Accessorizing

Good Morning, today I'm going to be continuing to talk about some of the "cockpit" improvements I've made on my Bug. Like I mentioned before I had to take the dashboard off to redo some wiring problems, while the dash was off, I took advantage of the opportunity to make some needed repairs and upgrades. Today's topic is: The 12v outlet on my super beetle.

When I first got my car the previous owner had a really poor electric washer pump hooked up to the car. It passed safety but I didn't like it at all. He had "installed" a button in the whole for the cigarette lighter that operated the pump. He did a bad job of it and it was always falling apart. Over time i have been accumulating all the parts I need to restore the original washer pump system. For those of you interested in how that works, I'll be doing a post on it in a few days, so stay tuned. 

What that did do though is allow me to remove the button and free up the hole there. I have wanted to have a 12v outlet in my beetle ever since I had my first one, but I haven't been able to install one in any of the ones I have owned so far. But this time I decided to do it. Since I don't smoke I didn't want a cigarette lighter, I just wanted a 12v socket. I did some looking around on amazon and found one meant for marine vehicles. that's not super important, but what is important is it worked for my needs, it has a screw on the back to install it with. I had to slightly enlarge the hole so that it would fit, once that was done, I screwed it in and plugged it in into one of the ignition on fuses. 

It works great and I would recommend doing this to other owners as well. It was an easy and inexpensive upgrade. Its rather convenient as well, to be able to charge a phone or ipod while in your car driving!

The Cockpit

 Hello! I'm glad you've made it back to the site here. I wanted to post a few updates on how my 1975 Super Beetle, Felix, is coming along. Since he has been sitting for about two years, and I'm finally now getting around to fixing a lot of problems from the years on neglect, and neglect of previous owners. I still have several lists of things I need to work through, but this the life of an old car owner. My hope is that he will be roadworthy before the local VW car show in July.

Since I have begun the process of resurrecting Felix I have had to take the dash board off to do some rewiring, and as I did that, I fixed up some things on the dash. Today I wanted to write a couple posts about a few things that I've done to improve the "cockpit". Today's topic: The Steering Wheel!

First off let me say, I really like the way a clean 1303 super beetle dash board looks. I think it blends together really well. When I first got this car it had an aftermarket, autozone steering wheel. It was small, and cheap. It would make the car honk every time you turned right when going around a corner. It was really embarrassing. It didn't take me long to start the search for a replacement. It took a couple tries to get the right model steering wheel for my car. Turns out that VW switched steering columns mid-1974.

Once I got that figured out I got the right one ordered. I really love the way it looks with the dash, it meshes really well! When I took the dash apart a few weeks ago I was also able to take a close look at the turn signal cancellation ring. It had been busted off at one time, but I still had the old piece. I glued it back on with a plastics glue, and now have automatically canceling turn signals! Its just like driving a new car, :)

I have lately been realizing how weird it is that I get so excited about odd things, like a turn signal that cancels itself, or a stock windshield washer "pump", or a funky plastic steering wheel. Does anybody else get really excited about odd little things on your car that most people just take for granted? I think the joy of a car is in the details!

Vabalas

Good Day! Today I wanted to post about one of my favorite Lithuanian words. As I have previously mentioned I lived in the country of Lithuania for two years. During that time I learned to speak Lithuanian. Which, incidentally, is the oldest living language in the world. It is a very beautiful language, both in the way the sentences flow and in the way it sounds to the ear. It is also a very difficult language. Just ask any Lithuanian. In fact most Lithuanians were surprised that I would even attempt to learn it let alone speak it fluently.

Since the time i began learning Lithuanian I had long wanted to know what Lithuanians call the VW Bug. I wan't sure if they simply called it the Beetle, pronounced like a Lithuanian, or did they have their own nickname for it?

The answer came when I had been in Lithuania for about nine months. As part of our volunteer work we taught free English discussion groups to help people who were interested to improve their English skills. For this class I only had one student and I told him about my hobby in English and he had to translate what I was saying back into Lithuanian. He did really well until I said the word Beetle. He didn't understand. So I took a piece of paper and drew a VW Bug on the paper. He recognized it right off, and he was able to tell me the translation. They do have a nickname for it. And since that time it has been one of my favorite words. In Lithuanian the VW Beetle is called a Vabalas. Literally translated it is a Beetle.

Now you can impress somebody at the next car show. Show them your multilingual abilities! I'd love to hear in the comments below, what languages do you know how to say VW Beetle in?