Back in Miami

Hello Group. Back after 13 years. Sad to have noted Bob Hoover's passing.

Beside Veeduber, missing SpeedyJim, VWgirl (became Jan's wife), and a few dozen that I can't recall at the moment - Sorry if you belong on my list and were not mentioned by name.

Happy to be back

Chris

Reply to
ChrisKlinger
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Hi Chris and welcome back! I often wondered what happened to you! Minor correction though: VWGirl is Lauren and someone else snatched her up, I married LittleVWGoddess (the one you let me use your car to go date in 1999-2000, thanks again!) and we got divorced 2 years ago, after having 2 kids. We all moved to Virginia. My girl is 3 and my son 5.

I still have my black convertible bug, at my parents house in Finland. Here in the Us I have a 2001 Jeep and a 1970 Nova, currently undergoing surgery. :P

Now let's knock down some more cobwebs and bring Ramva back alive, OK? It's dead quiet here. :)

Jan

Reply to
Jan Andersson

Does anyone know if SpeedyJim is alive and well? He posted a pic of himself and a VW some years back ans he did not look healthy.

J.

Reply to
P.J.Berg

Jan! Great to hear you're well. Sorry for confusing the Goddess with VWGirl - my bad.

I'm all for bringing the group back to life. Count me in.

I'm currently driving what Bob would have baptized "something for the kiddies": a red, lowered '65 ghia w/ dual Weber 44s and the inability to make a turn tighter than a 30m radius, because the front tires will scrape the fenders :(

Also still have the '60, all stock, but after so many years outside, needing another restauration.

Best to all!

Chris

Jan Anderss> >> Hello Group. Back after 13 years. Sad to have noted Bob

Hoover's

Sorry

you!

snatched her

car to go

years ago, after

son 5.

in Finland.

undergoing

alive, OK?

Reply to
ChrisKlinger

It is funny how as one ages one has less time to spend on one's bug. About 6 years ago when my '65 beetle was my daily driver it would not be out of the question for me to have flashlights out in the driveway at 4 AM fixing something so I could drive to work, replacing a set of broken points on the side of the expressway at 5:15 AM in 35 degree F weather while trucks and cars sped by, or almost burning out the 6V starter (running 12 V) trying to get gas pumped back through the system after running out of gas in rush hour on a hot August afternoon.

I am all for gett>

--- Posted via news://freenews.netfront.net/ - Complaints to snipped-for-privacy@netfront.net

Reply to
KWW

I no longer have a Vw and haven't driven one in a long time, but I still do read every single message posted here even if they are far and in between. I used to post as BergRace but setting a different 'From' for the different newsgroups on the same server has proven difficult(did that make sense?).

I use Opera as a client, it is an all in one program, browser, mail client, RSS feed reader and news group client. It comes with a side panel which you can toggle open/shut. Using a large wide-screen I leave mine open all the time, in the panel it lists incoming mail, newsgroup postings and RSS feeds vertically so I can see any updates instantly, very handy if I may say so. Opera is free so give it a try if it sounds interesting. SeaMonkey is the only other program with all these features I know of. I have it installed, but only have tested the browser part so far. Thunderbird is similar and better known but lacks the browser part.

J.

Reply to
P.J.Berg

I haven't done any aircooled VW work since I moved to the US in 06, but I did work for a Porsche shop for a few years in Orlando, lots of "the other" aircooled work there. We rarely messed with the watercooled ones.

I now work at Pep Boys, and I have one older customer who first brought me his 66 Chevelle to work on a little, then we got to talking about VW'a and he ended up bringing his 67 beetle to me as well. Nothing special yet, basic maintenance but I may get more later.

As for news reader... I still use Thunderbird as I always have (It used to be Netscape?) and I'm using a German university server for $15 a year,

formatting link
and it seems to work well.

Jan

Reply to
Jan Andersson

Wow Jan, Pep Boys. They are VERY lucky to have you! I have some personal horror stories with them and so do my friends, but it all boils down to what kind of quality mechanics they are willing to hire/pay and what training they provide. KWW

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Reply to
KWW

Welcome Back Chris, I'm sure you enjoying being back in Miami. I retired form VW restorations about 2yrs and started traveling. Found myself enjoying the winters in Miami. I have seen a very small number of aircooled VW's in the miami-dade area and wunder if theres a club.

Reply to
Kafertoys

I know, it's horrible. Training? Experience? none of that is required/provided. If you can poke your head through the door and have a couple of wrenches, you're hired. And you will be trained by the previous clueless idiot.

It does boil down to the individual mechanic. Most of ours are somewhat ok for the basic stuff, but some are downright dangerous. Same thing with the service writers. 90% of ours have no prior automotive experience, they don't know a damn thing. Not even how to be a service writer.

I can't stand the place, but on the other hand it makes it easy for me to outshine everyone else :D

Still looking for my own line of work, but it's not looking good at all. Been away from it for too long.

Jan

Reply to
Jan Andersson

----- Original Message ----- From: "Jan Andersson" Newsgroups: rec.autos.makers.vw.aircooled Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2012 1:51 PM Subject: Re: Back in Miami

(Hmmm, now let's see if I remember how to do this....)

I'm back too!

Had a bit of a false start when I posted to Jan earlier in the year... but I was reminiscing a bit while I tried to find my RAMVA stickers... which I can't find - Anyone got any spares? :-)

Apparently my first post was 6 May 1998, before I even filled in all the details in outlook properly (plus I attached a photo, which is a BIG No-No!).

I don't know why I stopped posting (about 2004/2005)... Maybe it was a bit quiet and bad times or something? Maybe it was because I got married in

2004? Maybe my ISP dropped usenet servers then?

Anyway, I have a 1984 "Vanagon" T3 transporter with a Subaru 2.5 (which will quite soon have a Subaru 3.0) and a 1972 Beetle 1200 with a 1600DP engine. I'm based in Whangarei, New Zealand and thought I might check in to see what's happening :-)

I see a few names I recall for sure: Jan, P.J. Berg, Nate Nagel, Joey Tribiani, VWGirl plus probably some others if some new posts appear :-)

Doesn't look to be anywhere near as active as in the past, but that's probably good - It'll stop the Mrs getting pissed at me for being on the computer too much!

Allan Williams.

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Reply to
AllanW

Just got back on here myself, after somebody asked about Speedy Jim over on The Samba, I wondered if newsgroups were still around. This place looks real quiet, everybody seems to use the web based forums now.

Reply to
cletus_zuber

Do you know anything about Speedy Jim, is he still alive?

P.J. Aka BergRace

Reply to
P.J.Berg

Speedy Jim just wrote to me. Jim is alive and as well as one could expect for us old guys.

Reply to
jac

Speedy Jim over

This place

now.

I knew I'd forget some names from back in the day. I married Jan to the wrong girl, and forgot to mention you by name. Glad to see you're evidently well.

Maybe someone else has news about Speedy Jim?

BTW - Was Bob Hoover's passing relatively unnoticed, or did I just miss usenet's reflections?

Chris

Reply to
ChrisKlinger

Hoover's

Sorry

you!

snatched her

car to go

years ago, after

son 5.

in Finland.

undergoing

alive, OK?

Jan - I confess, I feel silly to have confused the littleVWgoddess with VWGirl but, in my defense, it has been a long time. Sorry to hear about the divorce; hope things are amicable, and I hope both the goddess and VWgirl are well.

I'm preparing to go through a divorce (though we've been separated for 11 years; I believe you met my wife and father IRL).

I still have the '59 type 1 which, after 20 years outside, needs another resto, but right now, I'm focused on bringing my new wife-to-be and our two daughters (aged 3 and 7) to the US.

As for usenet, it seems hard to compete with web-based forums. On the plus side, forums can go away; on the other hand, there mey be no one left in usenet :(

On an aside - and maybe I'm beating a dead horse, as there seems to be no mention of the great man... I miss Bob (Hoover). I was saddened to hear of his passing. I would hope that this (dare I say our?) group would have recognized the event. Maybe that ocurred, and it was agreed that it wouldn't be touched upon again; if I'm out of line, may the group forgive. But between Bob and SpeedyJim, RAMVAC has lost two incredibly knowledgeable people, one permanently, one perhaps not.

I confess, it's hard to keep a party going with only a handful of people. Were you close to Jim? Any chance of cajoling him to rejoin us?

Where are the godessess and the Girls? Moved on?

Either way, glad to hear you're well. How are you liking living in the US?

Note to all: everyone here is, and has always been admitted as, an equal. Some, like Jim and Bob, have gained the respect of the group through their knowledge and forthcoming help. I personally encourage all, including - or perhaps, especially - lurkers, to post.

I felt glad to be welcomed back.

Hope to stay this time.

Chris

Reply to
ChrisKlinger

The other Goddess gave up on VW's, but not before trying a New Beetle for a while. That thing started falling apart after a few years in the Florida heat, everything plastic just kept breaking. I believe she now drives a Pacifica.... 2 teenage kids and all that. My ex "thelittlevwgoddess" is not a VW person anymore either. Drives an F350. Still has a Windstar I bought her, slowly falling apart. In the divorce, she ultimately told me to choose which car to keep for myself: the 2000 windstar or the 1970 Nova. Well... tough choice but I got the Nova ;) VWGirl then.... she got married and still is VERY much into aircooled VW's, I think she still has like 15-20 of them??? And the last two fairly recent additions to the family are a Prius (!!!) and a later model Jetta Wagon just weeks ago. She does a lot of long distance traveling with the Prius, right now she's in Canada (again).

I'm keeping an eye out for a Thing near my house, seems to be in need of some TLC and I haven't seen any progress since I spotted it a few months ago. Missing a headlight so it's definitely not driven. If I get a little extra money, I might see if they'd let it go cheap. But I need to get the Nova done first. And my real goal VW wise is to get my black vert here from Finland. The Thing might be a project to quickly fix up and sell at a massive profit... ;) means to an end. My problem of course is that I get attached to them and then they never leave.

Reply to
Jan Andersson

Jan, sounds like you've done a good job of keeping up with people. I'm terrible at that. I'm guessing shipping your car from Finland would cost a pretty penny. Or euro.

John, I'm very glad to hear that Speedy Jim is still kicking. Every so often someone posts up a link to one of Jim's articles and I think of him.

Max Welton

Reply to
max_welton_2k

terrible at that. I'm guessing shipping your car from Finland would cost a pretty penny. Or euro.

someone posts up a link to one of Jim's articles and I think of him.

$3000....

Reply to
Jan Andersson

terrible at that. I'm guessing shipping your car from Finland would cost a pretty penny. Or euro.

someone posts up a link to one of Jim's articles and I think of him.

I talk to some of the old ramvaites on Facebook too. If you have an account, and wish to "Friend" me, we can do that... then you'll find more of us through my friend list. There's not a lot of VW talk though.

I'll post a quick Ramva-invite on my FB page in case they want to come by and say hi :)

Reply to
Jan Andersson

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