The Cal-look Lounge

I notice you have gasser style wings and an Aronson rear deck, whats on the front???

Cheers Rob.

Hey Rob, I have an early sunken center gasser/70's style hood.

Here's a moving picture:

http://www.youtube.com/v/OcM_9tbaR9Q&hl=en&fs=1

Listen carefully to the commentary if you can.   :D 8) ;D

Excellent...!

BEAUTIFUL!!  8) 8) 8) ;D

Thanks Mike, its a really good looking car love the gasser bits and the single paint colour its real clean and un cluttered looking.
Are the wings, decklid and bonnet all original???
I presume its a genuine 67 too?
Any interior shots?

Sorry to be so demanding  :)

Rob.

i don't understand what he said  ::) ::) ::) ::) too much noise

Here's one or three others:

(http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h311/cmhauer/miscellaneous/Beetles002.jpg)

(http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h311/cmhauer/miscellaneous/Beetles011.jpg)

(http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h311/cmhauer/miscellaneous/Beetles021.jpg)

I'll leave the rest up to Mike, since he needs to get a little active on here! 

I LOVE THAT CAR.

(http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h311/cmhauer/miscellaneous/Beetles002.jpg)

Looks like the Auto Haus logo  ;D

I think it's the point!  ;)

Hey all of this positive attention is nice ;) More info if you are interested>>>>The fenders are old parts I had to do some serious work on and the fronts are "really" paper thin (light). The hood was an NOS one that a guy in Idaho was nice enough to ship when the ad on the SAMBA said local pick up only. The 67 only Aronson decklid was an original from a swapmeet 20 miles from here in Pennsylvania...imagine that! I actually missed it on the first walkthrough and Mr. Dave Cormack who knew what I was trying to put together came over and told me there was a part I needed to see. He even started the offers at $20......The body of the car was an 80's cal-looker out of San Diego CA that had been white on the sides with Vitaloni mirrors, Formula France steering wheel and white empi 8 spokes .My friend bought the car for the pan and engine (it had been bumped in the fron and had a glass nose installed) and I got the body for beans when he moved back to the east coast. I repaired the front with factory metal, dechromed it and painted it all orange. It still has a cool 80's black velour headliner and door panels :o The seats are from an old Triumph that my friend gave me for my 40th birthday. It sits on an IRS pan with four wheel discs. It has a single sided zig zag cased super beetle close geared trans and a 2276 built by my buddy "Ohio" Tom Simpson. The engine is ABSOLUTELY streetable with 9.5 to 1 compression and an 86B, It runs cooler than my 2054 with 8to1 and a 110 in my convertible. Its got 5.5 H beams and a set of wedgeports under Italian IDA's. The engine and trans without even beginning to tune it any further than Tom had it on the stand has run a best of 12.98 at 102MPH. The "idea" of the car was to have the feel of a Dave Deal cartoon with all of the benefit of the technology that has become availble since that style was in. The car is an actual 67 and titled as such as well. Thanks again for the attention and I will try to post some interior shots and a video of a cat and mouse game with my son riding in my friends Lotus Elise on the way to the track.... ::)

please do post some more on your 67! :)

hey isn't that pan under the car parked next to it?

(http://i67.photobucket.com/albums/h311/cmhauer/miscellaneous/Beetles021.jpg)

As a matter of fact...it is....

Well think you got that off to a tee! Looks awesome great performance to boot! I bet you have to be carful with those wings, what are they 1.5 inch wider than stock?
Is the Colour the VW orange that was around in the 7O's on GT model Bugs?

Rob.

HOLY $H!T.... Mike, your car is damn near identical to my 67. The only difference is... yours is finished. I have the hood, deck lid, glasspack exhaust. I even modified the dash similar to they way you have yours. Wow, its neet to have all these ideas in my head for my car, and now to see one thats almost the same is very cool to me! Mine will be dove gray, with red interior.
Just seeing this thread is very motivating to me!!! Good times!

Where are you lacated?

After the Cuda did his burnout the commentator said "I don't know about this match up that Cuda sounds healthy!" I had just driven around the water and was going to test the track and the car because it was the first run of the night and I had just buttoned up the engine that day.

I am in the center of Pennsylvania...Cal-look central...LOL I had collected parts for this car for years way before this nostalgia thing started! I just wanted something "not so serious" with the power to back it up.

We think alike! I'm in the middle of California and I too have been collecting old school parts for 4 years now. I'll bet it was a great feeling when you finally put all those parts together on one car!!

It all works together so perfectly, I love your car :)

Nice ;D

Awsome bug and love the toy machine sticker in the back window  ;D

http://www.youtube.com/v/1gBmvwyxFBs&hl=en&fs=1

COOL VID!!! 8) 8) 8)  MM, your car looks awesome rollin' down the road!

what a great looking bug

lotus car ??? in the video

Yes, Lotus Elise.

more I read this thread the more I get into this car.... Mike really, the feel of the car is perfect!
I reminds me of (and I mean this as a 150% compliment!) a Tonka toy or a small die cast hot rod VW.... in fact I think I had a Tonka Vw Bug very much like your car when I was 2 or 3 in 1972-ish....
Any other color, and the feeling would be lost. The finish of the alloys works perfect.

it pays to dare to be different.  ;)

 ;)

Jim TRUST ME it is doubtlessly a compliment because that is THE feeling I was trying to recreate from my childhood. ALL of my toys looked like that and every van and car in my neighborhood had that exaggerated style that was around in the 70's. The only thing cooler about the toys of the day compared to the real customs of the day was their single color paint jobs.....no gaudy airbrushing or stripes on my Tonka's Revell models or on my Hotwheels, just bright colors.
This thread has REALLY gotten me thinking about "why" I built this car. I'll be honest when I finished putting it together a while back I wasn't too sure what I had done....
My other car was done over in the 90's when I got inspired by the super detailed powerful cal-lookers that were on the rise in the magazines and my mind was being blown daily on the "other" forum. I "thought" what I wanted was a magazine feature and show accolades.....well I got the show accolades but never a feature but all of that did not satisfy. THEN I read the cross country articles featuring Donny B and his crew and realized my happiest times with my car were when I was on my way to the shows or just running around town with the kids etc...
Anyway..... when I started to think about my next car I knew I wanted something I could race but I really wanted to build something fun and less serious than what had been going on in the "scene". I had had enough serious in the show world and was really tired of cleaning and being concerned with flaws. Parts started to accumulate if they fit the "fun but fast" theme and all of the sudden there was a car ready to go together. I love my black car but this car is a better reflection of my personality......its the, nostalgic child of the 70's, skater punk, some flaws, but has a good sense of humor, version of a Cal-looker.
THANKS sooooo much again to everyone for the compliments, I hope I can give you all a ride in it at some point (I promise I'll beat to within an inch of its life for you)!
PS I was pondering polishing and detailing the wheels but they will stay as is.

awesome Mike.... good job dude.

Thanks Speewell they have a nice "dreamy" feel to them.......

cool car , have cool pictures
 ;)

Hey this nostalgia is triggering other memories :o....I should tell you about all  the hippy-girl neighbors making and then trying on all their own halter tops, or my neighbors painting Dave Deal style dragsters on their bedroom walls.....the late 60's and early 70's were something ;)

I like your car Mike !
Was this picture taken in the Quaker Steak & Lube parking lot across from Ikea ?
I was just there a few days ago.
 :)

Hey Richard, Thanks and the picture was taken in Buckhorn PA 10 miles from my house, no Ikea's here but lots of horns on bucks..;>)

I'll be in town the weekend of the 13-14, have the oil changed and the valves set...

One thing that Mike has not mentioned about the car, and you might be able to "get it" from the pics is that he took a lot of care to keep the car from looking like a "new build."  Almost every part on the car has a nice used look and feel to it.  Instead of the car being 3 or 4 years old built in the new milennium, it totally has that vibe of having been around for 30 years—or it will transport you back to 1979 when you see & touch it.  The seats, totally original like they were swapped right out of that British car...the chrome taillights, were pulled off a hammered Baja kit at a swap meet (and not polished afterwards, just wiped off with a dry rag)...even the linelock was "donated" by a modified-in-the-early-70s American car.

AWESOME CAR.

WTF's the holdup?  ??? ;D

LMAO I was thinking the same thing, Mike, I hope you have pictures of this private fashion show :D

My 15 year old son has been checking in on this thread about dads car....soooo I gotta be good. But I'll tell you the mental pictures will last a lifetime :o

I am sure your 15 year old won't mind, haha I know what I was like at 15! You'll have to save it for another day then :)

Hey Ian!  You sneak that FiOS cable up to your room finally?  I won't tell!   :D :P

Finally some interior shots. I pulled the new "seat cover" out of my rag pile and did not have the heart to destroy it with grease... ;)

Love the interior!

Whats the dash plaque???

Rob

It is just an Empi "warning" repro sticker...

Say, is that a KEG on the back firewall..., I'm thirsty ;) ;D

ahh the warning of The Lounge,
"Warning: this topic has not been posted in for at least 120 days.
Unless you're sure you want to reply, please consider starting a new topic. "

yeah I want to comment.... the coolest thing about Mike's car.... just was thinking....
If one were to line up your typical "Cal Lookers" in a row, with their tidy paint, detailed to the hilt, BRM's, SB12's, fat biscuits otter pelt upholstery, etc etc.... and inserted Mike's car in the row, and then got a group of young "gearheads to be" 5-8 yr old boys to point out THEIR favorite VW in the group, you just know they'd be all over Maize's car.

It is coming out of storage next weekend! Wait till you see my new dash when I get it done, think 80's skateboard crossed with a fighter plane ;) Jim it is that "age of awe" at fast/custom cars that I followed when I screwed it all together. It still gets me wound up when I pull the cover off of it too.

I didn't think you still owned it?   :P



+1 for Mark.  That was funny.

LOL..I was thinkin the same thing too !!!....gotta admit....Your car has grown on me ....Nice...!!!...must feel good to be different !