VW's 50th Birthday PartyOn May 21, 1969, 50 years ago today, I picked up my new 1970 VW convertible. Yesterday, I changed oil, washed it, and today I invited the family over for a VW Birthday Party as shown in the attached pictures as I road each around the block.
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Both of my Kids and both of my grandkids learned to drive with this 4 speed, straight shift, stock VW, and I have written bit and pieces about it over the years mostly from the technical side but today, I thought I would put together a more detailed personal account of what this car means to me and my family.
In my day kids loved cars and while I was studying Civil Engineering at Auburn University I could not wait until I graduated and got a job so I could buy me a brand-new Corvette. However, being practical I also had a backup plan in case my 1962 Chevrolet Corvair broke down and I had to buy a car while I was still in school, my backup plan was to buy a new yellow VW convertible. One night in the fall of 1969 while Wilma and I was passing the VW dealership in Auburn, I spotted a VW convertible in the showroom window and stopped to check it out since it was a different color than I had ever seen. Later, I would find out, that since it was under fluorescent lights on red carpet, at night it appeared a different color than it really was. I thought that maybe it would be nice to have a different color, so I wrote the color down as “Clementine” and went on my way since the Corvette was the plan and what I really wanted. Christmas break of 1969, I saw Thomas Carroll in Hurtsboro, the owner of a Chevrolet dealership in Union Springs, AL and I asked him to be working up the best price for a new Corvette since I would be graduating from Auburn soon. Later, April 1970 after I started to work for Volkert, I called Thomas and told him to send me the price for my new Corvette. One of the few pieces of paperwork that I do not have today is that quote, but his price was around $4,200 for the new Corvette which was a lots of money in those days, I wanted the Corvette and I told him let me determine what the Insurance cost would be for a single guy under 25 years old. When I got the insurance quote, I dropped my jaw and called Thomas to re-quote me the same configuration for a new Chevrolet Monte Carlo (which were also popular at that time) and his price came back about $3,800. I could not believe there was only about $400 different between the two cars. I assumed the reason the price for the Chevrolet Monte Carlo being so high was they were selling like hot cakes. He told me he had never sold a Corvette in Hurtsboro and gave me a very good price since he felt like it would lead to another one, then another one being sold in Hurtsboro. I thought about it for a day or two and then made two phone calls to VW dealers in Mobile. The first was to Continental VW on the Beltline and the second was to Gulf Coast VW in Prichard. Both dealers’ price of $2,426.79 were identical but Continental VW said they would not charge me for the AM radio, so I told them to order it for me. Shortly the salesman, Tommy Dowling called me back and said they do not make that color. I said yes, they do, and Clementine is the color I want. Shortly he called me back again and said that they had one that color on a ship coming into the Port of New Orleans in about 2 weeks. Little did I know in another 10 months I would buy a house 2 doors down from Tommy Dowling. Back to the Insurance quote, the Monte Carlo insurance was about half of the Corvette insurance rate and the VW insurance was about half of the Monte Carlo insurance rate so that made up my mind for me.
Around 11:00 AM on a Friday morning, May 21, 1970, Tommy called and said my VW was in so at lunch I drove over to look at it. I walked back to the service area and could not believe my eyes. I immediately said that is not the right color. The VW was a flat rust color with grease all over the body including the windows, bumpers & hubcaps. There was not a shiny part to the whole car, and I told Tommy I would not be seen dead or alive driving around in a car that color. Tommy assured me that it was the right color I had ordered and that once they cleaned it up and got the shipping grease off it that I would like it. I told Tommy I did not want this car and went back to the office. That evening I kept thinking about the car and I wanted to go back to Auburn-Opelika to see Wilma that weekend and of course to see my Mother in Hurtsboro and the new VW would be nice to drive, so about 3:00 PM I called the VW Dealer and told Tommy if you can get the car ready by 5:00 I will take it.
When I walked into the VW Dealer this time shortly after 5:00 PM, I was shocked again. This time the car was all shiny but a bright orange. A conservative guy like me would not drive around in a car that bright. The fluorescent lights on red carpet had made the car appear a completely different color than it really was. Since I had just graduated from Auburn a month earlier, everyone thought I had bought an Auburn car and I would spend the rest of my life saying Auburn did not have anything to do with it. By 6:00 PM I was on the road to Auburn and that weekend I learned to love that little orange bug even though it did not drive as good as my Corvair and the convertible top was loud since I was not used to the sound of a convertible top (up or down) and I accepted the unique color. I tried to visualize the color that I thought the VW was suppose to be and the closest I can explain was a rust orange that was shiny not flat. After that first trip I was sold on the Clementine color. The Clementine color was only made for the convertible and after the next year the orange was changed to a different orange color and available for most all VW’s and there were a lots of them sold, but different from mine so after all I did have a unique color even though everyone called it the Auburn VW. War Eagle.
In my day kids loved cars and while I was studying Civil Engineering at Auburn University I could not wait until I graduated and got a job so I could buy me a brand-new Corvette. However, being practical I also had a backup plan in case my 1962 Chevrolet Corvair broke down and I had to buy a car while I was still in school, my backup plan was to buy a new yellow VW convertible. One night in the fall of 1969 while Wilma and I was passing the VW dealership in Auburn, I spotted a VW convertible in the showroom window and stopped to check it out since it was a different color than I had ever seen. Later, I would find out, that since it was under fluorescent lights on red carpet, at night it appeared a different color than it really was. I thought that maybe it would be nice to have a different color, so I wrote the color down as “Clementine” and went on my way since the Corvette was the plan and what I really wanted. Christmas break of 1969, I saw Thomas Carroll in Hurtsboro, the owner of a Chevrolet dealership in Union Springs, AL and I asked him to be working up the best price for a new Corvette since I would be graduating from Auburn soon. Later, April 1970 after I started to work for Volkert, I called Thomas and told him to send me the price for my new Corvette. One of the few pieces of paperwork that I do not have today is that quote, but his price was around $4,200 for the new Corvette which was a lots of money in those days, I wanted the Corvette and I told him let me determine what the Insurance cost would be for a single guy under 25 years old. When I got the insurance quote, I dropped my jaw and called Thomas to re-quote me the same configuration for a new Chevrolet Monte Carlo (which were also popular at that time) and his price came back about $3,800. I could not believe there was only about $400 different between the two cars. I assumed the reason the price for the Chevrolet Monte Carlo being so high was they were selling like hot cakes. He told me he had never sold a Corvette in Hurtsboro and gave me a very good price since he felt like it would lead to another one, then another one being sold in Hurtsboro. I thought about it for a day or two and then made two phone calls to VW dealers in Mobile. The first was to Continental VW on the Beltline and the second was to Gulf Coast VW in Prichard. Both dealers’ price of $2,426.79 were identical but Continental VW said they would not charge me for the AM radio, so I told them to order it for me. Shortly the salesman, Tommy Dowling called me back and said they do not make that color. I said yes, they do, and Clementine is the color I want. Shortly he called me back again and said that they had one that color on a ship coming into the Port of New Orleans in about 2 weeks. Little did I know in another 10 months I would buy a house 2 doors down from Tommy Dowling. Back to the Insurance quote, the Monte Carlo insurance was about half of the Corvette insurance rate and the VW insurance was about half of the Monte Carlo insurance rate so that made up my mind for me.
Around 11:00 AM on a Friday morning, May 21, 1970, Tommy called and said my VW was in so at lunch I drove over to look at it. I walked back to the service area and could not believe my eyes. I immediately said that is not the right color. The VW was a flat rust color with grease all over the body including the windows, bumpers & hubcaps. There was not a shiny part to the whole car, and I told Tommy I would not be seen dead or alive driving around in a car that color. Tommy assured me that it was the right color I had ordered and that once they cleaned it up and got the shipping grease off it that I would like it. I told Tommy I did not want this car and went back to the office. That evening I kept thinking about the car and I wanted to go back to Auburn-Opelika to see Wilma that weekend and of course to see my Mother in Hurtsboro and the new VW would be nice to drive, so about 3:00 PM I called the VW Dealer and told Tommy if you can get the car ready by 5:00 I will take it.
When I walked into the VW Dealer this time shortly after 5:00 PM, I was shocked again. This time the car was all shiny but a bright orange. A conservative guy like me would not drive around in a car that bright. The fluorescent lights on red carpet had made the car appear a completely different color than it really was. Since I had just graduated from Auburn a month earlier, everyone thought I had bought an Auburn car and I would spend the rest of my life saying Auburn did not have anything to do with it. By 6:00 PM I was on the road to Auburn and that weekend I learned to love that little orange bug even though it did not drive as good as my Corvair and the convertible top was loud since I was not used to the sound of a convertible top (up or down) and I accepted the unique color. I tried to visualize the color that I thought the VW was suppose to be and the closest I can explain was a rust orange that was shiny not flat. After that first trip I was sold on the Clementine color. The Clementine color was only made for the convertible and after the next year the orange was changed to a different orange color and available for most all VW’s and there were a lots of them sold, but different from mine so after all I did have a unique color even though everyone called it the Auburn VW. War Eagle.
Four months later, I married that little girl “Wilma” from Auburn-Opelika and brought her to Mobile and we would ride around with the top down learning the area especially the country roads and occasionally take a picnic basket with us along the way. Prior to me buying the VW, Wilma had traded her 1964 Chevrolet Malibu for a new 1970 Ford Maverick, and we would use it mostly for our out of town trips since it had more storage area than the VW. |
1970 - Malcolm dating Wilma Tisdale |
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VW Turned 100,000 Miles 7-4-2007
Malcolm's Books for Kids & Grandkids |
I always thought I would give the car to my grandchildren’s and let them drive the car in high school like Neil & Marcy did, but I realized that times has changed and much safer vehicles were available with air bags, disc brakes, back-up cameras etc. and my grandchildren’s are too valuable to be driving around full time in a car that was designed before I was born, I am now 75 years old so I gave them much newer vehicles to run the road in.
Now, I only drive the VW to VW Cruises and around the neighborhood on sunny afternoons. Whoever inherits the VW after I am gone, I have two requests for them is to keep the VW parked inside and do not use it as a daily driver - in other words do not leave it out to get rained on. I regret that I have not driven the VW enough since it only has a little over 105,000 miles on it. When it is covered up in the garage it simply seems like too much trouble to take the cover off and drive it to the store or somewhere and then when I return cover it up again.
Marcy insisted that I add some of the incidents or near accidents she has heard about over the years so let us start with one of her incidents.
When Marcy first inherited the VW and the first day she drove it to school for soccer practice she was parked to close to her coaches car so when she was leaving practice she backed out and scraped the coaches car with the bumper. Thankfully, no dents on the VW but a bad scrape on the coach’s car. About 2 years later when I had bought her a new Honda Civic for graduation as we exchanged keys I backed into her new Civic and no scratches on her new car but a bad scrape on the rear VW fender. I said I just was not use to that many cars in the driveway.
Since my office was only 2 miles from home and in my early years, I would come home for lunch every day. One day at noon while we were eating, Wilma and I heard someone blowing their car horn. In fact, they kept on blowing their car horn so finally I got up from the table and went to the window and there was my VW slap in the middle of Overlook Road blocking both lanes of traffic. I guess I had not fully engaged the parking brakes and the VW had rolled down the driveway into the middle of the busy road. I sure was lucky no one broad sided the VW.
Another incident a block and half from the house was one Friday evening on the way home from work a major storm sprung up quickly. The water board had just cut a trench across the westbound lane of Overlook Road about 3-foot-wide (depth unknown). Due to the sudden storm the water board had quickly put barricades at the trench but no cones or advance signs up the street yet. I was following a co-worker, Jim Weeks, who was going to stop at my house, and I was probably too close to him and going too fast. Anyway, Jim Weeks went around the trench and I went straight through the barricade and over the trench. Jim said through his rear-view mirror I looked like Bo Duke flying thru the barricades and over the trench. The barricade went over my car and only put one nickel size dent in the chrome molding on the hood. I slowed down going home after that.
Wilma did not drive the VW much but when she did she would go several blocks out of the way coming home so she would not have to stop at a traffic signal on a hill due to possible roll-back with the straight shift. But she got better the more she drove it.
One Fourth of July I had the top down and our entire family loaded up and we were headed to a firework display downtown. Not too far from the house, I heard a ping and the red light came on. The fan belt had broken causing us to turn around and head back home. Of course, we were disappointed about the fireworks.
When the VW was only a few years old it would die on me going to work about 2 days a week and would crank back up in about 5 minutes but I never could find the problem so finally I took it to a German Auto Repair shop. They could not find it either so I told them to just keep the car and drive it home every night and it would die on them. After a week of them using it as their personal car it never died so I brought it home. At that time, I could not tell if it was a gas problem or an electrical problem so I put a dwell meter on the passenger seat and connected the wires to the distributor and drove it to work. On about the third day the engine died, and the dwell meter went to zero, so I knew it was an electrical problem. That weekend I cranked the car and tugged on every wire in the electrical system. Finally, as I pulled the condenser wire it died so I put in a new condenser. I stripped the plastic off the condenser wire that I took out and midway in the wire there was a clean break in the wire, not really a break but where one roll of wire ended and another wire started at the manufacture. As the joint pull apart the engine would die but when contact of the two wires touched the car would come to life. A visual inspection would have never found this.
When Neil was 16-17 years old driving the VW to school, baseball practice, and church he enjoyed driving with the top down; on those cool mornings to wake him up, those nice sunny days getting back to nature. He was always the cool kid. When he would get to his location with a friend in the car, as they were getting out, he would ask them to lock the door even when the top was down. They would look at him like he was crazy, and his reply was always “It keeps the honest people out” they would laugh and lock the doors. Funny he never worried about people stealing or getting his stuff. Times have changed, today we lock the car twelve times walking away and still turn back to make sure if it locked.
During Neil’s time driving he would drive to church, the beach, school, the mall or to a baseball park mostly. Every now and then he and Marcy will run into a high school friend who will tell them about a trip they took to the beach or to someone’s house and how they remember the outing because of the VW.
Marcy and Neil added learning to drive was regular time spent with Dad. It was either at the church parking lot or on the streets near our house, both of us were nervous for several reasons. One, we would mess up the clutch. Second, we would hit something. HA! We are now thankful for the time we spent with dad thanks to the VW.
My son, Neil, called me one Saturday evening at Pizza Hut on Airport Blvd. and said the VW would not crank. I stopped what I was doing and headed to where they were. The battery was good, but the points looked bad. Rather than try to fix it on site I went and bought a pull strap and pulled the VW to the house and put in new points. This car did not like points since it would eat them up every six months or sooner. Later, someone told me about the Pertronix Electronic kit, so I bought a kit and installed it and never used points again. Of course, I have a set of point and a new Pertronix kit in the trunk now should I ever need them.
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1985 - Engine Builder and my son Neil
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2011 - Engine Builder |
Both times I rebuilt the VW it received a shade tree paint job under the same oak tree in the front yard by a friend of mine, Vic Diabin who did an outstanding job. Actually Vic was a tremendous help in both restoration 1985 and 2011.
1985 - Malcolm & Son Neil Prepping VW
2011 - Vic Diabin, my Painter |
1985 - Malcolm & Vic Diabin, my Painter
2011 - Re-Installing the Wires after paint |
When my oldest grandson McNeil, was about 3 years old we would let him play in the VW for hours at a time. We would take the key out, let the top down, pull the emergency breaks ,and open the passenger door so he could get in and out and he would drive across America (I guess). His brother, Andrew did not enjoy playing in the car as much as McNeil did.
The car has had three convertible tops. The first when the car was just a few years old when a small limb fell through it from a neighbor’s tree. This time Trimmer Smith replaced it but both time I restored the car, I replaced the top myself with Wilma and the kids help which was not too hard except for the back window which was exceedingly difficult. After several days of trying and PRAYING it finally went in place. Thank you, LORD.
Right after I restored the VW in 2011 Wilma, and I took the car to Bug Jam 2012, a large VW car show near Tampa, FL and the VW won first place in the convertible class. Everyone wants me to go back and I tell them no way, since I have no place to go but downhill, but I know it was beginners’ luck. Of course, I have taken it to many local cars shows and won various trophies but none bigger than Bug Jam 2012. |
Malcolm with 1st Place Convertible trophy |
One-time Vic Diabin, and I attended a VW Car show at Edgewater Mall in Biloxi, MS and as we were leaving the car show, we road to Gulfport then turned north to get on I-10 East toward Mobile. Just as I exited the on ramp and getting up to speed the driver’s side front wheel came off and went like a bullet ahead of us and then turned into the thick underbrush. I tried to guide the car to the shoulder but did not have much control until I slowed down and gradually pulled to the shoulder and stopped. Vic looked for the tire in the thick underbrush for at least an hour before he finally found it. Meanwhile, I was on the phone with a friend that was also at the car show and asked him to bring me some lug nuts. We put the spare tire on with the borrowed lug nuts and drove back to Mobile. From that point on I have kept extra lug nuts in the trunk, just in case.
Luckily, the VW never was in a “real” accident. The right rear fender was hit hard one morning as I was turning into the office on Moffat Road. A lady driving a Ford pickup hit me as I was turning into the office and she told the policeman that she was signing her kid school paper as she hit me.
One day as I pulled into the garage I walked around the back of the car to close the garage door and as I passed the engine bay I could see smoke and heat waves coming out of the engine louvers. I immediately grabbed the fire extinguisher and put the fire out. It appeared as the engine shut off the gas line to the carburetor came off and spewed gas all over the hot engine and it caught fire. Only a few wires were burned and I drove it like that for a year or two. After that, I went and bought clamps for all gas lines connections. I have always kept a fire extinguisher in the garage but after that I kept one in the back seat of the car also.
In 1995, when the VW was 25 years old, I was incredibly happy to apply for an Antique tag to put on the VW, but this did not last long. In 1996 the State of Alabama changed the rule that a vehicle had to be 30 years old, so I had to buy a regular tag again for 5 years and in 2000 I bought a Vintage Tag for the VW. Then one day while I was cleaning up the garage, I saw a nail very high up with old tags on it. I scrambled up the ladder and low and behold my original 1970 VW tag was in the group. I took it down, cleaned it up and took it to the Tag Commissioner and got it registered with my VW as the Vintage tag. The VW has had 3 different Antique/Vintage tags in the State of Alabama. |
1985 - Malcolm Installing Antique Tag
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