COAL : 1970 Volkswagen Beetle – Full Circle

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– Posted on September 3, 2023

I suppose we could say it was inevitable that a Beetle would feature once again in my COAL chronicles. I’ve had a hankering on and off for for one ever since I parted with my first car, because the simplicity and unburstable nature of them is very endearing indeed, and they actually are fun to drive too. I considered one quite seriously last year, but ended up with something more modern, which as usual didn’t last for long. Not lasting for long seems to be a hallmark of my COALs as of late, since my average time of ownership seems to be about 2-3 years.

That honestly pales in comparison to the story of this red Beetle, which was in the same ownership for the last 24 years! Actually when I say “was”, that’s not accurate because it still actually has the same owner, but is in my care at the moment. Let me explain a bit; the car belongs to my friend Gabriel, who loves it nearly as much as he loves his wife and child, in his own words. He has owned this car since 1999, before he got a driver’s license in fact and has many, many memories associated with it. I met him around 2004, by which time the car was a part of his identity to the extent that people who didn’t know his name knew him as “the guy with the red bug”. I had my own interest in Beetles from an early age, but it was getting to know Gabriel and this car (which he has always called “sexy bugsy”), that made me firmly decide I wanted a Beetle of my own and get one shortly thereafter. We share many memories of youthful shenanigans involving the two Beetles, of which not much photographic evidence exists, thankfully!

This picture may or may not have been an impromptu drag race. My old car on the left.

Gabby (as he is known) was always very protective of his car, and never even let anybody else drive it for the longest time. And as for parting with it, forget it! Not going to happen! However, life has a funny way of throwing unexpected wrenches into our best laid plans, and for Gabby, that wrench came in the form of migration, to the land down under a few years ago. Selling Bugsy was obviously out of the question, so it was parked at his parents’ place, being started up and driven a couple of times a month by another friend. This arrangement worked well for some time, but the friend responsible eventually found he didn’t have enough time to devote to this task due to a growing family, and Bugsy ended up sitting for a while again.

Around Christmas 2022, Gabby asked his car enthusiast group of friends (myself included) whether anyone had time to take on the job of caregiver, and I found myself volunteering before even really thinking about it. I had several cars of my own to worry about, as well as a one year old running around, but somehow I felt like Bugsy should find a home with me. The car had been extracted from his parents and moved to a specialist in Beetles so that it could be properly checked over and got back into usable condition. The long period of sitting meant it needed a bit of work including rebuilt wiring, new tires, all fluids changed, and some suspension work, as well as a new battery. Once all that was done, Bugsy was declared mechanically A1 and ready for picking up.

A photo from around 2007, in attempt to test out how good Beetles were on a beach.

It took me a bit of time to sort my parking situation out so that there would be space for Bugsy, which meant almost a month had gone by before I was finally ready to collect it. Fortunately, that month wait did not have any adverse effects and it fired up almost immediately. Mechanically all seemed fine but cosmetically Bugsy was looking a little sad, so after discussing things a bit with Gabby, I decided to do a bit of freshening up with the help of a friend who is skilled in such things. There was no budget for a repaint or any really major work so we focused on small things that would give Bugsy’s appearance an overall lift. The running boards had gotten quite rusty and cruddy so they were cleaned up and given a fresh coat of black.

The black line under the car is all the rusty crud that was scraped off.

The wheels were also cleaned up and resprayed and then using a combination of products and good old-fashioned elbow grease, the badly faded red paint was brought back to a rather decent shine.

Pre-treatment paint really was dull and flat, as can be seen on part of the roof.

Finally, the late 90s vintage plastic license plates were thrown in the bin and replaced by a pair of period-appropriate metal ones. When all that was done, Bugsy ended up looking an order of magnitude smarter than it did before. I sent plenty of pictures to Gabby and he almost couldn’t believe his eyes. I’ll admit even I was surprised by how much of a difference a bit of strategic smartening could make to a car.

Bugsy cleans up pretty well, if I do say so myself.

After the cosmetic work was done, I started to get reacquainted with Beetle motoring once again. After a gap of almost 15 years, there were some things that needed getting used to. I’d forgotten just how close to your nose the windscreen is, and the fairly upright seating position demands is quite a bit different from my usual more laid-back one. Still, everything was very familiar and within a couple of km into the maiden drive, it was feeling comfortable and pleasant, like an old pair of shoes you slip on after finding them buried in the closet for several years. The whistling thrum of the flat-four, the precise shift action, and the surprisingly quick-witted steering all make it a pretty pleasant experience. Even the all-drum brakes, while taking some getting used to, are plenty strong enough to bring the lightweight beetle to a stop without too much trouble.

One surprising difference I did notice is that Bugsy feels a fair bit quicker than my old car was, which is strange because on paper they both had standard 40 BHP 1300 engines. As far as I’m aware this one has not had any tweaks done, but thinking back, I remember this car being quicker than mine even then so perhaps it had a better condition engine. All I can say is, that it feels surprisingly brisk from behind the wheel even now, more than capable of keeping up with traffic, and also surprising modern cars.

So quick it’s out of focus!

Since arriving under my care in March, Bugsy has seen semi-regular use, getting driven at least every other weekend and taking part in a couple of events as well. The Volkswagen Beetle has a large following to this day over here and the Volkswagen Beetle Owner’s Club is a very active one that puts on several events in a given year. They are also extremely open and welcoming and not really focused on how shiny and perfectly restored your car is, which is always nice. I recently took Bugsy to an event they organized for World Volkswagen Day and took my wife and child along as well. They had a nice time, although it was a ridiculously hot day. It consisted of a parade around Colombo city followed by a static display and refreshments at a city hotel, which all went off well and proved a fun morning out. I got a fair few pictures with the intention of putting up a post but haven’t got around to it yet.

Bugsy attending World Volkswagen Day. 

What exactly the future will bring for Gabby and Bugsy is still an open question at the moment. We’ve been discussing whether we can look into exporting it to join him in Australia, but that means a significant amount of expense, plus there are things like roadworthy inspections to think about, so the plan still needs more thought. There is never a question of him selling it, it simply is not going to be considered at all. Bugsy has been his companion through fun, sorrow, youthful antics, heartbreak, thrills, and a thousand other things besides and his love for it truly is unique. I’m more than happy to ensure that it has a safe and dry parking spot and gets regular exercise for the foreseeable future, and I truly enjoy the deja vu it brings every time I take it for a drive. As the motto of Curbside says; “Every car has a story”, and Bugsy and Gabby’s one still has many chapters to be written. So, I’m very happy to be playing a small part in ensuring that Bugsy remains in fine fettle for whatever the future brings.

Paying a visit to the other brand that employs flat fours, when the Forester was in the shop.

And with this, we’re almost at the end my brief second stint in the COAL mines. Next week we’ll be wrapping things up by looking at a couple of cars that didn’t quite make enough of an impression to get the full COAL treatment, but are kind of interesting nonetheless. See you then!