I learned how to drive w/a '62 VW cabriolet (convertible) my parents bought new. $2225 when a Beetle sedan was $1700. It was a fun great car, saw two sons getting their licenses, and when it was new my Mom drove it to work.
By the time I got it, six seasons of
NY State Road Salt had taken its toll. I tried to use the jack in the car-side jackstand square tube receptacle to change a flat, and as I jacked it, the rocker panel just began crushing flat, and the wheel/tire stayed on the ground. :rofl_200:The running boards had already rotted-away. This is what it looked-like, new (same color, not my car).
A year later I drove the car to Syracuse where my older brother was going to Syracuse University and dropped the car w/him. He wanted a 'salt car' to drive while the XK-120 sat in storage. The next year he let me take the XK-120 to my senior prom, and he lent me the car for 5 days. I was very careful not to harm it! I still managed to pop-off the throttle ballcrank in the city when I nailed the throttle after turning. My friend who owned a TR-4 rummaged through the boot, found a flare, and used it to persuade the mechanism back-together. I was
so grateful! I never told my brother about it, not for 34 years.
That VW had no heater at that point, the little registers you had to kick-open w/your toe would just emit a weak warm airflow, and you had to keep a towel in the space where the handbrake was to wipe-off the windshield condensation to see in the winter. Putting-up w/that was part of why I eventually moved to FL by my early 20's.
I had a VW Beetle once that you could actually HEAR rust... Pieces would drop off every once in a while in the garage while I was in there.
