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THE BERKELEY BOMB

Posted 11-14-2008 at 04:08 AM by Bill Ball
Updated 07-23-2009 at 03:57 AM by Bill Ball
I found this old photo today. This is The Berkeley Bomb. A buddy of mine and I made it from a rolled VW when we were in high school in 1964. We used old fire hose to line the cut edge. My buddy welded the jeep style panels where the doors were. I remember us getting questions from people as to what that was on the back of the car. We used to say it was the air conditioner and bust out laughing as we drove off leaving the questioner with a puzzled look on their face.

One day we were driving across the Golden Gate Bridge when the engine seized (main bearing). We hitchhiked home and got my dad's car and towed it back home to Lafayette using a rope. This was at the beginning of the summer of my junior year. Marvin Benz who ran a foreign car repair business in Lafayette said he would rebuild the motor for $500. My buddy had a job, but that was too much money. Plus we thought Marvin was a dweeb. We figured we could rebuild it for $100 or so. I spent the entire summer rebuilding the motor. It was a trial and error process using a VW shop manual that was only so helpful for a novice. In the process of tearing it down with limited tools, we broke almost $500 in parts. We managed the wreck all 4 cylinders and pistons trying to pry the cylinders off the case with screwdrivers. Oh, well. Luckily we found a repair shop in Lafayette where the owner let us use his tools and equipment for free. I put the engine together in the back of this shop while my buddy was at work. I worked every day, all day and it took me over a month. First time I assembled the engine case, the crank would not turn - I mooched a main bearing by not getting it on the locater pin. The second time was the charm. We got it back in the car and it shot flames out the carburetor because I wired the plugs incorrectly. After we corrected that, it ran perfectly.

After I graduated from high school and started at Berkeley, my buddy would drive the car over on weekends. It attracted loads of attention whenever we drove around Berkeley, with people yelling, "Hey, do that to my car!" As far as I can recall this was years before dune buggies emerged. My buddy was that way. Once when we were in junior high he called and said, "Hey, let's go over to the high school and ride down the halls. I made this thing by nailing skate parts to a board." This was years before we heard of the skateboard.

Anyway, we had loads of fun in the Berkeley Bomb. A few years later my buddy sold it for $90 and we never saw it again.
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