Reconstruction Ahead

Just in case I never mentioned this before -although I think I probably have at least alluded to this from time to time in the past -my son is a gear head!

It's just been in the past couple of years or so that I first heard this terminology but as I understand it, it applies to people who just totally love automobiles!

In my son's case, he's a bit of a Chevy or GM guy but his true love, in terms of cars, has to be Volkswagons and please, let them be old -preferably older than 25-30 years -and also, he prefers ones that would be called Baja Bugs!

He had an old VW when he first moved back to PA from Arizona back in 2000 that he had restored and I have to admit this but it was a cute little thing. It rather shocked a lot of the neighbors here -as well as a few other folks in this region too (like a certain town cop) because there was no hood (or cover) over the engine on that bug! As a matter of fact, one of the town cops in a small town a few miles from us pulled him over one day under the guise that he was operating that Bug illegally. And, the reason the cop figured that to be so was due mostly to the open-air process that my son had with that vehicle. (However, there were a couple things that were really illegal with it at that time too -like my son hadn't yet changed the car's registration from Arizona over to Pennsylvania -but the whole procedure of his getting pulled over really stemmed from the car's appearance.)

My son still has most of that car in his garage at his house but he's always -or so it seems -wheeling and dealing to trade things he has for more VW's that he finds along the way.

About 5 years ago, his Dad -who lives in Nevada -had a 1971 Chevy pickup truck that he had restored and he offered that truck to my son at a very good price. So, the boy flew out to Nevada to make arrangements with his Dad to buy that truck and then, he drove it cross-country to bring it back to Pennsylvania.. And let me tell you, he babied that truck -and he loved it too, ya know.

However, a few weeks ago, in his meanderings online, he came across a guy up in Michigan someplace who had an old VW for sale that caught my son's eye. After a few discussions back and forth about the VW and my son's truck, they decided to make a trade -my son's truck for this VW Bug!

To do this, my son had to rent a U-Haul trailer to tow his truck to Michigan on that and then, load the VW on there and tow it home. To be able to tow the trailer holding his truck, he then had to use his girlfriend's Dodge Ram pickup truck.

I was under the impression initially that the VW he was getting didn't even have a motor in it and I really thought my son had totally gone off his rocker to trade his pretty pristine Yellow truck for a vehicle that had no motor in it but thankfully, I learned after he got it home that it does have an engine in it and it works fine but the problem with this new-to-him-VW has to do with something under the car that needs to be replace -that is if he wants to run it as a sort of Baja Bug!

I have no idea what all he will have to replace there -has to do with the undercarriage and stuff that I generally pay absolutely no attention to whatsoever but at any rate, I figure this reconstruction process he's going to be doing on this Bug are probably going to call for a whole bunch of parts -like maybe stainless steel u bolts along with most likely a whole bunch of other things too! Better him than me having to go to all this work just to have what I would consider to be pretty much a glorified dune buggy! (That's my interpretation of this whole process anyway!)

When he was down here tonight for his pretty regular Sunday nite visit before he goes back to work for the coming week, I said something to him to remind him that next Sunday, being Father's Day, that he and his sisters better make sure to call their Dad then to wish him a Happy Father's Day. That's when he voiced to me his concern -sort of a concern he says -about calling his Dad as he's not sure if maybe his Dad might be upset with him for having traded the yellow truck that Dad had restored for this Volkswagon.

Hmmmm. I suppose that could be something to be a bit worried about but then he said maybe -he's hoping this anyway -his Dad will understand his motive(s) in making this wonderful (his thoughts on the trade) deal he got with the VW.

You see, apparently this "gear head" syndrome is a genetic thing because as I think about this now, that's very much the same terminology one could easily use to describe my son's Dad, along with his favorite uncle too! Both of them are "gear head" guys from way, way back! And both of them are, truth be told, very good at being masters of the gear head set too! Darned good mechanics, for sure!

My son isn't quite up to the same caliber in terms of being an automotive mechanic as are his Dad and his Uncle, but he does have the book knowledge that entails about everything and anything about Volkswagons!

Well, I suppose once he gets this VW now all fixed the way he wants it, he claims this one is "THE" one he wants to fix and keep and love!

Yeah, yeah! I've heard those lines before and it definitely is a family type thing this love of vehicles! Next up will probably be the grandson, Kurtis, who has a big dose of "gear head" in his genes as Kurt's Dad is also a Gear Head Guy!