willtinapple
Caught the bug
My first car was very nearly a wonderful blue 1969 Mercedes with red leather upholstery, but, after a stern warning by an ever-smoking German mechanic family friend about the cost of spare parts, it ended up being this smurf-blue 1967 Beetle, purchased for $600. Two days into proud ownership, I was pulled over by the local constabulary for having a badly bald tyre. They slapped me with a yellow canary sticker: I was off the road already! And it got worse. Down at the Motor Vehicle Registry, they presented me with a list as long as my arm of things to fix to get it back on the road.
After a few despondent weeks, I found another Beetle in the front yard, a 1966, that had all of the parts that I needed to repair my first one, including good tyres, for $400, much cheaper than buying all the bits. Home it went. And it snowballed from there...
I got a part-time job working at the now long-defunct Rent-a-bug in Smith St, where Ken taught me to fix anything with a screwdriver, a pair of pliers and a hammer, where part of the deal was I got the keep the wrecked red-and-white bug. Each one came and went with a story. Several projects funded my travels overseas over the years. The nose of the 1959 just poking out from under the house was previously rolled by my friend Matt, so I cut the top off and made a convertible...it's still on the road in Darwin somewhere. I've still got the bug to this day...in fact, it's another 1966 Beetle sitting in my driveway right now. I don't seem to have any time these days. Any takers?
My parents probably wouldn't agree, but I reckon it really was a blessing in disguise. To own my own first car, but to be too young to have enough cash to be able to pay someone to work on it.
I was forced to learn to be my own mechanic.
Caught the bug
My first car was very nearly a wonderful blue 1969 Mercedes with red leather upholstery, but, after a stern warning by an ever-smoking German mechanic family friend about the cost of spare parts, it ended up being this smurf-blue 1967 Beetle, purchased for $600. Two days into proud ownership, I was pulled over by the local constabulary for having a badly bald tyre. They slapped me with a yellow canary sticker: I was off the road already! And it got worse. Down at the Motor Vehicle Registry, they presented me with a list as long as my arm of things to fix to get it back on the road.
After a few despondent weeks, I found another Beetle in the front yard, a 1966, that had all of the parts that I needed to repair my first one, including good tyres, for $400, much cheaper than buying all the bits. Home it went. And it snowballed from there...
I got a part-time job working at the now long-defunct Rent-a-bug in Smith St, where Ken taught me to fix anything with a screwdriver, a pair of pliers and a hammer, where part of the deal was I got the keep the wrecked red-and-white bug. Each one came and went with a story. Several projects funded my travels overseas over the years. The nose of the 1959 just poking out from under the house was previously rolled by my friend Matt, so I cut the top off and made a convertible...it's still on the road in Darwin somewhere. I've still got the bug to this day...in fact, it's another 1966 Beetle sitting in my driveway right now. I don't seem to have any time these days. Any takers?
My parents probably wouldn't agree, but I reckon it really was a blessing in disguise. To own my own first car, but to be too young to have enough cash to be able to pay someone to work on it.
I was forced to learn to be my own mechanic.