Well, I learned how to drive a standard shift car at the young age of 14, not on the road, but up and down our driveway, so many times that I burnt the clutch out of the 62. Now, if I had put one tire, of that car, on the road, I was either in trouble from my Mom, who would watch from the window, or my wonderful neighbor from across the street who was a police officer. It wasn't easy doing this, as my driveway was on an incline. So it rolled back on to the road a few times. (Yeah right).

 I used to spend many days at my friend Walt's house. His brother Pete, who was around 17 years old, was buying old VWs from people, who lived in the neighborhood. I can still remember laughing my head off one day, when Pete arrived home with another Beetle that he had just bought for, get this, $6.00. Some one was asking $20.00 and Pete bartered his way down to $6.00. He was so proud of his purchase. Back then Beetles were all over the place and buying a Beetle for $50.00 and under was nothing new to us. VWs were everywhere. Pete would take these Beetles (back then they were classified as scrap) into his garage, completely strip all the parts from them, and in less than a week or so, magically build these really cool Dune Buggies. We would spend every bit of our spare time at the local Sand Pits with the Dune Buggies that Pete had built. Walt and  I seldom got to drive these Buggies, because Pete took so much pride in them and never trusted either one of us behind the wheel. That soon changed because Walt and I finally decided to build our own. We both decided to build Baja Bugs because having a little more protection around us from rocks and tree branches was definitely in the plans and besides, it was a lot less work. I can remember Walt telling me about an old beat up 63 Beetle that he had seen not to far from home. It was a bit expensive back then - I think Walt paid $50.00 for it. I kid you not, this car was solid as a rock with the exception of being slightly smacked in the front and one fender loose in the back. Needless to say, out came the hammer and chisel (This was the cheap way to do things, as torches were not in our budget). Pete wouldn't let us use his set, because he said we were too dangerous. Oh well, we still managed to chop the front clip off only cutting our skin a little. We then cut the back off the car and trimmed things here or there where it was necessary. If only we knew back then what we were doing cutting up such a nice body. 

    We just so happened to find another somewhat nice 66 Beetle from California (rust free just lots of dents) that we built into Baja #3.  Walt's father supplied us with this great bright orange paint, and we  painted both cars bright orange. I remember the first day I took Baja #3 down to the Sand Pits, I let Walt take it out for a drive. We had been jumping his car off this one little hill all day, so he decided to take a chance with mine over it. Well my car had a little more get up and go to it and Walt decided to show every body how things were done. Walt and I had very little fear back then, and  I still can't believe some of the crazy things we did . Anyway,  Walt launches the car into orbit (actually only 6-8 feet off the ground) and lands on the right front wheel, extremely hard breaking the upper ball joint, and just about rolling the car end over end. Not worrying about Walt at all,  I go running over and I'm mad as ever.  We had just arrived there, and I had only driven my car once prior to this, and now my car was broken. I was 14 years old, what was I thinking back then. Ok so  "Lets drive it home I said. Just take the spindle off the control arms and have two guys hang off the left rear corner of the car to balance it. It should work, I've seen cars on three wheels in magazines all the time. If guys in the Baja do it, why can't we?". So we did, No fear at all, right down the middle of the road, no worry about the law at all. At  home we put another control arm on so we could come back the same day to play some more.  

    Those were some crazy times. We spent a lot of time at the Sand Pits back then, and claimed the fame for making many new trails, hills, and incredible closed tracks. It soon became infested with too many bikes and 4 x4 's and became too dangerous to be flying up hills to greet some unsuspecting motorcyclist coming over the top. I had built and purchased many different off road cars over the years and as time had progressed, my friends, Pete and Walt had now more interest in Moto-Cross Bikes. I stayed with the Dune Buggies and Beetles. I was the one in High School known as the Dune Buggy guy, and if some one had a Dune Buggy or old VW to fix, I would be the one to fix it. Actually I knew very little about cars back then, but I was very interested in learning. Most things were repaired by trial and error. It was just a hobby for me. I enjoyed fixing things as much as I enjoyed breaking them. I just had a knack for fixing things right . 

Thanks Dad....