Tone Parsons

My eldest son turned 19 a few months back.  He’s got a job and finally got his drivers license a couple of weeks ago (who ever heard of a teenage boy who didn’t like to drive?).  The next obvious step was for him to save up money to buy his first car, which he did.

He had one particular car in mind, and had been searching Craigs List until he found it.  Last saturday, we drove out to Athol, Idaho to pick it up:  a 1968 VW Beetle.

As you can see, the body is in damn good shape for a car that’s 40 years old.  It also runs fantastic!! The interior and electrical are a different story.  So, the project began!

We went through the wiring (which is a spaghetti cluster of patches and re-wiring that makes little to no sense) and have it somewhat under control.  We’ve got the headlights, turn signals, running lights, gas gauge, and windshield wipers working now (they didn’t before).

Next, we need to get the brake lights, backup lights, and brakes in working order.  After that, it’s the suspension.  Once that’s all done, we need to get some good seats for it and it’ll be drivable.

The goal is to restore it to it’s original condition.  At the rate we’re going, it’ll be mechanically sound and ready for paint in about a month or so.

I’m really enjoying the time with my son working on the car.  There’s a lot of things I can’t do because of my back, so I’ve been explaining to him how it needs to be done and have been watching him do it.  It’s going to be a sweet ride once we’re done (and worth about 8x what we paid for it!!).