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Stock Steve Samba Member
Joined: April 10, 2005 Posts: 1963 Location: My Left Nutmeg State
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Posted: Thu Jun 11, 2015 2:34 am Post subject: |
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Still having a lot of fun driving the Creeky Bug--now into early June, 2015... I've put somewhere around 1,000 miles on the car so far this year (a lot of work commuting has helped pile on some miles); hoping to put on many more thru this coming summer season...
Going back now to Saturday, May 16th, 2015: Afternoon drive out to the next town over (Guilford, which is directly to the east of where we live), to pick up a couple of cakes for a party... Took a scenic shoreline route there and back... Nice day to be out and about...
Eastbound on Leetes Island Road/CT Route 146...
Cool Lotus spotted once we got out to Route 1 in Guilford...
At the cake shop--"Take the Cake"--heh, heh...
A little drive eastward toward the other end of Guilford on Boston Post Road/CT Route 1, before we turned around to head back westward...
Cruising back westward toward Stony Creek once again, on Water Street, then Leetes Island Road/CT Route 146...
_________________ Stock Steve
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Stock Steve Samba Member
Joined: April 10, 2005 Posts: 1963 Location: My Left Nutmeg State
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Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2015 12:38 pm Post subject: |
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Still enjoying driving the Creeky '69! As of this installment, Friday, June 26th, 2015, the odometer's now at 22,381, which computes out to 1,688 total miles driven so far this season.
Doing a lot of work commuting these days (~50 miles round trip), and the occasional trip up to Middletown, CT, to cut the grass at the old family homestead (which me and my sister are currently trying to sell) also builds on the miles.
Anyway, here's another installment from some of our Creeky adventures so far this year...
We really had a lot of fun attending the Connecticut Volkswagen Association's great "Swap & Meet-Up" at EMI Parts in Clinton, CT, on Sunday, May 17th, 2015. My son Matt came along too (thanks Bill Silvestri for the photo--and your '67 Ghia that we parked next to is sweet!). What a great day to be out and about on the beautiful CT Shoreline in an old Convertible (even one as ratty-looking as the Creeky '69)!
_________________ Stock Steve
Shoreline Antique Auto Connection
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Stock Steve Samba Member
Joined: April 10, 2005 Posts: 1963 Location: My Left Nutmeg State
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Posted: Fri Aug 28, 2015 7:35 am Post subject: |
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Late Summer 2015 Update...
A pretty full summers'-worth of driving for the old Creeky '69 Bug this year, thanks to both of my kids needing both of my "regular" daily driver (non-VW) cars for their respective summer jobs, which meant that I had to keep the '69 Bug up and operational as much as possible. The photo is from Thursday evening, August 27th, 2015, when I stopped in to the Old Saybrook, CT Staples for some errands.
Over 3,600 total miles so far this driving season with the faithful '69. I'm not going to say all were easy, but we muddled thru...
Have many more adventures and stories that I want to share--hope to be adding them to this thread eventually...
Happy Volkswagening... _________________ Stock Steve
Shoreline Antique Auto Connection
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EA812 Samba Member
Joined: December 07, 2008 Posts: 1223 Location: North central, CT
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Stock Steve Samba Member
Joined: April 10, 2005 Posts: 1963 Location: My Left Nutmeg State
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Posted: Mon Sep 14, 2015 9:52 am Post subject: |
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EA812 wrote: |
So what's the car up to these days? Vacation? |
Once my kids went back to school, I kinda drifted into driving the Suby again (since it was available), which coincided with some very hot and humid weather around here, the past couple of weeks. The Suby's A/C was a factor...
But, back on the Creeky Bug...
So, I had bought these cool 14" (@ 4x130, for VW application) "Dan Gurney" alloys a while ago from Samba seller Richie (Richie's Garage) in New Jersey, and had a kool "mottled"/"moon surface"-look coating applied by my favorite local powder coater (Shoreline Coatings in North Branford, CT), and then waited a long time for my tires to come in: "STA Super Traxion - E78-14 LT"--got the idea from the Thing forum (ref: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2...tart=200).
Finally mounted 'em all up on the car this past Saturday, September 12th. As the car sat "normally" kind of high, I wasn't too concerned about clearance. Oh, and since I have Karmann Ghia disk brakes on the front, I also used 3/8" spacers for a little extra caliper clearance (used them at all four corners for uniformity). Here's one quick shot for now:
I've done some local road testing and, yes, there is some "buzz" at times (as you might expect from a tire this aggressive), but overall, I'm very pleased with the entire package! _________________ Stock Steve
Shoreline Antique Auto Connection
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Stock Steve Samba Member
Joined: April 10, 2005 Posts: 1963 Location: My Left Nutmeg State
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Posted: Wed Oct 14, 2015 8:18 am Post subject: |
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Creeky Commuting, Early Tuesday morning, 10/13/2015... Here's a picture from getting some gas at the southbound I-95 West Haven, Connecticut service plaza on an early commute into work yesterday morning, Tuesday, October 13th, 2015.
I haven't driven it A LOT the past few weeks, so it was great fun getting into the Creeky '69 again for a full day of work commuting, plus a bunch of lunchtime errands. I think I put almost 100 miles on the car yesterday, and am now well over 4,000 total miles for the 2015 driving season... Keep on Buggin'!
_________________ Stock Steve
Shoreline Antique Auto Connection
http://www.shorelineantiqueautoconnection.com/
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Ich Bin Ein Facebooker: https://www.facebook.com/steve.fromsaac
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Your source for old school metal tire valve caps: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1416217
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Stock Steve Samba Member
Joined: April 10, 2005 Posts: 1963 Location: My Left Nutmeg State
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Posted: Fri Oct 30, 2015 12:30 pm Post subject: |
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Drizzly early morning Creeky '69 Bug drive in to work, Thursday, October 29th, 2015, and a stop at my familiar gas-up location--the West Haven, CT service plaza on I-95, southbound side. Had heard the forecast for 70 degrees for that day, so figured a good day for another Bug commute--sure enough it was a beautiful drive home later in the day...
After a few tanks of gas, it appears the car's mpg's have dropped from a steady 30.0 to a steady 28.0 with the big meaty tires--probably no surprise there...
We are now at 4,149 total Creeky driving miles for the 2015 season! Keep on Buggin'!
TEASER ALERT: We may be trying out a fairly funky custom exhaust system soon for the Creeky Bug, so do stay tuned... It did come with one originally (I will effort a look thru my old photos to see what we may have on file as far as a photo of the original exhaust on the car, as purchased...), but this one will be substantially different...
EDIT: April 2010 photo below, showing original custom exhaust that was on the car, as-purchased--dual quiet packs. Pretty soon after that I put on a stock muffler.
_________________ Stock Steve
Shoreline Antique Auto Connection
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Beetlebaum Samba Member
Joined: December 04, 2008 Posts: 2181 Location: Virginia Beach, VA
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Stock Steve Samba Member
Joined: April 10, 2005 Posts: 1963 Location: My Left Nutmeg State
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EA812 Samba Member
Joined: December 07, 2008 Posts: 1223 Location: North central, CT
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Stock Steve Samba Member
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Beetlebaum Samba Member
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Stock Steve Samba Member
Joined: April 10, 2005 Posts: 1963 Location: My Left Nutmeg State
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Stock Steve Samba Member
Joined: April 10, 2005 Posts: 1963 Location: My Left Nutmeg State
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Posted: Tue Nov 10, 2015 11:01 am Post subject: |
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NOS "Bug Pipes" installation for the Creeky Bug, Nov. 2015...
I had seen a small hole growing in the old stock muffler I had been using, and upon some Samba shopping, I saw someone selling an NOS Thunderbird four-into-two system (which some Samba research indicates was originally a Doug Thorley invention called "Bug Pipes"). It seemed sufficiently oddball for me, and I was happy to be able to grab it! Here's a vintage Thorley ad that was found on TheSamba:
I got about half way thru installation on Wednesday, November 4th, and then finished everything up on Saturday afternoon, November 7th.
"Next morning" images after completing the first half of installation:
I also took this shot because the Thorley ad talks about "replaceable muffler inserts"--but it looks to me like removal may be a *destructive* process, so I'm not going to touch 'em (I had been wondering about how loud it would be w/o the inserts). And to tell you the truth, now that I've driven the car a fair amount, I think it's just about the right level of "rowdiness."
The parts of the installation that I left for the following Saturday were hooking up heater hoses, from the shroud to the heater boxes. I knew I didn't want to mess with that chintzy aluminum hose, and I had seen Pierside's Samba ad for this stuff, which I bought two lengths of: http://www.piersideparts.net/CSP129087021VA.html ... And then I was really happy to have a couple more useful parts on my shelf, to complete the connection at the heater boxes: http://vwparts.aircooled.net/Muffler-to-Heater-Hose-Connector-Pipe-113255165-p/113-255-165.htm - and: http://vwparts.aircooled.net/Muffler-to-Heater-Box-Air-Clamp-L-R-113-255-341A-p/113-255-341a.htm ... The stainless hose seems plenty robust, and it was good to have enough length for the job (ended up trimming off a few inches from both sides).
The sound this exhaust system makes takes me back to Cape Cod in the late 1960s, when VW-based dune buggies were "everywhere." I was just a kid, but somehow that sound must've infected my subconscious. It's definitely NOT the same sound that the popular modern four-into-one air cooled VW hot rodder exhaust systems make!
Another thing that I kind of like about this system is that there is little to no ground clearance compromise, and the outlet pipes more or less utilize the original apron cut-outs.
Anyway, I am eager to do a lot more driving with this set-up, but also wanted to at least get these updates posted here for now. I still actually don't have heat in the car (connections forward of the heater boxes are still yet to be accomplished, also need to install some heater box control cables), and now that the weather's starting to get chilly, I'm not sure how much more driving I'm going to be doing this year--but I'm going to do my best to keep rolling the Creeky Bug for a while yet. Not doing the *daily* thing now, but definitely looking for the good days to take it out (such as this past Sunday, when I drove down to the center of Branford, top down, to take in our town's Veterans Day Parade--I'll do my best to follow up with a photo from that day, next chance I get)... _________________ Stock Steve
Shoreline Antique Auto Connection
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Stock Steve Samba Member
Joined: April 10, 2005 Posts: 1963 Location: My Left Nutmeg State
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Stock Steve Samba Member
Joined: April 10, 2005 Posts: 1963 Location: My Left Nutmeg State
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Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 10:21 am Post subject: |
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Drove the Creeky '69 Bug to work again this past Friday, November 13th, 2015, and realized that I have to do something about front disk brake caliper dragging, which has kind of crept up the last couple of times out. So, I'm waiting for some parts now, and hopefully will be back more or less in driving shape again soon.
The first of these two shots was from the morning, crossing the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge in New Haven, on Interstate 95, southbound side; trying to compensate for the overexposure brought out somewhat of a unique quality to the shot, I think.
The second shot is driving home that afternoon, taking the "scenic route" north on the Wilbur Cross Parkway (CT Route 15), some where around Hamden, CT, with some nice low-angle lighting at my back. It was fully dark by the time I got home. Oh yes, you had better believe that part of my reason for taking the Parkway home was also the chance to drive thru New Haven's West Rock Tunnel (I guess it's been renamed the "Heroes Tunnel," ref: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heroes_Tunnel), for the "auditory enjoyment" of that new hot-rodder exhaust system! Ha ha!
Keep on Buggin'! _________________ Stock Steve
Shoreline Antique Auto Connection
http://www.shorelineantiqueautoconnection.com/
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Ich Bin Ein Facebooker: https://www.facebook.com/steve.fromsaac
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Join VVWCA: http://www.vvwca.com/
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Your source for old school metal tire valve caps: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=1416217
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Mike Fisher Samba Member
Joined: January 30, 2006 Posts: 17963 Location: Eugene, OR
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Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 12:44 pm Post subject: Re: Creeky the '69 Bug |
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New tires,stainless exhaust & top down motoring! _________________ https://imgur.com/user/FisherSquareback/posts
69 FI/AT square Daily Driver
66 sunroof,67,70,71,71,71AT,72,72AT,73 Parts
two 57 oval ragtops sold
'68 Karmann Ghia sold
Society is like stew. If you don't keep it stirred up you end up with a lot of scum on the top! - Russ_Wolfe/Edward Abbey |
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Stock Steve Samba Member
Joined: April 10, 2005 Posts: 1963 Location: My Left Nutmeg State
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Stock Steve Samba Member
Joined: April 10, 2005 Posts: 1963 Location: My Left Nutmeg State
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ruppsterdog Samba Member
Joined: March 31, 2010 Posts: 6
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Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2015 3:40 pm Post subject: Re: Creeky the '69 Bug |
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I've put a few in there. A Brazilian one lasted only one or two seasons before I went German (I think) but that one lasted years. Check the light switch too, it's a cheap easy fix to do while the MC is out. Dave up on the Pike always hooked me up with quality parts and info. |
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