Sad day at the shop.

We started out the morning doing some necessary cleaning and rearranging of the driveway. I looked at it last night and it looked pretty bad so I decided to stash some cars down the side of the house and to pull the trailer out of it's winter slumber so we can get it ready to go for the 1 and only camping trip we have planned for the year. The driveway looked like a used car lot for awhile. Isaac helped me steer and push all the cars around and then helped me hook up and pull out the trailer. He did an awesome job.

This is almost as bad as it has ever been at our house. I  told my neighbor that having a lot of cement is a blessing and a curse. I always want to fill it up but at the same time I don't want it to look like crap.

  So tonight this is how it looks. It will eventually be a little better because Ed (the white bug) will be back in the garage. He is kicked out for the time being. I don't think this scene is an eye sore for anyone which makes me feel better.

Now onto the reason that today is a sad day for the shop. I decided that with the new bug, we have to get rid of Tugger. That is our baja bug if you don't follow the blog at all. We have had Tugger for over 3 years now and he has been a real trooper. He was the winter vehicle for me and never failed to start up in the cold and never left me stranded. His issue was cancer. He had very bad rust. I looked for a long time to replace his body with one that was in better condition but couldn't find the right deal. I picked one up yesterday and so I chose to scrap out Tugger. I decided to do it quickly so I could clear some room in the driveway. I guess I am writing this to make myself feel a little better for killing off a really cool car. I hate being the one that ends the history of stuff. Sounds stupid but I guess I am just a weird person that gets emotionally tied to my vehicles.(This is new to me because I used to buy and sell and never feel bad about anything)  Maybe I shouldn't name my cars. That might help. Isaac is attached to Tugger more then I am and that makes it even harder. He broke down today in the garage and I felt like a total loser for killing his dream of driving it. He was with me when I first picked it up and he has loved it ever since. Here he is the day we picked it up. He seems so little in this picture. He was sure proud about being there.

I promised him that the blue bug is his if he wants it. I am not sure if that helped him or not. He is really sad. He seems to get attached to all the old junk I have around here. He really likes the old International also. Anyways, here are some pictures of the day. You will see through a lot of the pictures the severity of the rust. I just couldn't justify the time and money it would take to repair it all. This was under the back baja panel.

 Lots of rust around all the fenders.

 This is what made the baja a bad choice for being a winter vehicle. The heater channels are completely rusted out. In fact the drivers side is non existent. In a VW bug the defrost and heat for the front of the car is all run through the heater channels. I had to keep a norwex rag on the passengers "OH crap" handle so I could wipe off the inside of the windows when they would get all fogged up. I also kept a scraper and used it on really cold days for the inside of the windshield to get the ice off it.

 This is where the drivers side ducting SHOULD be. The previous owner used a piece of a reflective road sign to patch the outside quarter panel but the duct is completely gone.

This is the passengers side. This duct is still there as you can see. It is starting to rust out though.

 Here is a hole that goes into the drivers side. When I went mud bogging with the Isaac this was one reason I came home with a wet foot.

 Here is the beginning of the end for Tugger. The parting out has begun.

 Fenders are removed. I am going to try to use all the good parts I can. Hopefully they can help out someone who is building a bug.

More rust. He was a good looking blue at one time in his life. The 70's brought out the metallic maroon and time made it an ugly brownish color today.

 More rust again. The tires are good though!

 Engine is out. Me and Isaac are going to detail the engine before we install it in the blue bug. It has taken a beating being exposed to the elements for 3 years. We will clean it up and do some powder coating before it goes to it's new home.

 Glass is out and the doors are off. It's getting pretty bare now. I plan on cutting out some patch panels that I will eventually use for the other bugs so Tugger will live on.

Here is an example of the main bolts that hold the body on. They are pretty corroded. I really hate the salt they use in winter around here. Arizona cars don't have rust like this. They just have really trashed interiors from the heat.

 This is the front section of the body under the gas tank. I still had 6 gallons of fuel in it so I have plenty of fuel for my lawn mower, tiller and snow blower. We swept up a huge pile of rust that had fallen off during dis-assembly. It turned out to be a very dirty hot job today.

 Tugger was all over the garage. We organized the piles and took some pictures so we could put up some ads on KSL.com. Hopefully this stuff will sell.

Another view of the Tugger explosion. The body is free and ready to come off. I am trying to figure out a way to remove it and get it put into the back of my truck so I can take it to the scrapper. I think I will have to bribe some neighbors to come over and help me lift it by hand to get it in the truck. I don't think my engine hoist will lift high enough to do it that way. Me and Isaac sat for awhile discussing ways to do it.

 I am hoping that someone will buy these and make another baja bug out of them. they are still in OK shape.

 I am going to take the body to the scrapper and try to sell the pan with the good title to someone who needs one. The pan isn't too rusty. If they have a decent body they could use this pan and title.

We are not sure exactly how we are going to build the blue bug. We are toying with the idea of building it as a class 11 lookalike. That is like this one pictured below.

If we do this we can use the tires off Tugger. I think they look really cool. I will let Isaac decide what he wants to do. I guess the only thing we can't do is lower it. I promised Dixie we wouldn't!