Ladies and Gentlemen of the world wide Air Cooled fraternity... adjust valve clearances.
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, the correct valve clearances would be IT.
The long term benefits of correct valve clearances have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience.
I will dispense this advice now.
Enjoy the power and beauty of your air cooled Vee Dub. Never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your VW until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you'll look back at photos of your car and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much fun you had and how fabulous your car really looked.
You are NOT as slow as you imagine.
Don't worry about the Air Cooled future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to pee in your tank if you ran out of fuel next to the road. The real troubles in the world wide automotive industry are apt to be things that will never cross your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday on the N1 North of Johannesburg.
Do one thing every day with your Vee Dub that excites you.
Spin.
Don't be reckless with other people's VWs, but don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.
Rev.
Don't waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. Restoring an old VW is a long road, and in the end, it's only with yourself you compete.
Remember compliments you receive, forget the insults, and middle finger hand signs; (if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
)Keep your show certificates, throw away your parts invoices.
Drift.
Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your VeeDub. The most interesting VW people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their cars, some of the most interesting 70 year old VW people I know still don't.
Get plenty of lead in your fuel.
Be kind to your knuckles when changing plugs, you'll miss them when they're gone.
Maybe you'll own a 356, maybe you won't, maybe you'll have a Hebmuller, maybe you won't, maybe you'll roll your Splitty at 40, maybe you'll be riding your Ghia Cabrio on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't praise yourself too much or blame yourself, either. Your choices are half chance, so are everybody else's. Enjoy your VW, use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it's the greatest toy you'll ever own.
Drive. Even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own driveway.
Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.
Do NOT read Speed and Sound Magazines, they will only make you feel Slow and False.
Get to know your original German VW mechanics, you never know when they'll be gone for good.
Be nice to your old CAR magazines; they are your best link to the motoring past and the items most likely to stick with you in the future.
Understand that club members come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people who were with you in the Club when you were young.
Live in Gauteng once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Cape Town once, but leave before it makes you soft.
Breakfast run.
Accept certain inalienable truths, fuel prices will rise, BMW drivers will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you'll fantasize that when you were young fuel prices were reasonable, BMW drivers were noble and teenagers with Beetles respected their elders with Jettas and Passats.
Respect your elders with Jettas and Passats.
Don't expect anyone else to support your obsession. Maybe you have a piggy bank, maybe you'll have a savings account; but you never know when either one might run out.
Don't mess too much with your paint job, or by the time you're 40, it will look 85.
Be careful which Forum members' advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.
But trust me on the valve clearances...
Adriaan Pienaar, 2 May 2007
