Today we got our new starter. We bought it on the internet for just 50 bucks including shipping. I would say this is very cheap for a in the US remanufactured starter by Bosch (made in Germany). There was not only the bushing included, even a warranty and a year of roadside assistance are part of our purchase.
We got it as a gift for the premiere of “Herbie – Fully Loaded” at a drive-in theater in Gross Enzersdorf in August 2005. That drive-in theater is originally called in German “Autokino Center Wien” and is by the way the only one of its kind in Austria.
Domi always carried at least one VW Bug service manual with him on our travels around the globe. Now he got two of them. Both were presents by two of his best friends – Bernhard and Friedrich. As an example: How to adjust the valves correctly.
The original starter from 1963 fell apart. Domi already ordered a remanufactured one and took the old one out. With Zainab’s cosmetic mirror it was much easier to check if the fly wheel is doing well.
We got salt and pepper as a present from a so-called “snowbird” in Somerton, Arizona. The term “snowbird” should describe people from the US or Canada who spend a large portion of winter in warmer areas. They often carry their homes with them as campers like “salt and pepper” or Herbie and his trailer.
Today I drove to the next gas station here in Ridgecrest, California, to get something to drink for Herbie and I was surprised how cheap it was. I just paid 2.99 bucks per gallon which would be normally 3.79 in this town. A gallon has 3.79 liters, so one liter of regular unleaded gas cost me just 0.79 Dollar or 0.59 Euro. That means they charged me a bit more than 20 Euro for a complete fill up which would…
We wish all of you “Happy Thanksgiving”! As we are vegetarians we won’t eat a turkey so we’ll have organic Medjool dates by Berryman farms in Bard, California, raw Californian almond butter and New Mexican pine coffee.
This is how my jeans look like after working three weeks on the car.
We forgot posting a well done German written article by Verena Eissner-Eissenstein in WIENER, an Austrian magazine, about our journey across Europe and the experiences we got while traveling around the globe. You can the article also on the following website: www.wiener-online.at/2011/08/herbie-gibt-gas/
In 2010 and 2011 we traveled all across the 48 continental United States. Before we started we bought a road map where we high lighted every route we took. As an example you see Arizona (below) – one of our favorite states so far – with all the yellow high lighted streets we’ve already driven. And that’s quite a lot if you think of the fact, that Arizona is much bigger than Great Britain. Northern Arizona Southern Arizona
Today Domi had to find a “new” fly wheel for Herbie because the old one was worn out and he wasn’t able to order a new one because they stopped producing the old small ones Domi would need. Our friend Michael helped Domi with taking him to different junk yards in his Jeep in order to find a used fly wheel. Finally we got the right one. It was just hard to get it off. And there was also a…
There is always something to do for Domi. At that time he did a paint job on Herbie’s hitch. It is an original one made by ‘Westfalia’ (in Wiedenbrueck, Germany) from 1970 – especially built for VW Bugs.
Herbie visited again Randy’s garage at Sherman E. Burroughs High School in Ridgecrest, California, in order to take his engine apart the last time. There was a little gap between the cylinder number three and its head which was leaking oil. So we have to fix that before taking Herbie for another ride.
The following pictures are showing VW Bugs Domi owned in the past and he has sold for different reasons. My first car after I got my driving license: A black VW Bug 1200L (34 hp) from the early 1980ies built in Mexico. My second Beetle: A 1200L in mars red also from Mexico. The third one: A banana yellow 1300 built in the 1970ies in Emden, Germany. Number four: VW 1300 from 1967 with 40 horse powers in lotus white…
It looked like a major surgery when Domi took all engine parts off to tighten the 16 bolts of the cylinder heads.
Our VW Bug had to be aligned again – meaning the tracking and the camber got adjusted.
Sunset in Arizona Sunflowers in Nebraska Niagara Falls, New York The Alamo of San Antonio, Texas Salton Sea, California
Herbie has an engine with the original 1200 cc (34 hp) and we are just using fully synthetic oil like 5W-50 (see below) which is a perfect one for classic cars as air-cooled VW’s.
It was just a little tiny thing what created a mess: The clips of the pressure plate fell apart during pushing the clutch. Thanks to Susie and Michael we got to know Randy who is working at the auto garage of Sherman E. Burroughs High School in Ridgecrest. So we got a place were we could take the engine out in order to put the clips back on. This was already the second time on our world trip that we…
We had to change the shaft of the pedals because the hook for the clutch cable was totally worn out.
As we are back in United States we want to share some impressions we got when we’ve been here last time. Canyon de Chelly National Monument, Arizona In the middle of nowhere, Arizona Somewhere in Montana Highway 128, Utah Pacific coast, Washington
Domi had to change the axle arms because the collar type pins and the king pins were totally worn out. Also the bearings on the right side in the front were seriously damaged. And we put new brake shoes on all wheels.