagon for me.

Well guys I recently returned from a trip to Florida to visit my family and wagon, and sad to say the Uberwagon is dead. The engine and transmission both need to be replaced, the AC is shot, the paint is totally shot, rodents have been under the hood, the interior smells like crap, and the springs that were put on it recently are not indexed properly so the car is sitting crooked. I have always had a love hate relationship with the car and the last year it has been more hate then love, I tried to throw a mod at it to make me love it again and it repaid me by blowing the engine. I sat down and did some economic evaluations and fixing this car is not something I am willing to do. In my mind the list of bad stuff out weighs the good stuff, and the costs of replacing parts and repairing this wagon are way higher then just replacing the entire car. I sold the wagon to a member of ISSF so at least it will be loved, I don't see myself getting back into a B-body anytime soon. My 10 year old daughter is begging for a 1964-1968 VW beetle project for us to work on together and that is re-kindling a love that I had in high school. So needles to say I am done with the B-body scene for a while, if you guys need me for any more graphic design work I am still just an email away though.

Ray.

That is too bad Ray. But you have other important things to take care of now, like that beetle project. I did a baja bug when I was in California. It was cool, but If I did it again I would do a lowered 63 with a 914 engine and webbers.

Sorry to hear that the car that gave you a peice of Americana while in Germany let you down. Maybe you might pick up a nice low mile LT1 wagon for daily transport when you finally get home for good.

Oh, And thank you for another year of service to our country. I wish you nothing but the best no matter what path you take.

Well considering that I bought it in 2005 for $2000 with 130k miles on it, then I replaced all the gaskets, seals, water pump, starter, alternator, oil cooler lines, power steering lines and a complete tune up right before I shipped it to Germany later that same year. While in Germany the car never let me down and all it needed was routine maintenance and a set of tires, it made it back to the states in 2008 with almost 180k miles on it before the engine died I think I got my monies worth out of the car. I knew the engine was knocking before it left Germany so it was not that big of a surprise that it died I am just glad it did it after I no longer needed the car as my daily transportation.

I learned to drive in a 1974 Superbeetle and at one time we had about 5 different bugs sitting in the yard when I was growing up, I did my first solo engine swap at the age of twelve on that same bug and now my daughter is set on a Herbie clone as her first car. I have offered her other cars but she is dead set on a 1964-1968 beetle, she does not want a superbeetle either. At least they are still dirt cheap to rebuild and I know my way around them. I am looking forward to the project, who knows, maybe I will find a nice little squareback wagon to tinker with too.

Hey Ray, not everything can be saved. Sometimes you just got cut your losses and stop throwing money into the pit. Sounds like she served you well and will live on in a few other southern B-wags.

It figures, too. I just got your decals in the mail on Thursday. You sure you don't want them? They'd fit on Herbie's vwent windows.

The Beetle project sounds fun. It's funny, my wife and I were just talking about how cool old beetles were today! I think it's totally kick ass that you and your daughter are gonna put one together. That's cool beyond cool.

Welcome back Ray. And thanks for all you have done.

You can keep the decals.

Just cause you don't have the wagon doesn't mean you can't come around anymore. We need constant updates on all things "project" to keep us from being bored.

+1 on sticking around and updating etc and then to we can slowly talk u back into a bbody ive seen around one of the show here a dune buggy that has a modded out turbo subaru motor ,hp up kazoo, a guy in my shop has a 67 vw what memories back in the day all bundled up in the winter using beer as a heater lol u gotta love the bug

Sorry to hear about the whale. Please stick around,there's a B-body waiting for you somewhere. Have fun with your Daughter and the VW Bug project, sounds really cool.