The Cal-look Lounge

Check out John's new wheels.....  while I always liked his car with the old Empi's, I think the JGE rims absolutely suit his car perfectly. Nice choice John!

I stole the pic from The Sarge Archives. ::)

Very cool old car, John.... how long has it been in your family? tell us some stories about you and  your car.....  back in the 90's I remember your car running 94 x 78.. w/ 130 cam, 48 DRLA's (trademark Rayburn red linkage ;D), etc? Was that the car's first big motor?

looks cool. how did you get them to work with disc brakes ?

OK i heard a rumour about a rebuild or a freshing up. so spill the beans please  :-*

yeah well I heard a rumor he is painting this on the side of the car

LOVE the new look, John!

I'm glad the new look has been so well received! Thank You! My father bought my car new in October of 1963, and I came home from the maternity hospital in Lakewood Calif, as a newborn in that same car. My very first memories on the planet revolve around being in or around it. I used to ride behind the back seat when all five of us were going somewhere. The mystery to this day, is how a Germany bound car ended up at a California Dealership? The car was ordered, but never delivered to a VW factory employee. My Dad ended up as the first owner. VW records don't sort any of this out. Anyway, my big brother was supposed to get the car, but ended up buying his EMPI demonstrator from Timmons VW in Long Beach, and that meant I was next in line, as our sister had gotten a real nice 71 Beetle with an EMPI mahogony GT steering wheel. I started working on the car in '79. The first things that went on the car were a set of Koni adjustable rear shocks ( still on the car) ,a Hurst shifter, and a set of Michelin 135's, along with a lowering job from my friend Dave. It didn't take long for the original 40 horse to break the crank, so the first " built engine was a 1385cc ( 40 horse with big bore kit) an engle 100 and single weber. First trip down the street was my first speeding ticket! Most of the racing at Bug Ins was don via a 1700 with 110 and 44 IDF's, and fooled around with a 1900 type 4 that we converted upright. That thing could climb walls, but very short winded. The 78 stoke X 94 was a great engine that I drove daily for years. The car ran consistent low thirteens through a set of Denham non welded heads. When I wanted more power, and started looking into a crank, Dave Rhoads, said he needed my crank, rods , flywheel, etc for a project, so worked a deal for building the 84 X 94 in exchange for my parts. Jeff built me a new set of heads and everything has made a pretty reliable 206 horsepower for the last several years with just one freshening up , just recently. My car ran EMPI five spokes for about 9 or ten years when I made the change to the sprintstars, for what I call " safety reasons" . Some know the exploding wheel story. I always loved the D spoke wheels, but could never hook up with a set until Joe Gallagher made these beautiful copies. I needed to take the Porsche brakes off , and was able to get them to clear a set of AC discs. Luckily, before I bought the discs, Bill Schwimmer let me mock things up on his to see if the whole thing was feasable. It was. I had to produce a half inch spacer and do some clearancing to the caliper bracket and calliper, but it all worked nicely, and was pretty straight forward an operation once all the measuring was done. The car really stops well!

Spent alot of time gawking at EMPI catalogues didn't we Mark?

Mark and his GIANT binoculars!!!!!!!!

Naw, I never had to bring mine to the shop. Those were Mike's (the owner's son). Back on topic... how did you make number one Zep' fan? I guess that makes me number two. Hard to believe that someone listens to Zep' more than me. We've got serious issues. I keep tellin' my girlfriend that.

 ;D

I was listening to the second album on the way to work this morning... just awesome!!!

Your car looks awesome on the wheels John, I'm considering a set for mine if I ever get sick of cheapo BRM copies! What are they like weight wise? I know modern alloys can sometimes weigh more than the car they're trying to push along the road, but I used to own a set of their raders and they were pretty light wheels...

I hate to see the Sprint Stars go but it looks pretty bitchin' with its new shoes!  ;)

i hope that mine will looks the same with the d spokes too :)

                                                          I make them out on the scale at home at about 14 lbs. per wheel. They feel lighter with tire than a Sprint without one. You have to listen to the third all the way through now, I love the raw , relaxed feel. Like sitting in on a session!

Zep III was my favorite album for a long time in HS. Actually it was a toss up between Physical Graffiti and III. PG had such a wide range and texture of songs (plus the cassette tape was so long on each side....awesome for road trips), but III had such a gentle, kind of pastoral feel on the 2nd side.... "Tangerine", "That's the Way".... etc, though my fave song on that album has to be Out on the Tiles.... pure Zep rock!

now I would have to say my favorite album is Zep I for all the good memories it brings back from when I was younger.

Moby Dick rules ;D

A clients daughter was parading around the house today in a Zeppelin 1 T-shirt while I mural up her bedroom. She said she had just taken a college class on the history of Rock and became a huge fan... She hasn't even heard half the songs yet. I guess there is hope for today's youth!!!!

What's the mural for her room...Houses of the Holy album cover?

hey i have seen Lez Deppelin t-shirts a lot over the past year with skaters. seems like they are starting another trend as always... right fred? seems they have caught up with the good songs that have been put in some skaters parts in recent years. always weird to see that what skaters do to be their own ends up being mainstream...  :-\ now think about that.  ;D

                                         She's a big fan of Europe, so I'm putting Big Ben and cityscape on one wall with the Eifel Tower and City scape on the opposing wall, with the channel connecting the two.

That's nothing to be proud of!  :o

(http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-11/1227628/Europe_small.jpg)

 :P

Damn, Mat beat me to it! ;) ;D

I've said on here before about Robert Plant - he drinks in one of the pubs in town, and my girlfriend just knows him as that bloke from The Varsity who's in a band... :o :o

Imagine coming round and finding out that at some time in the last how ever long it was you'd acquired a Boeing. Rock and Roll baby!

 ;D

(http://www.fanzone50.com/LedZeppelin/LedZep-theirownwings.jpg)

so we are still talking about Europe, right?
at least one of them has a better hairstyle!  ;D or is this material for the weightsavingtread again?

You guys have really derailed this thread...

...let's get back on track talking about girls wearing nothing but Led Zeppelin t-shirts.   :o

I think the lure of Zeppelin, for the masses, comes and goes in waves. Every 10 years or so I'll see an outbreak of scraggly looking pre-teens and teens donning Zeppelin t-shirts. But, for some, like me, they will always have a spot or two in my changer. I first got into them around 1982 when my aunt lent me her Zep II record and I wore the grooves out of it. All through high school it was Zep all the way, only topped in the last year by Floyd, after borrowing a friend's "Piper at the gates of Dawn" cassette.

oh yeah, this is a VW forum. Sorry....  squeeze my lemon for getting off track.

sorry i feel i have to help you out here bro.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_IKcMl_a9A (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_IKcMl_a9A)

edit: that should be better

                                       I had to go wash the gay out of my eyes!!!!                                 I wouldn't squeeze your lemon for five dollars!                                                 Thank God for you Mark!!!!!

Thank God for you Mark.!!! Just wanted to say it again in case you forgot my last post. Zeppelin and Volkswagens have always gone well together. I have many fond memories of listening to them with my brother while we worked on his car or mine way back when. They are always on to this day when I work on my car !

ahhh wimps, bet you don't wear pink polo's as well.

here John, something to cheer you up a bit. i think it would look nice on the fanshroud with the trademark red linkage

Led Zeppelin are truly outstanding! I think III is my favourite, but all albums make for great listening.

A few of my friends in "bands" have worked with Jimmy Page's daughter, Scarlet. She is a fantastic music photographer and has a great site featuring her work here: http://www.scarletpage.com/ - I have met her a few times and she is a very cool lady; bit like her dad  8)

Thanks for her site!!!!! And the Zeppelin image always cheers me up! I may put the Zeppelin shadow in the section of mural over France! Does anyone else run their Zeppelin catalogue while wrenching on their Vw ???

Not that much into Zeppelin, but as I share the garage with 5-7 VW guys there should be a rule against any power tools while Iron Maiden is on (the radio)  ;)

Well, we need to get you straightened out.

I'm surprised you can tell the difference between power tools and Iron Maiden! :D

powertools look better.

Here's a couple things that go well together.

And this..

And sound better!!  ;D

I hate to date myself but I think I still have one of those t-shirts from the '77 tour that I bought when they played at the Ingelwatts Forum.

My hero!

Hey John, when did you join DKP? Were you part of the re-birth going on in 1988? I really like looking at the old pictures from that era, as I was just 18-19 yr old, and didn't even have Webers or any other go fast stuff yet..... I remember the (then) rare glimpse of traditional Southern California style hot rod VW's....

Bill showed me some photos of his oval running @ Baylands (I think) in '87 (?) wish I would have "noticed" it there then. I was 16 or 17 at the time, first time seeing VW's drag race, really....

do you have any pictures from late 80's of your car and/or the others' you could post?

I'm just tryin to find the bridge.

I joined the club in 1990 about a week after the Hot VW's cover shoot. Our group was quite small. These photos were taken the day I got my window stickers.. I had to mark the occassion. This is also about a week after the EMPI 5's came off and the Sprints went on. I'll try and find any old photos of the car with the 5's on it from the eighties.

Here's a couple more.

iron maiden kicks ass almost as much as led zep, and led zep KICKS ASS!!!!!!!!

Interesting decal placement, John. And how long have you had tat licence plate? Very cool.

yeah the decal struck me as well. and how come all you guys have type3 leads and i don't, never had them on any type3 engine, but they would be great with the cover closed as they would not bent. btw nice looking engine, except for all those wires under the coil. what specs did it have? great pics!!!!

Here are the correct photos from when I was accepted into the club, I had put ones up from a little further down the line. These ones are from summer 1990.

I forgot about the huge Empi stickers you had on it!  ;)

                                               Keith , the club decals were put where they were to accomadate the EMPI globes seen in the new photos I posted. The license plates I got as a gift around 1980, from my mom, for getting good grades in high school! Thanks Mom!                                       Mark, I have a real set and a reproduction set that Bill Schwimmer had done. The real ones I got from club member Jim Bangs, who used to work for EMPI and drank more beer than was humanly possible.                                  Nicolas, we need to find you and Mark some plug wire ends! The wiring was untidy in those days from red coil, points, ballast resister, tach, oil pressure, temp, etc. Back when it was daily driven, it was more important to make sure I could drive away than to be neat. The wiring is much cleaner these days. That was my old 78.4 X 90.5 with SCS ported 041's , W130, and 48 Dellortos. I woke things up considerably when Jeff Denham went through the heads and I put the 94's on.

                                      I can remember sitting in traffic in front of Long Beach Autohaus, I hadn't even put them in yet, and I was holding them out the window waving them at Mark, looking at me out the window, and flipping me off ! We used to taunt each other with new EMPI aquisitions back then. Great fun!!

Thanks for the old pictures John, always good to read about history of guy's cars.

That one was to get you back for  the EMPI patches you put on your club jacket and flaunted at me at a DKK rally! I was looking for a set at that time, and you came up with some!

I can remember walking up to the door at Autohaus with an EMPI gauge cluster, and you flew around the counter and locked the door on me ! I laughed so hard, I almost dropped the gauges!

I still have some of the boxes! I remember you had to help me carry them out to the car ! And you gave them to me for the list price from circa 1970ish something because Autohaus never updated the pricing. And then I came back the next day and bought more!

thanks for the info on the engine. and i do know what you mean. it was probally the last time a car could evolve from a daily driven car into a reall looker (all neatly done) and still get coverage. not that does cars don't exist anymore, but featured cars have to be 'done'. i like the idea of a car that grows into a callooker. if i had known mine would not be painted yet as there is stuff that i find out now that is should or should not have done to it to make it 'better', for example welding in the IRS brackets on the chassis... small stuff you think off when you use the car. and when everything is done and works clean it up and make it tidy...

now what a great deal off bullcrap was that... i'll make it up to you john

 ;D

You're all right Nicolas!! I like you !

YES!

Jim was right.

ZOSO logo on the fan shroud is very very cool !  8)
As a true fan of rock music (and Led Zepp of course) I really appreciate that detail...

Are the party's allways at your place Sarge?   :)

I believe that is Doug Mische's place...

right don

Never saw this thread before :o

I think I know this Rayburn guy...

Just for clairity, is this thread about:

1) Rayburn
2) Led Zeppelin
3) Fred's antics in his youth
       ~or my favorite~
4) Some gay group named Europe

Thank you.

~DR.

nothing says Ron Jayburn quite like....

Ok, got it...

So nothing like this:

ummm you know John better than I...  maybe? .
 ;D

Nah, I've seen him in action... no gay there... in fact, I had to restrain him from taking apart that 6'8" UPS driver that backed in to his car years ago... no kidding, it was really a sight... John was going to to mop up the street with this dude.

Thank God for you all!

heres something for ya jhon    plants not pulling up in a bug but its still a cool car and a bitchen old tune .        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZQLZZXOmUM

If you still follow members of Zep, look into Them Crooked Vultures

Hey Jeff, the video won't play. It says it's unavailable! Oh and John Paul Jones with Them Crooked Vultures. Cool stuff!