Thurber's 63

[RobtheManx]

Hi all , does anyone have any idea what the colour of Mark Thurbers bug was . My wife is trying to choose a colour for her bug .

Cheers , Rob

[speedwell]

a metallic brown

[Flow]

Woaaaa the Aronson's car with Goodyear is AWESOME !!!! 

[nicolas]

i thought they called it 'roothbeer' in the callook book, not sure i that is a colourname after all. but it was also the inspiration for my fastbacks brown.

[70slooker]

not trying to highjack this good topic, im sorry if anyones cranky for the question, but would any of the original guys recall what kinda bracket set up yas were using for the front licence plate, ive tried many attempts but they all smacked the hood in the wind, please if anyone can help me out pm me or whatever floats your boat!

once again im sorry but these pics pegged my interest

[Rick Meredith]

not trying to highjack this good topic, im sorry if anyones cranky for the question, but would any of the original guys recall what kinda bracket set up yas were using for the front licence plate, ive tried many attempts but they all smacked the hood in the wind, please if anyone can help me out pm me or whatever floats your boat!

once again im sorry but these pics pegged my interest

I ran a similar setup when I ran t-bars on my '67. I used an extra pair of the tubes that ran from the top of the uprights to the bumper brackets on US bumpers. I increased the bend where the tubes met the overriders. The other ends I bolted to the drain holes in the spare tire well using large fender washers to distribute the weight and stabilize the plate.

[H67bug]

Believe it to be Ford Roman Bronze ...

like this homage car

[RobtheManx]

Thanks for the help , I'll check out the ford colour . Don't mind the thread hijack , I was wondering that too. I think we're gonna go for buggy bumpers , so I'll hang the plate from that .
She can't choose between Metallic brown or a Street Dragon style green.

Cheers , Rob

[Neil Davies]

Believe it to be Ford Roman Bronze ...

like this homage car

I can't see the picture here at work (photobucket is blocked by the school firewall) but I'm guessing that it's one of Steve Bodycote's '63. If it is, I can tell you that it was definately Ford Roman Bronze, applied by a garage in Kidderminster. It had a Bernie interior and a Stateside Tuning 1776. In it's previous Fontana Grey incarnation it had one of the first sets of MWS BRMs - it ran on polished fives first because MWS hadn't got the wheels ready! One of my favourite cars, in both the guises it was in our club, although I've not seen it for years!

[Zach Gomulka]

Was Thurber's car the same colour before he lost the trim?

[Sarge]

I remember Mark's car as being more bronze then brown.  Here's some old pics ...

[Zach Gomulka]

WOW. That's a GREAT looking ride. Soooooo many cool details! Thanks for posting those, Sarge. Made my morning

[Zach Gomulka]

Whatever happened to the car? Would be a great car to find/restore

[speedwell]

cool pict bro thx for sharing 

[Sarge]

My pleasure guys!  Here's a couple more pics I found... looks like the BRM spokes were painted dark brown.  Having worked with Mark at Commonwealth VW for many years, we talked about his car a lot.  I want to say the color was a Mopar selection and that the car no longer exists.  Looking closely, the car appears to be a 1965 (license light), too.  We both remember punching off from many traffic lights together back then....

[speedwell]

when seeing that last picture of mark's dashboard , i just remember i ever saw this one somewhere   

here we go , it was in volksworld  in teh report how to create a real cal looker 

[johnl]

not trying to highjack this good topic, im sorry if anyones cranky for the question, but would any of the original guys recall what kinda bracket set up yas were using for the front licence plate, ive tried many attempts but they all smacked the hood in the wind, please if anyone can help me out pm me or whatever floats your boat!

once again im sorry but these pics pegged my interest

I ran a similar setup when I ran t-bars on my '67. I used an extra pair of the tubes that ran from the top of the uprights to the bumper brackets on US bumpers. I increased the bend where the tubes met the overriders. The other ends I bolted to the drain holes in the spare tire well using large fender washers to distribute the weight and stabilize the plate.

The statement above is as I remember it.  Jim Edmiston was the first I remember doing such and I followed when I created the Butternut car.  Photo attached.

[Rick Meredith]

not trying to highjack this good topic, im sorry if anyones cranky for the question, but would any of the original guys recall what kinda bracket set up yas were using for the front licence plate, ive tried many attempts but they all smacked the hood in the wind, please if anyone can help me out pm me or whatever floats your boat!

once again im sorry but these pics pegged my interest

I ran a similar setup when I ran t-bars on my '67. I used an extra pair of the tubes that ran from the top of the uprights to the bumper brackets on US bumpers. I increased the bend where the tubes met the overriders. The other ends I bolted to the drain holes in the spare tire well using large fender washers to distribute the weight and stabilize the plate.

The statement above is as I remember it.  Jim Edmiston was the first I remember doing such and I followed when I created the Butternut car.  Photo attached.

Geez and I thought I had come up with this on my own!   

[Zach Gomulka]

Looks like a '64 to me, if the deckild is correct to the car.

[speedwell]

Looks like a '64 to me, if the deckild is correct to the car.

x2 and the windows  mounts are the bigger one , not the small one like the one a 65

[RhoadsVW]

I like the second picture the best with the DRF decals in the windows. 

[Sarge]

Looks like a '64 to me, if the deckild is correct to the car.

I called Mark... his car was a 1962 that he added a later model license light surround to so it would look like a '67.

[nlvtinman]

As I look at the first posted photo, Mark's car with full bumpers and not yet lowered, and Gregs car in the earliest stages of it's transition to it's iconic future self, does anyone know what year that photo might have been taken in?

[lawrence]

Sarge, those pics are real neat.

[johnl]

As I look at the first posted photo, Mark's car with full bumpers and not yet lowered, and Gregs car in the earliest stages of it's transition to it's iconic future self, does anyone know what year that photo might have been taken in?

I'm thinking late 1969 or early 1970.

[kingsburgphil]

when seeing that last picture of mark's dashboard , i just remember i ever saw this one somewhere   

here we go , it was in volksworld  in teh report how to create a real cal looker 

In it's last incarnation Mark's car had a engine turned brass dashboard, which looked bitchen in his car. I don't recall the number, but the dash
took beaucoup hours to complete.

[70slooker]

i never even thought about using the uprights!! thanks guys thats awsome!

another question on all the famous early cars running berg linkages across the fan mount they all seem to have bolt on eyes holding the linkage rod, i have two sets of earlies but they both have welded on tabs, was this a custom change for these guys or did berg just use this style between productions??

[So.Cal.Life]

      Back in 1974 Mark sold his car to a classmate  of mine Rick Goodin for $1400.00 , a few months later Rick rear ended someone, fixing the car at Beckers cost Rick another $1400.00 bucks, he kept the car another year or so, (many good times with it,) sold it oddly enough, for $1400.00  I lost track of it about 1979 . That car was a steal at the price, when Mark sold it to Rick it had a strong running 1600cc Holley Bug spray motor, chrome wheels with the hubcap-lugnut area painted black , the brass engine turned dash was done by Mark himself , you have to do work like that yourself to realize what a labor of love it was-is , it was a great car, built by a great guy. During my time working at F.A.T. he helped me in so many ways, Thank You, MarkThurber,     KG

[H67bug]

I can't see the picture here at work (photobucket is blocked by the school firewall) but I'm guessing that it's one of Steve Bodycote's '63. If it is, I can tell you that it was definately Ford Roman Bronze, applied by a garage in Kidderminster. It had a Bernie interior and a Stateside Tuning 1776. In it's previous Fontana Grey incarnation it had one of the first sets of MWS BRMs - it ran on polished fives first because MWS hadn't got the wheels ready! One of my favourite cars, in both the guises it was in our club, although I've not seen it for years!
[/quote]

Hi

It was sold on in a serious of trades and when I last saw it had lost much of the cars cal look influence and had a lot of questionable (IMO) custom touches.

SOme great history shared here- thanks

[nicolas]

funny how the colour of the english 63 is probably the same as mine... i was inspired like i said by the callook book of Keith many years ago and somehow that colour or idea stuck so much to paint it that way, i didn't look the colour up from Mark's car, but i flipped through hundreds of colourcharts and paintcodes from all different brands and always kept coming back to this brown (the original intention was to keep the seasand colour or a mettalic hue of seasand, but none stoud out as much as this brown). so in the end i chose what i really liked and that was a US ford colour. i had a paintcode, but never bothered to write it down...
when i had to change the decklid for a correct one i had to repaint it and the colour of the car was scanned. they didn't come up with the ford colour, but with a audi 80 or 100 colour from 83/84, which is also cool in my opinion.
and yes Marks car is more bronze then brown in all the other pictures i have seen afterwards. so it was somewhat of an inspiration, and it is cool to hear that there is a similar coloured bug in england, i didn't know... maybe in the future even 2...  there is also a similar, but lighter one that comes from Switzerland and that was featured in ultra some years ago.

sorry for rambling.