July 1, 2007: Oil leak: I've got a bit of any oil leak on my Super.
Since I changed the drain plate I've seen a little puddle of oil on
the garage floor. It seems to be dripping from one of the nuts that
hold the oil plate in place. It's not enough to get excited about, but
it is worse than it was before. I know it been said, "That a VW
doesn't leak oil, it just marks its spot", but this "bugs"
me. I'm going to take my car back to Emilio next week and get him to
take a look at it. Maybe I've go a leaky gasket or one of those copper
washers under the acorn nuts. 
BTW, I don't remember if I mentioned this but I created two new screen savers for the web site. I use some new software that I bought and they turned out great. Please feel free to download one for your PC.
July 7, 2006: Two Blue Ones: We went for a short cruise around in the Beetle today and wound up in Streetsville for dinner at a local pub. We parked the car across the street so I could keep my eye on my Bug. I have to admit that I love watching peoples reaction to the car and seeing them do a double look-back as they walk away. It always brings a smile to the faces of those who stop to take a look, and I'm sure that brings a smile to mine. While waiting for dinner I notice a blue Super Beetle parked just up the street. It had the bumpers removed, white window seals, white mag wheels and a white interior. I scanned the pub crowd for the owner but no one was watching the blue Beetle. As I looked back I saw a guy hop in, adjust his cap and drive off. Just then I looked across the street and saw another Blue Beetle driving the other way, what are the odds of that? I honestly can't remember then we've been out and have seen two Bugs so close together.
I have got to detail my Beetle
tonight because tomorrow is the Bug Out VW show in Kitchener and we've
got to be on the road by 9am. Unfortunately I didn't hear from Andrew
and Danielle so it looks like we'll be heading to the event solo. I'm
sure that we'll tag up with a few V-Dubs on the way! 
July 8, 2006: Bug Out: The forecast has changed a few times during the week leading up to the Bug Out show. It went from rainy, to sunny and right back to rainy again. I don't mind driving my Beetle in the rain, but it seems like such a waste after cleaning it up the night before. But then again there are only a handful of VW events in Southern Ontario so we've got to attend every one and help to support the sport of Beetling. We grabbed a quick breakfast at Mickey Dee's and hit the highway. It started to drizzle and then it turned into rain. Even with that I never turned my wipers on once. My way of saying, "It's not really raining because I didn't even need my wipers".
We got to the event, paid our entrance fees and got parked in the section for Super Beetles. I decided not to show this year because we won the year before and I figured that this would give someone else a better chance at picking up a trophy. This was okay because people could still look at my Beetle but there would be no car number on the windshield to vote for. Still people kept asking what our number was and I had to explain what was going on. With the on and off again rain we never even got our lawn chairs or portable picnic table set up. We just got in and out and in and out of the Beetle all day. Around 2pm we decided enough was enough and headed on home down the highway. The turnout with the bad weather was still over 130 vehicles and that is excellent for this show. Thanks to the KW Bug Club for putting on what is now the longest running VW show in Canada.
July 14, 2007: '65 & '62 Beetles for Sale: I was reading the Toronto Star a couple of weeks ago and noticed a 1962 Beetle for sale. The ad said "1962 Canadian Deluxe Beetle. All original $7800". So loving Beetles as I do I decided to give a call. It turns out that the owner is 79 years old and restores all kinds of cars by himself and then sells them. This car has never been painted, has the original interior, was never winter driven and has the original rust free pans. Even though I don't have room for another vehicle in my garage (or the cash he was asking) I wanted to go see it and bend the ear of the gentleman that owns it. He seemed to be a pretty interesting guy that has restored many cars and motorcycles and even flew bombers during the war. When I finally got around to calling him today he told me that the car has been sold. A woman that has always wanted a Beetle bought it and will be picking it up next week. He is however restoring a Karmann Ghia from California and is going to give me a call when it is done.
To top this off we went for breakfast yesterday and right beside the restaurant sat a 1965 Beetle beside a garage. It had four new fenders and was a complete car with no parts missing. I looked at the For Sale sign in the back window and it said '65 Beetle, $1500.00 and the phone number. $1500?? This car was a DEAL for that price!! So I started to put my plan together. I could leave my 1975 Super Beetle at work in our detail department and work on the Beetle in my garage. Strip it down, paint it at our body shop, order and install a new headliner and carpet and I'd have one sweet ride. I might even do it up as a hood ride, who knows? So I called the owner to get the low down on the Bug. The Beetle is owned by Shaun's girl friend who was intent on restoring it. The car had been in a garage for years and she was the second owner. She had it certified, electrical done, mechanical finished and was just going to install the interior and paint it when she got a job offer in Calgary that she couldn't refuse. So he was selling it for her for $6500.00. $6500?? I saw a price that was $5000 less. It turns out that the sun had faded the price (and phone number) on the for sale sign so that it looked like $1500. I guess it just wasn't meant to be. But at $1500, what a find that would have been.
July 23, 2007: Oil Leak: I just finished a week of holidays so I didn't get to mention what happened when I took my Beetle in to Progress Motors to check on that pesky oil leak. It turns out that when Emilio was installing my new oil drain plate the rubber O-ring that came with the magnetic drain plug popped out when he was tightening it, so he used a metal crush washer to solve the problem. But after that he went a bit light on tightening the six acorn nuts that hold the plate in place. This caused the oil to drip from the studs. All we had to do was to snug them up and I was good to go.
The funny thing is that I met an older gentleman at the shop that had owned four Beetles while in Germany. He even got a personally signed letter from Heinz Nordhoff when his Beetle surpassed 100,000 KMs. I have heard of this letter but have never seen one. The owner of the precious piece of VW memorabilia is going to get my a photocopy so that I can post it on the site. Cool.
July 28, 2007: That same
oil leak: All of the tightening of the nuts didn't do it. It looks
like it's my rear mail seal that's the problem. Emilio mentioned that
most of them do leak and it looks like mine has gotten worse. I haven't
been dropping the oil before the winter and Emilio explained that the
contaminants and gas in the oil dry the seals out during the winter
and they start to leak. He also said that the engine will have to come
out to replace it 
.
I checked at http://www2.cip1.com/?Click=30260 and the basic seal is about 5 bucks, but there is a new "German double lip seal" that is around 10 dollars. So it makes sense to put that one in while we've got the engine out. I think that I'll order the tarboard that is around the engine and replace it at the same time. Now when do it do it? I can drive the car like that, but that little puddle of oil really "bugs" me.