Painting the Beetle

Mad Dog Autobody Shop c1974. God, I was skinny back then. Lots of hair too...

I haven't done a nostalgia post for quite awhile so to correct this deficiency here's one in the "Cars I Have Known and Loved" series. In this case it should have been cars I have known and hated. In my youth I owned two Volkswagen Beetles although unfortunately I have photos of only one. Frankly both were disasters and set the scene for an infelicitous relationship with German cars that has continued to this day. Although they had something of a cult following they were unreliable and expensive and difficult to fix (and none of that nonsense about "you can get the engine out in 10 minutes" -this apocryphal bit of automotive folklore is most definitely not feasible when your only tools are a screwdriver and a pair of pliers). Anyway this one was probably the "least worse" of the two. It was left-hand drive, had a fabric sun roof and faded yellow paint. I addressed the latter issue by respraying it in the driveway of my parents' home one summer evening. I remember distinctly that the new colour was Ford Truck Yellow -it was bright and cheerful. The thousand or so mosquitoes who adhered to the wet paint remained as a permanent endorsement to this sentiment!