A shagged out Beetle
Was my first car. My brother had one when I visited him in the states and it came with a wonderful book 'How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive : A Manual of Step-by-Step Procedures for the Compleat Idiot' It was written by an old hippy called John Muir, beautifully illustrated by Peter Aschwanden.* It's written so well that by the time my state side trip was over I was in love with those cars.

My dad came along when I went looking for one. I wasn't sure about the one we finally decided to see but he checked it over and said it was fine. I handed over £500 and we towed it back home.
It took about a month to get it through the test, we were working on it outside in winter. I learnt to weld, use bodge, replace shocks, brakes and brake lines, how to fit plugs, set points and tune an engine and lots more besides.
At one point things got heated and I asked if he knew it would be so much work. he said 'yes, but if we didn't buy that one we'd only end seeing another dozen of them all in the same state'

When we finally got it on the road it was still in a state. It didn't look pretty, the heating system was shot so I had a flexitube running from the rear compartment to get some warm air near me. I had to balance the times I locked the doors by using the knob or the keys to prevent the mechanism failing, lots of little foibles.

Unfortunately one day, a lady pulled out in front of me leaving me no option but to hit her. I nearly managed to stop, there was a slight mark on her bumper but my car was deemed uneconomical to repair. The claim took several months to sort out. My insurance had sorted me out with a hire car on daily rate until the money came through. I was due up in court to settle the claim. I had my suit all prepared when I got the call that they had folded. Somehow my £500 wreck was now valued at £1500. £200 pounds of parts and I was back on the road and got another few years out of it. I finally gifted it to my brother when he finally returned from his travels.

The book and the lessons I learnt from working on that car with my dad has meant I've had a car into a garage once to be fixed in 15 years.
Oh and that £25-£50 for protected no claims/legal cover? well worth it!

*www.peteraschwanden.com/FTransaxelfront.html
('tin'tintin, Thu 22 Apr 2010, 20:55, Reply)