Howdy, folks. WildcatOne here. Thought I'd put my ride in if that's OK. George (The Beetle) is a 1970 Bug. The car is about 90% restored. The interior has issues but it's functional and money is tight so I have to be very careful about what and how I spend and make it as effective as I can. I got a new paint job in February after being rear-ended while sitting at a stoplight by a cell phone-incapacitated idiot who was texting somebody when she hit me (she got out and pointed her cell phone at me and said "I didn't SEE you!"). I joined the Phantom Klassic Kruisers in early 2008 and it was Mike the Phantom who suggested to me (I was hanging out with him and the club the night I got hit) that I should make a third brake light for George. Mike Casella sent me an awesome LED light and I fabbed up a bracket for it and installed it...now George looks the same as everybody else at night. They can see the third brake light over the text screen on their cell phone...that's what they're used to seeing, ya know. So far, so good. Anyway, here are some pictures of George. My wife had a freak accident a month ago, she slipped in the walkway one night in the rain and went head-first into the driver's side door. She was bruised but OK, thank God. George got the worst of it...the door got pushed in from the impact of her head. Lucky she hit a part of the door that isn't braced...it would have dented her head instead...anyway, I took it down to Mike the Phantom's place and he and Lupe pushed it back out, good as new. Here are some pics of George. Cheers, WC1

Here are the pictures from Debby's accident in front of our house. Mike and Lupe popped it right back out. Sure glad you're OK, Babe. George is OK, too.

Here's the driveway shot with the third brake light installed. It's actually VERY RED. That's my son Kyle in the driver's seat, letting me know I'm #1. Cheers, WC1

In July of this year, I drove George up to Eddyville, Iowa for the 4th annual DragList Nationals. It's a weekend-long party that folks from the DragList Message Board get together and have fun at. There were 2 cars there representing the Message Board, other than Rapid and the Rear Gears Funny Car of Danny Miller and the Twin Cities Shaker, who ran a wild match race...I'll talk about that race another time...but it was me with George and Jeff Spear from Chicagoland with his '95 Camaro. We both signed up for Test & Tune and we ran each other. Shown here is the first round launch. By the time I'd crossed the stripe, Jeff was ready to make the turnoff. He waited for me...second round, Jeff gave Gary, his Dad, the seat and would you believe the Camaro broke at the hit...the rear-end blew out with a loud "PING!!!" I heard it but I noticed that I didn't see the Camaro's taillights by the time I'd gone past the tree. For the "money round", I gave the keys to Bill Pratt to make the trophy pass. He went easy on my stuff and ran about the same numbers I did on my second pass (at 600 feet, I looked in the rear view mirror and saw Gary still sitting on the starting line with folks running up to push him back...I coasted the last 60 feet and went through the traps at around 50 mph...so BP made the pass and I was given the 3" trophy for 2009 DragList.com Nationals Street Car Champion, and they took me and George's picture in the winner's circle. That's my avatar pic...George was a big hit at the DLNs and we had a lot of fun. I felt bad for Jeff and Gary, towing that great car down there and then having it bust up like it did. They all told me: That's Drag Racing, son. A win is a win. But still...George isn't a race car. It was all in fun. And there I am with the grand prize. Go figure. Here 's the pic, photo by Al Booton...Cheers, WC1

nice bug man...id love to have an old one..

John,tell them what you said to the track worker,when your second pass was slower

I dig George...very cool

Novel-T wrote:John,tell them what you said to the track worker,when your second pass was slower

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Thanks, T. Like I said earlier, I backed off when I saw what happened to Jeff's car and I coasted through the traps. I turned out at the first turnoff and pulled up to the time-slip guy. He came over and he was reading it and he said "Hey, man. You went 5 mph slower on that pass than you did the first one. What happened?" I looked at him and said "Tire shake."
Cheers, WC1

WildcatOne wrote:

Novel-T wrote:John,tell them what you said to the track worker,when your second pass was slower

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Thanks, T. Like I said earlier, I backed off when I saw what happened to Jeff's car and I coasted through the traps. I turned out at the first turnoff and pulled up to the time-slip guy. He came over and he was reading it and he said "Hey, man. You went 5 mph slower on that pass than you did the first one. What happened?" I looked at him and said "Tire shake."
Cheers, WC1

LOL

Howdy, Folks. WildcatOne here. Been offline for a while here and there, thought I'd make a post and say hello. I have missed you guys. To make it as short as possible, I am in a marital separation and where I'm living I can't afford the internet. I borrow computers whenever I can...anyway, George got rear-ended again on the freeway a couple of weeks ago. I'm going up to Shreveport next week where my cousin Bert and his team fo Bug Doctors will fix George. They have all the parts ready and the shop is ours to use, all for free. Bert T. Hayes, Jr is one fine man. My plan is to have George painted yellow. People don't see this car. True, they're incapacitated by the illusion of security that their cell phones provide while they're driving along in broad daylight and smooth drive right into me, but being dark blue, George is invisible to them. I could rave on all day but I have to get going. Gotta make a couple of trips to the VA hospital today for a buddy who is laid up there and I gotta be back in Seabrook tonight for a practice with OTA before the gig tomorrow night. Hope everybody is doing fine. I'll be back as soon as I can. Cheers, WC1
Here is the example document I fixed up to look at so I could decide which paint scheme would illuminate George to his fullest potential while driving around in a world full of half-blind idiots...Cat

John,

Man, I'm so sorry to hear of ALL your situations. My heart goes out to you bud. Are you okay? Were you hurt in the rear-end collision?

Great idea painting George a bright color. If I were you I'd go bright green or orange, but that's just me. I know I'm hours from Houston and Shreveport, but if there is anything, ANYTHING I can do to help, please do not hesitate to ask. Even if you want to come over and hock-in to my wireless G.

Great to hear from you, keep your chin up...

Nice to see you back. Man I feel for you going thru that. I really hope things work out for ya. Stop by anytime and again great hearing from you. Good luck

Hate to hear all of that, glad you are OK...

glad to hear from you man. sorry for the troubles you are going threw.

Thanks, I'm back home and back online again. It can only get better.
While I had some time to think, I fixed up a couple of versions of George with a possible flag theme, like I painted my '62 back in the sixties. Here are the jpegs: