Give yourself more credit, there's got to be at least 10 of us still here at the end. Great story.

My 73 pump lost that clip and I never noticed...kept trying to tune the poor drivablity and then I noticed....pin had 50% come out and wasn't getting correct psi...man that felt good to find!

New Willy Nelson thumbnail, "On da road again, i can't wait to get on da road again...."

I really like your positive attitude. It’s infectious. I remember in 1979 I was living in Newtown with my dad and would visit my mom and step-dad in Trumbull. He had an Orange Thing. They were in the process of moving to Stepney just off of Zoar lake and my step-father was shifting up and down due to the elevation and road conditions. As a 12 year old I thought it was pretty cool because he built up the rpm’s between the gears. So, for some pre-teen reason, I decided to hold my breath between the gears. It was going good until we hit a straightaway and he went into 4th. I was turning blue in the face and finally had to breathe. Funny how at almost 57 yoa I remember that. I also remember that his plastic windows would get cut. He worked in Bridgeport (say no more) and he used a kerosene heater because that Thing didn’t put out any heat! Fun memories. I like your channel, Bub. By the way, that $1,500 was a great price for the Thing. They are quadruple that in Northern Virginia. Blessings to you and your family.

Loved the surf story. Wouldn't mind more of your growing up stories every now and then. Oh, and I was relieved when you finally cracked that garage door. You ran that beast for quite a long time with the door closed and that exhaust system just puffing away like crazy.`

Happy Thanksgiving to you all from across the pond

W O W! Just watched the end of this!

Ohhhh... I was waiting for the blood sand stitches in the ER part!

i have pride in you for guiding Dub works.

Great surfing story :)

Oh man, the BRMs make it look so good! Cowabunga dude.....

Yup! Bird's Surf Shop is FUN! I'm a couple miles from it. Those rims looked SWEET on the Thing!

keep up the good work---fun

Hell yeah Man!!! Hella Rad surf story!!! Sounds like a scene from "Point Break" Hahaha man I gotta get my thing going again!!

I love the thing!!

Loved this Vid - the perfect balance of nonsense and Zen stuff!!

Just the "thing" to get me past the turkey coma: a VW 1st start video.👍

\As a former VW owner...( 72 Super Beetle and a 71 Super Beetle convertible) watching you bring a VW back from the dead, always hits a soft spot in my heart!

You stepped up another notch in my respect with your confessing to a love of surfing! I avoided owning a VW when I was a surfer, but my buds had a few bugs and vans to chase waves. I surfed pre-leash and became a very good swimmer because I wasn't that good a surfer. Great channel! Thanks for sharing!

I had a 11-6 long board, surfed Newport, Ca. In the 70’s. Great story!

Loved the story, and your constant glass is half full ( not half empty) outlook on life.

Loved the surf story Jason! 😂 Hope you and your family had a great Thanksgiving 🦃🍁🍂

I know I said it can sound bad on camera and that is true but after about the fourth start it seemed to sound a lot better. I think it will drive but you will only tell when you put the load on the wheels rather than just spinning them in the air. I liked the surf story we do some crazy stuff when we are young so great that you told us that. Take care Jason and have a great weekend.👍👍

I was there right until the end man 🦈🏄‍♂️

Coming right along!! The first run, for me, is more exciting than the rescue. Your rescues are the greatest, though. Can't wait for the "new" buses.

I always loved the Things. Great progress so far. The surf story was like gnarly dude! LOL. Looking forward to more vids.

Good times my brutha, good times. I always wait to view what you put up until I can watch the whole vid. I can derive maximum gratification that way. This one made my day for sure. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Wheels exchange on the Thing look great ! Dresses up the look for sure ! Actually is some-Thing !

All right! Wondering what was going on with this rig!

Here for the Thing, stayed for the surf story and i can relate bro!

I started surfing in !964 at Haverhill Street in Seabrooke, NH, and now have a bunch of vintage boards (2 Greg Nolls among them) gathering dust in my garage in NYC. Rye on The Rocks was where we went when it was up.

Interesting VW. Where I live you rarely if ever see these 'Things' !! Great episode - interesting, educational and above all very entertaining. Best for now and .. .. .. .. safe surfing LOL !!

Love it

Love the v-dubs. 16 years old and my 1st car was a 71 semi-auto beetle. Later I had a 73 manual.

You are one patient dude and that's what brings me back to watch your videos. Thanks for being out there doing what you do! I've been working on my first restoration of a 64 VW sedan for a couple of years now and what an adventure it's been. Patience, I found out in this shade tree world of mine makes it all happen! Perhaps a second time around on the 64 to clean up on what I've learned from the first. You ever consider body surfing..

That Thing looks nice and solid on the outside. Love the surf story!

I’m glad somebody else believes in the power of Sammy.😅

The Thing doesn’t sound bad at all. I’ve surfed once, in the Atlantic. Even with a wet suit on it was cold, tooooo cold. There’s 12 of us watching 😁

I like those wheels, keep them. I can't wait to see this screaming down the road!

I always wanted BRM's on something, but that was long before repops were around and they were non-existent in my town. Now they are too common for me, but they are still my favourite of the aftermarket rims. Prefer stock rims these days...

love to be right there on your shop. God bless as always.

Great story Jason. Looking forward to seeing that Thing on the road. God Bless

Loved the surf story. Good luck on all the projects!

Awesome content as always.Thanks for sharing and taking us along.Happy Thanksgiving

I love your surfing 🏄‍♀️ story and vw things my dream car

you have a super-channel, i see your work on VWS that i would totally give up on super interesting and i really like all of your patients

I love that story it’s similar to mine. I lived in California about an hour from the beach but we were always at the beach. I had a 400 foot board. Oh my God I was 14 I could barely carry the damn thing I just left it there anyway the story goes on, cool stuff my friend

The older fuel pumps are rebuildable. The newer style like the one on the Thing engine, are not rebuildable. You can use the older style pumps on engines with alternators.

I like how they call them Safari's here in Mexico. These cars deserve a better name than The Thing" They are pretty common here in Mexico.

At 20.49 I can see a bit of arcing above the distributer and just below the rubber fuel line Leslie Northern Ireland - keep pushin those cars around!!

166th! You were a true HOWLIE out there with the locals. I’m surprised they didn’t rough you up for just being out there. They would do that in Santa Cruz. I know because I was there in 1969, and the locals OWNED the surf. I ended up just body surfing instead of regular surfing. It was less dangerous. I was them for a month every day,and still didn’t get to know the locals. Very CLICKIE. Roger in Pierre SD

Well that started without a fight for once!

The wheels look great nice when your not pushing things around the yard

Awesome dude,, loved the surf story.. Like your wife I too was born on the west coast LA 1959. We were frequent beach goers and I too tried my young hand at surfing , if you could call it that at 5 and 6 years old. We always had a blast watching the whales and the real surfers. Disney Land and Knotts berry farm. Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving .

I love the IV style temporary fuel tank lol. Nice touch Jay

Love the BRM’s on that Thing!😁

Timing is really simple. If your car is new, look in the book. Your pulley should have 3 marks. Zero, the first from left, I believe. Zero is only for setting your valves. 5 or 7? The next two from left are your timing marks. Put a dab of whiteout on the correct one. So when you come back later, you already know. 1. Pop the dist cap, turn it to No.1. The zero mark should align with the case split. Now your TDC. 2. Turn the pulley in accordance with the white out mark and align it with the split in the case. 3. Loosen the dizzy so it will turn 4. Use a test light, one end to ground, one to the neg. Side of the coil, ….point side. 5. Turn on your ignition 6. Turn your dizzy, until the light comes on. Back up….to the left.. I think, …the pulley. Light should go out. Turn it the opposite way, and if you have your dizzy adjusted right. The light will come on when you have your white mark aligned with the split in the case. 7. You can with great effect use a stroboscopic light as well. 8. Be careful when you clamp your dizzy down,. Because ‘Abner Dimwit’ , cranking on that nut in the past may have bent it in such a way, that it turns the dizzy a degree or two… so recheck your work.

Surfing with the Fishey's 🫠🦈🐟

Thanks for the heads up on Birds Surf Shed. My (third owner) 68 beetle is from San Diego… and it’s surf inspired!

🇦🇺👍great to revival again

I learned to body surf in the LA area beaches in the mid 70s. I loved it , then one day I saw a crowd down the beach about 200 yards, I asked what was going on and a guy told me it was a shark fishing tournament, I said where does the net end , he says what net, I could never go back in again, then Jaws came out and I had nightmares.

Jason, great intro man. You always crack me up😊

Happy Thanksgiving!🦃

Good story thanks for sharing 👍👍👍👍

Love all your videos on your channel. Hope you and family had a blessed and Thankful Thanksgiving and happy holidays for the rest of 2023 season so happy to see people like you saving VW ☮️❤️

I always stay to the end!

I’m glad to see that you got the thing running!! Cool surfing story!!

Acorns in the shroud!

In gear, tyre rubbing on the lift!!!! More dangerous than surfing I think. Great that the Thing is running, now time to get it on the road.

Hey gas station attendant could climb up this ladder and put a couple pints in my tank. I will be waiting for you and Musty to find something deep in the woods.

nice job.

Bird's Surf Shed is literally one mile from my place. Greetings from San Diego, keep up the great videos.

Wohoooo! Black Friday special!

Love your videos and the story.

Muito bom não perco um vídeo seu obrigado

Ha! I used to live on Oahu. I wore my nipples raw trying to surf! That hurt! Or the time I was, boogie boarding, and took a big Kimo out at the knees. All I heard was howlie you’re dead! Needless to say, I made it to shore, and ran. We got our 58 convertible there! Good story Jay!

Looking good, man! Coming right along!❤

Mechanics should never own a white shirt. I know i have destroyed more work shirts that were green from oil and grease or more recently with never seize. That Thing sounds really good for an engine that is that old. Thanks for the surf story.

Legend ❤

Good move giving up Surfing 😊

Awesome watching you work on the car

Excellent video Jason :) also do excellent work on VW repairs videos plus other ones too ! Everyone got knack fix certain things too and never surf boarding in with sharks but I know others have live to tell plus camera footages plus live one in videos too! But I was age 13 swimming with tons live fish and snapper turtles in river north of I live when boys scouts then ! Also went in crazy craft with no motor in April in River racing paddle down and first time fell off and a buddy of mine pulled me out water to get craft again Lol that was in 2006 and last time was in 2008 ! But was funny and fun ! My town area does in remember of big flooding in 1980 happened!

The surf story was classic. As a guy who grew up at So. Ca beach brakes, I can say I have seen people do “you” in that story more times than I can remember. 😂 Almost anyone can surf, but it takes time and practice. I will say you had some balls at 15 to go out into a Hawaiian reef break your first time out. Haha. It’s a wonder you did not get your haole ass handed to you by the Hawaiian locals for being where you don’t belong. That can be a rough scene over there, especially being a white mainlander. You had me rolling. Great stuff sir.

As usual,,great content,, and great entertainment

I just rented Point Break with Swayze and Reeves. Awesome flick! Watch it! You're Reeves in the beginning, lol!!😂😂😂

Great story at the end 😀

I watched it all! Every time!!

Many Thanks

Happy thanksgiving from the Netherlands

Cool "Trekker" as we call them here is the Uk. Interesting that its late but running in wide 5's but elephant foot rear lights 🤔. I'd keep the steelies and if you had enough room which it doesnt look like and have banded or a wider J rim. But if your hopping it up more then that would be cool...

Cheers mate great Video

Surfin' USA! I watched til the end!

that is an old Motorola Alternator . those are really good.. hope it works. it it does hang on to it.

I think it looks great go with it😊

a win is a win

funny but true... you learned along with us

Gotta roller. Still some fixin.

Did you know that Bird was picked by American Pickers and they actually bought some of his stuff. I was in San Diego in '72. Busted my butt and never was good at surfing. Great place to visit but I can't live there. lol Hope you and yours had a good Thanksgiving.

Cowabunga dude. You tried surfing and knew when to stop. Poor sharks are still hungry. Enjoy

Love the thing