“I get by with a little help from my friends.” - John Lennon

Tuesday, November 28th 4:49pm

Rum Tum Tugger (my 1974 super beetle) was making sounds that any normal bug would not be making. Crackling and squeaking, something was not right and I decided it would be best if I parked him for a month or so while I came up with the money to fix him. He was laid to rest out in the sun, abandoned and alone. I felt awful as I climbed into the Golf, but what could I do? I did not have the mechanical know-how to take him apart right then and there to find the problem. And then it came to me. DHP.

I quickly drove home and hopped onto lowlifevw.com and sent out a message to Brandon of DHP asking for his help. He suggested we meet up a the Compound (Brandon’s Grandpa Jerry’s huge garage) and that we could take a look at it there. I was thrilled and asked him if he could also help with a secret plan I had…to lower my super beetle. He said we could do it without spending a penny. This I had to see.

Monday afternoon I drove poor Rum Tum Tugger out to the Compound. It was like taking a dog to the vet. You get them going and then they figure out halfway there that you’re not headed to the park. It was like he knew the guys were about to pull him apart and tinker around with him. I was almost to the Compound when he tried to die on me twice. He was sputtering and squeaking, making a heck of a racket as I pulled up. Brandon started diagnosing right away, listening to the engine. It turned out the pulley was eating away at my alternator. While we were at it, Brandon suggested getting a new oil fill tube including a new cap. My old cap kept falling off. I joked that maybe I could use it as a weapon on other cars, let Rum Tum Tugger spray oil all over them if they got too close. But I didn’t think I could make a switch for it to do that on command so I bought a new cap instead.

So off we went to retrieve the supplies from Chirco in Brandon’s red Golf. It was an in and out job and once the shopping was complete I was in for quite a surprise. Brandon decided that it would be funny to try and make me lose control of my bladder. He slammed into reverse and as we sped backwards at speeds I thought were impossible in that gear, I began to recite my will in my head…To my brother, all my movies and video games. And as I was deciding who would get to keep my jewelry, I heard Brandon laughing and we suddenly drifted sideways and whipped around proving that sometimes that kind of adrenaline rush can keep you awake all night. It does. I didn’t sleep that night. At all. After I was sure my life wasn’t coming to an end, I started breathing again. It didn’t seem so bad after all. Later, Brandon joked about trying it again on a smoothing parking lot. I can only handle one near death experience per night, so that would have to wait for another day.

Getting back to the Compound, Brandon quickly tore apart and put back together my pulley. In the meantime, Pete, Ghia Joe and Lemorris stopped by to offer their help. And let me tell you, these guys really know their stuff.

They were all more then willing to help out with the Super Beetle. They didn’t just cast me aside because I didn’t really know all that much about cars. They gave me great direction and encouraged me to try new things, like cutting springs and dancing the robot.

Seriously though, I think I learned more that night then all four years of high school put together. And the best part about it? When it was all said and done, they took a step back, looked at my bug and said, “Yup, it’s looking good..for a Super.”

That warmed the cockles of my little heart. With that said, I hope you enjoy the video and who knows, maybe next time Rum Tum Tugger goes into the shop you won’t even recognize him when he gets out..who knows.

MOVIE

-Cassie

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 30th, 2006 at 11:50 pm and is filed under Misc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.