FAQ on "how to build a hard core cal-look car"

[SOB/RFH]

Come on guys and tell me I am wrong. But this is how I look at the perspective of building a hard core cal-looker.

First of all: Get a set of IDA:s and then build your self as mouch of a motor that funds allow. Halt the buying of parts and put it all togheter caouse you have no more money and all availble time will be consumed by the build up of the motor. Start spending for a gearbox and a shifter and a set of slicks. Buy a decent car, not mouch money left but you are going to be eager so just jump in to the first car you can get hold of. Put that motor and transmission in to the car and try to make brakes work flawlesslsy and set up the aligning......you will likely end up with the slicks mounted so take it out for a spin (insurance is madantory)....something will likely go wrong so you push it back in to the garage, order new parts and have time left for the first time and all energy going in the vains so it is of to buy the cheapest primer around. Mask the nesecitys and bomb it......probably listetning to loud music and drinking beer...........Next time car runs, it is crispy and leakfree so it is out for some test drivning....that meens that the industrial area ar attended and shifting is done with the spine after a while.......now running on your own is boring so you look for someone to nail...like a muscle car era car or a pokemon counterpart or if lesson has been done right, a motorcycle............life is at it's peek and if the front was lowered and the tires were big and littles you have a car that is fast and as mouch of a cal-look as it can be.

Just remember. If you had gone for the perfect sheetmetaljob and photoworthypaintjob........you would have had no money left for motor and no "good stories to tell friends".............. Still you get in to the mags from time to time with huge burn-outs and/or wheelies, so the lesson learned from wreckless drivning is going to give some ink. So what do you think?

[Martin Greaves]

Come on guys and tell me I am wrong. But this is how I look at the perspective of building a hard core cal-looker.




Ok then you are wrong.

[Fastbrit]

The essence of Cal Look revolves round a flawless paintjob, stunning interior, the 'right' stance AND a hot motor, built trans etc. 

[louisb]

Wow, that is the best one sentence sum up I have seen yet.

--louis

[richie]

sven,all sounds very familiar,except for the drinking beer part   T only here   cheers richie,uk

[Jon]

SOB, sometimes I think you confuse Cal-looking with HotRodding...! While Hotrodding is about being a fast rebel in a self built car with attitude,  cal looking seems to be the opposite...  sometimes!

Thanks for the tints BTW!!!

[alex d]

oh well, I agree a flawless paintjob is part of the look, but when you have to decide how to spend your pennies, I think most of us would choose the hot engine before paint 

[Fastbrit]

oh well, I agree a flawless paintjob is part of the look, but when you have to decide how to spend your pennies, I think most of us would choose the hot engine before paint 

But then the car isn't finished...

[Grelland]

Is there such a thing as a finished car???

[louisb]

Is there such a thing as a finished car???

no

--louis

[Fastbrit]

Is there such a thing as a finished car???

What I'm saying is that the very essence of California Look is a sharp-looking, well-detailed car, backed up with a hot engine etc. Until a car has been painted and detailed, it isn't a Cal Looker – it's a project under construction.

[Shubee2 (DSK)]

The Real Cal Look Cars all had A Motor to Back Up The Look  The Old Cal Looks Were all in Differnt Stages Of Being Completed in most Cases The Motor  and Tran's Came First, then a Shifter,Wheels, Gauges,Steering Wheel, Paint and Body then The Last Thing Was the Interior In The 70's you might of had a Primered Beater pull up next to you at a Light with a Dumped Front End and A Nice Rumble Coming from the Engine Compartment you look over at the Guy in the Bug and kind of Laugh then the Light Turns Green and you find yourself about ten car's behind that old VW Bug  I Can Relate to This Because I Had A Bug Just Like What We Are Talking About, Dropped Front Tee Bars Primered and Chromies with no Hubcaps And A IDA Motor that was Street Driven and Ran Mid 13's On The Street.

[Jon]

But it wasnt a called a Cal-look until it was done then? Or are we mixing in some of the rules of DKP here?
Done cars/ cal-lookers are thin on the ground here in Norway by these standards... Even the "Red Harring" is dismissed from this crowd... 

[louisb]

The Real Cal Look Cars all had A Motor to Back Up The Look  The Old Cal Looks Were all in Differnt Stages Of Being Completed in most Cases The Motor  and Tran's Came First, then a Shifter,Wheels, Gauges,Steering Wheel, Paint and Body then The Last Thing Was the Interior In The 70's you might of had a Primered Beater pull up next to you at a Light with a Dumped Front End and A Nice Rumble Coming from the Engine Compartment you look over at the Guy in the Bug and kind of Laugh then the Light Turns Green and you find yourself about ten car's behind that old VW Bug  I Can Relate to This Because I Had A Bug Just Like What We Are Talking About, Dropped Front Tee Bars Primered and Chromies with no Hubcaps And A IDA Motor that was Street Driven and Ran Mid 13's On The Street.

My only comment here is that most VWs these days need so much in the way of repairs that this might not be possible. Back then the cars that most were modifying where what, 15 years old at the most. You could still find a car that could be driven while it was fixed up. These days you have to pretty much rebuild the whole car from bottom to top because they are completely worn out. And no i don't know if this is even relevant. Its Monday morning and I have not had my second cup of coffee.

--louis

[SOB/RFH]

SOB, sometimes I think you confuse Cal-looking with HotRodding...! While Hotrodding is about being a fast rebel in a self built car with attitude,  cal looking seems to be the opposite...  sometimes!

Thanks for the tints BTW!!!

Rebel.......who, me!!?? No way!! I am just the average citizen....just happen to have a lowerd Volkswagen!!! As close to pure Hot Rod as it can be!!!


By the way. I don't wan't to effect the debate, but has anyone seen the photos from the "Crazy Caravan" showing the, at that time so popular California look cars, dumped with primer or just spots of primer.......anyway, those caravans must have been for the ugly cars used on the street back then!! 

[Rick Meredith]

Is there such a thing as a finished car???

When you sell it, it's done... at least for you... then it's up to the next owner.

[folkevogn]

What I'm saying is that the very essence of California Look is a sharp-looking, well-detailed car, backed up with a hot engine etc. Until a car has been painted and detailed, it isn't a Cal Looker – it's a project under construction.
[/quote]

I feel like there is no end to this discusion. I think it all boils down to that everyone has his/her own  opinion about cal-look.
With that in mind I must disagree with you Keith.
I think cal-look developed out of students that wanted to make their cars look better, and ended up with the cars we all have seen pictures of from the seventhies bug ins. It took alot of money to build a cal-look as you describe it in the seventhies(today aswell) and on a tight student budget you had to make some comprimisses(like paint job). If you where loaded with cash in the seventhies you would most likely not buy a beetle, to me this is a big part in the essence of true cal-look.
Cal-look to me is the history, and I dont care that people say that the cars evolved back then and that they should today aswell(tachometer etc...) For me it ended when the cars got slammed in the rear.
So a true cal-look car build today would be to replicate what they did back then with your own twist, as long as it is peroid details.
I think you are setting a magazine cover car as a benchmark for what cal-look is(I dont think it has to be).

I started to build my first "cal-look" car back in 1999, I saw some magazines with cal-look cars and after seeing and hearing Paul Rui`s splitt the year before I used all my savings to build my own. I got my inspiration from the DKP III cars(they where the coolest beetles I had ever seen) and wanted something simular. I started to reed the cal-look history , and after a while I understood that not all the DKP III looked like true cal-look cars , but there I was with tachometer, third generation Berg shifter and everything(dont get me wrong, I think they are really cool cars). I`m a student as they were back then so I dont have the money to change all the components to make it a true cal-look. But I see my car as a cal-look car regardless of it not being a true cal-look car or having the show quality of the DKP III cars. In some ways the story of my car today is a little bit simular to what it was back then, we are taken small steps at a time to build the cars of our dreams.
My next car will be a true cal-look car(a car to be driven, not a rennkafer trailer queen), I cant buy all the parts at ones so I will have upgrade it over longer period, and I dont mind because to me that is what true cal-look history is about.

 This is just my interpetation of the cal-look, and I am sticking with it.

And at last I would like to thank the people of DKP III and offcourse you Keith for writing the bible. You have done alot for the cal-look movement. I probebly wouldn`t have been into cal-look if I hadn`t seen and heard about you guys.

[Shubee2 (DSK)]

What I'm saying is that the very essence of California Look is a sharp-looking, well-detailed car, backed up with a hot engine etc. Until a car has been painted and detailed, it isn't a Cal Looker – it's a project under construction.

I feel like there is no end to this discusion. I think it all boils down to that everyone has his/her own  opinion about cal-look.
With that in mind I must disagree with you Keith.
I think cal-look developed out of students that wanted to make their cars look better, and ended up with the cars we all have seen pictures of from the seventhies bug ins. It took alot of money to build a cal-look as you describe it in the seventhies(today aswell) and on a tight student budget you had to make some comprimisses(like paint job). If you where loaded with cash in the seventhies you would most likely not buy a beetle, to me this is a big part in the essence of true cal-look.
Cal-look to me is the history, and I dont care that people say that the cars evolved back then and that they should today aswell(tachometer etc...) For me it ended when the cars got slammed in the rear.
So a true cal-look car build today would be to replicate what they did back then with your own twist, as long as it is peroid details.
I think you are setting a magazine cover car as a benchmark for what cal-look is(I dont think it has to be).

I started to build my first "cal-look" car back in 1999, I saw some magazines with cal-look cars and after seeing and hearing Paul Rui`s splitt the year before I used all my savings to build my own. I got my inspiration from the DKP III cars(they where the coolest beetles I had ever seen) and wanted something simular. I started to reed the cal-look history , and after a while I understood that not all the DKP III looked like true cal-look cars , but there I was with tachometer, third generation Berg shifter and everything(dont get me wrong, I think they are really cool cars). I`m a student as they were back then so I dont have the money to change all the components to make it a true cal-look. But I see my car as a cal-look car regardless of it not being a true cal-look car or having the show quality of the DKP III cars. In some ways the story of my car today is a little bit simular to what it was back then, we are taken small steps at a time to build the cars of our dreams.
My next car will be a true cal-look car(a car to be driven, not a rennkafer trailer queen), I cant buy all the parts at ones so I will have upgrade it over longer period, and I dont mind because to me that is what true cal-look history is about.

 This is just my interpetation of the cal-look, and I am sticking with it.

And at last I would like to thank the people of DKP III and offcourse you Keith for writing the bible. You have done alot for the cal-look movement. I probebly wouldn`t have been into cal-look if I hadn`t seen and heard about you guys.


[/quote] I Agree  With This And I Was Around Back Then! I Was In DVB in 1975 and Started DSK in 1976 with Some Other Friends When Orange County Cal Looks and VW Clubs Were Cookin Street Racing evey weekend,VW Car Rallys every Month Get Togethers with other Clubs,What Happened to those Days?? Cars Built Back In the Day were Built in Stages No One Built A Car Like they Do today Spending Countless Hours and Dollars On Cars Car Back in the Day Were Driven While they were being Upgraded And There was No Such Thing As A Trailer Queen As Nice as Keith Goss's Chop top Was He Drove It Same Go's For Mike Martinez's Chop Top The Cars Of Today are way Over Built, The Real Cal Look Cars all had A Motor to Back Up The Look  The Old Cal Looks Were all in Differnt Stages Of Being Completed in most Cases The Motor  and Tran's Came First, then a Shifter,Wheels, Gauges,Steering Wheel, Paint and Body then The Last Thing Was the Interior In The 70's you might of had a Primered Beater pull up next to you at a Light with a Dumped Front End and A Nice Rumble Coming from the Engine Compartment you look over at the Guy in the Bug and kind of Laugh then the Light Turns Green and you find yourself about ten car's behind that old VW Bug  I Can Relate to This Because I Had A Bug Just Like What We Are Talking About, Dropped Front Tee Bars Primered and Chromies with no Hubcaps And A IDA Motor that was Street Driven and Ran Mid 13's On The Street.

[lowfastbus]

Something makes me thinks Shubee's PC is echo-ing