Karen's 1974 Volkswagen Type 1

      Since this is Karen's car, she will tell its story. This narrative began as an English assignment. She will continue the story as the project progresses...Paul

     The life of a VW Beetle can be either very tragic or very happy. Some owners have no respect for their cars and just let them rot away. But on the other hand, there are owners who take very good care of their cars and appreciate them. I have had both a VW beetle with a tragic life and one with a happy life.

     Everything began with a young girl with the dream of owning a beetle. That dream began to come true when I received my first beetle that my father and I planned to restore. The beetle was payment from a friend for one of my dad's side jobs. But as we began, we ran into many problems, the biggest being that the car was in its final stages of life due to rusted metal. The floorboards had rotted through and the chipmunks inside had taken up permanent residence. Things became so hopeless that the car was scrapped and the search began anew.

     After many hours of furious searching and failed trips to look at cars, a new car had been found. It was in good shape and has been nicknamed "Pumpkin" due to its bright orange paint. My father and I began work on the Pumpkin's restoration.

     The first thing to be done was to remove the fenders, which was simple. The next step was to split the body from the chassis. To me this seemed like it wouldn't be difficult but was I wrong. Not only did it take a lot of prep work but also a lot of muscle. There were many bolts to be removed and braces to install to keep the body from bending. When the time came to lift the body off the frame, the family was called for help. The body then saton four small casters so that it may be rolled around the family's shop.   The time had come to attack the chassis. The front beam had to be replaced since it was bent. The floorpans were removed and new ones installed. Everything was painted with rust proofing paint and the chassis was done.

     It was time to attack the most difficult of tasks, the body. The first thing to do was to ready the fenders for dent removal. This meant removing the headlights, and taillights from the fenders. The fun began as we began pounding out dents and smoothing the curves. After the pounding was finished one of the hardest parts of the project, sanding off the paint, began. This is a lengthy process that was no fun. Next, came the body filler to touch up any tiny dents and to level the curvature of the sheet metal. This project is still in the works and we hope to be done by the time I get my license. Yesterday, today, and in the weeks to come another beetle's life has been saved; a classic car has been kept from the crusher. One day in the near future when this car is again complete inspiration will come from it, a tradition will reign and a happy life will live on.

     Here's where the English project ends and the rest of the story begins.......The rest of the body was sanded and sanded and sanded some more. Then the car was ready for its paint job in Omaha Tangier Orange. Setting the body aside the engine came next. It was totally rebuilt and machined so it is now 1776 cc. The engine was mounted and then the body was remounted on the chassis. The car was in its final phases. Last was the interior. We spent a day with the fumes of contact cement putting in the dark gray tweed headliner. All that was left was the seats which were covered in light gray tweed.

     The car was finished and ready for its inaugural test drive. Where to, oh just down the street to my friends and back to the house. Who cares how far we went, we went somewhere. We were done!