I went through the thrifty nickel religiously for about 6 months looking for
a second car, any car as long as it didn't cost over $1000.00. There seemed
to be an over abundance of VW's at the time so I figured that was what I
would end up with. Eventually I had found THE car, it was a '69 Bug in great
shape. I went to see it several times, test drove it, the only problem is
he wanted $1300.00, I didn't have it.....
I went over to make one last attempt at haggling with him, when I came in
sight of his house his neighbor was pushing a vehicle out of his garage, it
was a Spit, 1974. I hadnt seen one of these since about 1979 ( I lived on
Guam for 7 years after that), it was at a dealer where my dad was picking up
our VW rabbit. My dad told me at the time many horror stories about the
Spit breed as we waited for our car. Well, needless to say I couldn't
remember any of them when I saw the guy pushing the Spit. Hell, I didn't
even remember the VW after that. I stopped and admired the Spit, rough as
it was, the guy came out and asked what I needed. I simply said "Id like to
take that off your hands, I have $1000 with me, how much do you want?" I
didn't know if he wanted to sell it. He said "$1000???, it's yours" No
kidding that was the whole conversation. I had to get a battery and some
oil for the dash pot, but it fired up real nice. Seems he and his 30 yo
wife had been restoring it when she died, he lost all interest in it after
that. He had ATV wheels on the trunk when I saw it first. It took a whole
can of clutch fluid to get it home, bad slave cylinder.
Here comes the wife part:
I had my hand in a cast at the time we got it so I couldn't get to the
cylinder to fix it. My wife said if I showed her how she would do it, there
we were side by side laying under the car and she was wrenching away. She
pulled it, honed it, and rebuilt it alone..... The love of my life. Since
then she has trouble shot and repaired the gas gauge, when I got frustrated
installing the tranny in November she told me to take a break, when I got
back outside it was in ,thanks to her. So, I bought her her own Spit a 1968
MK III. She fixes it when it breaks and drives it like Mario Andretti. She
is the only Real Estate agent I know that sells houses from a 2 seat
convertible.
Sorry it was so long,
N.A. Campiglia
Abilene,TX
http://camalott.com/~spitdrvr
'74 Spitfire 1500
'68 Spitfire MK III
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