BACK to Gallery 10



Rusty's 1970 "For Sale" Beetle

When I first started working on Beetles they were a dime a dozen. You could pick one up on any street corner for a hundred bucks. They weren't anything special at the time. I would make (them into) rail buggies, into the fiberglass bodied dune buggies, into Baja buggies or anything that was different. Then a new love came along about the mid 80s: Stock car racing. After attending a couple races at the local track, I was hooked. So I sold all the VWs to fund the building of a stock car. Now anybody who has built and driven their own race car knows that it's a full time job in itself. You're always searching for more speed, better handling and all while trying to keep within the rules. Not to mention all the time you spent repairing the damage caused by some idiot running you into the wall. Well this took up all of my free time and the Beetle was all but forgotten. Until I got tired of working on the (stock) car all week just to have some moron center punch me in the middle of turn one that next Saturday night.

So I decided to move on. But what next? I went a couple of years without really doing any kind of mechanical hobbies, while still working at a GM Dealership. Then I saw a really nice 65 Beetle and a spark flew. Oh yeah! I love Beetles! That's it. I'll start working on Beetles again. So I grab the paper and look through the auto section: Nothing. OK, I'll hop in the truck and cruise all the highways and busy roads. Surely I will find one: Nothing! No Beetles to be had anywhere in the area. How could this happen? Where once you could find a Beetle on any street corner and now I could not find a one. Where did they all go? Well now I was on a mission! I ran a add in our local paper trying to locate a beetle and holy crap! I got a response, and needless to say, I ran right out and bought it. Well my wife fell in love with that one, So off to find another for me. I found two cool old early 70's Standards and I liked the die-cast "For Sale" Beetle model so I planned on using it as a pattern.

It all started when I was looking for something different to do with a Beetle, but still keep it intact...no more cutting them up. I stumbled across some "hood ride" Beetles on the net and thought how nice they looked: All full of their natural patina; looking like they had been loved to death but kept on rolling. So on to trying to find another Beetle. Not just any Beetle but one that was well loved by Mother Nature and her elements. And I looked for a car that's on her last leg. Well it turned out to be even harder then finding a nice one. So I settled for two middle-of-the-road Beetles, both with pretty good bodies, but needing mechanical restoring and paint. Neither of them had the patina I was looking for. So, I thought I would just do another complete restore, with the new everything and nice shiny paint. But after all the mechanical work was done and the body work was under way it hit me. The ultimate Hood ride! I've seen it before in 1/24 scale. Yes! The "For Sale" Beetle! That's it! Different? YES!!!! I have not seen one done in full scale around here or on the net. And so it began. Its gotta be the simplicity of the design for function, and the classic lines that have not changed through the years. While the other cars are lost in a sea of uniformity, the Beetle is still the most recognizable car on the road. I would say the mid-to-late 70's is when I really discovered the simplicity of the Beetle. I was cutting one up to make a rail buggy and wanted to salvage every part I could because, well, you never know what part you might need down the road. That was after I had been working at a Chevy Dealership. for a couple of years... and you know how the cars were in the late 70s and early 80s, with all the smog equipment kicking into gear. To step back and look at how simple the Beetle was and remained just made them fun to work on.

Creating a duplicate of the "For Sale" Beetle model had its trials, as one might expect. Some were aesthetic, others were interpersonal. I amazed myself at how well I had mimicked the look of rust and sun-baked, dusty patina. Though the die-cast model is actually of a slammed '58 Standard, my real-life facsimile a stock '70, the likeness was nevertheless uncanny! Still, Rusty admits to the struggles of making such a nice piece of rolling art. "You know I am amazed. When I (was) finished, I wasn't too happy with it. Some things just didn't work out how I wanted them to. Nothing mechanical. That's all perfect. It was the paint. Now me being a mechanic forever and not really a painter, I had a hard time mixing and matching the best I could to try and duplicate dirt, rust, patina and so on. It was allot harder than making the car all smooth and shiny. "Anyway, the first test drive I took with the car after completion was amazing. There were people waving, honking and (giving me the) thumbs up all over the place. People (were) pulling up besides me wanting me to pull over, and when I do pull over, they'd ask me how much would I sell it to them for. Try and tell someone that a car isn't for sale when it's got "for sale" written all over it! Not very easy. I have had people argue with me for ten minutes on how it has to be for sale. It's got a "for sale" sign in the back window doesn't it? How can you tell them that its not really for sale?" Rusty's understandable, but unwanted, interest from complete strangers in the "For Sale" Beetle only escalated as he drove the car around town. "OK this had been going for a couple months now. Every time I'd take the car out, everybody wanted to buy it. Nobody believed it wasn't for sale when I'd tell them. One guy at the local gas station got down right mad at me! (He) started calling me a liar, and a couple other choice words, because I wouldn't tell him how much I wanted for it. So finally, it hit me that I would start carrying around the 1/24 scale die-cast model in the glove box, to show people that (the life-size Beetle) was a replica of this. Yay! It worked! Finally, people could understand how a car with "for sale" written all over it wasn't really for sale."

Eventually, the warm, welcoming and sometimes weird greetings Rusty's Beetle got translated into curiosity on the part of its owner. "Well with all the attention the car was getting, I thought I would take it to the next car show, just to see what the "real" car buffs would think. Sure, it was a tremendous hit on the street, but what would other car people think? I pulled up to the registration area and asked if there was a class for my vehicle..since there aren't too many Beetles in my area there is never a class for Beetles. They're always lumped into the "Special Interest" category with the other misfits. When I went to register, this guy told me that they didn't even have a "Special Interest" category and I would be in the "70 to 79" category. Well, I looked around and saw a sea of 70's muscle cars. There were Chevelles, Mustangs, Camaros, Chargers....Now come on! I'm in a category where I have to compete with all the 70s muscle cars? Yeah! I have a snowball's chance in hell (winning any awards by) competing against all that horse power... not to mention the thousands of dollars that were spent on their paint jobs. So I said what the hell! I'm already here and at least I will get a goodie bag and a dash plaque. It was sure funny! My old VW amongst all those nice, shinny muscle cars. What a contrast. But even funnier was that my VW was the only car there with a crowed around it the whole time it was there. While the other cars had only a few people at a time around them. And even more of a surprise was when I won a Second Place trophy in the "70 to 79" class. You could have blown me away with a feather, I was amazed beyond belief. So don't under estimate the power of a Beetle!" Rusty continues with his reinvigorated love affair with the VW Beetle. In order to make room in his drive way, however, he's put two of his Beetles up for sale. This writer has seen and knows these cars upfront and personal. The 1st Beetle project Rusty began working on and had finished was the red-and-black 70 Standard. I never even heard him pull into my drive way (and I had the windows open) when he came over to show me the work he had done. Such a nice-running vehicle. Just a good daily for beating about it reliably and faithfully. Truly, I woulda snatched this car from him in a heartbeat, if I could have come up with the scratch to buy it! Again, Rusty and I are both lovers of the Rat Look... just the beauty of the faded daily who has a few flaws, but is reliable, honest transportation.

The 2nd Beetle Rusty introduced me to was the other of the two 70 project Type I's he was working on... the one he borrowed my model to copy... the one that has garnered so much attention and actually IS for sale now, too, on The Samba. This car, too, was a pleasant surprise as it sat in my drive way and I was able to gander it for myself. As an artist, I was very, very impressed with the hard work and attention Rusty had put into every last detail, including simulating dust, rust, Bondo and patina as was likewise imitated by the artisans who hand-painted the die-cast model... life imitating art that was likewise imitating life. The other car that IS for sale is a very nice, custom, '74 Standard roadster. B-e-a-utiful custom paint job, nice open-air roofless top (with a snap-down cover for foul weather parking), strong-running engine and quite decent interior. This car had been a purchase Rusty had meant as a project that, soon thereafter, the wife fell in love with and drove as her daily on warm, sunny days (in Michigan, that's the five minute duration between July and August). Rusty admits to not wanting to sell any of the cars. He (like so many of us) falls in love with the projects he's working on. Still, he wants to make room for more projects and to bring more ailing or just dilapidated VW's back to life. Plus, Rusty would really like to find loving homes for these cars. Also, he has begun his hand and cute, fun little custom teardrop trailers, meant for towing behind one's Beetle, etc. Very cool and awfully neat, in the opinion of this writer. I could not believe, again, the attention to detail and the love Rusty has put into these things. If I am finally able to get my own Vanagon up-and-running, I may even seek to buy one of these myself... as a supplemental camping vehicle. Who knows? You have to see for yourself! About us | Contact | Events | Forum | History | Home | Images | Interactive | Links | Tech