[TangoLimaSierra]

I had a 69 Beetle.

Had a few bugs myself. It's how I learned to drive with no brakes and sometimes with no clutch. Never both at once, thankfully.

[ponygirl]

I had a mechanic near campus that I think I visited at least once a week to "adjust the idle." It never lasted more than a couple of days before I was back to gear-down-brake-clutch-neutral-rev-accelerator-handbrake-drift-to-stop-with-accelerator-to-the-floor.

And then there was the time I was at the car wash, working it over with one of those long-handled brushes. I noticed that the soap starting turning green, like Irish Spring. Wow, cool soap! When I rinsed it off, I realized that I had scrubbed the paint off. 😳 I was petrified to tell my dad, who had just had the Beetle repainted a few years prior. I got home, told him the paint looked weird. He went out and looked at it (the paint was still there, but had turned a "matte green.") I thought he was going to be furious, but he just shrugged and told me not to wash it with those brushes anymore... I guess it had been a cheapo paint job. So then I had to hand wash it with a bucket and chamois!

[Disestablishmentarian]

re: 69 Beetle.

TLS wrote:
Had a few bugs myself. It's how I learned to drive with no brakes and sometimes with no clutch. Never both at once, thankfully.

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Describes my '66 beetle experience very well. When the accelerator cable broke I installed a Schlitz Malt Liquor can on the carburetor to make it idle high enough to toddle around town. Brakes were gone too. When the horn went out that made it dangerous, because without brakes you use a lot of horn.