Eric Beetle, My first ever car and the car that I learnt to drive in, hence some of the bumps and dents and rusty bits in places! My lovely Daddy (creep creep!) bought me Eric in the summer of 1998 (It was cheaper for him to buy me a car than it was for his time and petrol running me and my friends all over the place!!) and he has been my trusty stead ever since. He has seen me all through my last years at school and now into my university days with the

addition of some

alloy wheels.

He is a totally reliable car as he has been to Cornwall to RTTS and back 3 times and takes me on a 15mile journey to Cambridge every day, surprisingy really considering he is an elderly man I have only used my RAC card once and I was only a mile from home!! (how embaressing!!)

He needs alot of work at the moment that I can't really afford to do so I bought Custard as my every day car to give Eric abit of a break! I have already done alot of work to him mechanically but he is falling behind bodily. I had an accident a day after I passed my test, I drove into a wall in a multi storey car park and totally crunched the front right wing, which meant a replacement. In doing this I also cracked the A wing (the bit by the fuel cap...I hit it that hard!) and damaged the headlight. That was quite expensive with new wing, repair work and respraying bits!!

Other work that he has had done in my care include:

•New clutch

•New Exhaust and tail pipes

•New back panel above tail pipes

•New gear box

•New petrol gage

Complete welding and rust treatment of the floor (found out one of his previous owners did not have him welded but pop rivited in vital joint areas...bad to say the least, they also sprayed over rust patches instead of treating them properly! He has been in a bit of a state and has taken a lot of time and money to sort out!!)

•Rust treatment in various areas

•New passenger door hinge

•New tubes from fual tank to engine

•New pipes in engine

•Brake's Replaced

He still has his original engine though despite all his other bits (touch wood!) There are many more things that are needed, ideally he needs a body off job, and a total going over including a complete respray as he is starting to go orange! His interior on the other hand is all original and in perfect condition, nothing needs doing in that aspect!

Ok October 2002 - Didn't have the heart to get rid of all that text for the updates so thought that I would leave it there and just add an update. For those of you who don't know, Eric is in a poor sorry state. After an accident we had a year ago. we were driving around a corner and the steering lock came on and consequently we spun off into a fece and back in to the road again. There was not a single panel left in tact. eric is awaiting TLC and is sitting at Rob's my mechanic waiting for time, money and love to restore him to his former self. Quite when that will be I don't know but until then he is quite happy I think!!!

When I win the lottery or manage to save up once I'm no longer a student I hopefully plan to have him restored, in the mean time I hope he hangs in there.



Below is the certificate for the year 2000 beetle census for eric




See Letter From Volkswagen Germany !

Back