The books in question were "How to Keep Your Volkwagen Alive" by John
Muir PUBLICATIONS (I emphasize the last....John Muir was not the
author) and "How to Keep Your Rabbit Alive". The original book was
oriented towards aircooled vehicles, though it did reference the
water cooled ones prior to the 2nd book, at which point most of the
water cooled material was moved to the Rabbit book.

Since I started with an aircooled VW (71 Super Beetle) I was given
the Volkwagen edition by my brother (who had learned his trade from
it.) That would have been about 1978.

Learning how to drive without a functioning clutch (something written
about in the book) turned very useful when my clutch cable broke on
that beetle. I had that car for quite a few years until I dropped a
valve, blew the piston and warped the crank shaft. My brother rebuilt
the engine...and I used it for a few more years until an engine fire
finally put me out of my misery.

For those who are from the West Coast, or NorthEast US...I live in
Washington DC. Washington DC has wonderfullly varied weather. It gets
toasty hot and humid in the summer, but still gets the occassional
Nor'Easter and big snow falls (average snow fall is 24 inches yearly,
but it might all hit in one storm.)

The beetle was perfect for this. No air conditioning in the summer,
and no heat in the winter. I can remember driving around in a snow
storm with my window open, so I could stick my hand out, and grab the
windshield wiper, and beat it against the windshield to knock off the
ice...

I skinned my knuckles too many times, when changing the spark plugs.
I got 30 mpg.

To this day I don't miss that car.

But I miss the book, with it's wonderful illustrations. Wish I knew
what happened to my copy. Yah, you can still get it used. But I don't
NEED it...