The Cal-look Lounge

(http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2771/4157671218_fa0138f6f7.jpg)

WTF has happened to the seats and steering wheel? BMW M3 seats and 'Pep-Boys special' wheel just don't cut it. Poor car....

eBay lisitng here! (http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Volkswagen-Beetle-Classic_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem1e596f654eQQitemZ130349491534QQptZUSQ5fCarsQ5fTrucks)

I don't like it.  what is with the lights in the front bumper, lights on the front quarter panels, minging interior.  Change of engine, engine lid, interior, dash layout, the list of changes is huge.

 :o :o :'(

Me not likey, at all.... >:( Can you even call that thing as El Diablo Gris anymore ?

wo! wo!  carpet under the hood?   thats a bummer.

And its not even Cal look but still made it on here ::)

cheers richie,uk

:D :D :D :D

Its like they scabed all the good parts off and there selling whats left. WTF is up with the interior !

Hmm, now what are you doing looking at cars for sale on e-bay???

Disturbing!!!!!  seats, steering wheel , carpeted front. all garbage.   What happened to the porsche fan shroud?

I quite like it  :-*....the steering wheel in particular would help offset the cost of purchase, especially if modelled in a Corsa or Saxo!

What have they done, what possessed them?  Did a quick search and saw it was previously advertised on Old Bugs with original seats, fan shroud, no carpet and proper bumpers, since then they did this to it  :o

So who is the 'O.C. celebrity'  that spend $11,000 on work to spoil a cool car.

Those extra lights, horrible steering wheel and ugly indicator stalk all belong on a ricer not a Cal Looker.  :'(

I learned it all from you...  ;)

It is my understanding that the new owner, who is larger in size than Darrell, could not drive the car with the Porsche 356 steering wheel, Berg T-handle, and stock seats. So, changes were made. He is also very old school, as the 911 fan shroud was not his taste, so he had F&A redo the engine to more period correct. Compression was dropped as well. Remember, there is no reserve on this auction so high bidder, drives it home...

                                                       Can I help, Bill? I'll get the sawzall.

But, but.but.... what about the extra lights! :o

Wow. Aside from the many, many sins commited to it you would think the least they could do is clean up the underside.

deano forgot the mention the guy has presciption glasses and only 20% of his vision at night.

Did the new owner kept the "old parts" ?   ???

No reserve... Hummm  still worth giving it a good try   8)

I will.

madfrog

Interesting mix of conflicting "improvements."  The car clearly has alot of attention to detail from the prior owner.  The new changes include rubber fuel hose and breather hose with standard worm clamps.   ???  OEM style fuel pump.  Inexpensive aluminum crank pulley.  Custom Berg Linkage (did I miss it, what's custom about it?).  And like mentioned above, I don't get the modifications made to the front bumper.  Is that an "import tunner" modification somehow making its way into the cal-look world?  Bottom line, though, is the owner is entitled to make whatever changes he/she wants to make.   

woauuww have you seen that comodo(turnsignal switch)
(http://i.ebayimg.com/04/!BgrNCF!CGk~$(KGrHqMOKjUErzJ-+Lh7BLGMgigbRQ~~_3.JPG)

I can't believe the new owner didn't paint it too! If this were April, I would say it has to be a joke,..kind of like the side marker lights,...oh, and every single thing that was changed,....every single thing.

While this car never was amongst my favorite cal-lookers, what has become of it now is just sad.

Is it just my eyes or funny lighting but the new deck lid looks off shade? that and the rest of the fugly mods!!!!!!!!!

Thats a Grote TS switch for a semi truck. Sweet.

I never liked the Porsche shroud that was on it to begin with, as for me it's just one more thing for V8 guys to say "Oh, see, it does have a Porschee engine in thar!"  Lol ;D  The changes that were made interior wise and exteriorwise, I can't stand.  And I really don't like the seller capitilizing on the previous owner's efforts; I would be very interested to know who the "local celebrity" in Orange County is that is referenced in the ad?

The seller's name probably isn't someone you heard of on this, or any other forum.

Looks like the Owner found a J C Whitney Catalog and went wild

He PIMPED the ride!  >:( Or basicly ruined it, samething.  :(

Ted

Bill Schwimmer maybe?

New owner turned it into a Cal- "Don't" Look !
 :'(  >:(

Anybody have any original pictures of the front of the car when darrel had it ? Why does the hood not line up?

I seem to remember dyno don detailing the car at the classic. Maybe he knows something ??

Some highlights for me are (1) the gory holes punched through the floorpan to allow the installation of the BMW seats.  (2) the black vinyl wrap on the gauge panels (3) the hilarious turn signal switch

The seller is the same guy who bought my old '65.  Straight up guy. Regardless of what he did to it it is his car and he can change what he wants. He changed my old car also, FAT engine, more gauges, etc.

Yeah, but he did the same thing to your car Mike. It looked much better before he modified, it in my opinion.

I'd like to help.... Remember "if you want a nice Baja, you need to start with a nice car" ;D

Their are a lot of close minded people on here including the subject holder...shame!

                                                              Well played!!!!! I'd scan his card and put it up, but I want to watch this linger.

Very kind of you to post something like that Bill.   ::)  Geez! Even though I don't know the owner, I would never stoop that low.  >:(

I remember first seeing this car in all the magazines at the time it was debut.  What an over the top car that was perfect the way it was.  Was it traditional Cal-Look? No, but a beautiful car just the same.  I just can not believe someone would do those horrible things to that car!  How tragic.  I hope someone buys it and can somehow get it back to the way it was originally.

 The new owner can do what he likes for sure... If he likes it then fine :)

That said in light of what the car looked like before and how much praise and admiration it had attracted, it seem sstrange that the new owner felt he could improve the car with the modifications he's carried out.

I don't expect for a second the changes were made with thought for the opinions of others ( such as us) and why indeed should they??

For my part I actually don't like the car now or even before! I can certainly appreciate what went into the building of the car and don't detract in any way from it's superb finish. I'd love to have some of the parts the car has for my stash for certain, but I wouldn't personally combine some of them together in the future?

I admit that I'm possibly in the extreme minority in my dislike of the car, buy hey that's life isn't it. It's what makes us all different and in truth that is what this is all about really as far as I can see.

The new owner just did something different, or perhaps just what he liked?

As the saying goes, 'You pays your Money and take your chance' .. However Badly the money is spent... ;D

Probably not closed properly for the shoot? Climbing in and out of the car to pull the lock, when you've forgotten to take a pic of something gets annoying after a while.

 :'( :'(

 It's true that the buyer of any car can do anything he wants to it, heck, I even expressed my own view that I didn't care for the Porsche shroud originally on the engine when Darrell had it, nothing personal, though!  The changes just don't suit my tastes, nothing wrong with people expressing that.  I did ask about the engine build, I was told the 201 hp mill blew up shortly after this current owner bought the car.  He also said it's changed owners twice since Darrell originally built it.

Steve, I don't think the people are close minded, the just expressed their opinion. Of course everybody is allowed to do whatever he wants to do to his own car. I can understand if someone makes changes because of safety reasons - like the seats with headrests and modern seatbelts. But the steering wheel and the turn signal switch are just bad taste (maybe the lights in the bumper too). Sorry to say. That has nothing to do with the fact that we are all Cal Look fans on here. These modifications just don't look right on this car - they don't fit the theme.
Just my two cents,

Georg

I can't understand people buying a car like this with the intent of making it a "driver," but that's just me.  People can cite upgrades for safety all they want, but the fact is VWs are not the car to be driving if crash protection is a priority.  Not like modern seat belts or those seats are going to be much good for anything than a minor fender-bender.  That car should have stayed as it was built, IMO.  Not hating on the current owner, just my thoughts.

That's a shame. It wasn't my favorite of the "street rod" quality VW's, either, but it still demanded respect. I remember it won a trophy at a Goodguys show- that's a very impressive feat. They lost the custom decklid, too, and replaced it with a "W". I can't stand later models with "W" 'lids!

Someone really fucked that car up.


Edit:
I just saw the shitty, cheap black carpet they upholstered the ENTIRE trunk in. Simply atrocious :'(

Can you imagine the guy with the spray gun of contact cement blowing it all over the trunk to make that carpet stay in place?

Yup... the car got douched up pretty bad.  Again, not a personal attack on whoever the heck owns it now, but in my own humble opinion, that car has been completely infected with bad taste. ;D

i don't like it either but it is still a very clean car.
and it looks like some people do like the style of it,25.000 dollar all ready.

henk!!!

I didn't think of that earlier. Thanks for ruining my day!

I can't believe through out this modification process that not one person succeeded in stopping him at some point... or maybe they did. Who knows, it could have ended up a lot worse!!

there was once some philosopher dude on this forum who said   "cool is not for sale"   ;)

i think that works here on a couple of levels.

Just curious, but does anybody know what Darrel sold it for back then?

WTF is that blinker switch from, a Hyundai?

I agree that everyone has their own opinion of what  Cal-Look should be like or not, but what really bothers me is when someone comes along and posts a person's car just to merely state negative attributes about it. That doesn't send a positive signal to the person posting it or this forum. What's even worse is someone posting a verbal attack towards a person. Last time I checked, this forum wasn't about ripping a person's car down but rather to help people in a positive way. YES, WE ARE ALL CAL-LOOK FANS ON HERE AND LET US SUPPORT EACH OTHER rather than degrade a person's car. Maybe I'm missing something here!  :-\

Steve, the forum also acts as a news/info site. The fact that this car is for sale is newsworthy in itself,and worthy of posting. But if, for example, Russell rolled Tar Babe out and we'd all discovered he'd painted it red and installed a turbo motor, I think people might have commented on that, even though it's his own car, so why not this? I am sad that Darrell's car has ended up looking like this, but each to his own, I guess. But I won't say 'Wow, doesn't this look great!' when I know what heartache Darrell went through when building, and then having to sell, his masterpiece. And if you ever sold you truly stunning ’67 and it ended up looking like this, I think I'd still find it hard not to say something.

But you're right – it's his car. Let the marketplace decide if the mods are for the better.  :)

I am not sure wether  the market will decide if the mods are for the better or rather that this car still got a lot of potential  8)

cheers

madfrog

What ! Nooo ! :o :o :o    ;D Sorry keith, too easy !

In all cases, a good lesson for everyone ! Never sell his car ! (or... paint it in black before :))
Only Hope about this one ! Next owner will turn over all as it was before. (or ... make worst) And even place a period correct rear decklid...  it can be cool :)
( advice from Dr. Nordhoff)
Dont even think to find... there is no excuse for bad taste !

Agreed, that this is a news site but poking negative comments and belittling the owner and his decisions, is news I can do without. IMO apples and oranges with your example. Tar Babe is known as a historic race car, so it would probably be in the best interest to restore it as it was in it's heyday. But even if Russell did choose to go a different route, I would certainly respect his decision. BTW, I called Darrell today. He seems to be totally out of the VW circle  :-\

Tar babe...... its been black, then red, then white/red, then red, then black then bare metal and now its rat look........ well Black.

and the turbo will look great bursting out the decklid !!! along with the Baja kit.  ;D

Keith, why bring me into this.......  on the original post the owner can do what they like...... as far as im concerned. Would i buy it now: NO, would i have bought ir before NO, i didnt like the decklid then, just my 2 cents.

(http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c218/smitty59/yates.jpg)
that is one BITCHEN license plate frame!  I think one like that would look good on my car. :)
too bad about the car though, but it is his car.

     Who bought Darrell" car someone in the state or out of the country?

     Frenchy

Well that's a good deal, a few grand to bring it back and you have a nice car at a fraction of what it cost to build.

Wow it went for $28.7k. Someone got a deal.

It may not be really  sold, there is a lot of tricks that can be used on ebay  ;)

If it is , then it's pretty a good deal, I  hope it's gone to a good home...

madfrog

I thought I would jump on here and say a couple of things. First off I am Darrell's brother and we really appreciate all of the kind words that have been expressed here. We know that everybody has different tastes and that's what. makes everybody's car unique. I can tell you that we were sick to our stomachs to see what has transpired with the car but what are you gonna do? Darrell has not been involved in the VW scene since he sold the car. With that being said I'm sure that this was not his last VW build. Darrell has built many cars over the years including 3 cars that were in Hot VW's. He is the type of person who does it 1 way.
He just wanted me to post and thank everyone for their kind words.

Merry Christmas
Gavin Baker

Gavin, your Notchback made the February issue of Hot VWs.....

I think we should let this go now and see what happens to the car, if the new owner keeps it the way it is, or put it back to the way it was, or at least give it it's Class back.
As for Darrell, I'm hope some day he will create another fantastic VW, better than the "EL DIABLO", will just have to wait and see.  :)

Ted

I am sure there is more truth to this statement. I don't believe the car was sold. Look at the buyer background in ebay.

Darrell Baker's car did not sell on e-bay... Just FYI.

We had a pretty good feeling that it didnt sell when you looked at the buyers history.

I just puked in my mouth a little. Atrocious!!! Money can't buy anyone taste, that's for sure!!

 >:( >:( >:( :'( :'( :'(  that suck´sssssssssss

Wow, same seller sold this. I love Mopars!!!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130347907169

Seller did not own DB's old car, but rather, was paid to list it, just as he did for that green MoPar.... and others.

Yup, I understood that...  ;)