When we moved to Sweden, we put all of our furniture and belongings in storage and sold all the big stuff including the cars.

Fast forward to our return to the US.  Carrie had long ago decided that she was going to buy the Volkswagen New Beetle, which was on its second or third model year, on our return.  Having never seen one in person, I was convinced I was going to buy a PT Cruiser.

We arrived back home in Redondo Beach.  Carrie bought her New Beetle.  I looked at the PT Cruiser and  being grandly disappointed, went shopping for something else.  I went shopping in Carrie’s New Beetle.  The more I drove it, the more I liked it.  Turbocharged, quick, handled well and way more comfortable than the 1961 Bug I had owned decades before.

I called Carrie and asked if she would mind if I bought a New Beetle like hers.  She said it would be okay if we had his-and-hers cars and jokingly added that I’d need to paint flames on mine so we could tell them apart.

I bought my own New Beetle.

Larry Fator is a famous artist known for his airbrush art on cars and motorcycles.  His work is featured in many car enthusiast magazines.  You can see some of his work at http://www.quicksilverart.com.  One of his specialties is flames.   I made an appointment.

After explaining to Larry what kind of flames I liked, he took a roll of pinstriping tape and outlined where he would paint the flames across the front fenders.  After looking at samples of colors he suggested for the old-school look I was going for, we agreed on the design.  I could not have been happier with the outcome.

Carrie was shocked that I would have flames painted on a new car, but accepted that it was actually her idea. And she was as impressed as I was with how professionally they were rendered.

In addition to the flames, we could tell our New Beetles apart in two other ways.  Mine was a stick while Carrie’s was an automatic.  Carrie’s was silver metallic grey.  Mine was black.