Growing up, my dad shared stories of his adventures in his green 1967 beetle and an orange 1973 super beetle.

When I was 12 years old, I started eyeing vw beetles. I had a feeling this is what I wanted for my first car. I was 14 and found an ad in the newspaper. My dad and I went to check it out. I wasn’t old enough to test drive it, but my dad did.

August 1st, 1997 I put a $100 deposit down on this 1973 beetle in New Port Richey, FL. Then on August 3rd I put down the rest of the $2,900 and she was all mine.

We later found out that it needed a generator and it had a crack in the head. The guy told us not to drive it far. I got the motor rebuilt to a 1641 cc. After I was finally old enough to drive it, it became my daily driver to high school. I remember that my fellow classmates thought it was pretty cool. I’d get different performance parts and dual adjustments. My senior year, my car was out of commission for about 6 months.

I bought a 1973 super beetle for it’s 1835 cc motor. Swapped it and put it in mine, but turned out I had to rebuild it too.

I raced my ’73 at the Sunshine Dragstrip in Largo a few times. I beat every single beetle that I raced. I beat a 6-cylinder mustang!

In 2005, I decided to lower the front with a 5in narrow adjustable beam and the rear was 3 outer splines. I would pop off road reflectors while driving. I thought of a cool idea to pinch beer caps on the drip rail around both sides of the car. It has a cool look and everyone points that out when they see my car.

2009 I blew the motor and found a 1600 cc engine from a 1986 mexican beetle.

In 2014 I brought it back to stock height for awhile.

In 2015, the week before BugJam I decided to lower it again. A 6.5" narrow adjustable beam and 3 outer splines in the rear, put brand new EMPI sprint stars on it.

Early in 2016 I had Sundance Bug & Buggy put in a new cylinder and cylinder heads put on.

Decided in 2019 to raise it up a click in front and rear. Did too much damage to the undercarriage and motor. Maybe some day I'll restore it completely. 

During 2020 and 2021, the ol girl has collected more rust. The pandemic hasn't allowed us to do much. Although the beetle always starts after sitting, we decided to take her out to go on some outdoor adventures, like hiking, beach trips and other activities where we can be outside and social distance.

It’s now 2022. I’ve raised the rear and put the stock beam back in with drop spindles. A goal is to sand the beetle down, fix some of the rust, and repaint. The hard decision is, do I go with the original Kasan Red paint or the yellow-orange color everyone recognizes? Stay tuned...