Ethan Bryan’s 1963 VW Bug Ragtop Herbie the Love Bug Replica

The story of how my journey started with a special little car named Herbie…

I was two years old when my great-grandmother showed me the first original film of “The Love Bug” that came out in 1969. After the film, I fell in love with the little car and it’s also how I got into cars and Volkswagen. From that day on, my goal and dream was to one day have my very own Herbie.

It was then I started collecting lots of Volkswagen toy cars. I would paint them to make them look like Herbie and also found Herbie collectibles, merchandise, and Volkswagen magazines. Every time I saw a VW Bug, I would say “There’s Herbie!” My mother started taking me to every car show and I would see VW Bugs all the time. I would say “hey mom, look it’s Herbie.” And even though it wasn’t Herbie, I still felt like it was.

When I turned 15 years old I told my mother that I wanted my first high school car to be a Volkswagen Bug and to make it exactly like Herbie. When I turned 16, my mother called me and said “hey, I want you to come by the house after school. There’s someone here that would like to meet you.” I didn’t know who it was and assumed that it might be a friend of mine or one of my family members visiting from out of town. But after thinking long and hard, I started getting a little excited about who it could be.

After school, I drove back home and my mother was standing out front of the house. I got out of the car and said “who’s here?” Then my mother said because of my good grades and working so hard at school that I deserved to be rewarded. She clicked the garage door opener and there he was… Herbie himself, sitting in the garage facing me!

Seeing that little car just made my day and seeing that my dream had come true to finally have my very own Herbie! My mom bought the car in 2017 and I’ve owned it for 5 years now. This little car means so much that I would never sell it.

After I got Herbie, I began the process of turning it into a replica screen accurate car to look just like the one in The Love Bug. I started taking the car apart and fixing him up. Giving him new parts to make Herbie better than ever.

It took a year to get Herbie finished since I was working five jobs at the same time to be able to make enough money for the project. After getting the car finished, my goal was to take Herbie to charity events like kids with cancer, people with depression, veterans, and people with autism.

Everywhere I go when I’m driving Herbie to car shows or Sunday cruises, I get so many reactions of parents and kids looking at Herbie smiling and waving and shouting Herbie’s name. That makes me smile.

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