ChipesterKhan chronicles - part 2 - My first volkswagen beetle - The Green Machi

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As far back as I can remember, volkswagens were a big part of my life. My grandfather (dad's side) had 1. My uncles. My aunts. Everyone in my family has had 1 at one point or the other. My mom had a Brasilia (put link here) and my Dad had at 1 point, a dozen volkswagen beetles of different years and conditions. My sister's first car was a volkswagen (which my dad gave to her). Mine was a volkswagen beetle too (which I had to buy from my dad). Sometimes it sucks to be the second child. Anyway, My sister eventually moved on to other cars and I'm just recently getting back into the Volkswagen scene with my car, Cop. I've had 6 volkswagens (including Cop) and I'll probably have more. Those 5 other cars weren't given too much attention though. My first beetle was a vomit green early beetle and I think it used to be 1300. I bought it from my dad at the age of 15 for Php5,000.00. I was unlucky enough to be a male child and since my dad does not believe in giving things for free, I had to buy it. I think I may have been lucky. Because if he had just given it to me, I'd probably end up as a spoiled kid living off him. That was my first lesson of being responsible. 5,000 then (the year was 1994) was kinda big (it's probably around 20,000 now). I saved that money from doing odd jobs since I was 6. Shining shoes, washing dishes, selling ice candy, selling paper cut figures... those were just some of the things I did as a kid. My grandpa always told me I was an entrepreneur ever since I learned that if I worked I'd end up with a few coins in my pocket. Needless to say, his boots were always shiny. And when I learned what entrepreneur meant, I always bragged about it to my classmates. My grandpa opened a bank account for me and at the start of every week I would go with him to the bank to deposit what little money I earned from working. As I became bigger, I moved on to higher paying jobs, which meant planting coconuts and dehusking them by harvest time. for every coconut I planted, he gave me 1 peso. Another peso for every dehusked ones. To this day, my lolo still deposits money for me for the fruits of my labors. That's how I got the money to buy my first car. My uncle, who was a mechanical engineer was so happy to hear about my first big purchase and took my car away for 6 months. He knew I liked to drive fast (since he was my passenger during those first few times I drove) and he rebuilt my beetle. My front end was beyond repair so he cut em up. and replaced it with a fiberglass front end which he ordered from the states. My doors and rear fender and decklid ended up in the trash too. He cut up my floorpan and welded in lighter sheet metal. removed all seats and put in just one seat. The driver's seat. So many other things were replaced with lighter materials. My wheels were replaced too. I had really, really thick rear wheels. When my beetle was done (after 6 months) I could barely recognize it. And drive it. He had transformed my vomit green beetle into a candy mint, green racer. My engine became 2567 cc monster which did not fit into the engine bay. So that car spent most of its life in the garage. He'd take it out with me sitting on a stool hanging on for dear life on the roll bars in the car while he showed it to his friends. We brought it with us to a car show in Cebu and won a "lifetime supply" of Turtle Wax (I don't know if that's still being sold). It was my first car but I barely drove it. When I did, it scared me out of my wits. It was loud and fast. The doors were bolted on (they were racing doors) so whenever my uncle was away (he'd forbidden me to drive it on the street) I'd drive my "Green Machine" to meet my friends with the doors stored inside the car. I had a love/hate relationship with that car. Loved the speed and the look, hated the inconvenience of not having regular doors and being able to take another person in it. I learned early on that sitting on a stool inside the car usually ended with my passenger flat on his/ her back whenever I gunned it forward. My friends hated that car too. It eventualy got sold by my uncle to an american who was so impressed with it that I got over 20 times what I initially bought it for. The money went into my bank. And I swore to never, ever have a car that had that much power in it. By then I already had another car (provided by my uncle while the "Green Machine" was being repaired), and another story for the future. Tata. http://www.picable.com/Concepts/Accidents/My-First-Volkswagen.2096182 i've lost pictures of my first car so here's a link to an old picture of it