Hi! I am new here and love this site! Here is my story. Sorry for the length, but it is truly a major part of my life!
Way back in 1983 I was the owner of a local bicycle shop in Buffalo NY. Needless to say, a seasonal business in Buffalo is not always the best idea. However, the shop was successful for more than 25 years and I was able to enjoy some "quiet time" in the winters. As I sat reading a magazine one January day, my brother-in-law stopped in and asked if I was able to help him out. He had just come from attempting to have his 71 VW super beetle get it's annual state inspection. It failed due some rusty frame and brake lines and other issues. He wanted me to follow him to the junk yard and give him a ride home. I purchased the junker VW for $50.00. Exactly what he was offered at the junk yard.
The magazine I was reading was a Popular Mechanics that featured a bunch of different "kit cars." One of them was the CMC Speedster. Another was the Fiber-Fab MGTD. Both of these interested me as FFs were made right here in Buffalo. I stopped by their facility and saw that they had a Speedster body sitting on a pallet ready to be shipped. I was in love!
I ordered the kit, figuring that as the magazine said, "limited auto skills and about 40 hours for a completed project." I had the VW stowed in the garage at the bike shop. I was a very good bike mechanic and had worked on a few Mopeds and small motorcycles in my day. I was certainly not a car mechanic! I had owned a few VW bugs so I was somewhat familiar with their "quirks."
Thus began a lifelong hobby that I still enjoy today! I still own the Speedster that I built on that old "rusty" VW chassis. I used that car as a daily driver when I was low on cash for a year or two. I drove my daughter around in it as she loved the, "red car" when she was a kid. She and her friends loved to get driven around town in it.
It took me about 9 months to get it built, registered and most of the bugs worked out. Since then, as life happens to throw curve balls, it has been stored, and not driven but, most recently, it is out of storage and getting a complete going over. That, is when I was searching around the web and found this amazing group! Thank you for supporting this hobby and for producing that calendar, which I ordered. You will here more of my story as time permits. I have to finish upholstering some old Karmann Ghia seats for the Speedster!