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twinwindows
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Location: So.Cal. Highland Park GFK!
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 Posted: Wed May 09, 2012 2:55 pm Post subject: |
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| vwkidd wrote: | | twinwindows wrote: | There was also B.C.E. Bob Costa Enterprises in Eagle Rock Ca. If you lived in this area and had a VW you knew Bob.
He also passed away but his wife now runs the place still on Colorado Blvd. That is the place Jaime came from before he moved to the shop he`s at now. I remember walking in there telling Jaime to grab his car keys and bounce! LOL |
B.C.E. has been around forever......If I remember correctly Bob Costa had a repair shop also besides the retail store on Colorado now. Bob's wife has hooked me up with some hard to find small stuff for my 55 Convertible recently and is a pleasure to deal with. |
Yup, Linda She`s good people. Robert,
There is a guy who works there (BCE) that goes way back you prolly know him, Steve, He`s been around since the early 80`s. He rolled a RHD Mint green Oval around. I`ll try to get a picture he has of a time one of us took a picture of him driving the same car looking forward but in the picture you could clearly see an old man in the opposite seat. Nobody was in the car with him! Crazy but true story there.
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j8bug
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Joined: September 26, 2008
Posts: 1654
Location: When we were all (213) Los-Angeles
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| Posted: Wed May 09, 2012 5:28 pm Post subject: |
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Did anyone know this old man besides me and Kidd. He had a stash of shit in his back yard. Complete oval cars, fenders, beams, clips,,, all kiiiiinds of stuff (Looked like Trayle Duncans Back Yard  ). He lived just north of Riverside Dr. straight across the 5fwy and Elysian park. I want to say Riverdale or river something or another or Dale something or another was the street he lived on. I wonder if he still has family involved in VWs???? A friend of mine found him on The Recycler and then it was just word of mouth thru the homies. Thats how I learned of him thru someone that took me there for some parts I needed for whatever cubeta I was working on at that time.
Chk out those deals on hard to find parts even then:
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Frank Ochoa said; "I still have my convertible bug from high school. Now that Gramps is out Im going to make some changes but Im still going to keep it Cal-Style, you know, all original but lowered with some alloys"
Fred one of the original members of The Bus Boyz said; "We were the first to ever Cal-Style a Bus.. No one was doing it back then". |
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j8bug
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Joined: September 26, 2008
Posts: 1654
Location: When we were all (213) Los-Angeles
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| Posted: Thu May 10, 2012 9:51 am Post subject: |
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| j8bug wrote: | | twinwindows wrote: | | bugnut68 wrote: | | I have to admit, I do agree that there's a lot I'm learning about a segment of VW culture and the scene in general that I've never seen/read much about... keep it all coming, it's great reading on my end! |
As I was reading this I thought How sad! The new up comers will never know how it was back then cos as the years go by the vw scene was the best in theeee 80s!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
1 of my purpose for starting this thread is to finally get the scene documented. Thanks to you guys we are doing it. The height of the V-Dub years (80s) in my opinion and no one even knew what we were doing to pave the way for the future... |
I have to unbury these writings from time to time because thankfully the internet now allows us to tell our story in a way that no magazine would have ever been able to do. Putting all the pieces together has even been a learning experience for me. Those that lived it knew the obvious like our cruise spots, nightclubs, burger joints, high schools, parts suppliers, logo cars and our Cal Style look. As we are finding out that was only the tip of the iceberg. Now we all know who the drivers of those cars were like Ray Mejia and Alex Arredonodo, the party promoters like Richie Rich of The TeddyBoys, the early OGs badboys like Vw Kidd and Ruben Navarro, or the rare OG that never left (CRG), the people who ran those parts stores and the back stories and etc,etc,etc... IM LOVING IT!!!!
_________________
Frank Ochoa said; "I still have my convertible bug from high school. Now that Gramps is out Im going to make some changes but Im still going to keep it Cal-Style, you know, all original but lowered with some alloys"
Fred one of the original members of The Bus Boyz said; "We were the first to ever Cal-Style a Bus.. No one was doing it back then". |
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bugnut68
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Joined: June 10, 2003
Posts: 3951
Location: Lakeview, OR
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| Posted: Thu May 10, 2012 12:09 pm Post subject: |
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This is an old drag bug from the '80s in Oregon called "Garf's Rag." It needs a LOT of improvements from what I understand, espcially where the roll cage/bar is concerned, but I would love to see this sucker back on the track as a bracket racer. Used to be all steel, but now has a fiberglass front end due to a crash at some point in its life. Used to have a turbo motor in it, and was the first turbo VW I ever saw at the 1989 Medford Bug-In here in oregon. Car was called "Garf's Rag," which was stenciled on the doors, along with the Garfield mural. |
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j8bug
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Joined: September 26, 2008
Posts: 1654
Location: When we were all (213) Los-Angeles
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| Posted: Thu May 10, 2012 12:33 pm Post subject: |
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Garfield, I remember girls were crazy in love with Garfield in the 80s.. How long before a Garfield animated movie is upon us 
_________________
Frank Ochoa said; "I still have my convertible bug from high school. Now that Gramps is out Im going to make some changes but Im still going to keep it Cal-Style, you know, all original but lowered with some alloys"
Fred one of the original members of The Bus Boyz said; "We were the first to ever Cal-Style a Bus.. No one was doing it back then". |
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j8bug
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Joined: September 26, 2008
Posts: 1654
Location: When we were all (213) Los-Angeles
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| Posted: Thu May 10, 2012 8:43 pm Post subject: |
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| j8bug wrote: | | j8bug wrote: | | twinwindows wrote: | | bugnut68 wrote: | | I have to admit, I do agree that there's a lot I'm learning about a segment of VW culture and the scene in general that I've never seen/read much about... keep it all coming, it's great reading on my end! |
As I was reading this I thought How sad! The new up comers will never know how it was back then cos as the years go by the vw scene was the best in theeee 80s!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
1 of my purpose for starting this thread is to finally get the scene documented. Thanks to you guys we are doing it. The height of the V-Dub years (80s) in my opinion and no one even knew what we were doing to pave the way for the future... |
I have to unbury these writings from time to time because thankfully the internet now allows us to tell our story in a way that no magazine would have ever been able to do. Putting all the pieces together has even been a learning experience for me. Those that lived it knew the obvious like our cruise spots, nightclubs, burger joints, high schools, parts suppliers, logo cars and our Cal Style look. As we are finding out that was only the tip of the iceberg. Now we all know who the drivers of those logo cars were, like Ray Mejia and Alex Arredonodo, the party promoters like Richie Rich of The TeddyBoys, the early OGs badboys like Vw Kidd and Ruben Navarro, or the rare OG that never left (CRG), the people who ran those parts stores and the back stories and etc,etc,etc... IM LOVING IT!!!! |
And we now also know who designed the logos and lettering of most of the famous 80s cars in L.A., Danny A.
_________________
Frank Ochoa said; "I still have my convertible bug from high school. Now that Gramps is out Im going to make some changes but Im still going to keep it Cal-Style, you know, all original but lowered with some alloys"
Fred one of the original members of The Bus Boyz said; "We were the first to ever Cal-Style a Bus.. No one was doing it back then". |
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vdubmax
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Joined: February 24, 2004
Posts: 510
Location: Minneapolis
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| Posted: Fri May 11, 2012 9:29 am Post subject: |
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| j8bug wrote: | | Garfield, I remember girls were crazy in love with Garfield in the 80s.. How long before a Garfield animated movie is upon us |
2004 
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AlteWagen
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Joined: February 23, 2007
Posts: 5362
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| Posted: Fri May 11, 2012 1:22 pm Post subject: |
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For me KDF was the place to get all the hard to find stuff. Like mentioned before, come payday me and a few of the homies were there. Good deals were to be had there. I picked up several 58-64 vert decklids for $100, NOS eggs $150, NOS ice pics $50, NOS euro headlights $100, Euro dimple rear fenders $50 a set. A ton of OG trim to finish my 59 vert as well.
I worked at United Auto in N. Hollywood right before it closed and a guy came in and asked if we were hiring. He told me he was the reason KDF closed as the place was robbed, he got his ass kicked but they did not have proper insurance to cover IA so they got shut down. A sad day indeed.
Would any of you guys go to Pomona Swap meet and then on the way back stop at CarCusom and Barret Enterprizes? |
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j8bug
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Joined: September 26, 2008
Posts: 1654
Location: When we were all (213) Los-Angeles
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| Posted: Fri May 11, 2012 3:41 pm Post subject: |
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| vdubmax wrote: | | j8bug wrote: | | Garfield, I remember girls were crazy in love with Garfield in the 80s.. How long before a Garfield animated movie is upon us |
2004 |
Thats right, I remember now.... I wonder if they ever made a Felix the Cat movie??? He was real big when I was growing up.... Altewagen you killing me with those prices. What has happened????????????????????????
_________________
Frank Ochoa said; "I still have my convertible bug from high school. Now that Gramps is out Im going to make some changes but Im still going to keep it Cal-Style, you know, all original but lowered with some alloys"
Fred one of the original members of The Bus Boyz said; "We were the first to ever Cal-Style a Bus.. No one was doing it back then". |
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twinwindows
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Joined: December 08, 2000
Posts: 4059
Location: So.Cal. Highland Park GFK!
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| Posted: Fri May 11, 2012 5:04 pm Post subject: |
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| AlteWagen wrote: | For me KDF was the place to get all the hard to find stuff. Like mentioned before, come payday me and a few of the homies were there. Good deals were to be had there. I picked up several 58-64 vert decklids for $100, NOS eggs $150, NOS ice pics $50, NOS euro headlights $100, Euro dimple rear fenders $50 a set. A ton of OG trim to finish my 59 vert as well.
I worked at United Auto in N. Hollywood right before it closed and a guy came in and asked if we were hiring. He told me he was the reason KDF closed as the place was robbed, he got his ass kicked but they did not have proper insurance to cover IA so they got shut down. A sad day indeed.
Would any of you guys go to Pomona Swap meet and then on the way back stop at CarCusom and Barret Enterprizes? |
I had friends that worked at Car Custom. They had some very nice shows back in the day and Barret Enterprises you could walk in there and buy a pair of Dellortos 36-45MM for $300 complete and the dual merge exhaust hanging rite on the walls.
Did you get the name of the guy who told you what happened at KDF? I`m wondering if it was the same guy who went nuts and took a 10LB sledge hammer to an early low light ghia the owner of KDF had parked out side.
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AlteWagen
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Joined: February 23, 2007
Posts: 5362
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| Posted: Sat May 12, 2012 11:31 am Post subject: |
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| He gave me his name and number but its been too long to remember. He was an older white guy with a beard, not too tall. Do you know the name of the ghia basher? Maybe it will ring a bell. |
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j8bug
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Posts: 1654
Location: When we were all (213) Los-Angeles
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| Posted: Sat May 12, 2012 4:56 pm Post subject: |
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Since we are on the topic of store closings. Im afraid to ask why Car Custom closed up???? In the heyday it seemed that store would be around forever..
_________________
Frank Ochoa said; "I still have my convertible bug from high school. Now that Gramps is out Im going to make some changes but Im still going to keep it Cal-Style, you know, all original but lowered with some alloys"
Fred one of the original members of The Bus Boyz said; "We were the first to ever Cal-Style a Bus.. No one was doing it back then". |
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belairman
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Joined: June 06, 2010
Posts: 158
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| Posted: Sat May 12, 2012 10:14 pm Post subject: |
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| AlteWagen wrote: | | He gave me his name and number but its been too long to remember. He was an older white guy with a beard, not too tall. Do you know the name of the ghia basher? Maybe it will ring a bell. |
His name was Jud. He was good friends with Cliff Crate and Bob Scott, who started Vintage VW Parts back in the 70's. He dropped the VW , as Volkswagen did not want him to use it. It be came Vintage Parts. I worked for Bob Scott in the 90's, before he sold it to Shawn. |
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AlteWagen
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Joined: February 23, 2007
Posts: 5362
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| Posted: Sun May 13, 2012 12:40 pm Post subject: |
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| belairman wrote: | | His name was Jud. |
Sounds familiar, not sure though. He said he would work for free but at that time the shops closure was soon AND I was already working for free! Getting parts at cost was payment enough, kind of ruined it for me actually knowing what stuff really costs even today. I cant believe that most empi stuff is marked up almost 250%!! United sold stuff at the racer price which beat everyone in town, I wish we also used Bugpack or CB though. PPI was OK for the small stuff and had great prices for cases and heads, so did Century.
Hey Ruben, did you finally open up your own shop? |
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vwkidd
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Joined: August 14, 2004
Posts: 521
Location: Glendale, Cali via SouthEast LA
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| Posted: Sun May 13, 2012 8:36 pm Post subject: |
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| belairman wrote: | | AlteWagen wrote: | | He gave me his name and number but its been too long to remember. He was an older white guy with a beard, not too tall. Do you know the name of the ghia basher? Maybe it will ring a bell. |
His name was Jud. He was good friends with Cliff Crate and Bob Scott, who started Vintage VW Parts back in the 70's. He dropped the VW , as Volkswagen did not want him to use it. It be came Vintage Parts. I worked for Bob Scott in the 90's, before he sold it to Shawn. |
This is great! getting the all the history & stories from insiders!!
_________________
1955 151 Deluxe L219 Congo Green (Project)
1957 117 Deluxe L331 Horizon Blue (Project)
1954 117 Deluxe L227 Strato Silver "Delilah"
1966 141 Cabrio. L554 Cherry Red (low mileage)
Owned: All in the 80's & running BRM's,Fuchs,OG Empis w/ big motors & 48IDA's Cal-Style!
1959 Convertible 151 L41
1955 Convertible 151 L41
1958 Convertible 151 L349
1966 KG Convertible L456
1967 KG Convertible L41
1959 117 Deluxe L451 |
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bugnut68
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Joined: June 10, 2003
Posts: 3951
Location: Lakeview, OR
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| Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 10:32 am Post subject: |
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| j8bug wrote: | | Since we are on the topic of store closings. Im afraid to ask why Car Custom closed up???? In the heyday it seemed that store would be around forever.. |
When they had four-page ads touting all-Empi parts in the late '90s, early 2000s, I foresaw that as a bad sign at the time. I remember visiting the Azusa store on a road trip while I was in college back in 1998, I think it was. Huge showroom, tons of parts. I was an obvious tourist, gawking at the sheer volume of parts; didn't see anything like that in Oregon. lol. |
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vwkidd
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Joined: August 14, 2004
Posts: 521
Location: Glendale, Cali via SouthEast LA
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| Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 12:21 pm Post subject: |
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| bugnut68 wrote: | | j8bug wrote: | | Since we are on the topic of store closings. Im afraid to ask why Car Custom closed up???? In the heyday it seemed that store would be around forever.. |
When they had four-page ads touting all-Empi parts in the late '90s, early 2000s, I foresaw that as a bad sign at the time. I remember visiting the Azusa store on a road trip while I was in college back in 1998, I think it was. Huge showroom, tons of parts. I was an obvious tourist, gawking at the sheer volume of parts; didn't see anything like that in Oregon. lol. |
I kinda saw first hand the transformation of quality parts coming out of small machine shops & specialty shops here in the USA in the early 1980's....to the mass produced & questionable quality of parts from Brazil & the early stuff coming out of China. Working for a guy named Gary P. at Unique Performance/Latest Rage in N. Long Beach a retail VW parts store, I remember him telling me that he was one of the first guys to have parts copied & manufactured overseas cheaper. Like chrome Gen stands, fan shrouds, etc......I remember getting boxes & boxes from containers full of re-popped parts for inventory & thinking back then it reinforced my conviction to use only Genuine German parts for sheet metal & hard parts because the quality was so questionable to me......Now it seems since I been out of the scene for some years & now back in that Chinese parts are the only option or spend a lot of time & $$ searching for Original parts.
_________________
1955 151 Deluxe L219 Congo Green (Project)
1957 117 Deluxe L331 Horizon Blue (Project)
1954 117 Deluxe L227 Strato Silver "Delilah"
1966 141 Cabrio. L554 Cherry Red (low mileage)
Owned: All in the 80's & running BRM's,Fuchs,OG Empis w/ big motors & 48IDA's Cal-Style!
1959 Convertible 151 L41
1955 Convertible 151 L41
1958 Convertible 151 L349
1966 KG Convertible L456
1967 KG Convertible L41
1959 117 Deluxe L451 |
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twinwindows
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Joined: December 08, 2000
Posts: 4059
Location: So.Cal. Highland Park GFK!
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| Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 1:07 pm Post subject: |
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For reels, You could at one time drive to any small privately owned vw shops and see if they wanted to sell any old parts and you could find Cool NOS parts, Found a set of complete heart lights in a guys tool box, All kinds of neat things cos they had no use for them. Cheap too!!!
Shops like B.C.E, KDF Enterprises would always have hard to find OG shit cos even back then there were alot of hard core restores who knew where to go to buy and sell parts.
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j8bug
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Joined: September 26, 2008
Posts: 1654
Location: When we were all (213) Los-Angeles
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| Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 5:54 pm Post subject: |
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found an old KdF ad
_________________
Frank Ochoa said; "I still have my convertible bug from high school. Now that Gramps is out Im going to make some changes but Im still going to keep it Cal-Style, you know, all original but lowered with some alloys"
Fred one of the original members of The Bus Boyz said; "We were the first to ever Cal-Style a Bus.. No one was doing it back then". |
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| Back to top |
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vwkidd
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Joined: August 14, 2004
Posts: 521
Location: Glendale, Cali via SouthEast LA
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| Posted: Mon May 14, 2012 9:23 pm Post subject: |
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Found some more 80's pics!!!!!
So another story from my early VW days. My first engine build & why............It was early 1982 I was 15-16 years old and saved & hustled & made money for my first big engine an 1835cc with all new parts. I remember this engine very well since it was the first major cash I spent on my VW's as a teen. Rimco machined 1974 AS41 case, 92mm Forged Cima P/C set, Oval ported & polished 40x35.5mm Stainless Valve heads from Small Car Specialties, New 44IDF Webers matched ported manifolds, 69mm DMS C/W 8 dowel crank (remember my first engine as I was still learning about what made HP, & reliability). So I took all my new parts to the local VW guru that built one of my friends 1641cc motor that seemed to be OK. So he assembled it fairly fast, & come to find out later that should have been my first clue that he was not a seasoned engine builder. So this engine was really quick and smooth but this guy apparently didn't set the end play correctly or didn't torque the gland nut because after only about a week of running I started to hear this horrific knocking noise (destroyed crank & flywheel).................So here I was a 16 year old kid with a bunch of money in parts for an engine that lasted only one week..........So I did the only thing I could do since I didn't have any more money at the moment...I started to read everything I could about setting deck height, setting compression ratios, end play, & building VW engines correctly........... And I built my first engine going directly to a perfomance 1835cc and not even having the basic 1600cc stock engine build under my belt.......Here are the pics & me at 15-16 years old.
You can see that the heads weren't torqued correctly and the carbs were running too rich (this same guy supposedly adjusted my carbs too???) check the Kennedy 2300lb clutch I used with a 3 puck ceramic!! Too much clutch I would soon learn later as I learned more about speed & reliability.
And me with the finished engine.....Original 36hp shroud before repops, Berg Linkage, German 009 with hi rev points, German sheet metal chrome plated by the Bumper Shop South Gate.
_________________
1955 151 Deluxe L219 Congo Green (Project)
1957 117 Deluxe L331 Horizon Blue (Project)
1954 117 Deluxe L227 Strato Silver "Delilah"
1966 141 Cabrio. L554 Cherry Red (low mileage)
Owned: All in the 80's & running BRM's,Fuchs,OG Empis w/ big motors & 48IDA's Cal-Style!
1959 Convertible 151 L41
1955 Convertible 151 L41
1958 Convertible 151 L349
1966 KG Convertible L456
1967 KG Convertible L41
1959 117 Deluxe L451 |
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