ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, June 20, 1996 TAG: 9606200081
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETH DAY PASHLEY STAFF WRITER
Showing a first-class modified stock Volkswagen Bug along the East Coast is plain ol' fun for Bobby Rice.
``Just owning a Bug gets you into the shows, but socializing and camaraderie is what it is all about,'' said Rice, who has owned Bugs for 16 years and shown them for five.
He's won his share of awards for his classic Bugs.
And he's won friends - fellow Volkswagen fanatics who have spent their nights and weekends in one another's garages, rebuilding and repairing the cars they love.
Rice, from Roanoke, got serious about Bugs in 1985 after reading a newspaper story about Jack Kinder, another Roanoker who was taking his flashy gold convertible Bug to shows. He invited anyone interested in VWs to contact him.
Rice did, along with 15 other people. They decided to form a club, the Old Dominion Volkswagen Association.
The club lasted only a few years, but Rice formed an immediate bond with Kinder, 54, and two other VW Bug fans, Melvin Harris of Salem and Ted Mayberry of Lynchburg. They have been friends ever since. And they have owned more than 115 VWs among them.
``We all kind of clicked and had a mutual interest and worked [together],'' Kinder said. ``We were always at somebody's house working on a car. Our wives always knew where we were. We loved Bugs.''
They loved working on them and driving them.
Rice has a motto about Volkswagens ``If I can't drive it, then there's no need - really - to have the car.'' |n n| Rice, 35, has driven VWs since June 1980. That's when the motor of his '69 Chevy blew up on Interstate 581 between the Hershberger and Peters Creek Road exits. The next day he bought a '63 VW Bug from a guy he worked with for 400 bucks. Rice said VWs are reliable, easy to fix and cheap to keep up, which may explain why so many are still on the road today, though manufacture of the vehicles stopped in 1980.
Another explanation might be that in 1972 the 15,007,034th VW Bug came off the assembly line, overtaking the Ford Model T.
Mayberry, 48, bought his first Bug, a 1961 ragtop, in 1970; Harris, 43, bought his first, a '64, in 1969.
For each of the men, that was just the beginning. They bought other Bugs, fixed them up, showed them off, sold them and bought still more.
A VW enthusiast magazine, hot VWs, has featured show Bugs owned by Rice, Kinder and Harris.
It was in 1992 that Rice and Harris found the Bug they will be showing this week at the Virginia Museum of Transportation. They were returning from a VW show in Wytheville and stopped to see a '60 ragtop that David Wood was selling so he could buy a lawn mower.
``It looked like hell,'' Rice said, ``But it was a solid car.''
Because it was rough, Rice didn't think ``show'' immediately. It was just a hobby car. He kept it in Harris' garage, worked on it a little, accumulated parts and worked some more.
It took them three years to get it ready to show. Rice's wife, Natalie, put up with lots of long nights while her husband and Harris took the car apart, piece by piece, stripping, sanding, priming.
They had it painted a shiny peacock green.
There are some things about Rice's Bug that distinguish it from its cousins on the street. There's no chrome down the side and no handle on the hood. The headlight rings are painted, not chrome. Instead of sitting on the fender, the turn signals are inside the headlights.
King's Auto Upholstery in Roanoke did the interior work.
"There was nothing in it when it came to us - all metal," Freddie King said. The Bug now sports tan door panels with brown tweed insets, custom-covered seats from a Honda Prelude, a lined trunk area under the hood and a sculpted VW logo on the spare tire cover.
The modified stock ``California/street rod look'' Bug has a matching pull-behind trailer that gets lots of ``thumbs up'' from other drivers.
Rice and Harris mounted the fiberglass body of a VW Bug-shaped Go Kart to a trailer purchased at a yard sale. Harris, who does paint and body work at Kustom Kolors in Salem, painted the trailer to match the Bug. Rice carries his cleaning supplies in it, along with the stuff he needs for shows: stands, mirrors and carpet.
``You won't believe the amount of stuff that Bobby fits in there,'' Mayberry said.
Other car buffs use trailers - large ones - to haul their Bugs; Rice insists on driving, then cleaning the car when he hits his destination.
It takes him at least three hours to get his Bug clean enough for shows, especially after driving in bad weather.
``After Bobby cleans it, you wouldn't think it had ever been driven,'' Mayberry said. He's had to tell his friend more than once: "Bobby, you can stop cleaning it now; they're handing out the trophies."
Since May 1995, Rice's ragtop has won Best of Class seven times in shows along the East Coast. He's also won Best Interior seven times and a Dealer's Choice award.
On June 9 in Maple Grove, Pa., Rice's Bug made it to the top. It won its class, then took the big one, Best of Show. His Bug was chosen No. 1 from among 250.
Right now he's trying to rack up enough points to win the 1996 East Coast Series. The winner gets about $1,000, a huge plaque and a silk jacket embroidered ``1996 East Coast Points Champion."
So far, Rice is in the lead.
But that doesn't mean he gets to rest.
He's getting ready for the next show, which is in Waynesboro on July21.
You know he has his polish and chamois cloths ready.
* Bobby Rice's Bug and trailer and other show cars are on exhibit in ``The Most Loved Car in the World'' through June 23 at the Virginia Museum of Transportation. $5 adults, $3 children ages 3-18, $4 for seniors.
LENGTH: Long : 115 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: PHILIP HOLMAN Staff 1. Bobby Rice in his restored 1960by CNBVW Beetle. 2. Under the hood of Bobby Rice's restored 1960 Bug is
an upholstered compartment with an embossed spare-wheel cover.
color.