This online journal began as a way to share our VW experiences with our family, friends, and other Volkswagen enthusiasts. Here you will find our VW travels, our mechanical failures and triumphs, and other VW tales of interest.
Mitch writes in blue.
Melissa writes in red.
Posts written together are black.
About us
We have a VW. We love it.
We try to go camping as much as possible.
This is what our faces look like:
Melissa first VW was Ludwig, and Gertrude is her second.
Ludwig and Gertie are Mitch's sixth and seventh VWs, respectively.
Prior VWs in Mitch's possession:
1973 Type III Fastback "Gretchen" (d. 1991, collision w/ 1990 Chrysler)
1970 Type III Squareback "Anne" (d. 1996, blown engine)
1967 Type III Squareback "Freida" (d. 1997, collision w/ wildlife)
1971 Beetle (Type I) "Margaret" (d. 2000, cracked head)
1984 Rabbit "Loretta" (d. 2002, broken driveshaft/last straw)
FAQs & other snide remarks (these aren't made up, real people have said these things)
Q: Those old VWs are so unsafe. Aren't you worried you'll get killed?
A: No. Any car in unsafe when driven by an idiot. Despite the popular conception, a car's engine isn't what protects you in an front-end collision (and most collisions aren't head-on anyway), the structure of the vehicle itself does.
(click for larger image)
Unfortunately, more and more features on newer cars are turning drivers into little more than ballast. Old VWs, like ours, come from an age when cars were made to be driven. The most important piece of safety equipment in a car is the driver.
Q: Ew, old VWs are so loud and slow.
A: First, the mere presence of "noise" isn't indicative of poor performance. Second, our VW is for recreational purposes, not for racing. Ludwig will zip happily down the road at 70mph, thank you very much.
Q: You have an old VW bus? Oh, then you must be hippies.
A: Um, not at all actually. If you know us and think we're hippies, then you clearly have never met a real hippie. We don't hate hippies or anything, we just aren't hippies by any stretch of the imagination.
Q: Isn't it expensive to get it worked on?
A: When it needs to go to a shop, the average repair for an old VW is no more expensive than those for a 2005 Toyota Camry. The idea is to take it to the shop as little as possible, and do the work ourselves. We couldn't do that with a Camry.
(After some thought, I realize this is not right. True, the average maintenance cost for a well-running air-cooled VW is not much more expensive (and, as a bonus: no timing belt!) than that of a modern Honda/Toyota/whatever. Alas, there's the rub. "Well-running". At this writing the newest air-cooled VW legally imported to this country is 23 years old (the 1983 Vanagon), and most are much older. They are all used, and the vast majority were abused. So that's where the ACVW enthusiast's quest (the skeptic might say doom) begins--getting your old Volksie to the point of being well-running. Add to all these years of life the threat of the "R" word (like Neil Young said, it never sleeps), and restoring a VW like ours to like-new condition can be an expensive and daunting proposition indeed.
But Ludwig doesn't sit in some body shop waiting to emerge, resurrected back to factory specs all at once--we drive and enjoy him all the while, as much as we can. Part of the fun (and yes, most of the frustration) of owning an old VW is working on him. When things go wrong, well, at least you learned something, and you will know how to intelligently talk to (and avoid being ripped-off by) mechanics. When things go right, it is very satisfying and liberating. (And you will "come to kindly terms with your ass, for it bears you".) You might even realize that a small part of what's wrong with the world today is that cars are purposefully designed to have the character of, and be as much of a joy to operate as, dishwashers.
Ludwig may never be as he was that autumn day when he was put on a boat and shipped to the New World to begin his service (our hitting the Powerball jackpot notwithstanding). But we'll drive him and have fun with him just the same.
We think he's worth it. And we're glad we know others that do as well.)
Q: Don't you know your Volkswagen is just a car?
A: The most polite response we can manage is a quote from Wide Eyed Wanderers:
"To a longtime VW owner their bus is much more than simply a means of transportation. Volkswagens, especially the older ones, have such individual personalities that they seem to take on human characteristics. They are not mere cars or practical machines designed to move people, but are treated like a member of the family."
M Codes
I think the "M" stands for "manufacturing". For a long time (and up to present day for all I know) every Type 2 had a plate rivetted to it and this plate is covered with a bunch of letters and numbers. It encoded information about the vehicle's final configuration so it got the proper equipment as it moved down the assembly line. Some ACVW freaks have gone to great lengths figuring out what information the codes encode. It is kind of interesting. Here are Ludwig's M Codes, decoded:
42 050 077
227 507
922690 D55 P22 O27
43 3 7685 UF 2319 41
4=1974 model year. 2=bus. 050 077=50,077th built that model year (out of 224,993 total).
227=detachable headrests. 507=vent wings in doors.
9226="brilliant orange" paint. 90=cloth interior. D55=US specifications. P22=Westfalia interior set up. O27=emissions compliant
43=built in the 43rd week of 1973... 3=...on a Wednesday. 7685=unknown. UF=shipped to San Francisco (though another source says this is San Diego). 231=left-hand drive. 9=Campmobile. 41=50hp engine w/ manual transmission.
Contact usA: No. Any car in unsafe when driven by an idiot. Despite the popular conception, a car's engine isn't what protects you in an front-end collision (and most collisions aren't head-on anyway), the structure of the vehicle itself does.
(click for larger image)
Unfortunately, more and more features on newer cars are turning drivers into little more than ballast. Old VWs, like ours, come from an age when cars were made to be driven. The most important piece of safety equipment in a car is the driver.
Q: Ew, old VWs are so loud and slow.
A: First, the mere presence of "noise" isn't indicative of poor performance. Second, our VW is for recreational purposes, not for racing. Ludwig will zip happily down the road at 70mph, thank you very much.
Q: You have an old VW bus? Oh, then you must be hippies.
A: Um, not at all actually. If you know us and think we're hippies, then you clearly have never met a real hippie. We don't hate hippies or anything, we just aren't hippies by any stretch of the imagination.
Q: Isn't it expensive to get it worked on?
A: When it needs to go to a shop, the average repair for an old VW is no more expensive than those for a 2005 Toyota Camry. The idea is to take it to the shop as little as possible, and do the work ourselves. We couldn't do that with a Camry.
(After some thought, I realize this is not right. True, the average maintenance cost for a well-running air-cooled VW is not much more expensive (and, as a bonus: no timing belt!) than that of a modern Honda/Toyota/whatever. Alas, there's the rub. "Well-running". At this writing the newest air-cooled VW legally imported to this country is 23 years old (the 1983 Vanagon), and most are much older. They are all used, and the vast majority were abused. So that's where the ACVW enthusiast's quest (the skeptic might say doom) begins--getting your old Volksie to the point of being well-running. Add to all these years of life the threat of the "R" word (like Neil Young said, it never sleeps), and restoring a VW like ours to like-new condition can be an expensive and daunting proposition indeed.
But Ludwig doesn't sit in some body shop waiting to emerge, resurrected back to factory specs all at once--we drive and enjoy him all the while, as much as we can. Part of the fun (and yes, most of the frustration) of owning an old VW is working on him. When things go wrong, well, at least you learned something, and you will know how to intelligently talk to (and avoid being ripped-off by) mechanics. When things go right, it is very satisfying and liberating. (And you will "come to kindly terms with your ass, for it bears you".) You might even realize that a small part of what's wrong with the world today is that cars are purposefully designed to have the character of, and be as much of a joy to operate as, dishwashers.
Ludwig may never be as he was that autumn day when he was put on a boat and shipped to the New World to begin his service (our hitting the Powerball jackpot notwithstanding). But we'll drive him and have fun with him just the same.
We think he's worth it. And we're glad we know others that do as well.)
Q: Don't you know your Volkswagen is just a car?
A: The most polite response we can manage is a quote from Wide Eyed Wanderers:
"To a longtime VW owner their bus is much more than simply a means of transportation. Volkswagens, especially the older ones, have such individual personalities that they seem to take on human characteristics. They are not mere cars or practical machines designed to move people, but are treated like a member of the family."
M Codes
I think the "M" stands for "manufacturing". For a long time (and up to present day for all I know) every Type 2 had a plate rivetted to it and this plate is covered with a bunch of letters and numbers. It encoded information about the vehicle's final configuration so it got the proper equipment as it moved down the assembly line. Some ACVW freaks have gone to great lengths figuring out what information the codes encode. It is kind of interesting. Here are Ludwig's M Codes, decoded:
42 050 077
227 507
922690 D55 P22 O27
43 3 7685 UF 2319 41
4=1974 model year. 2=bus. 050 077=50,077th built that model year (out of 224,993 total).
227=detachable headrests. 507=vent wings in doors.
9226="brilliant orange" paint. 90=cloth interior. D55=US specifications. P22=Westfalia interior set up. O27=emissions compliant
43=built in the 43rd week of 1973... 3=...on a Wednesday. 7685=unknown. UF=shipped to San Francisco (though another source says this is San Diego). 231=left-hand drive. 9=Campmobile. 41=50hp engine w/ manual transmission.
Questions? Comments? Tell us what you think. Email us!
ludwig74@gmail.com
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