Re: After 30 hours with my new Mk1 - Road Trip Story

[GGehrke <ggehrke@gmail.com>]

This is a short novel, so hang with me, i'm literally dividing it up
for ease of reading.

Chapter 1 - Vegas problems

So I got in tuesday night after a 2500 mile road trip with my new 1980
Scirocco.  I had been looking for several months for another Mk1
Scirocco after finding that my previous one (a 79) was rusted to the
point of being virtually worthless.  Still don't know what I'm going
to do with that one, exactly.  Found one that I liked but it was in
Las Vegas.  I'm from Louisville but go to school in Maryland, so Vegas
is too far.  I asked the owner a lot of questions and got a lot of
pictures, though, and really liked the car.  It had an overheating
problem, so I decided that if I could get the problem fixed it would
be worth the trouble to go all the way out there for the car.  It
sounded to me like a pressure issue, so I got him a new radiator cap
and bingo, he said that fixed the problem, that he drove it to work
and no overheating.  So I fly out to Vegas and pick up the car.  It's
perfect.  Some minor surface rust, but nothing bad at all.  Runs
nicely and has overall been well maintained.  Rough body, but that's
okay.  There had been a blowout on the old dry rotted tires, so it had
a borrowed wheel on it, but I had ordered a new set of Borbets with
Kumho tires sent directly to his house, so I was good to go for the
road trip.  The seller was at work so I dealt with his dad and was
going to come back in the evening to pay for the car.  Leave to go
pick my friend up from the airport and check into our hotel.  I hadn't
gone 5 miles when the temp needle was at the top of the gauge.  I took
it to a mechanic who diagnosed the problem as a badly clogged
radiator.  Crap.  I was a bit upset with the owner for not telling me
that it was still overheating, so I had him call some people and find
a new radiator.  I was ready to walk away from the car, but otherwise
it was so perfect for me, so I figured this was worth a shot.  Spent
the night seeing Vegas, which I had never seen before.  It was pretty
cool.  Everything there is so huge, it's just stunning.  We just
walked around and didnt really do anything, but it was fun.  Next
morning I go over to his house - he's working again - and swap the
radiator out.  Flushed the system and put water wetter in with the new
coolant.  Took it out for a drive and it was perfect.  Put the new
wheels on, paid the owner (we split the cost of the repairs), and took
off.  We were about half a day behind schedule, but just decided to
start driving and figure things out from there.

Chapter 2 - driving

So we get on the road coming from vegas and heading toward arizona. 
If the car was going to overheat, now was the time, but it ran
perfectly.  We crossed the Hoover Dam and passed a lot of really cool
scenery.  If you've never been out to the desert, its stunning how
expansive and empty it is.  I had originally planned to make it to
Texas in the first day and camp out, but with the delay that was
impossible.  We decdided, though, to keep pushing on into the night as
long as we could.  Somewhere not far from the New Mexico border, the
sun set and we started getting giant thunderclouds forming.  It was
the classic desert thunderstorm.  The sky would light up for an
instant when there was lighting and you'd see the whole landscape
illuminated and then it'd disappear (have I mentioned yet that the
lights on this car have been replaced, but SUCK?).  After a while we
drove into the rain, and that's when it got really bad.  I couldn't
see anything and had to follow other cars close to see the road and
use the high beams whenever we could.  Finally around 1am we pulled
off somewhere in new mexico.  Stopped at a gas station to use the
bathroom, came back out and the car wouldn't start.  It was POURING
rain and I didnt want to diagnose the problem, so we just locked the
doors and slept there in the freezing cold for about 3 hours.
By about 4am the rain had stopped and we were freezing, so we decided
to keep rocking.  Tapped the starter with a wrench and it fired right
up.  That problem has been recurring since then, but isn't too bad. 
Drove on till sunrise and noticed there was a bit of snow on the
ground.  odd.  Stopped at Denny's for breakfast around 6 and kept
going.  Then it started snowing.  Within a few minutes, we were in a
complete white out blizzard.  No light, zero visibility, and the car's
lousy lights and mono wiper weren't helping things.  We pull off for a
bit but decide to try following a semi and keep moving, so we tailed
some semi at 45 for the next few hours.  Got some gas and asked the
people at the station where the storm came from (weather.com had said
clear skies and sunny for the whole trip) and it turned out to
literally be a freak storm.  Got back on the road and within a few
miles hit dead stopped traffic.  We sat still for 2-3 hours (though
the snow had stopped by now).  Even after that the roads were terrible
and slow from the packed slush.  When it finally did clear we were
able to rock across new mexico and texas without too much trouble.  We
thought about stopping somewhere to camp for the night (I brought a
tent and sleeping bags) but decided we didn't want to get shot
somewhere in bumblef*ck texas so we kept going.  I was going to try to
make our second night's planned stop in Arkansas, but we stopped at a
hotel at the Oklahoma/Arkansas border instead.  Woke up the next
morning and blasted home.  Ran into a bit of traffic and a lot of
cops, but not too eventful.  Glad I had a radar detector.  70-75mph
limits are pretty nice, too.

Chapter 3 - back home
Not too much to say here.  Washed it yesterday and took some pictures.
Working on cleaning it up as nicely as I can, then I'm going to start
sanding the surface rust spots and hitting them with some new paint
just to hold it over until I can get the whole car repainted (Need to
figure out what to do about the elusive Mk1 window seals first,
though).  I thought about cutting the springs, but decided it's fine
how it is [again] until I can do it right.  It does have MAD wheelgap,
which looks pretty goofy with the new wheels, but the whole car looks
pretty goofy, so what can I say.  It has several little problems now
(bad headliner, cracked lenses, bad lights, cracked dash, some surface
rust, bad window and door seals, cracked clock face, odometer not
working properly, needs body work and repaint) but also has a lot of
really nice features (good seats and carpet, mechanically very sound,
low mileage engine (installed factory new engine in 1986, car has
50-60K since then), now good wheels and tires, GTI badge/Scirocco
mudflaps/now good wheels and tires/retro window louvres and duckbill).
Just got done registering it and got historic plates.  What a deal! 
I only have to pay once and never have to renew it or get new
stickers.  Just pay usage tax each december (like 2 dollars) and keep
rockin.  I only drive the car at the very most once per week anyways. 
I'm on my own insurance and stuff now too though, which kinda stinks. 
Lots of plan for the car, but I love it as it is now.  I can just
throw that thing around and it holds beautifully in the corners, picks
up really well, and can leave a long streak of rubber on demand.  It's
pretty loud, probably a leak in the muffler and/or exhaust manifold,
plus a lack of good insulation.

This weekend I drive it another 10 hours back to MD to meet its older brother.

So that's my story and I'm stickin to it!

Without further ado, pictures:

http://www.xgtgx.com/RoadTrip
http://www.xgtgx.com/NewMk1

-Grant-
1979 & 1980
Louisville, KY/Annapolis, MD

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