Thanks for the read.  I have a cople stories 
semi-sim ilar too.  Now I know I'm not alone.....

DM&FS

At 09:51 AM 3/28/2011, B Feddish wrote:
>It’s long:
>
>”I can't believe it is still running, and back 
>in the area! My wife and I were headed through 
>Delaware to meet some friends to go camping down 
>on the Eastern Shore of Maryland when the car 
>died. We called AAA and a tow-truck came to help 
>us. We hopped in the truck as the truck was 
>connected to the car. Unfortunately, about 2 
>miles down the road, the driver asked me if I 
>had the parking brake on, and the car in 
>gear...to which I said "yes" to both... We 
>looked behind and saw that the car was leaving a trail of smoke.
>
>It turns out that the brakes were cherry red, 
>the clutch was destroyed, and that the engine 
>was revving in first gear so fast that a rod had 
>gone through the top. This allowed oil to spray 
>all over the inside of the engine compartment, 
>and the oil started to smoke when it came into 
>contact with the super-hot engine. In other 
>words, we were only seconds away from having the engine catch on fire...
>
>Needless to say, we never made it on the camping trip...
>
>When I accused AAA of having destroyed my car, 
>they said that in order to prove it, I would 
>have to pay to have the car totally dismantled, 
>and then an inspector would evaluate the 
>damage... This would prove to be expensive and a 
>waste of time, as AAA would claim that the car 
>was not damaged by their employee's actions. 
>And, if I had sued him, there wasn't any money there to replace the car...
>
>So, as the car's body was showing signs of rust 
>"cancer", we just unloaded it through Jules, who 
>was our mechanic in Phoenixville.
>
>We learned about Jules through a series of 
>mis-adventures. You see, every time we would 
>take the car on a long roadtrip, it would die 
>several times. The longer we drove it, the more 
>gas it would consume, and the more smoke would 
>be emitted from the exhaust pipe. Finally, the engine would just die...
>
>Once we were in rural Georgia on a Friday night 
>and our arrival was the biggest excitement that 
>the gas station had ever seen. Everyone from the 
>Sheriff to the town's best mechanic showed up to 
>look at the engine... All of the good-old-boys 
>just looked at it for hours. Finally, my wife's 
>incredibly good looking cousin arrived and took 
>us to her house for the night. In the morning 
>the car was "fixed" and we went back on our 
>way... Those boys are probably still talking 
>about the night a vision of loveliness in a fur 
>coat whisked away a stranded Yankee family...
>
>Another time, we were in Virginia with my 
>elderly mother-in-law who had just recovered 
>from a stroke when the car died... We had the 
>car towed to the VW dealer, and they "fixed" it again...
>
>And then there was the time when Sue called with 
>a car full of frozen food on the way home from 
>the supermarket... The car had died on a super-hot day in August...
>
>After each trip nightmare, I would take it to be 
>fixed by a local professional. But after our 
>mechanic at the Gulph station in Wayne couldn't 
>fix it, we took it to Devon VW. They tried, but 
>finally told us to go to <Name Removed> in 
>Fraser. <Name Removed> was a VW van nut - who 
>cut one down and made a miniature version of a 
>van, with "Honey, I shrunk the bus..." written on the side...
>
><Name Removed> had the car apart in his shop for 
>about four months, as he replaced everything 
>there was to replace... But the dieing engine 
>problem persisted... So, to get his shop cleared 
>out, he put it back together and towed it to 
>Jules in Phoenixville. His father took one look 
>at the car and had it fixed in about 20 minutes...
>
>It had been an electrical problem all along. It 
>seems that a previous owner had had an 
>after-market air conditioner installed. And the 
>installing mechanic had crimped a wire too 
>tightly, so that the insulation around the wire 
>was compromised, and the wire came in contact 
>with the clamp - which was grounded to the 
>battery.... As a result, the engine thought that 
>it needed to enrich the fuel mixture, until it 
>over heated and caused "vapor lock". Then, 
>because the engine was "flooded" it wouldn't 
>start again until after it cooled down...
>
>The mechanic who had installed the air 
>conditioner had covered the crimp with what 
>appeared to be a molded - factory-installed - 
>cover... All of the other mechanics had just 
>assumed that the wiring had been factory 
>installed. But the old guy had thought to test it for continuity...
>
>So, when the car experienced the towing debacle, 
>we just washed our hands of it, as it had been 
>very expensive to have, and was unreliable for 
>the entire time that we had had it...
>
>It was a shame, because we really enjoyed our 
>road trips as a family... We had some wonderful 
>experiences in Minnesota, Maine, Nova Scotia, Vermont, and places in between.
>
>But then when our daughter turned 16, it became 
>her car... She complained that the color was 
>"baby-<expletive> brown", and that it wasn't 
>wise to give her a vehicle with two rolling 
>beds... As it was, I found a pair of her 
>girlfriend's shoes at the bottom of the bed in the upper loft... Ah, youth!
>
>So that all is to say that after the towing 
>accident, the clutch and transmission were both replaced.
>
>Glad to hear that it ended up with a good owner!”
>
>
>
>Learn
>
>
>
>From: JordanVw@aol.com
>Sent: Monday, March 28, 2011 10:29 AM
>To: uprightbassghost@HOTMAIL.COM
>Subject: Re: History in a glovebox and a build sheet question
>
>In a message dated 3/28/2011 10:21:22 A.M. 
>Eastern Daylight Time, uprightbassghost@HOTMAIL.COM writes:
>   If y'all
>   are interested I'll post it here....
>
>
>what did he say?