Kermit- 1969 Peru Green Beetle

[mannys66]

that is so cool to have your car featured like that.

[Kermit]

I actually think that's not mine -- I think the filming for that was in the past few weeks, plus that one seems to have a different tail assembly (mine isn't a tri-color tail assembly).

I should e-mail him to ask though.

[Kermit]

Picked-up Kermit from GT today. It's pretty damn pleasant to drive a car with a brand new clutch.

Tony and his team did a lot of work on bunch of other random things, EG the seatback mechanisms and tracks were pretty messed up. And the alignment and front bearings needed work. Not to mention new fuel lines and a gas filter for good measure.

But the most visible changes were the three-point seatbelt installation and the radio installation. I went with a Retrosound unit and the Retrosound dual-coil speaker in the stock location (http://www.retrosoundusa.com/). I spent an hour in the car driving back to Queens I have to give a thumbs-up to the whole arrangement. The sound quality is solid for just one speaker.



The Retrosound units come with a remote and an external, mountable USB/SD card reader. This data reader plugs into a secondary aux jack in the back of the stereo.

Wayne at GT drilled a hole into the glovebox and mounted this unit to the top of the glovebox. I should have taken a picture of that too, it's very slick. I bought a 4GB SD card for $9 at BestBuy and dumped all my favorite songs on it from my "favorites" playlist. I keep the card next to my car keys, so whenever I'm going to go out for a drive, I can add more songs to the card, plug it into the glovebox and access all of them. No more phone/iPod with wires getting in the way of the gearshift while driving.

At some point I'll install that heat-sensing dipstick myself (I should at least do something on my own). And, before leaving, I got the most important part installed: the license plate holder.

[Brown]

Nice! Good luck with it. Can't wait to see it at a meeting!!!

[Kermit]

Took Kermit out today for a four hour jog to Westhampton and back. The car still seems to drift to the right, will call Tony about it this week.

I've never seen so many police on the Southern State. And I was getting an above-average number of cars honking and giving a thumbs-up while passing me. And a bunch of drunk guys were really admiring the car at a gas station in Queens.

Took me a solid hour to figure out that all of the above was due to St. Patrick's day. Turns out having a green car attracts above-average attention today.

[AoT]

Took me a solid hour to figure out that all of the above was due to St. Patrick's day. Turns out having a green car attracts above-average attention today.

Also known as the wearing of the green!

[Brown]

Took Kermit out today for a four hour jog to Westhampton and back. The car still seems to drift to the right, will call Tony about it this week.

You were celebrating with a little Guinness, were you? That could explain the drift!!

[Kermit]

Hah, I wouldn't have lasted a second with all the police on the road. On the way back, I was at a stoplight in Queens behind a police car. Suddenly the cop turns on his lights and pulls over the guy waiting in front of him at the stoplight. I have no idea why, everyone was just sitting at the stoplight. I can only assume he made some kind of movement that looked like he was drinking something in the car.

I guess there's a reason St. Patrick's is the one day you can't drink on LIRR.

Spoke to Tony today, who aptly pointed out that, if the car was out of alignment before, the tires could have gotten worn down funny. Looks like another trip to Massapequa is in the works, probably next Thursday.

[Kermit]

Picked-up today from Beetleland at GT.

Oil change, headlight adjustment and finally getting the alignment right. Fun drive home. LIE was slightly more stressful than usual.

The car is really dirty, will need to find a handwash or a hose sometime soon. But it may have to wait until I get it out to the beach in June.

[Glenn]

The car is really dirty, will need to find a handwash or a hose sometime soon. But it may have to wait until I get it out to the beach in June.

You're welcome to come by my house. i'm about a mile west of GT.

[ObnoxiousBlue]

I've got enough driveway to park and wash about 25 beetles... I've got the supplies too! C'mon by!

[Kermit]

Thanks for the offer! At some point I may take you up on that. Though hopefully the shake-down period is over I don't need to head to GT anytime soon...

[Kermit]

I was in Wolfsburg last month and I decided to order a birth certificate for Kermit. I was Smurf's ~3rd owner, so I knew a few things about its history. But Kermit was a restored car with a rebuilt engine that has had at least 3 previous owners (probably more). It's probably had all sorts of things slapped on/off over the years. For all I knew, the paint scheme wasn't original at all.

Much to my surprise, Vallone got the original styling down pretty perfectly. The car was originally Peru Green with cream white interiors and whitewalls.

The car originally had pop-up rear windows. Too bad they didn't stick around! Though I'm sure they were taken off for a good reason. Also, now I know the car was originally shipped to St. Louis before making its way to South Carolina, which is where Vallone got it.

The certificate came in the mail printed on thick-stock paper and signed by "A. Jerke". :p

And now I know Kermit turns 44 around Thanksgiving.

[Raj]

Very cool! Do you know the site where you can order them online?

Thanks

[Glenn]

Very cool! Do you know the site where you can order them online?

Thanks

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=398


Old School

[Raj]

thanks Glenn!

[Kermit]

TheSamba link has the German link. It's in English now too and they take a simple credit card: http://automuseum.volkswagen.de/index.php?id=12&L=1

It's not cheap. But they do seem to be adding a lot more info. Plus the whole fancy presentation (the paper has a raised seal, watermark, etc). Plus the fancy folder. Worth 50 Euros? I don't know, but they've definitely gone upscale with this.

[Glenn]

Mine is on that old airmail paper that's like a cross of tissue and wax paper.

[AoT]

Wow, a little piece of history! Neat.

[Kermit]

Coming off this post in the fire prevention thread...

Separately, last week I finally installed and tested the temp-sensing dipstick: http://www.savemybug.com/index.htm

We'll see if any summer driving sets it off (not likely, but we'll see).

Yesterday and today I was driving my Beetle for about an hour at a time in the sun and the 85-88 degree heat. Not the most comfortable, but also not terrible with all the windows and side vents open. I took my shirt off and put a towel between me and the seat. I think a bunch of people wondered why some guy was driving around seemingly-naked in a 40 year old car.

The oil temp light didn't go off, but the dipstick sensor was definitely responding to the driving. Whether it's calibrated properly is an open question, but once I saw it responding it made me a lot more confident. It advanced about 50%-60% through its range of motion towards the temp-warning sign after a solid hour of driving in today's weather.

A real thermometer would be ideal, but this isn't bad.

[Kermit]

My brother in law sent me this:

http://pinterest.com/pin/135671007495148019/

Seemed quasi-relevant for this thread.

[D-A-N]

My brother in law sent me this:

http://pinterest.com/pin/135671007495148019/

Seemed quasi-relevant for this thread.

That's some real classy stuff right there.

[AoT]

My brother in law sent me this:

http://pinterest.com/pin/135671007495148019/

Seemed quasi-relevant for this thread.

We could call it the BUG BBQ!

[Kermit]

My dad was in town last weekend, so on Saturday we drove to check out the new house in CT my sister bought. It's big enough with tons of garage spaces, so I should be able to make a nice garage space with room to learn how to do my own work at some point. Once they clear out the mice/squirrels/termites/etc.

On the way back we hit the big afternoon storm that blew through the area last Saturday, including the tornado in Queens. My wipers decided to fail in the Merritt right as the rain really got crazy. The motor wasn't even being actuated at all, so I think a connection fell apart. I was about to pull over and wait it out, but traffic inexplicably ground to a near-halt for a solid hour.

At some point we hit a bump and the carb pre-heat tube popped out. What an ugly freaking noise. I was able to pop it back in for now, but I'll have to figure out a long-term solution to that.

Going on the list for when my job lightens-up on me...

[Raj]

Kermit, if interested in attempting to address some of the issues your self, post up some pics and specifics and maybe we can walk you through them. Also, tech sessions are always fun, if you wish to host, one on or off premise. Its been a while ... I think Audreys?