(Recollections of Joe Ragucci – recorded 1/10/2005 by Joe Ragucci)
When Joe turned 16 he started looking for ways to get a car. Dolores had an old 1956 VW convertible that had been sitting in her garage for years. So in the summer of 1964, she gave it to Joe, but unfortunately it was in terrible shape. So Joe and his father worked all summer to restore it to working condition.
First, there was no floor in the back seat, just a hole all the way to the road. We took a heavy sheet of metal and repaired it. Next the exhaust and intake manifolds were joined because of metal corrosion. That was replaced and the engine given a full cleaning and rebuilding. Next the wheels and brakes needed to be replaced. Then the exterior paint was corroded, so we got a burgundy “Lee Myles” paint job. Next, the convertible roof was non-existant, having rotted away the wood braces and the canvas roof. So we order the parts from a mail order house and rebuilt it ourselves. Finally, the car had trouble starting and the horn wouldn’t blow because it used a 6 volt battery that was under the back seat. We had to run a new fat wire (#6) from the battery to the starter and horn and up the steering column to the horn button. Even then, when it was cold it had trouble starting and the horn wouldn’t blow.
It also had no gas gauge. Instead it had a 1 gallon auxillary tank. So you had to guess when you needed gas and if you guessed wrong (which was common) the car would stall usually going up a hill and you had to quickly kill the extra tank lever with your foot to access the extra gallon of gas. [ There should be a photo somewhere….]
(Added on 1/3/2014 while driving home in 6 degree weather…)
The car had no heater. Instead there was a channel that went from under the engine to the front interior of the car. There was a cable inside the car to a set of flaps that opened this channel and allowed air that was heated by the engine to flow into the car. Unfortunately, it never really worked. During the winter the cable or flaps would freeze and even if it was open it blew cold air most of the time because the engine couldn’t heat up the air very much if at all. Sometimes I would go under the car to melt the ice so the cable and flaps would work (usually to keep the blowing cold air out). So, we bundled up when using the car in the winter.
