Waiting

To kick things off, I pulled the engine out last summer, an experience not quite like the one illustrated above, but close. (Instead of lifting the rear high enough to pull the dead weight of 40 horses under the bumper, take off one of the rear wheels, then inch the motor out sideways through the open well.) At this writing, the engine still sits in my garage, awaiting a buyer. No reasonable offer refused.

Later in the summer, we transfered the car via trailer 70 miles south to my father's house for more space, more tools and more know-how. Days ago, parts began to arrive, and with them this dream started to feel a little more like a possibility: that just maybe we could get this electric Bug on the road before the first winter snows.

But wait a minute--here comes a cold splash of reality: about the same time as the big, heavy boxes are dropping at my front door, Dad learns he has prostate cancer. He'll have surgery as early as possible--early December. And suddenly, his calendar has filled up with other, more necessary obligations than turning an old Volkswagen into an electric car. As a result and for good reason, right now the Bug sits in his garage, next to his highboy, powerless and waiting.

The truth is, there's another story going on here: Very early in the planning for all this, I realized it was not only an engineering project, but also a father-son project. It's been nearly a decade since I asked his help with a big piece of work, and I guess I've been missing the problem-solving and heavy lifting we've done in the past. Also I'm smart enough to know that right now I cannot do this by myself.

So VW, wait a little longer. First everything must be in place....

First Steps

One way to begin a big engineering project like this, especially if you were an English major like me: tell people you're going to do it. Eventually you'll have to make your first move just to maintain your credibility.

Also, do your research. Using information culled from the Austin EV club, a friend made a spreadsheet weighing choices made by other folks in the conversions of their VWs. Also I got in contact with my high school shop teacher, who had converted a Bug of his own a decade ago. With this guidance and advice, ultimately I decided to build a car that had a top speed of 40 - 50 mph and a range of about 40 miles. Electric Vehicles of America, of Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, suggested these parts would do the trick:

*

Last week, after months of talking about it and reading about it and doing things that couldn't quickly be undone (like removing the engine and cutting the gas tank in half), I took the plunge and placed my order.

Before I go on, this would be a good point to tell you another part of the story. Back when I first started getting serious about this, I promised myself and my wife that I'd pay for the project with money earned by getting rid of other stuff: mountains of CDs, comic books, old musical instruments, etc.

So with the parts on the way--and an old trombone out of the closet--here's what the balance sheet looks like:

Spent: $-2900
Earned: $ 225
------
Total: $-2675

Stay tuned ....

* EV America also quoted prices for an on-board battery charger and instrumentation, but I'm waiting on those until the rest of the car is configured.

The Story So Far

For my money, there's nothing like an old Volkswagen Beetle. Inside a body full of curves, with a mighty little engine pushing from behind, you bathe in a kind of perfume--the musky scent of slow-baked horsehair, German vinyl and god-knows-what-else.... Oh how I love thee, VW Bug.

Somehow I convinced my wife to let me buy one on eBay a few years ago, a 1963 model with 80k on the odometer, a relatively straight body and a half-assed primer paint job all around. The seller was a kid in Grand Junction who had fixed it up for home-school credit, and though it died halfway home on the road back to Denver, I believed that with a copy of the Compleat Idiot filled with the gorgeous illustrations by Peter Aschwanden, I could keep my Bug going.

I actually did keep it going for a while. I cannot claim to be mechanically gifted, but I replaced some necessary things--starter, carburetor, the exhaust system--and I also invested in a new paint job to bring it back to its original gulf blau splendor. By day, I sat at a keyboard, staring at empty text docs, waiting for inspiration; at night and on weekends, I scraped up my knuckles and got grease in my hair, and I was rejuvenated.

Then about a year ago the Bug threw a rod or something. I still don't know what happened, but I knew it meant it was time for a rebuild. Actually, I knew it was time for something else: to turn it into an Electric Bug.

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A VW Family Album

Mom and her Bug in Brodhead, Wisconsin.

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Dad's homemade Baja in 1975.

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When I was in high school, Dad and I chopped the top on a '64.

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My current Bug, as I first saw her on eBay (top),
waiting for a new paint job (center),
and in the frost at home last fall (bottom).

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Don't blame the kid for the anti-Bush logo on the decklid--I did it myself,
and proudly!