The Cal-look Lounge

So finally I have the balls to post.... this may not be to everyone's liking so I will apologise in advance..... mmmm, nope I wont.

Why is that there seems to be nothing interesting going on in the VW Scene anymore, the lounge once a great place with great people, even seems to be quite and most topics are of little interest, over the last year or so Ive seen our loveable little bugs as they were truly intended for standard and stock grow on me even more, so much so that whilst I love the history and the old gassers and cal look, the whole hobby seems to have went AWOL, I mean how much same bus's and patina cars can we take.....

Even the magazines once our main stay of the scene are struggling to print cars we can dream of owning, instead printing cars we would'nt want to own.....

I would appreciate your views on what you think and any advice to help me rekindle the vibe, if you want to moan at me for sharing my feelings, please don't, we should encourage open conversation and freedom of speech, or we will be no better than some of the dictators of the world.

One slightly down but not out VW fanatic.

Russell

Gday Russell.

In my humble opinion the VW scene is becoming a bit stale due to the proliferation of expert opinion on what works and doesn't (eg. centremounts vs twin Webers), what's cool and isn't ('59s vs Superbugs), what's necessary or not (bumpers, T-bars, over-riders, blah, blah, blah). We have over the years allowed ourselves to be pidgeon-holed and "LOOKED" out of existence.

I've noticed the traffic around here has really slowed as of late. I don't want to even think it, but perhaps the cal look resurgence we enjoyed over the last few years is over? The VW market really has gone to the Bus, and I think understandably so. I love beetles just as much as anyone on here, but they aren't nearly as practical as a bus is, especially to a family. A bus allows guys AND their families be a part of the scene, it's easier to justify the expense (even if the expense has gone out of control).

Also, I love it but this site is all about the past, very little is new. How long can you keep talking about the good old days?

totally agreed with you here

Can't remember the last time I picked a mag up and got excited, buses and rat-look really don't do it for me

Hi Russell
I agree thay it is disappointing that there are so few posts on here now.  Everyday I look but the number of posts per day seems to have dropped in the past year.  Has Facebook killed the forums?  It's a shame as there is so much knowledge out there still to be shared.  At least we aren't seeing the online arguments and disagreement that we see elsewhere (and never a trustworthy answer to the question that was asked by the original poster).

I lost heart with a number of the magazines many years ago as the cars were all being built with very large budgets that as a Dad with three young children seemed too far out of my reach. I enjoyed seeing them but also wanted to see cars that I could afford.  That's why I was pleased to help with TotalVW/Flat4.  However from what I see of them now there do seem to be more how to articles etc.  

Not sure what the answer is but I for one will still keep looking and posting my questions.

You got it in one...

Look at all the different Facebook pages these days: Cal Look, OCIR, VW Gassers etc etc etc... instant posting, instant copying other people's photos - so easy to spread information (and a lot of disinformation, too...).

As for the cars featured by magazines, they can only feature cars that people build. Most shows these days are dominated by 'patina' (aka shit-look) cars and slammed Buses. I know it's a bit of a 'chicken and egg' situation – mags feature these cars, so more people want to build them, or is it the other way round? – but the truth is, if people really don't like these cars/Buses then they wouldn't build or drive them.

You could argue that forums like this are self-defeating in that people get the impression that they MUST follow certain 'rules' to be accepted. Facebook exposes those same people to a wider variety of styles and tastes without the need to register on several different forums.

Just my two cents...  :)

...Keith, you are making Facebook sound interesting...but I am still not going to join it as I have enough distractions already...

Can you just stop associating patina cars with shit look ?! Because I take it really personally... Ok, facebook killed forums, it's a fact. But maybe what's killing cal look is money, don't you think so ? I'm 24, student, my car is patina and with a stock engine, my dream is to make a real cal look but a resto will cost me a least 20000$...

I feel like you grew old, your income became bigger and you just forgot that it's getting more and more difficult to make a beautiful, clean and fast car...

As cool parts are getting old, rare and expensive, cal look become elitist, and people enjoy their VW as they can, letting paint in a bad shape because they can't spend their money in a full resto. That's as simple as that... They want to ride their car right now and not in 5 years.

The lounge is still a great place but you can't expect people to come here if they think you are "playing in an upper class".

I used to buy a couple of magazines each month.
One of them I have given up on as its become a bit internetty since a well lnown editor left??
Every issue one of the writers has to put some feature car down , be it" the tyres are wrong" or "shame about the wiring"
If they have to have a go at the cars why have they bothered to feature them??
And not being an old fuddy duddy but the issue I bought a few weeks ago even had "fuck" in the write up I am sorry but kids buy the magazine and dont need that!
Its as though they think they deciede whats cool or allowed!!
End of rant
Has the net killed the scene??

I`m in the process of rebuilding my 64 that I bought back after eight years and I`m not posting any rebuild threads or posts because I feel like these days show cars are not a big surprise like they used to be. I used to look really forward to just turning up at a show or reading a mag to check out the latest and greatest car.
 I`ve been out the scene for about eight to ten years because I felt it was getting a bit stale but that's just me. I too am bored of the patina look, its basically a lazy arse way of picking up a trophy or two and to be honest I think its bullshit.  It takes real effort and time to build a proper show car, the standard has gone up since I last showed my 64 in the volksworld show 05 and I`m going to great lengths to take my car to that level and I`m excited to get it back on display. It wont be seen on the net before it hopefully goes on a display somewhere at a show.
  I don't think its he internets fault, it was bound to happen but the spark is still there for me.

I agree and disagree with what has been said.

I am about to buy a bus, it will probably be left in patina mode as I don't have the money necessary to paint it.  I would love to have a shiny bus but buying the bus and fitting out the interior will leave me with no money to do anything else.  I am bored of rat look and unless it is a special vehicle it no longer deserves magazine space.

I prefer the build threads than looking at the finished pictures in a magazine, it really shows the level of detail that a few published pics cannot do justice to.

I remember the 150 odd pages on restowagen of the 56 convertible.  WOW. The work was truly amazing and most of it hidden.

Zach hit the nail on the head, the bus will allow the whole family (wife and 2 kids) to enjoy VWs.  I have just been told my engine is done and I need to pick it up, perhaps when the weather is drier I might change my mind as I enjoy blipping the throttle in my little bug.

I asked my wife one fall if I had received any new VW magazines lately, she told me that I hadn't received any since early spring, and that the subscriptions had run out.
Thats how I realized that they didn't play a big role in my life anymore. I remember the last few I got where I just flicked through to see if there was anything with a normal beam in there. Or a bus not looking like a SF trolley.

I guess Keith has a valid point about Facebook, it gives bigger perspectives on things, and I do get inspired... but I still play only with VW's.
Traditional cal-look is still an interest with me, even if I don't see the point sticking to "the rules"...  but you can analyze them a bit and try to keep within the spirit of things, without getting stuck in a rut...
I think and hope the lounge lives on :)

 

I buy VW magazines to surport our hobby/industry plain & simple......

Without them very few of us would have got into the "Scene"  :-\

For me personally....

Its more about getting out a DRIVING aircooled cars, Not sitting at home with a half finished project in the garage that you keep talking about "Online" but will probably never finish.....

I have done over 35,000kms in my Aircooled cars this year alone..... Approx 10k in the 65 and the rest in my "Dirty" bus ;)

Its emails like this that keep me going!
I hope Greg Bunch doen't mind me posting this ;)


Subject: IT'S GREGG BUNCH HERE!

I WAS VERY IMPRESSED WITH YOUR CAR AT THE EBI5.  SO SORRY I COULD NOT CATCH UP TO YOU AND MEET YOU.
YOUR CAR IS JUST LIKE OUR OLD SCHOOL PRE-CAL LOOK CARS WERE WHEN I JOINED DKP IN 1966.
I’VE BEEN WANTING TO DO THE ANCHOR HEADER SIGN ON MY FENDERS BUT JUST HAVEN’T HAD THE NERVE.
I’LL INCLUDE A PICTURE OF MY CAR I HAVE NOW AND MAYBE TOMORROW A COPY OF MY ORIGINAL CAR IN 1966
THAT LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE YOURS NOW. I LOVE THE SINGLE SIDE OUT GLASS PACK MUFFLER.
I’M PROUD TO SEE THE OLD STLYLE COMING BACK
THERE IS A GUY IN DKG IN BELGIUM THAT HAS A RED CAR WITH RED TINTED WINDOWS (PLEXIGLASS), IT’S AWESOME.
I HAD THE BLUE TINT WINDOWS BACK IN 66 BUT IT WAS A PIECE OF BLUE PLEXIGLASS SINCE THERE HADN’T INVENTED WINDOW TINT THEN.
ANYWAY FINALLY GOT THIS OFF TO YOU AS WE JUST RETURNED TO THE STATES ON MONDAY.
SEE YA
GREGG



 :)

Lets get the Lounge back to where is used to be.......

I totally agree with that. I think the people on here are just so used to see high-end dragracers and hardcore cal-lookers that, for example a budget 56 oval like mine, doesn´t get them going any more. I mean, the amount of money that is spent on some cars here is just crazy.

The cal-look scene has become pretty stale. It´s all about the "right" parts, the stance and big engines. Im just so bored of seeing fuchs-wheels, narrowed beams and phat-boy mufflers. So many cars just vary sligthly from each other. Ok, maybee the color....but it has to bee the "right" one ::)

It´s all about the rules these days. I often got asked, how I could dare to put 4-lug fuchs on my oval, ´cause that´s just not right! WTF ?

I loved the the times of colourful french-lookers and custom-bugs, where people just built their cars the way they liked, not after a certain "rule"!

Just my two cents ;)

Russel...Zach (Dragstar67 LOL) and all of you....I thought I was the only one thinking and feeling this way.  I'll start by saying I still love Cal-Look cars the most and I never tire of seeing them. I think that some progression with more modern engine management (Fuel injection and ignition) should be welcomed but I still like the old school stuff (carbs and mechanical distibutors) too. As much as I Love Cal-look cars I love driving my car the most. When I drive it I could care less about if what I'm doing is totally "old school" correct or not. Every time I start to get bored with the magazines or peoples VW opinions I drive my car and all the negative thoughts go away.

I love original cars (stock not modified) too! Some cars are just cool and there's nothing you have to do with them to make them that way. We ae lucky enough to have a passion and appreciation for them.....Some people buy all sorts of different makes and models of cars and spend lots of money trying to make them cool. Old air cooled VW's are cool just the way they are. Just watch people who encounter an air cooled VW for the first time (cal-Look or not).....9 times out of 10 their reaction is always "that car is cool!"

Buses.....Yes, thay are practical, I think they're cool, and of course expensive to restore! My family (wife and three kids) are pressuring me to get a bus so we can all ride together to events and to the beach ect....I struggle with thoughts of selling my 2110 with IDA's powered bug to fund buying and restoring a bus almost every day! I just can't let go of my quick Beetle!

I live in Florida and the Patina thing is HUGE here. It's not really my thing but I still appreciate and see the appeal. Slammed and bagged, aggressively lowered cars are Big in Florida too...not my thing at all but people dig them. These two styles dominate Florida so I don't really fit in. Some Cal-Look here but not very many....I don't give a sh!t! I drive my car and love every minute of it., that's what it's all about!

All in all I do what makes me happy with my car, not because it's popular, matches the magazines, website forum opinions, car show judges, or local preference. Cal-Look VW's will ALWAYS be popular but the style will have it's ups and downs. I think sometimes we see so many of our cars that we take them for granted.....if you feel this way stop reading the magazines, web forums, and avoid VW car shows for a while. Then, go to a show without your car and see how you feel. I'll bet all you will think about is wishing you had your car with you and wanting to drive it!  My $0.02 Sorry for the rant...enjoy your car!!

Great summary:

I love original cars (stock not modified) too! Some cars are just cool and there's nothing you have to do with them to make them that way. We ae lucky enough to have a passion and appreciation for them.....Some people buy all sorts of different makes and models of cars and spend lots of money trying to make them cool. Old air cooled VW's are cool just the way they are. Just watch people who encounter an air cooled VW for the first time (cal-Look or not).....9 times out of 10 their reaction is always "that car is cool!"


100% agree :)

Geez, just when I thought Dragstar67 had been forgotten! :D

I'll happily defend the "patina" look... As Flow said, not everyone can afford a $10k paint job, or has the time/skill to do it themselves. Does this mean they can't play? Go home and don't bring your car back until it has proper shiney paint? I think Flow has done a great job with his car, to me it looks like it was built back in the day and is a survivor. It's cool. Sometimes it's not what you do to a car, it's what you don't do. Restraint is tough. It has nothing to do with being lazy.
That's something I really like about UltraVW, they see that you can have loads of style and ratty paint. I own every Hot VW's from the beginning up to about 6 years ago where I lost interest. Everything became the same, and you had to have big bucks to play. It limits the people who can participate, possibly what has been unintentionally done here?

I've gotten to the point where a good "patina" car (or bicycle, or motorcycle, or anything) is the only style that really gets me off. For one, it's rare to find anything old that isn't beat to shit and needs a full resto, rarity makes it cool. I also feel like there isn't any middle ground when it comes to paint, it's all or nothing, if I'm gonna do it on my dime the shit better be perfect- and if it's perfect, then I've created a garage/trailer queen/monster that I'm afraid to drive, afraid of stone chips, etc. Get a scratch in old original paint and you know what? Fuck it, it just ads character! I truly believe that you can enjoy these old cars like they were meant to be enjoyed (when they were new) when they are less than perfect. It's a lot more fun, and fun is what it is all about, right?

Where did all the DKP guys go? All of the guys who started the cal look who were here a few years ago, they made this site pure gold. Did they grow tired of it also?

You know what had a little to do with it Zach?  That stupid picture from the 1975 issue.  The one that shows 'How to' cal-look your car.  People love to post it every other day.  YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG!

Thank you for posting this thread Russel. And yes, it is indeed interesting.

I had a look at the overall stats and the trend is clear. We see a rapid decline in new posts and a small decline in new topics. New members did of course decline after Trond had to close the registration page due to all the spammers in november and december 2013. Since then the stream of new members has been stable. Interestingly we have the approx same log ons and views. I think the stats says it all actually. When we stop replying people loose interest. When we stop replying people stop making new threads. This for example makes the classifides a lot more visuable and we quickly have a downward spiral.

Why do people stop replying? As with most things I believe our hobby has its up and down periods. Cal look is cool, then buses, then rat-look, then vintage speed, german look and so on. At the same time we get older and lets face it, how good are we at recruiting? There is little we can do about this apart from making sure we keep our little forum alive. We can continue blaiming this and that but in the end it is you that sits in front of your PC and choose if you wish to contribute to The Lounge or not.

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I make my small tour on the lounge all days, but I rarely find a subject which really interests me as those that Sarge, John Lazenby or other ancient posted here,

for the magazine , yes i'm still buying them , but it's very rare when i read them , only when there's some old cal look litterature or vw gassers  report or a rare report with a very interesting car  ,

i'm  really involved into cal look , but i can have an opinion  on others styles  , but  it seems that the patina look and rat look  are the best way to go for young peopl who don't have money as flow said , but i'm not  with  him when he said that you've to own the cool  parts to build a cal look , i say no , you can build a cal look in a suimple way , it's not written somewhere that you  need a DDS shifter or empi gauges to have a clean and simple cal look  , I know that I am badly placed to speak about that, but all my parts on my car are very favorites and not bought to show off

Very very good points very very well put ;) :)

Flow

I like seeing vw's out on the road, it doesnt matter if they are shiny new paint, faded original paint or scruffy ratty old paint, they all should still just be driven and I enjoy seeing all of them, I have had and still have shitty cars and good cars,but what I don't get and have a dislike for is making decent cars look old and shitty, sanding the paint etc to make them look old and patina'ed, to me that is just weird, people with no invention trying to look cool

From your posts that I have read you enjoy your car and are having fun with it, thats really all that matters :) 8)   Fcuk what anyone else thinks :D  

hopefully this wont offend you :)



As for the rest, I personally think Cal look was defined in that 75 issue of Hotvws, anything different is not true to that then its not Cal look, but why pigeon hole your car, why do people get so hung up there car having a named look? why cant it just be a quick/hot/lowered/race/street/stock  etc etc vw?

Whatever it is its sure better and more fun than driving some modern box on wheels ::)

Its a shame that the sites I enjoy have slowed down and not so many post, but every site is only as good as its members and if they choose not to start threads or post replies there is nothing anyone else can do


Lastly one for Russell

when was the last time you started a relevant to this site thread? a build thread? or Cal look story etc? :o we are all as bad as each other   :P  ;)

cheers Richie

VERY VERY good point Mr Webb.......

I know you don't really like me these days but you have made some excellent points about our scene & forums and I ALWAYS enjoy reading your posts/threads etc :)

Economic down turn = less cars or parts being bought or built = less posts and less interest

Ps busses, wrong forum  :D

I log in here pretty much every day and I've noticed a decline in traffic too. However, that fits in with my own situation so I can't blame anyone! Personally, I've got a great looking (well, a 10 footer, but I love it!) Cal Looker that's been sat on my garden since January 2012. I need a motor for it so I started to do the valve springs on my 2007, did one head then got distracted by the race car, which has been sat with one heater channel missing for maybe three months. I've only been to my garage four times since September - I used to got two or three times a week. I haven't renewed my Outlaw Flat Four membership, and haven't been to a race meeting since the middle of 2013. I'm simply so busy with my new job that any spare time is being spent with my wife, not with cars. As a result I've got nothing to start a new thread about, nothing really to report on here, so I love reading about other people's projects because at least I can see what I'm missing!

Oh, and I won't do faceache, too many of the kids at school have it for my liking!

Maybe everyone is to busy building the cars to post on the forums.  :D

Forgot to say I've let my subscription to both volksworld and ultra lapse, something I thought I'd never do, can always remember the excitement of getting the new issue of volksworld and having to wait two months for the next one and reading them over and over again.

Don't go to many shows now either as there's only so many t5 vans you can look at in one go

Note to self, more track time and driving  ;)

Just a little observation.....

Its all the "Original" crew/members posting in this thread  :)

What's your excuse then ;D

I'm what you would call a "newbie" My Names Andy, i live in Cornwall and i'm 26.... Hello  ;D

I joined the forum due to the knowable input that is about here, the samba is pretty do it my way or no way, and handy for some stuff but i prefer the "been there and done it" kind of info, instead of "i read on the internet one time" info. There's some pretty serious names on here that are all willing to help, some times i feel a bit not worthy to make input. (thats not complaint, just not wanting to waste people time)

I'll be honest, i didn't join due to my interest in Cal Look style, i'm more a slightly lower in the back and corner fast kind of guy..... my 1200 and straight line speed aren't words in the same sentence..... ever.
But although its called Cal Look there's all styles here if you look around, some nice sleepers, patina's german looks ect.

Cheers :)

EVERYONE is welcome here, Just have a "Open mind" ;)

I still visit the lounge every day, as I have since very early on. Not much catches my attention. I haven't owned a VW in a few years but still wrench on them in my spare time. With 3 young kids, the idea of a VW toy seems very remote and impractical. Boating has eclipsed the VW hobby for me.  Sadly, my enthusiasm hasn't returned since the recession hit. I plan on attending the Classic next June after missing a few years, hopefully this will stoke the coals:) For me it's all about seeing old friends and downing Modelos with Damon..;)
Maybe I'll start building another 67 for my 9 year old:)

That´s my excuse, but of course I should be better sharing it...
Seems we are mostly all on the same page here and basically should all do our job at having a dynamic and active forum. Not just reading and expecting everyone else to make it interesting.

Thanks too all those who contribute, becuase no matter how "great" facebook is, in my opinion it becomes boring really fast to "like"(read: flip through) ton´s of individual pictures with little or no story and not see it in a bigger picture. Meaning not able to follow a build through a good project thread. I personally do not think facebook will replace forums, but it does take away a lot of the chit chat and "on the fly picture sharing" for sure.

That's why I always enjoyed(enjoy)reading blogs-people tell a story- step by step,but then there's no interaction.

Good discussion here though!

Lanny, now you are a miss in the scene, your cars are always top drawer, hope that classic rekindles for you.

Cheers Russell

So firstly thanks to everyone for finding this interesting to comment.

Richie, you should no better....  ;) back when I found the lounge I posted a lot, this was the time when I was in full on gasser hunt, however over recent years there has been the odd negative comment about me and my cars and the final straw was the fall out with Super VW on the magazine shoot photos of lightening bug, I decided that keeping myself thoughts and cars to myself and away from the internet seemed the best way forward on most occasions. I am very lucky to have the cars I have and have had the opportunity to show/race them on both sides of the pond.. we mentioned before that maybe we were helping to bring youth into our hobby and sometimes maybe a little History as well. I also think that the pinnacle of any car enthusiasts hobby is to see there car featured in print.

Don't get me wrong I realise that we all cant afford $00000 cars but when you look at a magazine I want to see cars that inspire me...

On the patina thing, I love nothing more than an original unrestored car with genuine patina, not RUST, some of the cars now are cars that should be saved not let to look worse.

I think VW's have seen a status change over the last few years as some early VW's are now surfacing in the classic market and are being taken seriously.

Russell

This really is an interesting thread with variations of opinions and taste in cars, passionate none the less about the humble bug.

It is these threads and differences of opinion that eventually sparks an excitement and brings people together in open discussion.

I personally feel blessed to be in the digital company of so many different but likeminded people some of whom I call mentors and I'm honoured to read, discuss, learn and sometimes contribute to this Forum and our ever-changing hobby.

The one thing I don't understand is why people get so emotional about others' comments.........do what you like if it makes you happy and you are not hurting anybody enjoy your experience; Always.

A lot of Cool people and Cool cars on this Forum even if its slowed down some.

Russell, i understand where you coming from regarding magazine publications and I'm envious of your collection.......man i'd love to meet some of you guys.


Bonza Ben

Hi, I´ve joined this Forum not long ago.
But I´m still more than happy that I found it!  ;D
Since the Age of 13 I´m into Beetles and over the time I got intersted in the Cal Look.
(thanks to the DFL and Helge Ohmes here in Germany)

It is really interesting to read about the old times and to see the vintage pics.
The history is fascinating for me and I show respect to the guys which are involved so long.

Sometimes I`m a little bit restrained with comments but as Lee said, there`s no reason for!

But now I´ll start a new Topic and show you how my bug envolved over the time more in the Cal Look Way.  ;)

Keep the Lounge alive! (may the winter month promote it)

interesting discussion, i realized the decline in posts too...
but i disagree that you have to spend a zillion bucks/euros on a car o have it look nice. it just takes alot of work and dedication.
i aquired a new 67 project, since my old one was sold. thought about doing a build thread, but last time i did the interest wasnt that stellar. one thing that helps is if a forum has a "like" button. people can just click on it instead of a "good job" post, it makes the poster aware that people check out his work.
i think i will just start a thread

I am also a constant visitor , but rarely comment . I think this is half the problem . Its in our hands to make it great again , so like Karl above , I'm also gonna start a build thread . Unfortunately its yet another 67 ! . Never really had a cal looker as always seemed to be busy with other cars , so this is kind of a big deal for me , finally getting round to building one of my dream cars .

Long live the lounge , I know I will have plenty of questions which need expert answers !

hanks , RobT

there cant be enough 67s!

My two cents worth then and I agree with a lot of the comments already posted on this thread. So to start off with one of Russell's paragraphs from his original post,

"Why is that there seems to be nothing interesting going on in the VW Scene anymore, the lounge once a great place with great people, even seems to be quite and most topics are of little interest, over the last year or so Ive seen our loveable little bugs as they were truly intended for standard and stock grow on me even more, so much so that whilst I love the history and the old gassers and cal look, the whole hobby seems to have went AWOL, I mean how much same bus's and patina cars can we take....."

What has caught my attention here in the UK and not entirely sure if the same has happened elsewhere around the VW globe at the same time ?  Is the huge shift within our scene over to all models of VW Buses and Vans early through to latest.  Guys and Girls that I once knew and recognised in the UK scene as die hard fans of the T1 / Beetle / Bug /Ghia / T3 have all jumped ship. Now some of these may still have there trusty sedans tucked away in the corner looking all forlorn or with a dust sheet draped over and others have sold up to invest all their $ into T2/T25/T4/T5 etc......

I'm not entirely sure why this is ?  Is it purely taking the kids and wife around to shows in more comfort ?  If so why is this all of a sudden happening now and not 10/20/30 years ago...?
Is it simply a roll on effect from easier and cheaper import prices and availability of early Buses and parts that early buses prices then skyrocketed , then bay windows and the fallout was people still mad to own a bus / van looked at cheaper T25's then T4's and now T5's as still a more affordable option than early vehicles yet offer even more comfort over the early models......

I've never owned any of the above simply because for me I have never had the urge too. Have driven friends one's though on occasion and still didn't feel the need to own one.

The recession and post recession, seems to me it's not that folk don't have the money anymore, it's more a question they are much more budget aware and due to global insecurities in jobs / housing stock etc a lot more reluctant to spend the big $ and not be in a position to get there investment back too. So it seems values have plummeted with our beloved modified T1's........and people aren't willing to invest ?

Lastly maybe all the facebook pages out there and ease of sharing that way has made people lazier to come onto tech based forums ?  Activity on more social based forums like Vzi that we have here in the UK still seems quite lively ?

So as Russell has asked , How can we fix this ?  I'm not sure except for what others have said, keep the faith and keep your sedans and dragsters and let's all make an effort to keep the lounge and other tech forums going with valuable and interesting topics.

I could be and probably have got this all completely wrong so stand corrected if so and no offence meant to anyone.

Cheers, Shane.

It might be as simple as not enough tits and arses!  Where is Shubee when you need him :)

Take a nice £5000 stock bug, add £20,000 and turn it into a nice Cal looker,value £12-15,000 :(

Take a shitty £5000 bus, make it look even more rusty & shit and ruin the suspension/safety/point of a bus, value £20-25,000 >:(

but hey all the cool kids are doing it, right? they must be as its all over the magazines ???

What for not posting on here that much. :D

As you know Lee I been busy working on the NSU and yes I do need to do a update on here.

FFS Richie if my wife reads your post I'm bang in trouble !!!!   ;) ;D

This topic seems to have got more people replying in the Da Works topics, or posts about shows.

I'm as bad as anyone, there are at least 3-4 topics I've read in Da Works, and i really should reply to. As i know that even just a "good work, looking good" puts a smile on a face and when you're questioning whether you really want to go into the garage, something like that makes the difference. (or it did for me)

I can't comment on the Show Scene as I'm not part of it, though hopefully next year I will be able to make at least the Cal Look Drag day and if possible EBI. As for magazines, I gave up reading them as in a couple of clicks I can read about a full build about something that interests me, rather than reading about one car i like and four i don't.

I still update my build 'blog' occasionally -- the build is pretty much over, I guess it is more of a 'what I've broken blog' now LOL -- -- I do add a comment on here sometimes, guess I need to encourage other builders more often -- --  but I've been enjoying my track adventures more and more and my car is now more a 'German-look' than a cal-look, so my car blog doesn't get very many replies from other people to it,,, so sometimes I feel like I'm just talking to myself --

But the people here on the this site are the best and I enjoy coming back everyday to see their insights -- but like everyone has pointed out, just not as many as there use to be

For me this just about sums it up. Ask any 20 year old who has just got into the scene with a rat look bug/bus and to him it is a fresh , cool scene bursting with new ideas and is the best thing since sliced bread. It would be interesting to see the stats of a rat look or van forum. I have to own up that I rarely post but saying that I still enjoy this forum, Cal Look and quick VW’s.  

I'm still on here daily.

I haven't been posting as much as I used to. Rather not go into the reasoning here. It's nothing having to do with The Lounge or it's management.

As you said its nice to see some some inspirational cars, F*#k the negative comments let's see some project photos please

Just because the cool kids are doing it it doesnt make it right :)

the whole bus "scene" is crazy at the moment

Yep I got sukered in....

But it is ALOT nicer than a tent ;)

My 68....

Thank you Russ Riche for this topic. I split my time between VWs and Telecaster guitars. Both are money and time pits. I will now publicly thank Javabug for Dell idle jets and Taylor for help with engine hardware. THIS is what makes the VW crowd so good for the little guys. I feel lucky to possess the skills and tools I have to build something that talks back to me thanks to John Muir's interpitation. You can blame Kieth Richards for the patina / relic look started in the guitar sphear of things. He'd said Fender aught to age their instruments, play the hell out of them before they were sold. The Custom Shop did just that and made bank on it. Anybody can relic a guitar, cars not much for than dull the paint produce some rust instant relic. Primer was a fad in my East LA lowrider days and some suade bugs still catch my attension. Money is a big deal here and with guitars. I'd rather find a sweet old well played Tele or survivor '67 sedan or in my case a 'vert. Tune it set it up to play or drive it, with ongoing effort to improve the breed.
Thanks to all who contribute to the forum in ansering my dumb questions.
Carry on

Things do seem pretty flat of late and IMHO there are several reasons that this might be happening.

Firstly across the VW scene (certainly in the UK) the 'Buses Craze' that has proliferated now for nearly 10 years has caused Beetles to become a virtual non-entity and seen almost all the money in an already 'depressed' financial market has gone to those that fix/repair vans & buses.

Also the insane prices for vans/buses that are pretty much scrap has forced up the prices of anything that basically isn't a heap of rust. When a 40-50 year-old pile of rusty van is costing the same as a (modern) Porsche... Something has gone very, very wrong indeed.

Magazines have featured and focussed on Vans & Buses to an extent that has pushed the Beetle right out of favour in an attempt to 'cash in' on the craze.

I've attended some UK sows during the last few years where I could only count a few Beetles and the rest were all buses. It's simply boring on several levels. I know right off that I'm never going to be able to afford to by a bus (not that I would want one anyway) but I totally switch-off to that whole area of VW's. I've arrives at shows (that I used to love) and been away before lunchtime...

This has meant that Repairers & parts Sellers Have thought that they can charge frankly exorbitant prices to repair these rusting buses, which filters down into the few fold that still favour beetles.

I love the Lounge and look almost everyday. I'm happy that Beetles are the norm here as it really is a refreshing change from other forums.

Paul

Ask any 40+ year old and you will find that this is the exact reason why he sold his bug (with a loss) and bought a Porsche.

I hardly ever post stuff on internet forums .....but I do look at a couple most days ...this one included.
 I was always of the opinion that no-one would be really particularly interested in what I was  up to ..and I'd probably
 be a bit sensitive about what people  might say if I did a build thread.....
 Maybe I should try harder and contribute a bit more .......who's to say .
 I try not worry about stuff on the internet too much .....I love arsing about with VW's by myself and with my mates and if anyone
like what I've done then that's cool.
 I built a shiny cal look oval bug over a couple of years that got on the cover of Volksworld in the summer and I was chuffed.
happy days .

I think it's great that someone has brought this up, also the fact that it's Russell, a person who has a pretty strong presence on the scene it's got the attention it deserves, the fact that it seems to have rallied the lounge troops and collectively it seems we realise the need for us all to make a bit more effort...
Many different reasons for the downturn have been put forward and I'm sure that for each individual it's a mixed up bunch of many factors...
For me, over the last 7-8 years I have become increasingly bored by the sea of what amounts to fast "Resto-cals"   I'm honestly struggling to think of a cal-looker built in the relatively recent past that has excited me.
Other thoughts..... I have a few long term traditional Hotrod / kustom projects on the go.... Projects that, like the California look, have pretty strict "rules/styles/do's/dont's etc"
However I see so much subtle ( and not so!) creativity and effort made in these circles to stand out a little...I find the Cal look scene lacking here.
Okay, I know....I'm a hypocrite..My car is a factory colour with chrome trim......if I was building another cal-looker now it would be very very different, which leads me into another angle, most of us have been on here with our long running projects or drivers.... I, for one feel that I've done my "garage-looker" car to death on this forum... And I'm hesitant  to post any updates until it's on the road...Maybe some of you feel the same about your own cars?   (And mine)
Also,  since having to move out of London 3 years ago to the Midlands to assist my parents-in-law I have much more time to actually spend working in the garage..... Essential, for my own sanity!  Instead of being on my PC.
If all of us old forum faces had brand new projects on the go I'm sure this forum would be thriving again.... I really wish I had the time to build another cal looker using all the ideas/innovations I've jotted down over the years...... But I have other fish to fry for the next 5-10 years I reckon......but you never know?
Also, I've gotta say Russell, that as the original poster, you've got to see the irony of bringing up the lack of site traffic, (quite rightly) and then going on to say you've made a conscious decision to not post stuff... .. You have a lot of interesting stuff to bring to the table.....you could pretty much fill the whole forum by yourself! Haha.
Anyway, I could go on about a whole variety of factors, but I'll leave it at that and in the meantime I'll post some more car stuff,  updates on my long-ass VW project, and maybe some off-topic stuff too...
Keep it coming guys!

James

Very well put dude  ;) :)

Seems the Cal Look cars have a very limited performance window. You can bang gears around town and across every intersection. So to make it more interesting you take it to the drag strip and race your cal look buddies. Then since these 12 second street cars are highly stressed 180hp engines they do have occasional reliability problems. So the penny-wise owners then stop racing them and instead choose to display them in parking lots. At least that was my DKP experience. Parking lots and buses bore me to no end.

I think the Cal Look interest is being dulled by all the newer cars that match or many times exceed the performance limits of the Cal Look car.
In reality the performance car hobby has far eclipsed any performance advantages a 50 year old 12 second street bug once enjoyed.
Compared to cars of the 60s to 80s, today’s factory sports/performance cars can out muscle a bug in every department.

At the road race tracks young drivers are finding their limits cornering, braking and accelerating.
VW owners should aspire to an air cooled 911. An 80s 3.2 is 225 reliable hp, called a 275k mile motor because they can last that long.
But the 911 motor is only half of the attraction. The advantage a 911 has over other cars is it is lighter so it can brake later and carry more cornering speed.
If you like the thrill of your cal look banging gears and pulling a couple car lengths on the street imagine the same feeling when you pull a few car lengths on braking or cornering speed too.

There is chop top cal bug built nice for sale I see often.
 Decades ago I would have finished that car to look like the chops that were at OCIR back in the day.
But now building such a car that can’t turn or stop very well seems like too much of a compromise.

The Bus bubble is totally ridiculous, had to say it  ;D

Like yourself Mike people move on, but you do keep popping back  ;)

I should go autocross the chop top.  ;)
In fact that's the last place I saw you.
I'll meet you for a cold one anytime. 8)

Hi Mike

To me that would be no fun, half the fun with a VW is it is perceived as slow, its the suprise element ;)  the general public thinks porsches are fast anyway, if I wanted a quick circuit car[ which I dont as it doesnt interest me] I would still start with a aircooled VW  8)

Historically it seems alot of early DKP guys wandered away from VWs, some got porsches, some got big american cars but they slowly seem to getting back into quick VWs again which can only be a good thing

I got to agree with the parking lot and buses thing though, meeting up in a friends garage and talking shit while actually working on cars is way better :)

Got to remember this is the the Cal look lounge after all ;D

cheers Richie

I'll let you know when I am over next. Just looking at flights now.

Having only really gotten into the VW hobby last year, I can only say so much. The global scene, from my point of view, is shifting from the old school lookers and resto-Cal, to slammed/stanced and heavily patina'd rat-look. While I must admit that there are certain aspects of both of these styles that I enjoy, they both seem to already becoming self parodies. I personally am more of a resto-cal guy, but I can appreciate the real old-school stuff, and even see some of it showing up in my '67. I'd hate to see it go, but people on this forum need to realize that there have to be some more things going on in the Cal-look world, and that they should start organizing meets, races, and car shows. The shop I work at in Denver, CO has a race,bug with a relatively small stroker (2160ish), can run 14.2 quarters at 6,000 feet in elevation, and still surprises people at the track. There is still an immense amount of respect for a fast bug, it just has to be earned on the track.

Just for grins, here are a couple pictures of my little red bug, to show that the scene isn't entirely dead. http://imgur.com/8eME4oc
http://imgur.com/ck3jNKF
http://imgur.com/XsXkTPT

I didn't build my car to go down the drag strip although it has.  I would need a lot of seat time to get good at that.  I built my car to drive and I have.  I've driven across country and ran into Mike up in Colorado where he rode along for a while.  My car has about 570k miles on it since new and about 200K miles since It was finished in April of '95.  I drive it a lot less now, but I've taken it off the road to update some mechanicals.  The paint is tired and I can't afford to get it painted at the rates they charge these days.  In a month or so I'll have it back on the road and will drive it any where I choose to go long distance or not.  The Berg Cruises were the best for me.  Now I'm retired with a much smaller income so doing that again might be difficult, but I would surely love to do it again.

Yeah that would be me. My car makes little movements from time to time but I hesitate to post because the progress is slow. Our oldest daughter is getting married next month and that's been quite a drain on resources. Plus my daily driver project ('82 E21 BMW) and my sometimes driver truck ('71 C10) need money too. Right now the '67 gets the leftovers because it's so far from being drivable.

My few euro-cents: I also visit Lounce daily excluding weekends because of garage and craft beer. I've always had an interest in tech, and that's why I liked VW Trends more than Volksworld. I'm more interested in a shape of head chamber or track beetles front splitter than the shape of the car itself. That been said, I also dislike rat look as I think that it's lazy. When I sandblasted my early bay (Love T2:s but my next project waiting is a -62 beetle) and welded it together, I really appreciate those who has the skill and patience to put a shine back to now mechanically solid but shitty looking car.

Some of the tech stuff here has been so thorough that you really can learn a lot from the discussion. That can't really be found on Facebook and if you ask and someone answers, it's quicky forgotten. Here you can use search (or google search only Lounge which is very handy compared to forums own search) and find about how TCS-10's lobe center works on naturally aspirated cars. But it's natural that these questions does have to be discussed only once, and then maybe some more a couple of years after as someone has tried the suggestions and tells back the experience: TCS-10 is wonderful on 2272 with 044's and IDA's!.

I've got one suggestion for the project stories - it should be as easy as possible to upload your cell phone photos to a project story, that includes automatic resizing, tagging and commenting a picture. That is usually just the point when you got something done in you garage and want to share it immediately, but you can't do it as easily as in Facebook and then your own project story is forgotten in favor of the quick fame and 50 likes you have in FB.

My -62 is visioned to be lowered, fuchs, powerful engine (but without phatboy muffla - those are really too loud for me). From shows I've also gathered few nice ideas like shortening the front of floorpan to align tires to fenders and prevent scrubbing - enabling the usage of something different than shitty lookin - in my eyes, your's may differ and nothing wrong with it - 175/50 tyres.

I've enjoyed the shows and forums for nearly 20 years now, and still enjoying them greatly! There's still originality to be found, weird parts being put together producing wonderful results, classic and cool cars that their owned likes the most, some incredible skills and knowledge, schwimmers driving around lakes, super fast drag cars and quite fast track days - all together I think that VW scene is still doing quite well and is way more varied and interesting than for example Porsche scene. Disclaimer - I also own very good -87 911 that had been suggested as an alternative in this thread. Race heritate of Porsches is second to none and it also shows in 80's 911:s even if it's maybe even too civilized for my taste. Still I drove my T2 doppelkabiner way more last summer as it's more fun!

Puavo

I've got one suggestion for the project stories - it should be as easy as possible to upload your cell phone photos to a project story, that includes automatic resizing, tagging and commenting a picture. That is usually just the point when you got something done in you garage and want to share it immediately, but you can't do it as easily....

Good call Puavo,

This is something that's bothered me too...  I'd certainly post more stuff if I could upload straight from my phone...

That's the problem I have. I have to get my son to resize.

How about it Trond?? Make the file size that we can upload BIGGER ;)

http://cal-look.no/lounge/index.php/topic,23535.msg310459.html#msg310459

http://cal-look.no/lounge/index.php/topic,17762.0.html

It's been discussed among a few members, ignored by the admin ::)
I hope there is a good reason why it hasn't been done... I agree it would make posts much easier and more interesting.

I think the internet has provided me with an immense amount of VW overload. A bit like eating steak for breakfast Lunch and Dinner.
Legends of Cal Look seem like normal people now. :)

When I was 17, I was exposed to my first Cal-Looker driven by a Local Traffic Policeman. He even let me take it for a spin.
After that my beam was off I made home made sway away adjusters and the Cal look was planted.
My imagination was my inspiration. On occasion a couple of pages in Custom Car on some California show popped up.

My brain was being trickle fed. Volksworlds feature on the DKP was another taster. After seeing that I bought 5 fully restored gas burners from Karmann Konnecton for very much cheapness.
The California look book by Keith was immense. It never left my side for weeks.
All of the above were the steps that made me tick literally. It was an addiction, because it came in bite size pieces.

I became jaded only to be jump started by EBI 1. A very special show, again the novelty to be never repeated.
I have been building a real Cal Looker designed for my life. Next year will encompass countryside jaunts and occasional trips to the local strip which is ideal for a fastish street car.

The recession for me has a sway on what you do with your money. Think smarter and actually achieve more satisfying results.
I really enjoy In Da Werks but as already mentioned is nice to see a project hitting a show which has never been seen on a build thread.
Without this fascination for Bugs and meeting the owners, my life would not be so rich.

Long live the Cal Looker.
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10363127_1450155418557657_2903460901243629954_n.jpg?oh=bca9bc63f00260c5b53dc5ddbb52afa3&oe=551818F7&__gda__=1426248349_89993d6568c1a7057f5594cc9dd2e064)

Pete, is that your car? Looks lovely ;D colour?
Lee

 

 ;) :)

Yes....The colour does look nice!

It has never been ignord, just not done exactly how you ask for it as you make it sound like it´s just about making the decision about it. It takes a bit more than that or else it would have been fixed a long time ago :-)

The problem should not be solved by accepting normal cell phone sized pictures since they are often 2-4mbytes instead of what is actual needed for a full page picture which is more in the 250kb.
So therefore it should be solved by the software and automatically resized and store with a smaller resolution. As of right now, the forum software does not do that. Facebook has prtty much unlimited storage and a pretty large wallet to pay for it all. We are as you can imagine not there :-) Therefor accepting 3mb pictures as oppose to 250kb is just not an option.
In addition, allowing such sizes whould completely slow down the time needed to load a page in a project thread with lots of pictures.
As you understand it is not about the size, but rather having software that can receive large, but store small. I´ll do another look on what can be done on this topic as I, as everyone understand it would make things much easier than to have to resize first.

Zach: Uploading from iphone is no longer an issue, but they need resizing first to lower the size (an app called simpleResize makes this easy for those who want to try)

I'm on here every day - if things look quiet, then I bimble around the reeeealllly old posts, can be very funny. I'm an engineer, so I love the build threads. I've had so much inspiration from reading them and understanding the thinking behind what people do. I just don't feel the same level of detail from facebook.

I guess I don't post much as my 20-yard car (I figure on adding another yard a year?) isn't that hardcore and you've probably all made the dumb mistakes i'm stiil making  :D

It does take some resolve to drive a bug these days, lowered or not. Speed bumps everywhere, the roads here are utterly awful, the heaters can't quite keep the mist off the inside of the windows and precisely what is it with the need for xenon headlights? Is the entire human race losing the ability to see?! And then I find a hill, squeeze the throttle open and it's all cool again.

Thanks Trond, I assumed it wasn't easy, if it was it would have been done. There wasn't any communication from the admin's on the other threads though, felt like I was talking to a wall. Thanks for the explanation :)

I know I am!  :D

I see that and I apologize. I think perhpas it was mentioned somewhere else and I didn´t answer in all places...
I have spent some time looking into this tonight and there might be a solution. I will see if I get time to look more at it during this weekend.

i cant wait to get my car back from the chassis shop and go racing again...who else is up for some racing at the track next season????? or you could just sit back and bench race  ;)

I'm here because I love VWs . . . I have for forty years.
The reason? THE ONLY REASON? CAL-LOOK!!!!!

I was "out" for quite a few years, but I am back into them heaver than I have ever been (as far as the number of cars I have). The reason for that is because I discovered The Cal-Look Lounge!
I couldn't wait to start driving a Bug again, and since I have a ways to go on my projects, I bought a '70 and have been driving it almost every day! It's FUN!

PS . . . I would like to post progress photos of my project, but as mentioned by others, it takes me as long to do a nice post as it takes me to do the work on my Bug!!! These computers are complicated!!!! ::)

Thanks guys, its flint grey.

Thanks Rick Meredith for posting.  I am present on this site almost daily.  Although I rarely post.  But you may be interested to know that in Orange County the scene is as always still alive.  Cal Look is alive and well in So Cal.
DKK has recently added two new members and there are a few more prospects in works.
The issue for Deeks is so many of us have cars under construction currently.
My car has been down 10 months for upgrades. Two weeks ago I popped in a solid 2276 in my 65 Notch.  It's almost road worthy (electrical and waiting on a sidewinder.....soon).  Henry and Randy's car are in paint.  Gary Grauman has paint and is getting close to done, Jim Smith is expected to unveil his 65 Notch shortly and once Geoff Hart finishes his big motor for his og DKK oval, it too will be on the road.  (Jim's oval may be the only living car that has the original white "Tank" DKK stickers in it from 1977). Epic.  Both will debut next year.  Rick Anguiano is building a sweet black vert.  Rick Meredith 67 is in works as noted. There are more than 6 or 7 "new" DKK cars in works now that will see the light of day in 2015 to go with all the others.
There are numerous events nearly every weekend, people are building real Cal Look cars, the scene is alive.
Yes buses are the yuppie mid life crisis purchase here too.  So what.  Rusto Cal, so what.
There is a disconnect though with the younger generation.  Yeah, these are vintage cars.  They were 10-15 year old cars when I  started building em.  Makes sense that it's less likely to be a first choice for a 20 something.  Kudos to those that do though!  I wish every magazine was cal look issue but I recall a ton of Baja1000 articles way back, lots of stuff I could care less about.  But they appeal to all kinds.  I get it.
Keep building Cal Look cars!  
I must say I have been a tad disappointed at times when I open the lounge and see posts of wat kind of wires, or which archaic 40 year old exhaust is best, what kind of oil etc.....   Put those elsewhere.  Vintage pics, cars in scenery, post stuff people what to see.  Discussions are important I agree.  Keep those off the cal look main page.  Perhaps.  Or don't.
I promise to get more involved in the future. I was as some may feel the same, concerned that my posting was more ego trip than interesting to others.  There are a lot of guys and girls out there that may have hesitated to post as there is a sense that everything needs to be vintage to be cool.  Hey I threw 2 DDS shifters in the trash back in the day because they were plastic and just broke apart.  Bought one Hurst....over.   Now run Berg.  New is okay.  A new VDO gauge has to be better than a rusty Empi gauge that we probably wouldn't have run in the 70's.  There is a LOT of companies making excellent products now that we could have only wished for then had we even thought of it.  
Support them.  
Just post.  
Let's see photos.  I really miss Fabs posting old stuff.  Get on it dude!  Ha.  There are less and less Californians posting on the Cal Look Lounge.  Post things to get em enrolled again.
Thanks forlistening.  And Russell when are we playing golf?  Bastard.......

My .25 cents

O ;)K so in short:

FB is crap and boring

the Lounge is the place to be


and we all start posting again as of today


 ;D

still works for me.

What is FB?  ;)

FB=Facebook Mark

Otherwise know as faceless.

Worm....... Didn't know you could write that much,  anyway the golf, let me know when your land and I will pick you up in my yuppie mobile, we can play Donald trumps new course

http://www.trumpgolfscotland.com

Russell

Having come back to the scene this past year after 10 years out of it, it's strange, I don't get the rusty crap with a rope tied around the bumper. But I kind of get why, the price of parts in the UK went mad! This past week I've been catching up with old club mates, and all of us are building cars and everyone is saying about the prices.
Doesn't matter though , off to resto shop next weekend, and the bug is coming back harder than ever  :)

James, thanks for the kind words and yes I agree by not posting as much makes me another part of the problem, but why am I and others not posting..... In my case I've always tried to hide behind the Vw gasser garage name, as all my cars have required help from friends to make the things happen, I also hate praise, but I do enjoy seeing people enjoying cars, to date nothing has made me happier to stand behind two of my cars on the start line at chimay and see two historic cars race again, the drivers love it the spectators appear to love it and I know I do. Just think of all the cars we have seen race that we all only saw in old magazines or pictures.

I am going to start a new topic  which will keep you all posted on the car things I've been up to, it may or May not be interesting but it I'll be honest

Cheers

Yep your doing a pretty good job dude, Keep it up  ;) :)

I also noticed the decline in posting, I am on here every day to look for new stuff.
Agree with a lott off reasons already posted.
I am really in the tech stuff and the Lookers off cource.
I got to say I got also annoyed sometimes (but not anymore  :P) about "the correct look" having a late look with type 4 engine and use to have telephonedails (now on gasburners)  ;D :D

I think a lot got to do that the young like facebook is that they can post much easier with their mobile phones.
Posting on the lounge takes a few minutes on facebook takes a few seconds.

My 2 cents.

Had some progress on my car as well, will post it also.  :)

6 or 7 cars!  :o :o :o please get an in da werks topic started for those cars, I would love to see them  :)

[/quote]

James, thanks for the kind words and yes I agree by not posting as much makes me another part of the problem, but why am I and others not posting..... In my case I've always tried to hide behind the Vw gasser garage name, as all my cars have required help from friends to make the things happen, I also hate praise, but I do enjoy seeing people enjoying cars, to date nothing has made me happier to stand behind two of my cars on the start line at chimay and see two historic cars race again, the drivers love it the spectators appear to love it and I know I do. Just think of all the cars we have seen race that we all only saw in old magazines or pictures.

I am going to start a new topic  which will keep you all posted on the car things I've been up to, it may or May not be interesting but it I'll be honest

Cheers
[/quote]

Hey Russell,    that's great news dude.....I'm sure we'll find it interesting! 
 We've all got to get this forum firing again, and maybe more importantly get each other enthused about the scene so that next summer there are as many cars out and about as possible, 
you never know...there could be some rat-look & bus types who see the light!

cheers...James

Amen Jick/James...... We all need a Jump Start for European Bug In 6 next summer  :)

I will have the Bus A framing the 65 ;)  (maybe with the SPG engine!)

I think Russell has just put into words/thread what alot of us have been thinking for a while.....

Tapatalk is now installed. This should make it easier to read/upload photos from cell phones.
In addition I am still looking at implementing an auto resize function on the standard attachment functionality on the forum. I am not a big fan of many shared image sites as when the photos are deleted, the threads loose their value. I would therefore encourage those that can to use the forums attachment function still.

Yahoo

Thanks Trond!!

Thanks Trond!

Sorry bit of a long one, but there are so many good point brought up in this post. :)

Let’s pick on one, that bloody cal look guide picture that was published in 75!! Yes it was a great picture, and it probably provided inspiration for 1000’s of people wanting cal look cars, myself included. But I also think it’s one of the most miss quoted, miss used, documents going (well excluding the bible and other bloody religious books). It probably fair to say that the first incarnation of DKP cars were the blueprint for the cal look, yet the vast majority of these run trim, bumpers, have quarter light windows. Thus following the guide these aren’t cal look car?! I think that bloody photo has done the whole cal look scene as much harm as it has good!! My inspiration has always been the early DKP cars, so my cars having trim and quarter windows, and I don’t care if it don’t follow the guide.

As for the reduced traffic on here, sadly I think the bus scene has taken over from the beetle scene at the moment. Busses are very much in the main stream media, so every middle age person seem to want to own one. This is sadly pushing the prices of busses to ridiculous levels. I’m sorry but when people are asking 100K for busses there just greedy and taking the piss (I have a particular example in my mind, and although early, it’s no show car by any means).

As to what has led to the decline of post on here, as Shane pointed out there been a recession, people can’t afford to build cars at the moment. In parallel I don’t think the industry helps this, the cost of parts has really gone up over the last 5 years or so. I’m not just talking big parts like engines/ gearboxes (we all know a decent engine nowadays is around 7-10k), I’m talking about the price of all parts in general, even small parts. A decent set of sloping chrome headlight surrounds is the best part of £100 nowadays! This may be why the cal look scene is reducing at present in favor of the rat (read shit!) look cars as they’re more affordable for the younger guy wanting a VW. (N.B. I’m have no problem with patina cars, but bare metal-ing decent cars so it rusts, what is fu*kin wrong with you!). I also gotta say, although i love them, over the last 5-10 the cal look and gasser thing has been done to death, perhaps some want a change? The water-cooled scene has really taken off in the last few years, esecially over here in the UK.

Anyway, personally I will always love cal look cars, and I may even finish my own one day, then I’ll get off here, and go out and enjoy driving it!! :)

I will also try and contribute more on here, other than just on my build thread. :)

Russel , we can be lucky to have a forum like this. There are so much bad forums around where silly people answere questions....


Udo

As someone who has been away from the UK for over 7 years now, how is the club scene looking?  Do the JG54 Greenhearts still exist; what is membership looking like? In the US; hasn't DKP III lasted far longer than either of the two previous incarnations of the Club?  From the website it looks as though membership is higher than ever? 

Thanks
Richard

2015 marks the 50th anniversary of DKP as a whole, and the 25th anniversary of DKP III. You're right, the current generation has lasted far longer than either of the previous incarnations...  8)

i'm all a bit disheartened with it all the last couple of years
after spending years building, of what i thought was my dream bug
spent an absolute fortune on a paint job, which turned out to be the worst prep and paint job ever, it was disheartening after spending every penny i once had.
i couldn't afford to redo it, so i returned the car to stock and sold it.
the guy was bigged up by a few local vw owners, that i now know, that they know nothing at all.
getting ripped off over the years added to it
cars at the shows have no interest to me, busses everywhere, or you have the pricks who slam their cars, without any sense of style or getting the
stance looking 'right' , alot of the shows are family orientated now with busses and stuff for sale that resembles a car boot sale.

i had a bug imported over for me, but i'm not bothered about getting it done sadly
i haven't had a beetle on the road for well over a year and a bit, where before i was pretty hardcore, and didn't think twice about driving one daily!!

i now have a mk2 golf with a turbo engine, its more fun to drive than any beetle i've owned
but then again, there is nothing like the feeling of driving a bug.

i think i've lost my enthusiasm totally, will probably sell once its on the road, i hope not though

When i started to hang out here in the lounge many years ago it was a scandinavian forum, then it went european and i thougt that was really cool. After a while the americans found there way here and i think lots of people got a bit "starstruck", it turned into threads with a lot of padding on the back, people wishing eachother happy birthday and so on. After a while i noticed that if you wasnt a "known name" on the vw scene you didnt get any coments or weings in the threads. Im been wrenching with vws since i was 15 years old and in 41 now and i have met people from all over europ with the same interess and made some great friends. Im no hardcore cal-looker and not a true nostalgic fan and for me a lot of the threads about the god old Times' got a bit boring, that and the lack of updates of the "top" lists and the fact that no one semed to pay any interest in my threads made me loose intress in the lounge. I went from beeing here 3-4 Times' a day untill that i couldnt remember my login. Call me yeallus but thats how it was for me and several of others i know. Sorry about the bad english // Marcus

I'm disappointed t hear that you've gotten to this stage..  :(

I think I've supplied you some items over the years and you seemed really into the scene.

It's also sad t hear that you've fallen foul of poor service from a 'recommended' source. Sadly it's a story we hear more and more often these days?

I hope that you find your way back in at some point though.

Paul

Hi, as a kid my dad had a new beetle after my next door neighbour had one, it was a dark blue 73 his first new car. At 14 i sort of inherited my first car a 64 bug after it failed it's MOT we just hapend to be the same age. I was into skateboarding and hard rock but there was something in the bug that made me want to get it back on the road. At 17 we both passed our tests. Apart from Herbie Id never seen another beetle that looked any different from mine, the only magazine I could get was Safer Motoring. One day  I decided to paint the bumpers black,I took them off and they never went back on.
In my 20s I had a good few bugs and past the bug onto a good few friends in work who carried it on a long time after I'd had enough and with 3 kids a mortgage id never thought i would ever have one again.
4 years ago I bought my 54 Oval and love it,so the Cal-look won't die out as long as the youngsters still see the cars out and about .
Some of the standard patina and the German Look cars are lovely but the well rusty and narrowed cars just make me smile..we can't all have good taste  ;)

The California Look style has been and always will be timeless. And for the millionth-trillionth time typing it, the phenomenon wasn't made by following rules. The cars best remembered had a state of balance. It wasn't about how much "stuff" could be hung on a car. Still isn't.
The fads of big dollar Buses or rat look will never be looked back on as fondly as the California Look scene. What's happening is some guys got their thrill for a few years, and then moved on. They went the way of a lot of other guys I've seen go in the hobby in the last 28 years. For some of us sick poor idiots, nothing else can take the place of a well-presented VW getting its balls  stomped on and seeing 8000 revs for no good reason, other than to say "up yours" to those that don't believe.
And if the scene isn't as popular as it was 5-10-15-40 years ago, whatever.... so what? If you enjoy it, then you enjoy it. Who cares if your neighbors on both sides of you don't.

Personally, I can't keep up with all the bullshit that changes in the world around me, in life. My VW is mine and it's been a constant for me for 28 years. Will be for another 28+. I get all hot and bothered about getting an Alfa or 356 with big T4 motor, but I know neither option will replace my Bug. Just can't and won't.

Hang in there.

I understand about having a car for decades, and it being a best friend. I keep falling in love with mine every few years for different reasons. In the 80s we had it on a tow bar behind our GMG 454 powered pickup truck/camper and drove the bug around LA with no front brakes trying to find a shop to help fix the damn brakes and ended up at SCS where they slapped on drop spindles, blah, blah. Then one year I could afford an interior, like wow! Then more recently I bought AJ's turbo kit which was a disaster until I found my mechanic buddy Steve who was campaigning drag bugs along the East coast in the 90s as a pre teen while Berg was racing out west. Steve figured I needed 'a new cam' and ended up building me a full on race motor tuned for the street. It just keeps going...

Jim, this one is for you.
I have n t been working on my car last winter because we were building a new track racer for my buddy, he is racing for years now in an europene old alfa class. His old car was beat up so time for a new one
So we built a complete new alfa giulia super, turned out very nice.... is our best built yet. we are very proud of this one.
It has a ,also own built, 190hp twinspark engine of a Alfa 75.

A Cal look Beetle is the only car for me, but I like building/engineering other cars also.

(http://www.keversite.nl/fotoalbum/fotos/135033.jpg)

you can see my beetle in the back.

(http://www.keversite.nl/fotoalbum/fotos/135034.jpg)

(http://www.keversite.nl/fotoalbum/fotos/135035.jpg)

Oh at Spa racetrack this year
(http://www.keversite.nl/fotoalbum/fotos/135036.jpg)

Hope you like it Jim  ;)

As usual Mr. Ratto puts things so eloquently.
 I have been active full throttle in this hobby for close to 35 yrs & been around it for longer than that.  I have seen many people come & go & much ebb & flow in the hobby.  I dont know what goes on @ facebook &  so I dont know how it effects the Lounge. As for Cal look, Rat look patina, buses ect. Building a top shelf Cal looker is expensive today, its pretty easy to spend 50k on up & I see the patina cars as a protest to this, they are much more user friendly & if this allows more people to be a part of the hobby so be it. As for defining Cal look it is not about what parts you take off or add or about rules in some tattered old magazine you bought off the internet, I dont know how to exactly define it, but I know it when I see it.  This small part of the car hobby pool may expand or it might get smaller, I dont know, but I know quite a few people like myself where this is all we know. I live at ground zero for the start of this,  I drive an ACVW every day (a bus!!) &  will continue to do so no matter what the outcome around me.
      Have a great Christmas everybody & see you at the events next year.    Bill

Like it? I love it. My old man's first real car was a new 1967 (?)Giulia Super, white with dove grey interior. Well I should rephrase that. His first new "real" car was a sea foam green 1966 Beetle that he added an EMPI compensator spring and Abarth 4 tip to. But he said the Alfa "did it all", and was a real jewel. He bought it instead of a Ford/Lotus Cortina, which he went to look at but said it looked like a blind monkey assembled. He said the Alfas were real tanks, finished off beautifully and went like hell. I grew up, infected with his sickness for SPICA injection, rust, worn 2nd gear synchros and blue smoke. And on 116 cars, noisy driveline donuts. We recently put a Milano (75) 3.0 V6 (with 164S cams and headwork) in his '84 GTV6. The car hauls holy ass now.
Thanks for sharing and sorry for taking the thread on a momentary trip to Italia.

Looks like a commie taxi from the cold war. :D

 ;D Whahaha I know, lots off people in europe think it is a Lada..

 ;D Cool story, Glad you like it... whahaha rust, worn 2nd gear synchros and blue smoke, yep this is an old alfa for you..
better learn how to dubble clutch  ;)

Ok back to topic.

Edgar I will PM you pics, stories... thanks

Jim

I have to agree with everyone who has posted on this subject. I have been in the cal-look scene for almost twenty years and have noticed a bit of a trend shift in not only the magazines but car shows as well. I remember going to the classic, drag days, carlsbad raceway, and seeing a ton of cool cars inc. painted, primered, og patina and that fired me up. to this day, I have an intense passion for the cal-look scene and I enjoy talking to random people at car shows starting a conversation of ''back in the day''...I live and breathe vw's as much as I have grown tired at times  :) Luckily I have had many great influences which are too many to name but aside from this, I take note that nobody drives their cars anymore! My car is no longer perfect and has its battle scars but I will drive it as much as I can just to get the nervous twitch out of the system...usually 1-2 days a week for a quick cruise....I know there are a few people on here (Jim Ratto) who treat their cars as damn near a daily driver which is commended. I feel there are a lot of 'featured' cal -look cars that they have spent a ton of money on that never see the streets which is a little disheartning but understandable. A lot of people look up to these cars but not seeing them out an about and just seeing them staged at shows seems to not spark the interest much.."street" cars is what got me hooked in high school and is still what I enjoy to this day..Sorry for the long winded post...This is just my 2 cents. see you out there!

its kind of a vicious circle when people build a car too nice to drive or too radical for the street.   When you see a nice car street driving & then see it run at the track, it makes a much greater statement than rolling it in & out of the trailer.  A few battle scars earned is just part of doing business, you try to keep them best you can, but using them is always best.

There is something to me that all VW geeks have in commend  , The passion !! To me see'n a proper stance cal-look VW going by, is kind of magic !! Interesting communicating with other people from other place's like the internet / facebook you sure see a lot of different styles ! since I moved to Nevada I have seen some different change's. What I call the broken axle look and this clear coated rusty patina thing going on . I do not understand or judge ! But like anything , It go's in waves , Up and down.

THIS! ^5

Very very well put  :)

Very well put guys. getting the car ready for the 2015 classic and planning to drive it down with a few others from Northern California. Appx 700 miles with a 2332 10.5:1 on pump gas. Hopefully the brm's will be restored in time but either way, no trailer. Cars can be repaired and in my opinion are engineered and built to be driven. Hit the road!

Yeah, a number of years back I drove to Denver from Phoenix.  When we headed to the track it was raining and we passed a stock split window on the road.  That was really cool.  After we parked the car I ran into a guy I had met in Phoenix months  earlier at Competition Engineering.  He had a beautiful car and I wanted to see it again only to be told it was home in his garage.  He wouldn't bring it out in the rain.  Go figure.  I never understood that.  I drove my car everywhere back then and used it daily.  My car isn't that pretty any more but this guys car is probably perfect if he still has it.  I've had my car for 30 years and cherish the memories of many trips across this country.  I think those who don't drive em really miss out on the whole experience. But what do I know...?

:)

Another "I thought it was just me post" but the interest had dwindled for me over the last few years and put it down to family & work commitments, however, nothing seemed to do it for me in the magazines for a long time (full of the same old bus built over and over again) and a 3 year absence from any shows (that since 1997 had been my holidays every year) left me wondering if my interest had gone completely. I would agree Facebook and even Instagram to a degree allow the sharing of some cars that would have in the past taken time to get through to the mags but at the same time there seems to be a fair amount of bullshit that goes with it (found recently but that's a different story). Unfortunately the eagerness at the first show of the year to check some new cars out has been lost too.
Maybe it's finding your particular interest in the hobby, I seemed to loose momentum with my own big motored looker and after 13 years moved it on. I do however love the history to the cal look scene and some early cars really do it for me so the solution? Just had a 71 Cali import Ghia delivered this morning, real time warp originality (not f###ing rat look), a spot of mild lowering a some old accessories then drive it!

Mark

We all have roots somewhere with these vehicles and I just happened to be born to family who owned VW:s since the beginning of sixties. Early eighties it just happened again that my buddies started to build V8:s and it was maybe closer than an inch that I didn't buy a Ford Fairlane STW to me - but I found a 1952 split. It was a project but quite complete. And I was lucky to use all my savings to get it only back to roads. My dream was to build a plum candy cal looker, but I had a vintage split vindow on my hand. A bit later as a young family we moved abroad for many years and I had a dream to build a looker some day. After having got enough miles with 25 HP and educated my self to be a nit picker with purist VW split enthusiasts, I almost got enough and was really ready to sell my -52 and forget it. But I didn't, actually that pastel green was somehow now a part of me - too many years together.

Then one day when I was coming home from funerals of my brother in love, I found that we actually have a short life here and I didn't want to die before enjoying my life or being one crumpy old fart in a senile house who didn't follow his dreams. So I bought almost like the first possible old VW and started this (http://cal-look.no/lounge/index.php/topic,16969.0.html) project. I came to see that this Cal-Look Lounge was a good source to lurk more information and opinions - even I didn't want to make a pure cal-looker anymore.

So I'm very thankfull for you all and after all this jargon above, I'd say that there must be good reasons and dreams to build such a stupid vehicles what we all like - and hate. We might have ups and downs, economical reasons, what ever, but if this bastard VW syndrome is inherited or inborn, we'll be back some day...

It went very quiet in here again!!!!!   I cant be the only one working on there cars surely?

Its winter.

you are not the only one  ;D

Yeah I've been working on my 67 too , it just takes too long uploading and resizing photos on my ancient lap top ! I'll get on it !

Rob

I will re phrase that then

Apart from the people working on 67s is no one else working on their cars   :o :D

Does busses count  ;D
]
[attachment=1]

Working on the 2332. Trying to get 4x Ducati 999R ITB's with shower-injectors matched to the slightly modified heads from Skinne at the moment... :)

(http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/qq121/kristianb/Forumbilder/IMAG0423.jpg)

(http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/qq121/kristianb/Forumbilder/IMAG0121.jpg)

(http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/qq121/kristianb/Forumbilder/IMAG0176.jpg)

(http://i440.photobucket.com/albums/qq121/kristianb/Forumbilder/IMAG0180.jpg)

same here busy on a bus as well at the momernt.

henk!!!

I don't see any reason why they can be In the werks section?  still old aircooled vws  8)

Building cars, but more fit for off topic
aircooled 86' M491 911 w 3.2 being restored...
[attachment=2]
[attachment=3]
Imsa spec race car nearly complete.
[attachment=1]

here it is.
it is '65 walktrough panel van.
the nice cut out wheel arches are replaced by new metal all ready.
further plans are to do a signwriting on it,something porsche related.
porsche 944 brakes with fuchs are gasburners,not sure on that yet.
some 914 seats with westfalia fabric and vinyl.
engine will be a 1776 with 100 or 110 cam and dual webers.

henk!!!

(http://i62.tinypic.com/15i96xl.jpg)
(http://i58.tinypic.com/2ywg206.jpg)
(http://i58.tinypic.com/htchmv.jpg)

Nice and look like a solid basis to start :)

Henk! - Nice bus! I'd love to have a bus like that! Sounds like a great project!  8)

Me ;D

I am... busy cutting up wheel arches on the SCC bus.  :)

thanks,it is a california import so not to much rust problems.

henk!!!

I thought you might be busy rebuilding race engines Richie!
Haha!
 ;D

That's next weeks project, got a few in line waiting inc the new cab engine that I need out the way 1st  :)

this one counts.  ;)

Let us bring this topic back on top again.

I just had a look at the forum stats and I find them interesting:

New posts are down to 1/3 of what they where compared to 2 years ago but at the same time we do not see the same drastic drop in the people logged on/visiting the forum. This goes both for The Lounge and our Norwegian forum. It is obvious that people have enough with updating one forum/network but at the same time it is interesting to read what is going on here on The Lounge.

Keep on posting folks and help us keep the forum alive!

And a happy new year to you all!

Best rgs
BB

Good point!

I think people are posting less on forums has to do with facebook and browsing more on their phone instead of a normal PC. I always find it more trouble to react on a post while on my phone instead of on a regular PC.

But as I purchased a new project car I will be likely to start some new threads :D

I'm still here every day, multiple times per day ::)

I've had a lot of change in my life lately, currently living in an apartment 1500 miles away from my toys. So no fun updates until I find my way into a house with a garage... Hopefully this year. Living vicariously through others on this forum until then!

I'm still here, and I started an In Da Werks thread! Interesting about what was said about browsing on phones - I tend to have a few minutes here and there, often while feeding my little lad or cooking tea so the phone is ideal. It's not great for posting photos tho.

no time, the weather is too good, so i am driving my car, more correctly my wife is mostly driving it (every day to work), i can do maintenance.

does this sound familiar  to anyone ::)  ;D

I still need my daily shot of the Lounge  :D

Yes, less people posting, but also better quality! Guy's like Richie posting the making of a 10sec street car is just the kind of info LOT'S of people are looking for  ;) Even if it is to build a much slower car, you get a plan of how to actually build a street-strip-race car with a down to earth approach.

Like many of us, life get in the way; a baby, building a house this year as we found a place to, a growing family business that I will need to take care of when my father will get his retirement in a not so far time... I hope to get the bus painted ASAP. If it's not painted when we start to build our house, it will be put on a backburner for God now how long...

So, not a lot's to post as I don't work a lot if not at all on my cars. I still give a hands to friends from time to time on their projects, but mine are a almost stalled for now  :(

I still visit everyday , but have been posting more than usual ( still not much ) as my 67 build is coming on well and need lots of advise to help me get it right first time .

Rob

 Happy New Year to Everyone --  -- I try to get here daily and see what everyone is up to!!!!

Since I never embraced FB, I've lost contact with a lot of people in the hobby -- -- Still have the Ghia in the garage, but I've been leaving for work at 4 am and getting home around 7 pm AND being well over the age of 60, stuff on the car doesn't get done on a daily or weekly or monthly basis anymore.  How can I still be waiting on parts too?????? ...... Hopefully the job will be done in the coming month or I'll have some more El Nino days off, so I can find some time and some motivation --- LOL

I'm still working on mine, averaging probably 10+ hours a week on it, enjoying the shed time mostly.
It's not show car by a long stretch, it's a 20ft car!  :D
When done it will be fun to cruise around in again, my first ACVW driver for 10 years.

I picked up my 56 project almost 2 years ago (I started a thread under the In Da Works) worked on it a lot at first but for the last 1.5 years work has been crazy. one son in college and 2 kids heavily involved in high school makes for not much me time. That's part of being a parent and that's OK. I would go weeks sometimes not even looking at this site or any vw stuff at all. When I did log on I would look around but not respond to anything. I would work on the car a little at a time, mostly just a couple hours at a time. I accepted a new position last June and have been very busy trying to get up to speed, but I have recently found time to work on the car again and should have the chassis rolling soon. As I see the chassis coming together I get more pumped up about finishing the car. I hope to have the body and paint work done by fall so I can assemble the car next winter.
I do enjoy reading and looking at pics on this site, there is a lot of good poeple willing to answer questions and help if asked.

Thanks J-F, I appreciate that :)

Maybe the moderators could lead by example and post there own projects and happenings :P ;) ;D Then others would follow :)

It does seem to me that the lounge gets a decent influx of new members weekly so people must still be searching out forums for something? even if it is trikes!!!  :o ::) 

I do think particularly in winter its hard for some to get motivated and maybe just seeing an update from someone else however small can help, that minor thing to you might have and done, then might be the catalyst to another to get out to the garage and do the same, so maybe just update your project or post what you did up for others to see anyway?  Just an idea :)

cheers Richie

Who are you getting at?  :o
I am very good at reading, but I have been really bad at writing. Super busy is my excuse... It is probably a poor one  :-\

Could we add a little incentive to post/update projects threads. Maybe a free t-shirt for the project update of the month, funded by members?
I know in my line of work incentives/prizes get a lot of buy-in
Lee

All 3 of you :D ;D  I am sure there was going to be a In the werks thread on a 1641 turbo 67  :-*  And Jon used to update quite often on his Super beetle project, and if your writing is not good[ don't believe you but  :P ] pictures will do, they speak a thousand words apparently  ;)

Lead the way :) 8)

cheers Richie

I`m posting as much as I can! Well , all the stuff I want you to see for now   ;D

i'm still on the lounge every 2days , for me the drag engine and other topic relating to race engines is not for me , i'm more into the old stories that sarge and john lazenby wrote
so i've a quick visit , and to the happenings sectio n , i don't post anymore because , I have the impression that doesn't interest not any more people, thus I stopped posting, furthermore it had the problem of the number of photos there which we could post

need more topic about cal look and  others stuff , or some advice or technics to do some works on a car

Fabs, you seem to have a passion for old gassers?  and that's racing?  ;)  You used to post in the Gasser photo thread often but don't now? seems a perfect place for pictures and then maybe stories to start :)

cheers Richie

Slacker!!! get back to it ;D

yes i' like them , and yes it's racing , but i've more interest into the  history , the parts and the paint etc.... and not about time results

yes that true too about posting in the gassers tread but it take me  alot of time to search on the net about unseen photos or buying some old magazine with vw gassers inside , and now i've keep all for me , don't ask me why .....no one posted what they 've   ::)

Was just thinking I was more racing than cal look  :) 

I enjoy the stories about the beginings of performance aircooled VWs, racing and street/cal look just like you but we cant force the guys who did it all back then to post them, so we have to keep this place alive & interesting so maybe they want to join in and post again 8)

cheers Richie

Every day on  the lounge! But my englisch is to bad.....

I'm Australian, my English is bloody terrible.  ;D

I don't mind if you don't.

Ok Boss :)

Haha I don´t suck at writing, I just have not been active in writing, just reading :-)

You could not be more wrong! and we need you and others to help this forum not loose it cal-look spirit.

Yes :-)

How do people post pics using links instead of upping the actual pic to the site? I used to use Photobucket links but I don't think that works anymore?

I have improved the forums photo upload now so it is easier to upload pictures without resizing upfront. Perhaps that helps?
With regards to images hosted elsewhere it is just to click the image button above with the tooltip "insert image" and fill in the url between the "img" tags. If it does not work from photobucket it might be because they want people to access their site instead of just viewing the images? Or perhaps you are not using a link that goes directly to the image itself.

   :-* 8)


     :o ;D  I'm so old I can't remember anything new!

Nice to see that you are still around Sarge! Happy new year to you and yours.

Best rgs
Karl

Next time I am over I will come get my Red 67 back I lent you then:o ;D

cheers Richie

Amen  ;)

Hey, thanks Karl... regards to you, too!


   :o  hmmm, so YOUR the one who left that clunker in my garage.... it needs a tune-up! ;D

I don't post very much, but still check this site almost daily.  I appreciate the information that others are posting in their build threads, but don't always remember to thank them.

I have a thread in Da Werks section and will update my winter progress.  My goal is to try to make my 925 kg (2035 lb) Canadian street-strip Beetle run low 12's...and ultimately 11.99 seconds on the drag strip with IDA's.

Yep was me, garage was like your cooler, Empty ;D 

I will bring my laptop over with me and give it a tune up then :-* ;D

cheers Richie

    :o ...cooler empty???....NOOOOoooooooo!!! ;D

i am busy with my feb 59 stock beetle,rebuild engine(nos parts),new rubbers,ect...i am 4 owner and pretty much is all original...1 respray in the early '90

I think it's, first of all, OK to admit the rampant interest in whatever "California Look" is, can come and go, for all of us. Don't feel bad or ashamed if you've (hopefully, temporarily) run out of steam. It probably is normal.
You need to be ok with the cyclical nature of interest in a hobby. I'd say the interest in nicely done cars, past and present, that look good and haul ass, has been going long enough to say this isn't just some fad. Personally, these cars mean more to me, and have since late 1980's than a lot of other things in my life since then. And I know there's guys out there that have been propelled by this hobby twice as long as myself. So don't worry, it's still going on, maybe not at the fevered pace we all want it to be, but it's not going away.
Look at Feb '16 Hot VW's, not only a nice feature on the 11-sec black '67, but also on two cars that defined The California Look (Rayburn and Rhoads '64's). I had to buy that issue.

I think maybe some more aesthetics that are more creative than the "norm" would give the hobby a nice kick in the ass. Not getting crazy, but maybe if most were more accepting of outside of the box thinking, instead of the typical "That's not Cal Look, they didn't do THAT in 1975!" response, guys would feel more comfortable bending the "rules" some. We have the internet now, not just car magazines and car shows. As soon as a guy proudly posts a pic of his project, he's subjected himself to world-wide opinions and criticism. Can you imagine how pissed and shitty it must be to reveal your hard work to your peers, only to be picked on?

I'm still busy with my car, driving, servicing, testing things, changing things that need to be changed. It's as much fun, no wait.... more fun now than 20-25 years ago.

Have fun, when you feel like it.  8)

Jim

I agree on what Jim said, I personally don't post on any VW Forums any longer, if you want to see what I mean, go to the Samba, there are a few proclaimed geniuses that irritate the crap out of me, so I just chose to not post anything!

Very well said Jim. Spot on.

I like posting some wacky stuff like my drilled finned heads, 30 thou tight deck where the piston kisses the head, and too-tight coil bind radical lift valves where people say 'you can't do that!' haha so many opinions, so many experts, and love to drive people nuts with things like that!  ;)

When it comes to the technical aspect, it's a little easier to accept other's "feedback"- hopefully they're sharing advice because they're comfortable giving it, and they've proven to themselves it's sound advice. With that said, there's a lot posted (not so much here) that I would refer to as bad advice. Or not well thought out. The answer that always makes me discount what the author is posting is "I've run _______ for years and have no issues". Yeah, ok, but can quantify how often your car is subjected to the kind of use that would trigger a problem? And are you really sure whatever situation part "X" is involved in, is the best? To say one runs "X" jetting and emulsion tubes "for years" and it "runs good, no problems" but then to be chasing beat to death heads, torn up plugs, etc... I guess we would have to agree on the definition of "problem" then.
In the case of running 0.030 deck and super tight spring heights, yeah it can be done, but not sure I'd tell somebody just getting started in this hobby it can be, as there's a real learning curve to pushing the envelope. I hate to see guys get started in this, fly too close to the sun and then get pissed and bad mouth hot rod VW's. If you know how to set up "what can't be done", then you need to know what to watch for in case there's going to be a problem. That's all.
I don't post what I do so people will get pissed and want to argue. The last thing I need is practice arguing...  ::)

I guess what I am trying to say is "No need to follow the rules. Try something different, and if it makes sense to you, be proud of what you do."

See ya

Jim

Part of the fun is breaking parts and having stuff wear out. If your car sits there, nothing happens, boring!
Here's one example...

This topic is the one that everyone should respond to. I generally lurk and have lost interest in posting to most topics or threads.
The lounge was once very busy with lots of people posting and new and relevant threads, but now just kinda blah blah blah.

For me personally a little shot of my survivor '67 at Heroes was the first post i have made in a very long time. I know I need to
read more and post more just to stay on top of things. I think that will be a New Year Resolution I can keep !   8)

Well said Jim. A nice relaxed easy going attitude you have going on there!

Martin, I cant agree with breaking things being fun, or that these fragile things staying in one bit is boring. Taking a perfectly good car apart to try and make it better / faster though keeps it interesting enough for me to keep doing stuff and posting when I think in might be of interest.

Peter

 

Well said Jim, absolutely right, in my opinion anyway :). Hotrod aircooled VW's will always be around as well as even stock VWs (which are just as cool). I agree about the latest Hot VW's mag...I was pleasantly surprised to see what was in it and reading it motivated me to get off my a$$ once again and get working on my car.  Everyone goes through phases of high and low motivation probably based on what's going on in their lives, or maybe they are just tired, or maybe low on money and time..My motto is -It's ok, just don't give up and when the time is right get back to it.

As far as deviating from the Cal-Look standards, we should accept new ideas and why not? I think you have to look at the thought and effort put in before you judge what someone has done and respect that. But constructive criticism can be a good thing when you're honestly trying to help someone.....

 The very beginning of Cal-Look was based on people doing something new wasn't it? We shouldn't be afraid to experiment with new ideas! For example...Look at the DBK cars, there are many new things being done at a very high level. Looking at the cars from this club and others definitely inspires me and keeps me interested in these cars and what can be done with them.

We are all stewards of this great hobby, just take it easy, and maybe even having a sense of humour would help sometimes..

Thanks Peter. We all have jobs to keep us wound tight and make us lose sleep. This is supposed to be a fun segment.  I don't agree with parts failing as being fun or keeping things from becoming boring. There's nothing more heartbreaking in this hobby than to spend effort, time and money, in the best way one can afford, only to have stuff fly apart or grind itself to death. Back in 2014 I lost an SLR cam and lifter set, after doing everything I was told (not doing everything I normally do, and now do again) to do. It was not a fun experience.

And yes I agree, continual refinement to the recipe to make the car faster/safer/more fun to drive keeps me going too. I've revamped a number of things with my '67 pretty recently and the results have me enjoying being in and tuning the car, more than ever.

Well after moving back to California in March and starting a new job, the majority of my car parts are sealed in the same boxes I moved them in and my car is sitting in my sisters barn.  I keep telling myself I'll get to it soon.  :'( :'( :'(

I'm not sure that cal-look attracts less people that in the past. That whole "patina/stanced/slammed" scene is around here since about 10+ years and I don't know, I feel it's just going the same. I just think people are not interested anymore in forums on the internet. Not just with the Lounge, it's something I've noticed on every other forums I used to check. Some are still active but with a lot less activity, some are just totally dead. And it's not only happening on VW forums. I have friends into RC/model cars/planes that told me the same, I'm sometimes checking a StarWars vintage toys collectibles forum, a few french classic car forums, and a few guitar/music forums... and it's been the same during the last 3 years everywhere. And if you look at all the VW skynetblogs, most of them are dead as well now. If I remember well, one of the first blog to close and have its content posted on facebook instead was the DAS blog.

I guess people just grew tired of forums and of having to make the effort to participate and to be contributors. I think most people are going on facebook groups because it's the easiest way. Everything on a single website, the ability to "like" stuff and to "show/share" more stuff, and to pretend to be someone "important" too. I feel people with facebook have an easy way to feed their ego, easier than on a forum. Because in the end, that's what all of us are doing on the internet at some point. People used to find time to go on forums, now they still have the same free time but they spend it on facebook and stuff like that. Everything is just the same all in all.

But for me, it certainly doesn't seem like the VW or cal-look scene is getting weaker. As for cal-look, I don't feel people loosing interest in it. And don't tell me people are going away from cal-look because it's expensive! Have you checked how much money you'd need to buy a bus, even a tatty/crappy one? Then have you checked the prices of lowering systems, narrowed beams and stuff for buses/beetles if you want to "slam" it? Yf you need to have the inner fenders boxed? It cost as much and often more than building a fine and fun engine or a decent, proper, simple cal-look.

As for magazines, I don't know, I buy the french vw magazine every month and there are still vintage, old-school and cal-look cars in it every month.

As for me, facebook is not my thing. It's a bit because of the way people behave there, and it's mostly because of the layout, I don't like it. Everything is confused, messy. You can't have a proper talk. It's impossible to use it as a proper archive. There's too much "stuff", buttons, links, everywhere. Though at the same time it seems too empty to me. Maybe that's just me, but I like threads on a forum. I closed my facebook account more than 2 years ago and I don't feel the need or envy (or the point) to open it again.

Now about the Lounge, I've been away for about the last 3 years because of personal and health issues. I didn't play with my cars much either during that time. And when I did, I wasn't enjoying it and it was more a downer than a fun thing, and I didn't find anything really interesting to share. But I've been away from here as well, so I won't blame anyone for not being as active as before as I'm in the same position! I did came back from time to time though, and it's true thatwhat was noticeable was a lot of old members whether europeans, americans, members of huge cal-look VW clubs, or regular posters, are not around anymore. I've lost touch with a lot people from the VW/cal-look scene since I started coming less often on the Lounge and since I stopped using facebook. That's sad, but I guess that's how things are. Maybe one of these days things will go back as how they were a couple of years ago.

Facebook is the main reason all the forums are dying. IMO I the average Aircooled VW Enthusiast is between 40-65. Just about the age were some don't use Facebook, while others still don't know what it is. Anyone younger than 40 that is into all the modern forms of media has long since abandoned forums. I too had a friend with his own R/C forum for his track and just checking it last week, it had not had a post in over a year. I was researching some stuff for a fellow lounge member about a transaxle intermediate housing off of a sand rail forum, and it's last reply was in October of 2015. I feel the older crowd that refuse to use Facebook is the only reason forums like the Lounge are getting posts at all.

The pissing match, and issues with the older Cal-look forum, United Aircooled, and the latest Flat 4 site have turned a lot of people off from forums in the Aircooled Community. The Samba with its slightly stricter moderation seems to be the only forum that hasn't taken a huge hit, and even their post counts are down.

I'm a lurker as well. There's only so many times you can explain to someone how to set the timing with their 009, or how to adjust their valves. The Lounge is pretty advanced in that sense, but unless the topic is about something out of the ordinary that I have first hand knowledge about the solution, I usually don't reply also.

Getting back to the age group I mentioned, a lot can happen during that time period. Some have kids, others have young adults starting college, and some are taking care of kids 70, and older. I had to fight tooth, and nail for any info I needed on my cars before the Internet, so I try and help the new enthusiast as much as I can, but sometimes life is just more important.

I do see some older members coming out of the woodwork back to the forums. And another interesting thing is the age group of 65, and beyond. A local Dragstrip has started a weekend Nostalgia event at the track. Those in their 50's, 60's, and even 70's that were deep within the early development of today's modern drag racing are bringing out vehicles that haven't seen the light of day in decades. That age group most likely no longer has an older generation to care for, and any of their kids are well into adulthood on their own. They have retired, and most usually have some money to play with. This past years Nostalgia event was the biggest event in the history of the track, over 600 racers. The spectators ate the concession stand OUT of food. I see some cool things happening to the Aircooled Community within the next decade or so.

So its been almost 2 years since i started this thread, and I must apologise as while there was a rush of activity around the initial thread, i lost the desire to follow up, over the last week I've been looking a little more regularly on whats going on and I wondered what the feeling is now regards our hobby and whats going down, we are living in a rapidly changing world and unfortunately face book is still around.

Russell

Personally, I post on thesamba a fair amount and am on there most days. Though i have noticed on there recently its getting harder and harder to get decent replies if you ask advice as there seem to be a few who are itching to flame anybody the moment they get a chance. Facebook - personally, I am not on it and never will be. I honestly cannot remember the last time a day went by without me hearing the name - it must be one of the most commonly used words nowadays. I know people who ONLY communicate on Facebook - emailing or texting them is a waste of time. I find it quite bizarre.

The VW scene generally has gone to a somewhat odd place now it seems. The place where i store my Bug, there are a couple of Buses also stored there and on a couple of occasions as i have been up there working on my bug, the owners of those buses have been there and they literally do not know what my car is. The scene - particularly the bus aspect has brought a whole new type of people in whom it seems have little or no interest or knowledge of anything other than a 12" narrowed beam and air ride suspension. Not that theres anything wrong with that but it seems to be much more compartmented now - if thats the right word - people seem to have interest simply in their own niche and no further. As for the UK magazines - I bought every issue of Volksworld from about 1990 to the mid 2000's and always found it a really good quality read. I especially used to enjoy reading the columns from the likes of Peter Noad but nowadays i rarely buy a copy and even then it may only be for a particular feature. I find it all a bit 'samey' to be honest. Ultra VW i enjoy more but again i have to confess to rarely buying it.

I do know that through this particular forum i have subsequently met two other members in person at a show - simply from them recognising my car off here and coming over to say hi - both really good guys whom i hope to meet up with again for a beer at a future show so if i feel that even just for that point alone, forums like this are well worth participating in.

There was a blow up over on Brian Watts forum the other day (OK, I was involved) but he has his nose up the o'rama promoters rear and he was screaming heresy because of a video on you tube saying that the Prado campout was on the same week as the Classic and was stealing patrons from the classic and was by far the better event........

I countered that the folks that were going to the Prado event were, while being VW folks, walk to a completely different drum than us, the "normal" VW crowd. And currently here in SoCal, they are by far the majority...... and they really don't believe they owe any allegiance to the old guard.... And like it or not they are the up and coming ACVW enthusiast... They generally run stock(ish) engines, patinaed, slammed bugs and they don't appreciate us about as much as we don't appreciate them LOL..........

And they live on FaceBook, Instagram and a few other hundred sites I've never heard of.........

It blows people's minds when the 30, and younger generation magically produce 300+ vehicle entries to a car show in its first year through social media. Especially when it took 20 years for that kind of a turn out for a show that started by dropping photocopied flyers on your passenger seat when you were at some other event. Not saying this new show had 300 entries, or the Classic was started in 96, but yeah, times are changing. Money plays a big part. The newest generation simply doesn't have $30k to drop on an early car to build with paint, and an IDA'd stroker. Most find an original Beetle, fab up the air ride in the back yard, and roll it with the 35+ year old engine that came in the car. It's not only in the VW scene either. The big fish that used to be in the small pond of yesteryear are now becoming the small, or nonexistent fish in the big pond. The largest local VW Event for me is this weekend. I can count on the fingers of both hands the people I'm interested in catching up with, or hanging out with. I worked at the hosting shop from 03-13. For the owner, I would like for him to have a great turn out, but it doesn't matter to me a whole lot what the younger crowd is involved with.

Funny though, we're all still here 😊


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sure, but what is "here"? The Lounge is a shell of the former CLF, and the Shoptalk forums sometimes go more than a week without a reply. Most activity is over on The Samba, and it's mostly posts of "just picked up my first VW, a 72 Superbeetle". It's great they are still getting involved in the hobby, but the days of comonly discussing IDA jetting on a 2332, or what gears gets you in the 13's are long gone. Very few with post counts into the hundreds.

The Cal-look Lounge was started over 10 years ago as a Scandinavian/European(but not limited to) Cal-look and race forum, while the CLF was still alive. A lot of the content have also therefore been different. After the CLF was shut down many of the people that share the interest have naturally found there way to The Lounge, which we appreciate.
Indifferent of activity, The Lounge is a great please to find new and old stories and images. It is sad that the people beind the CLF did not want to preserve theirs online at least as a read only source. I offered to host it for free, but it was turned down.

TROND, I agree the lounge is a great place to be. Thanks for all you have done as its a great outlet even if slightly slower at the present time, but its still 100 times better than FB. IMHO

Thanks

Russell

The Lounge is still the place to be for Cal-Look.

FB is just too much of a time suck. I made a conscious decision to stop being active there at the end of 2015. I did pop on my birthday as my wife insisted that I respond to the well wishes.

The only time I miss it is when I miss invitations to events etc. I missed a VW event earlier this year. Only found out when my wife mentioned it the evening after.
"It was on Facebook." I would have gone if I knew about it.

I've been on a negative cycle on the scene for a while.
I've lost my passion and have seriously thought about selling my '67.
My wife has talked me out of it... at least for now.

The joy is gone.

Right now, The Lounge is my only Cal-Look connection.  

Sorry to hear that Rick. My suggestion, don't go crazy with it and let it become a money and time black hole. Build it simple, get it on the road and start to enjoy it. You don't need a $$$$ 2332 to enjoy your car ;) A driving work in progress is much more fun than a heap of cool parts in the garage.
I hope you get the "bug" back :)

The cal look niche of this hobby is expensive, and let's be honest, totally impractical :) I completely understand why patina buses are the popular thing these days, I like them too, but for me cal look will never die.

Every time my car is off the road I'm thinking that I want to do this to it and want to do that to it....but then its back on the road and I'm (almost) happy with the mildly tuned 36hp and the minor body work issues don't matter.

I think I posted before that I joined facebook, have no friends but am a member of a couple of VW groups and watch a lot of VW pages....however, still not as good as the help you get on here.

I know exactly how you feel. Having been to events since the late 80's, it just seemed like a better time back then. To me now, it just seems to be a show of have, and have nots. Differences in vehicles didn't seem to be an issue back when. Now, the owner of the fully restored Cal-Look 21 window with the 2332 is on another planet in their lifestyle compared to the owner of the patina'd 72 Super with the og 1600 lowered on airbags parked beside them. Maybe that's why there seemed to be a fuss over the two shows conflicting above. The one group doesn't have the money for something really nice, so they drive what they have, and have found a following of like enthusiasts. I will never get rid of the 74 Super I have, simply because it was my first car in 89. I have picked numerous project vehicles along the way since then. With a simple stock Concours style restoration of the one of the least complicated ones in my stash most likely going to run $15k-$20k, the time when they will all get cut up/parted out is getting closer, and closer.

If you have no storage space issue or money issue, keep your '67 Rick! During the past 3 years I've been close to sell my cars and all of my VW stuff a few times, for no other particular reasons than not seeing the point in owning it, and just since the past few months realized it would have been a mistake.

About the VW scene, I think during the last 15 years since I own my first car, I must have gone to about only 9 or 10 stictly-VW events and meetings. And most of the time it was for the huge swap-meet we have here in winter because I needed some parts. The only place I'm going to regularly is the Hills Race in Italy, but there VWs are not the majority of cars. The Lounge and buying the french air-cooled magazine every month (that I do mostly out of habit since I have all of them, rather than real interest in its content) are the only strictly-VW connection I have since many years. And I don't think I am missing a lot of interesting things besides it, also I don't think I need much more than this to enjoy my cars (like Richard I've been thinking making an empty fb account just to follow a few pages and groups, but I still don't think I'm missing out interesting things for the moment). I love VWs and seeing them and talking about them, but I also find interesting seeing other cars and seeing different things. I've always been going to classic car meets and events like historic rallies and races and most of the time I'm the only one with an air-cooled VW. Still I don't think I would sell all my VWs to buy different cars because VWs are what I enjoy the most.
There's always been this stupid thing about the VW-scene, a lot of people think they are smartmouthes and they are "hype and trendy" because they hate every other classic cars and have fun thinking everything else than what they own is a piece of shit. Or the guys that will brag about late models and 1303s being crap, then when this was not enough some decided it was better to hate on post-64 Beetle, then others needed to feel even more special so they decided the only true VWs were made before 1960... when it's the same guys that after getting out of the scene after 3 years will take a mortgage to buy a brand new cars like everyone else. Then you have guys who do things on their cars not for themselves but just to "piss purist off" because they are still stuck in their teenage rebellious moment and need to be special snowflakes. It seems there are groups of people who are into the hobby only to be able to talk shit about other people, and no they are not a trendsetter or a smartmouthes for this, they are just cretins and that kind of behavior is maybe understandable when you are 14 and feel like a man because your first hair is growing, but grown up guys acting like this are just dumbasses. So rather than having to deal with that and with uninteresting people like this (that luckily we don't have here on The Lounge), I much prefer being the only guy with a VW when I meet other car-nuts or just taking my car out for a spin all alone, feeling more a "car fan" than a "VW fan".

I can relate and appreciate this post. Rick, you've been doing this for a long, long time, and you know the feeling down on the cars and the scene is cyclical for somebody into this as long as you have been. I can't tell you how many times I've walked out to the garage either to drive my car or work on it, only to be too pissed off to bother. I almost sold my car in 2005-2006. And have had days since then when I've thought about it too. I beat myself up wondering why I have hung onto the car for 30 years. Is it because of what everyone else would say and think if I did get rid of it? To then have to justify my reasoning? Sort of I guess. I hate that about the hobby. Especially lately, but I have always detested having to justify anything when it comes to why I've done things, no matter if it's my car, or somebody else's. In the end, the consequences of what's been done in my garage, and on my car, are mine. So in some ways, yeah, in an effort to avoid being hassled, I stick with it. Sort of...
But the real reason I hang onto my car... meaning the deep real hard core reason... because there are days, not often, but there are these days when something just seems to "go right", usually when driving the car. It almost never has anything to do with being at a VW event etc, it's usually alone time, driving the car. For whatever reason, atmospheric pressure, temperature, good fuel, whatever... sometimes the car just feels 100%, and it works like I know no other car would on that day. I have my favorite quiet driving routes here in Southern CA, mostly in rural areas of Ventura County, and there are some long straights that come down a gentle decline, into fast corners, and to look out into the groves of citrus trees and see them reflect in that blue curvy hood, as the motor is back there growling and howling, but not missing a beat, then to gear down, feather brakes and then throttle to set up for the corner, then to have the pedal down hard and be scared by the acceleration, and the noise is scaring crows away and field workers look up to see what the big noise is, and to keep doing this for hours on a day when I have the time..... THAT is why I keep the car. I can probably count 15-20 days that have given me car goose bumps like this, in the last 30 years. Statistically it seems stupid, yes I know, but it's enough to endure.

Nico 86, again, I really relate to some of your thoughts. I look at much of the scene with some unfair disdain. I shouldn't be so down on a lot of it, but I just fail to understand why some things are the way they are. Things like cars that hit the scene only in an effort to make everybody else's car look inferior, but then in a year are up for sale. The FB thing and cars is beginning to get a little irritating, mostly with some of the criticizing I see in comments made to others' posts. And that were made to some of my own too. Everybody that is making an effort to do things themselves and learn as they spend time on these cars deserves some respect. Posting a short and inflammatory comment about what the owner "should have done" instead of what they chose to do just breeds alienation. And often times, these comments come from outer space. These couple of irritants and others have kind of made me shy away from participating online.
The bit about all other cars, other than Cal Look VW's are junk pisses me off some too. If we all sat down and thought about it, our cars aren't from a different planet. The same approaches many factory high performance cars were successfully designed with, also work just fine on our cars. There are a lot of cars that can do what a good Cal Look VW can do. There' a lot of cars out there that can do more. So some of our guys probably need to jump down from their plastic, period correct bullshit pedestals, and pop that bubble.

Sorry for bringing up an old topic, but I really feel like the Lounge has died off in the last year or so. Not many posts other than people's projects and technical questions are being put up, which is fine, but I miss the stories. I miss the days of having guys I've read about in books reply to my posts, and pictures up of the big shows almost immediately. The few of us left here are the ones who, I feel, really "get it" in terms of what this scene is really about. It's not really all that much to do with how many early EMPI parts we can stick on our cars or how much we spent on our set of "real" BRMs. To me it's more about what Ratto and Nico86 were saying, we are happiest here when we're talking about drives we recently took in our cars, or listening to stories about the days when we were young, or in some cases not even born, when the hotrod VW was truly the underdog, punching several classes above its weight. The stories from Sarge about youthful abandon in the '60s and early '70s, when they were the only guys on the planet who had the keys to this VW enlightenment. I grew up in a family that really loved VWs, even if most of theirs were/are slow, with coffee table books written by one Mr. Seume, and having him respond to my topics has been absolutely amazing.

Sorry for the rambling on an old thread, but I really felt like getting this out of my system. I want to bring back the days where the Lounge felt like just that. A lounge where people could come from all over the world to tell stories about their unbelievably rapid VWs and in turn, listen to the stories of the "tribal elders." A place that brings people in, based in a love of clean, simple looking VWs that just so happen to be capable of truly insane feats of speed.

Thanks for reading,
Andrew Landon

You'll find the vast majority of the 'old guys' are active on Facebook, love it or loath it. It offers instant post/response wherever you are, along with the ability to instantly add photos, even while on the move. Like I say, love it or loath it, but FB is quick and easy and for many people with busy lives, or who don't want to spend ages on a single forum, it offers a way out. The likes of Paul Schley, Ron Fleming, Rick Anderson, Darrell Vittone, Deano Kirsten etc etc are regulars on FB but rarely post elsewhere.

Elder Worm concurs with Bishop Sueme.  Touche'.  I too miss the good ol daz on da lounge.   Slipped away somehow. We all still watch and hope for a solid post now and again. 

Dont care what tire size u have or what u got at the swapmeet.  Wanna see pics of the local show, you with da boyz, etc...

I could be enrolled.  Most of my VW time is spent on Fbook at the Der Kleiner Kampfwagens page.  Check that out and post pics of cars here.  I too miss the dayz of a hundred posts.

I believe I actually do follow the DKK fartbook page which has some better content than most, I guess what I'm trying to say here is that this is the only place that I trust for pretty much anything relating to ACVWs, as someone recently put up something on FB titled as a "Cal Look" thing, but the only thing I've seen there is Resto-Cal and pure garbage. To me, it's harder to find the quality of content on FB compared to the Lounge, with everyone thinking that their shiny paint or BRMs gets them into "the club" as it were. I know my car's hardly a Looker or even just good looking, but I'm actively trying to improve it in terms of both performance and finish, every chance I get. Everywhere on the Samba or FB claims to have Cal Look content, but it's all just a bunch of bandwagonners with too much cheesy crap and negative camber on their cars. The thing about that really gets to me is that instead of having this place as a refuge from all the idiocy of modern VW trends, it feels like I just have a museum to remind me that I got in too late. I hope things around here stop looking like a ghost town soon, the internet needs its real Cal Look fix.

Keith and Worm, thanks for both of your responses. Like I said earlier today, it's mindblowing to have guys who've been so influential in the scene respond to my rants and ramblings in a place as special as this.

Peaks and troughs - it's not just here, it's the scene in general. Like it or not, with Cal Look, we're a minority. The last couple of years of Volksworld magazine have been a bit weak. Not a single feature car this month that I'd want to have as is - and its been like that for months. Ultra VW has gone. I spend more time on Retro Rides than I do on here, and there's a few folk on there just getting into Beetles after years of other types of car, so I just try to point them in the right direction!
I'm on holiday in Cornwall at the moment and I've not seen a single Beetle. Buses? Plenty, from splits up to T6's. A couple of weeks ago in Devon I saw two bugs in a week. At home I see one in regular use - a gold 1303 driven by a middle aged man and his elderly mother. I don't think Cal Look (or he forum, for that matter) is dead, but it's hard to muster up the enthusiasm when you feel like you're the only one. You are young and enthusiastic - keep pushing!

There is a couple beetles about local to me (cornwall) but in the real world i see day to day, beetles are rarer then splits and bays....

where in cornwall are you staying?

We're in Perranporth until Tuesday - might spend a day at the Jamboree over the weekend, depends what the rest of the family want to do. How about you?

Following, listening as Andrew reflects, gives me hope that youth is upon us, bravo.  Having seen it all as “an elder,” I came back and Cal Look Lounge is the place I turned. 

I have heard this debate on fartbook,spacebook, insta..., I believe it all has its place.

What we have left is our little vehicles, this is the glue that keeps us interested, be it even types I personal do not prefer.

I see from afar some outstanding vehicles done throughout the world, in countries I had no idea even had modified or stock vintage Volkswagens.  I also see some unbelievable well done “Cal Lookers,” in European countries that show no sign of stopping.  They may not be voicing opinions as they once did but I think they are out there, right Keith?

I for one am following the Frenchie build, all the Pip, Buddy Hale vehicles at the high level. I pride myself in admiring any and all makes and models as long as the build shows a passion, taste and some imagination.

Art out.

I’m down porthleven,
Hope the weather stays dry for you! If you get stuck for ideas on what to do send me a pm
The roads around the jamboree get very busy!
Cheers
Andy

I went to Bug Jam recently, I enjoyed the experience, but the number of Bugs (of any type) were few and far between. I had to go hunting in the camping area to find fellow Bug owners to talk with, there were more cars in the club areas but it still wasn't quite what I'd expected. I'd say it was more like a camper festival than Bug Jam. Someone said on another forum that they didn't do the (UK) show scene anymore as most were were like plumber's van conventions; I thought that was harsh, but it does have a ring of truth.

Contrast that with the European shows like Le Mans, I can't help but agree that Europe seems to be where its at for ACVWs of all flavours.

I take my Oval to all the shows in the year at Santa Pod and you're right - 95% buses nowadays - and mostly watercooled too. The problem is though, if all the aircooled folk take the attitude of 'im not going to bother' then the aircooled scene will completely die will it not?? To be honest, I have been surprised by the fact that I have only seen one, maybe two cars off here at any show so maybe it's already happened. Or, maybe folk are just out cruising the street instead of going to meets.

Going to the "big" VW show here in the Ozarks in Eureka Springs AR tomorrow. Its has 3 centers of activities -- The 'Fowl Air' Guys will be at the Harley Shop and the German Car club will be somewhere else and the main show will be at the Inn of the Ozarks. I'll be taking my Ghia to drive around and check stuff out... I'll see how the scene is 'happening' here.

I noticed in Europe the air cooled cars are encouraged, either by offering them more show access, like into the parades, or via discounts or goodies.

Contrast the Pod, which is a great experience btw, but where just having a VW is good enough. What surprised me about Bug Jam that that there seemed fewer folk showing interest in the cars compared to wanting to just simply "have a good time" at the attractions, it felt like a festival with a car show attached than about the cars. Calling it Bug Jam was a misnomer. Perhaps, I'll try Action or just one of the race days next time.

Now, I kinda get the conundrum in the UK show scene, the weather is generally pants here and a van is much more comfortable and spacious camping experience than a Bug, especially when the rain comes down and you have family. Perhaps the best of both worlds is to tow the bug? If only I had the money.

Bug Jam has been like that since 1990...

It's not just me then, tho' I'll admit to being a late starter.

VW Action has got really good again the last few years and there is good number of european guys come over - much more aircooled stuff and a lot more of the serious race guys attend it. Great atmosphere - much like the very early Bug Jams. You do still get however, sad to say, a large amount of the T5 etc van lot. Either way, a weekend away and getting to drive the Oval for the weekend and a few hundred miles on the street and a few runs on the strip - is worth it for me. It's what you make it isnt it.

I?m all for it. The one local event that?s mostly Watercooled, that the Aircooled ?encroach upon? that has most of the participants focusing upon the show entrants seems to be a cut throat pissing match of egos. I could see if it was a bunch of $75k+ builds, but all the fuss is over a bunch of spring lowered factory painted Golfs/Jettas with different wheels/window stickers. Getting back to my age comment, our age group seems to no longer be preoccupied with gaining acceptance with the vehicle we display, and simply goes with the flow. And with the lifestyle comment, when someone comments on what they spent on paint, and it?s more than someone has in the total investment of two of their cars, the conversation gets awkward. I?ve been the person with a small amount invested in my vehicle, and I?ve displayed vehicles that were the most expensive in the entire show. I?ll take going to an event to catch up with long time friends, and not looking at a single other car, over arguing with someone not owning an Aircooled VW about what I did wrong on my build.

So am I, I enjoyed the spectacle, no complaints, money and time well spent, it just wasn't what I had expected.

Maybe Action next year instead for me. Or even better Spa and EBI. :)

 

Ooh, controversial! I did Bug Jam from '95 to '06, and after a single day visit in 2007 I've not been back. For me it all changed when the big top was moved over to behind the pits. Before that if you wanted to party, you went into Animal Camping and that was fine, and club camping and the pits were quieter. After the move we had to literally throw people off the dragstrip, climbing over race cars just to be able to take more drugs. Not for me.

   ...."The stories from Sarge about youthful abandon in the '60s and early '70s, when they were the only guys on the planet who had the keys to this VW enlightenment."

I've still got the key, Andrew; just haven't unlocked the door much lately.  The 67's still out in the garage; I hot-lapped it last week.  Driving a Bug around here nowadays is downright frightening with so many distracted drivers behind the wheel; seems like you never know what to expect next.
Crazy times indeed!!  Past all that, there's not many days I miss tuning into the Lounge to read the latest posts.  I'm not a "connected" person... no cell phone, no Facebook.  Oddly enough, I'm still alive and having the time of my life in retirement riding a bicycle.



                                                                                                                                                                                 

I definitely get what you mean about crazy, distracted drivers everywhere. I'm in Fort Collins, CO these days and I'm waiting to bring my '67 up here until after racing season/all the new college students learn how to drive around here! It's just insane! Glad to hear you're doing well, biking's always a good thing to do, even if it's just up to a brewery. Anyways, thanks for the response! I know most people are either spending more of their time on FB, are like you and totally disconnected, or are just feeling burned-out in regards to their cars and how they relate to this crazy modern world, but it's still nice, to me at least, to come live life in the (internet's) slow lane every now and again.