Bug Update: Come Together Edition

It's just too cold to have any fun working in the garage right now, so when Charlotte goes to bed, I "work" on the Bug by surfing the net for car parts.

Craigslist is okay, but Search Tempest is Craigslist on steroids. You type in your location, how far you'd be willing to drive, and what you're looking for. Then you'll get results from all your surrounding areas (and eBay) at once.

I've had some success using Search Tempest, but since Iowa is in the automotive "rust belt", most of the parts I find for sale around here are actually worse than what I'm already using.

So, the classified section of Thesamba.com is where I spend most of my shopping time. Many of the sellers are located in the south or west, and they are willing to ship parts for a reasonable price.

Let's see where my most recent purchases have came from, and how far they traveled to get to me. 

After improving the front bumper, I noticed the headlight assemblies do not match, and the headlight lenses are cracked. Funny how that didn't bother me before.

This original, replacement lens came from Flint, Michigan, which is 593 miles away.

This headlight assembly covered 712 miles to get here from Florence, Alabama.

My taillight housings are rusted out. 

But I found a pair for sale in Shawnee, Kansas - which is 205 miles from Johnston, Iowa. Although the paint is chipped, the tail light housings are the right color for my Bug.

My bug was originally purchased in North Dakota, and the first owner installed a gas heater in the front trunk to help heat the car. In case you didn't know, the only heat an old Beetle has is whatever hot air drifts off the engine and creeps down the tubes that lead to the passenger compartment. That lukewarm air can also be smelly.

Here's my gas heater.

If you're living just south of Canada, then I'm sure the gas heater is necessary. But I've never seen one work, and I'm not about to hook my heater up my car's gas line to experiment with it. I just want this heavy lump out of there. But removing the heater would result in a 6-inch hole above my passenger's legs. Here's a view from inside the car of the heater's vent and where the hole would be if I removed the heater.

What to do? Well, in Tehachapi, California, (1,660 miles away) a guy named Greg is cutting up this 1966 Beetle for parts. His ad reads,"The sparks are flying, call now!!" 

I contacted Greg, and despite the snow storm that recently hit Tehachapi, he drug his Bug into his shop, and he's going to cut out a 10" x 10" metal patch to help me fill in that hole. The paint might even match. Nice!

I think it's pretty cool to see how parts from all over our country are coming together to give my little car another shot at road glory.