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Fri Sep 28, 2012 2:46 pm

I went for a ride today in my Baja Bug and decided to stop for some pictures.

I stopped on Randolph Ave. in Costa Mesa to take a picture of a building where some important things happened in VW off road and Baja Bug history.

These activities were going on about 40 years ago. Who can name the business that was here back then and what they did?

A few years ago, I took a picture of my car in front of the old B.F. Meyers building in Fountain Valley.

Fri Sep 28, 2012 5:10 pm

T Mag
Bill Savage
3" Body lifts
????????

Fri Sep 28, 2012 6:25 pm

That's not it, unless T-Mag moved in there later.

We may not even be discussing Baja Bugs today if not for what happened here.

Fri Sep 28, 2012 6:31 pm

Miller/Havens shop.

Fri Sep 28, 2012 9:32 pm

Miller-Havens is correct!

Fri Sep 28, 2012 10:53 pm

Who else wants to play? Let's see your cars in front of forgotten shops.

Fri Sep 28, 2012 10:54 pm

Somewhere in my collection I have a catalog from 1973 from them. Have to find it one day.
Drino Miller at one time worked for Bruce Meyers. He also won several Baja races in single seater buggies that were built at the Miller-Havens shop.
Sanford Havens built a buggy out of plywood(had built boats out of wood), pictures of it are in very first Dune Buggies & Hot VWs magazine in 1967.
The First Baja fiberglass kits were made at B.F. Meyers Company for Miller- Havens.

Sat Sep 29, 2012 9:19 am

Four years ago I took a picture of the old B.F. Meyers building.

Mon Oct 01, 2012 2:11 pm

I dropped by Gary Berg's shop in Orange today and stopped by the old Small Car Specialties building on Ball Road in Anaheim.

I shopped here and went to many of their car shows until they closed in 1991

Tue Oct 02, 2012 9:31 am

Small Car Specialties was the place to go for vw parts in the 80's.
Car shows were fun and the bikini contests were like no other...

Tue Oct 02, 2012 9:47 am

Someone in Oregon should get a pic in front of:

Emory Motorsports Inc.
13851 S.E. Eola Village Rd.
McMinnville, Oregon

Mon Oct 08, 2012 2:08 am

ImAddicted wrote: Someone in Oregon should get a pic in front of:

Emory Motorsports Inc.
13851 S.E. Eola Village Rd.
McMinnville, Oregon

I will keep this in mind next time we are down that way.

Mike

Thu Dec 19, 2013 9:12 pm

Cool thread, just saw it. This is the the B.F. Meyers & Co. shop in Newport Beach where they were through Feb 68, before they moved to the new factory in Fountain Valley

Fri Dec 20, 2013 8:51 pm

Very cool!

I drove past the location of Johnny's Speed & Chrome earlier today, but the whole block had been bulldozed and replaced with a Honda dealership.

It wouldn't make any sense to take a picture since the building is long gone.

Fri Dec 20, 2013 8:55 pm

I remember Johnny's Speed and Chrome........and cruising down there.

Sun Dec 22, 2013 8:59 am

small car specialties was awesome. miss em

Mon Dec 30, 2013 12:24 am

ImAddicted wrote: Someone in Oregon should get a pic in front of:

Emory Motorsports Inc.
13851 S.E. Eola Village Rd.
McMinnville, Oregon

Why get a pic in front of if you can get a pic from inside during one of the sorely missed campouts?

There's nothing to see from the highway--the house and shops are way back. I take that back. A crusty Pre-A marks the driveway.

What's there but you won't see is Baja Numero Uno, the one that Gary's pop, Neil (Valley Custom in the '40s and '50s) built in '68 and inspired Drino Miller and Sanford Havens to make a fiberglass kit. It belongs to Gary's daughter and it took YEARS to sweet talk her into just letting me see it (the car that is). It's pretty rough but it'll get saved one day.

Mon Dec 30, 2013 12:57 pm

those wheels are gorgeous!

Mon Dec 30, 2013 4:49 pm

hotrodsurplus wrote: ImAddicted wrote: Someone in Oregon should get a pic in front of:

Emory Motorsports Inc.
13851 S.E. Eola Village Rd.
McMinnville, Oregon

What's there but you won't see is Baja Numero Uno, the one that Gary's pop, Neil (Valley Custom in the '40s and '50s) built in '68 and inspired Drino Miller and Sanford Havens to make a fiberglass kit. It belongs to Gary's daughter and it took YEARS to sweet talk her into just letting me see it (the car that is). It's pretty rough but it'll get saved one day.

I want to remind you folks that while that is definitely the 1st Baja Bug that made it into a magazine feature and into VW ads, and it was a beautiful Bug worthy of that attention, 5 years earlier, there were several similarly cut Bugs in my neighborhood in the north San Fernando Valley. The Emorys were NOT the 1st people to cut a VW into what was known by 1968 as a Baja Bug. Most of the earlier ones were fairly crude, but they were cut for offroad use, not for car shows.

In the 1960s, I lived 1/2 a mile up the road from San Fernando Auto Body. SF Auto Body was already building their VW buggies out of tubing and VW components in 1963 and so were the Vittones over in Riverside with their EMPI Sportster and Tiny Thompson down near the beach cities with his Burros. SF Auto Body changed their name in 1969 to San Fernando Buggy Center, and are better known to this audience for making GlitterBug Fiberglass buggies and rails under the Hi Jumper and Sand Sprite names.

I don't mean to put down or criticize the Emory car or them. I just want it known that their Bug was NOT the 1st Baja Bug. Just the 1st paid attention by the press.

Tue Dec 31, 2013 4:23 pm

Moonlight Buggy. Back in the 70s was the place for us Baja rats from no. San Diego Co. It was on 101 between Moonlight beach and D street Encinitas Cal. The Wright bros. owned it and retired to San Felipe BCN. Sorry no photos.