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bugginmiami Sun Mar 01, 2009 12:37 pm



Wide 5 Vintage Volkswagen club was “officially” formed in 1995 when a local group of VW enthusiasts from other local VW clubs (and some high school friends) decided to have weekly meetings held every Sunday at the Suntrust parking lot on Bird Rd. and 84ave. in Miami, Florida. Phil Weiner suggested we call it "67 and down" since we all had vintage VW's. Then Danny Tito chimed in and said "Why don't we call it Wide5". And there it was, a new club was born.

We weren't a big club at first but people started to take notice and pretty soon our weekly gatherings would draw about 15-30 VW's. The club consisted of about 50 members over the years with a few hardcore members such as Bill Dwyer, Patrick Gomez, Mike Hedrick, Alvaro Rodriguez, Kevin Schmucker, Danny Tito, Jason Walters, and Phil Weiner. Some have come and gone but we are all still heavily into VW's. Some new guys have joined in the last year or two and they include Captain Tony Stewart, and Mike and Serena Reed.

Since its inception Wide5 was formed around the love of early pre 67 VWs. Not excluding other years, but emphasizing early “Cal Look and Resto Custom” cars and the movement of Resto custom that was hitting the East coast in the mid 90s. Wide 5 is headed up by roughly 5 members (or lugs as the joke was). This eliminated the problems with one or two members trying to push their own agenda and to eliminate the politics we had seen in other clubs. Our club is about the history, the fun and the building of vintage VWs, with pride in doing our own work and maintaining lifelong friednships. Members can and do belong to other clubs and we meet at most shows in FL. We have members throughout the country and on both coasts. Now in our 14th year and many members strong we appreciate our past and look towards our future.

Along with the Palmetto bugs of Miami, we started Volksblast Miami. Now in it’s 11th year, it has raised nearly$100k for Habitat for Humanity and many other local charities. Many current members are working on other shows and events like WinterJAM weekend in Daytona Beach. We hope to further expand the scene and continue maintaining and growing friendships based on the common love of the VW. We love building VWs and have many currently being built, as well as having built magazine feature cars thought the years, but mostly concentrating on drivers. We’re all about having fun and building, driving, and talking VWs.

Contrary to what some may say, we are not defunct and never were. Some had kids, some moved away but we always had our VW's, stayed in touch, and live on in the VW hobby we all love. This thread is for Wide5 members, friends, and other vw related chat. We hope to see you at a VW event in the future, stop by and say hello!

Our new website is under construction and soon will contain some member information, profiles, event info and pictures as well as the club history. http://www.wide5.com

vujade Sun Mar 01, 2009 1:19 pm

I for one fully support the wide5 club & your endevours :)

I would love to be considered as an honorary member with my 67 Notchback :)

wide5guy Sun Mar 01, 2009 2:05 pm

Cool now we can keep in touch with all our far away peeps! :D

type2man Sun Mar 01, 2009 2:44 pm

And still going strong!!!! Very well written intro. Interestingly enough, none of us has gotten out of VW scene since we started, but we have owned VW's since the late 80's. I have a 1960 Singlecab, 1967 beetle, 1967 westy, 1971 karmann Ghia and a pair of 1974 914's.

wide5guy Sun Mar 01, 2009 5:10 pm

vujade wrote: I for one fully support the wide5 club & your endevours :)

I would love to be considered as an honorary member with my 67 Notchback :) wow! I'm feeling all warm inside. Naa... its heart burn. Of corse youre part of the team! I don't think you have a choice! We talk almost every day! :D

bugginmiami Sun Mar 01, 2009 5:37 pm

Some old school pics, enjoy!












Some of the old pics I found of cars from back in the day:


(owned by pat then jason, long gone)


(owned by mike then alvaro, then jason, now in UK)



(Bill's 62 Ragtop, RIP)


(BIll's Homegrown 65)



(Jasons super vert, in MIchigan somewhere?)


(OG Wild 5, Phil Hot Dog Weiner)


(MIke garcia's square, long gone)


(Mike's TroubleCab)


(Mikes Empi 62, current pic, but has had for years)


(Danno's 64 in one of its' many incarnations)


(Pat's 55 oval, In central florida, now a zwitter rag)


(Pat's 58 beetle, 80's cal look survivor in the mid 90s)


Pats 61 beetle, now in central florida with ragtop)



(Pats 67 Westy, still has)


(Pats German Look beetle, still has)


(Sals Ghia, in central florida, redone by Yaril)


(tito's 58, now its the Mama Africa rasta bug)

RAMZROD Sun Mar 01, 2009 6:03 pm

Cool pics! I remember all those cars. Good to see you guys started this thread.

bugginmiami Sun Mar 01, 2009 8:03 pm

Ok folks, i posted the old ones I had in the archives. Please post your current rides/projects or happenings!

My current cars:



The square is in hibernation updstate as I have nowhere to properly store it. Its a 67 square thats been in the wide5 family for about 10 years now. Its a solid low mile relatively unmolested example. Its a great driving car that truly takes you back in time to what it must have been like to drive one of these cars new.



The bus is a splitty westy clone that I have had for a few years now. It's lowered with type 3 rear end, Rizzags front spindles, and a Mr. warehouse front 944 setup, with an 1835 (from pats 55 oval 20 year ago, I'm not kidding!), on a set of polished 16 inch alloys. It's been all over Florida numerous times but is now awaiting a new tranny to be on the road again. It was done in my mind with the 'keep on truckin' style, had they known what was up back in the day, rather than chopping up fenders to make room for Jackmans.

I am the show coordinator for the Volksblast VW show after taking over the reigns from BIll (wide5guy) on his moving a few years ago. Feel free to check out www.volksblast.com and see if you may be interested in helping us with this great event.

jasonw

suckmyexhaust Sun Mar 01, 2009 10:51 pm

Volksblast always has been a rockin event that I look forward to every year

DUBDAWG Mon Mar 02, 2009 7:48 am

Glad to see we finally have our own forum. I'm just a rookie to the VW scene, but this is a great group to be involved with. The wife and I will post some pics soon of our herd. :D

EMPIFLAKE Mon Mar 02, 2009 8:28 am

Hey just checkin in this is LUG ##### WIDE FIVE NEVER CHANGING!!!

ITS JUST THE WAY IT IS!

62 EMPI
54 VERT
EMPIFLAKE

EMPIFLAKE Mon Mar 02, 2009 8:44 am

Heres one for ya the crew posing on my old DC BELEIVE OR NOT AT LEAST 12YEARS AGO!.



EMPIFLAKE
62 EMPI
54VERT

EMPIFLAKE Mon Mar 02, 2009 9:03 am

CAPTAINS ALS OLD BEAUTY THE PEA GREEN 66 ROLLIN EMPI SHT!!



EMPIFLAKE
62 EMPI
54 VERT

EMPIFLAKE Mon Mar 02, 2009 9:08 am

LETS ALSO NOT FORGET WHAT TIME THROUGH AWAY ONE OF ARE CLOSES MEMBERS KEVIN AND HIS 60 METALIC BLUE RAG SPORTING A VDM WHEEL. :wink:

EMPIFLAKE
62 EMPI
54 VERT

EMPIFLAKE Mon Mar 02, 2009 9:21 am

Me back in the day with my 61 DC this was at the show that I won first place. I remember this guy with a peach and white 66 bus thought the judges where dirty. His friends wanted to hire a hit man to take me out :lol:

EMPIFLAKE
62 EMPI
54VERT

fduran27 Mon Mar 02, 2009 10:08 am

Mike
where is that double cab now?

bugginmiami Mon Mar 02, 2009 10:49 am

Yup, thats the day Mike's trouble cab beat the bus that is now Donville's bus at a show. I imagine the troublecab is now on the side of a road somewhere with someone else figuring how to get it home. (im only sort of kidding, last time we saw it, it actually WAS broken down on the way home from a show with another owner).

vwtony2 Mon Mar 02, 2009 10:54 am

proud member checking in!!! I am one of the newbies to the club but I have in the last 4 or 5 years put more miles on my VW with WIDE 5 members than I have put on with anyone else and have no plans of changing that anytime soon!! (CTS anyone? you know im in!!)... I am super stoked to be a part of a group of friends who are all about helping eachother, working their asses off to improve the scene (via shows, GTGs, cruises or whatever it takes) and most importantly DRIVING THE SHIT OUT OF OUR RIDES!!!!!!!!

Heres my line up... '59 Mango Green Standard, had this bus since march 1996 and it has gone through many life phases... its current status being my favorite!! This is my driver, I'm not afraid to hop in this bus and go ANYWHERE (right Bill!!) sure its has its hick ups but they all do!!! Its has a Wagens West front end from spindle to spindle which includes 4" beam fliped spindles with late model Bay window Disks... in the rear is 3.88 IRS hooked up to a Gene Berg 1700 (machine in 88's) and rolling on a set of Gerson restored OG sprint stars..... The beetle is a '55 3 fold rag (factory) and I wouldnt have this car unless a couple of Wide 5 members hadnt been looking out for me!! I got it in December of '07 and havent done a whole lot to it, it has a 4" airkewld beam with Bad billet wide 5 disks, 4 piston willwood calipers, full syncro trans and hooked up to a 1600, and rolling on a set of ET's super solid car OG interior and a lot of fun to drive (which I've only done a few times!!)








Jason and I with our buses in the background



heading out to BB looking out my back window at Pats '60 SC and Jasons '67 Westy... do I see a red cooler back there somewhere?


cool interior shot of my bus, a few years old but still pretty much the same...

wide5guy Mon Mar 02, 2009 11:07 am

vwtony2 wrote: proud member checking in!!! I am one of the newbies to the club but I have in the last 4 or 5 years put more miles on my VW with WIDE 5 members than I have put on with anyone else and have no plans of changing that anytime soon!! (CTS anyone? you know im in!!)... I am super stoked to be a part of a group of friends who are all about helping eachother, working their asses off to improve the scene (via shows, GTGs, cruises or whatever it takes) and most importantly DRIVING THE SHIT OUT OF OUR RIDES!!!!!!!!

Heres my line up... '59 Mango Green Standard, had this bus since march 1996 and it has gone through many life phases... its current status being my favorite!! This is my driver, I'm not afraid to hop in this bus and go ANYWHERE (right Bill!!) sure its has its hick ups but they all do!!! Its has a Wagens West front end from spindle to spindle which includes 4" beam fliped spindles with late model Bay window Disks... in the rear is 3.88 IRS hooked up to a Gene Berg 1700 (machine in 88's) and rolling on a set of Gerson restored OG sprint stars..... The beetle is a '55 3 fold rag (factory) and I wouldnt have this car unless a couple of Wide 5 members hadnt been looking out for me!! I got it in December of '07 and havent done a whole lot to it, it has a 4" airkewld beam with Bad billet wide 5 disks, 4 piston willwood calipers, full syncro trans and hooked up to a 1600, and rolling on a set of ET's super solid car OG interior and a lot of fun to drive (which I've only done a few times!!)








Jason and I with our buses in the background



heading out to BB looking out my back window at Pats '60 SC and Jasons '67 Westy... do I see a red cooler back there somewhere?


cool interior shot of my bus, a few years old but still pretty much the same... I'm down for CTS, who else is up for the ride? Last year was a blast! I hope I have some good luck like last year. Who's going to Mike's party. It's shaping up to be a good time! :D

vwtony2 Mon Mar 02, 2009 11:17 am

I would like to say Im there for mikes party but for me its going to be a wait and see.. we need to do a fundraiser for Jason so he can get that new trans and drive to CTS with us... drag that 20year old GEX motor out and play!!! you already know it runs with out oil so a 1500 mile trip aint nothing for that thing!!!!! ohhhhh DANG could this be the beginning of the Bartlebee bet all over again???



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