Well, today my 1990 diesel Jetta was loaded onto a car dolly and drove away behind a nice Dodge Turbo Cummins Diesel….

It’s not going far though. Just to a mechanic for a while to get fixed & then it will take up residence at the place where my diesel love all started….at my dad’s place.

You see, when you have as many diesels as I do and you become attached to them, it’s hard to let them go very far.

The story of the Jetta is kind of interesting….
A while back I got a call from a guy that’s been messing around w/ biodiesel for a little while. He built a big processor and has been doing “research” into the stuff in a small town up in the mountains here in Utah.

They picked up this old Jetta as a possible car to run the stuff on but had problems with it. So, there it sat in his yard for quite some time.

Now, you see, because people get to know me through Biodiesel they also tend to call me when they have a diesel vehicle they want to either get rid of or buy. I think it’s kind of interesting really, but anyway, they call.

So I was sitting at work one day and they called & asked if I’d be interested in a diesel (do cats meow?). I said Heck Yeah! Tell me more….

Turns out this diesel (my 1990 VW Diesel Jetta) had been sitting at their place forever now and they couldn’t get it to run (well, that’s a challenge for me….)

So I told em I’d come & look at it & drove up there to see it. It was in pretty bad shape!
They’d raped it for parts for another Gas Jetta they had fixed up & it was in pretty sad shape.

We tried to get it to start (they claimed when they parked it that it ran alright) but they couldn’t get it going. So, I offered them a $120 for it (because it wouldn’t run) and the next day they delivered it to my driveway.

Well, being the car nut that I am, my dad came over & we tinkered with it a bit and with a little elbow grease got it to start & it sounded REALLY good too!

Now I wish this story could go on and on about us fixing it up & doing all sorts of stuff to it, but well, time is in short supply around our place (what w/ a full time job, doing the biodiesel biz on the side, and chasing 2 kids) so it just sat there in my driveway for the next few months…

Around Oct. sometime I picked up a VW Vanagon Diesel and brought it home as well (another story….but it’s a good one)….anyway, my dad’s been drooling over the Vanagon and also wanting another small diesel, so I did some swap work w/ a friend of his to tune up my van (the guy’s a master diesel mechanic and is METICULOUS about his work) in swap for my Jetta and some cash.

So, now the van runs like a top (just needs tires and a visit to the DMV to get “road legal” again) and the Jetta has “left the building” at my place.

It’ll be interesting to see if they can get that poor thing fixed up. It’s missing all sorts of parts, but the engine’s pretty cool…

And, so that’s the short tale of my diesel fleet dropping in numbers by 1.

I’m sure in time though another one will join the fleet. It’s like a bad habit….I just can’t go that long without some cool old diesels sittin in my driveway….

And the beat goes on…
-Graydon
The Diesel Crazed Nut