Classic VW Bugs Fan – Larry Franklin from Florida & his 1966 Beetle

Chris,

I’ve never been into VW’s too much until recently. My cousin Tonya however was a huge fan of old school bugs but she passed away in a car accident over Labor Day weekend. She was 30, and left behind a husband and 7mo old daughter. I have been heavily into american muscle cars and have done a few builds. But now I’ve decided to do a tribute car, an old bug, with little things Tonya liked through out the car.

I knew very little about VWs other than they were slow (stock) and sounded like a lawn mower. I did some looking around and found a fairly clean ’66 Beetle that wasn’t running. The surface rust on the outside was reasonable and the underside looked great (pans) heater tubes, etc. I did new plugs and wires, reset the timing, drained/put fresh gas in, installed a new battery and she ran!.. Long enough for me to find a steady oil leak. So I went to your how to find oil leaks video. Then I degreased the engine and ran it again in the driveway to find it was definitely coming from the rear main area.

For a second there I was hopeful for a push rod tube leak or two but no such luck. I had to learn how to pull the motor and sure enough, you had a video for it! I used the jack in the driveway routine. I ran into a small road block when I couldn’t see the bottom bolts for all the grease and dirt build up. So including the time it took me to label the wires, run back inside to re-watch your 9min vid on the bottom bolt location, and pull the motor in the garage it was right at 30mins.

I just wanted to say thanks. Your videos I’m sure have helped several others without you knowing it and I appreciate it. I included a couple of pics as well.

Thanks from Florida, Larry Franklin

Last Updated: September 29th, 2011