The Cal-look Lounge

Thought I'd try to get my lurking friend to tell us about his old VW club of the 70's

HOLY SHIT...., Dave's been sneakin' around :o :o??  Hi ya, Dave... it's me, Jim @ Commonwealth Parts.  Welcome to The Lounge and hurry up with our beers!! ;) ;D

Dave says there will be a short intermission while he goes to sleep for the night, and will get with us tomorrow afternoon. He asks what your drinkin , Sarge?

Anything free ::) ;D  We need cool, old stories..., but more importantly, we need BEER!! ;)

Thanks John,

So much for me being a Lounge Lurker!

First off, I have to say this site is one cool place to re-live the old days! I've spent hours looking at the vintage photos so many members have posted and all I can say is WOW! I FEEL OLD! That being said, it's really nice of you Loungers to take the time to share your stories and photos from the old days. It's been about thirty years since I had a Cal-Look VW and things like going to the recent Bug-In, seeing DKK Mark (Fred?) and visiting the Lounge have helped me to get motivated in building the car I wish I had when I was young (old school Oval, big motor, lots of attitude!). Rayburn has always encouraged me to build another car, as we go waaaaaay back, don't we John? I've have my Oval for a few years, the transmission is done, but I still need to assemble the 84X94 IDA motor. I'm actually working on it again!
 
Whoops! I better stay on topic... Anyway, I'm not the best club historian, but I can tell you a little about it. I believe Keep on Buggin' was formed around 1968. The club was out of Long Beach, CA. Our clubhouse was in Bellflower, on Bellflower Boulevard, a locally famous cruise spot. Most of the members then had wide tires and the full fiberglass treatment... flaired fenders, ham-can hood, scoop decklid, etc. When I was invited to join in 1974 (I was only sixteen, but I told them I was eighteen) the club was split with about half of the members from the old fat tire days and the others with what we called "The Stock Look" before Hot VW's coined it "The California Look". We did all the things most clubs did, Bug-In's, rally's, street races, partys, etc. Some of the rival club members like Mark Souter, Frenchy and many others were friends.

K.O.B. was pretty competitive and we never missed an opportunity to try to win whether it was most represented club at a rally, loudest club at a rally (if you're not winning, be obnoxious), or an all out drag race. One of my best memories was Gene Berg volunteering to show me how to balance and adjust my Berg special 42's in a pizza parlor parking lot in the dark!

I was only active until about '77 or '78, as life tends to move on...  got married, had kids, all the good stuff. I'm not sure when the club fizzed out... probably early eighties.

Hey Sarge, I'd be happy to have a cold brew with ya!

~Dave

Dave used to have a fast Ghia with EMPI 5 spokes, ( those wheels ended up on Mark Kessenich's orange car.) My brother used to run the liquer department at a Vons in Bixpy Knolls, and on Friday nights, the parking lot was the hang out - drink beer spot. Dave would back the Ghia up to the double automatic doors at the store , and Stan, the meat manager, would stand on the sensors that held the doors open. Dave would drop the hammer and do the biggest , smokiest burnouts. It would fill the store with smoke! Great stuff! Tell us more , Dave!

Hey John,
You don't want to give people the wrong idea about me do you? Do you think I would stoop so low as to do an illegal burn out in a grocery store parking lot?? YOU BETCHA! That was good times...

Fred,
Mark Souter sure had a sweet '67 didn't he? His '67 was one of my favorites! One of my friends bought that car when Mark built his beautiful red Ghia. Somewhere around 1981, I ended up with Mark's old five spoke EMPI's. The wheels were still Ford "Bold Gold" when I got them, but they were badly cracked. I sold those too... I can not believe how much any of the real deal original wheels go for now.

Does anybody remember Frenchy's Fiat? I got a late night ride in that car at a KOB party decades ago and it was a blast! I think at the time it had a 1600 w/ 48IDA's!

Great stories, guys! 8) 8) 8)  Hey Dave, you look a little parched... how about a nice Belgian beer ::) ;D

I see I struck a nerve  :P

Sounds bitchy to me ::)

Something tells me SOMEBODY likes beer!!

Hey Mark or Fred (I'm confused) YOUR wheels came off a '64 bug that I saw sitting behind a bar in Fontana way back around 1975. It was around 5:00 pm when I spotted this beater bug. I went inside the bar, found the owner, and offered him $200.00 and a set of chromies with Porsche caps and he agreed to the deal, but he was moving and I had to do the deal that night! So, I drove the 50 miles home, grabbed the chrome wheels and a bunch of tools, blah, blah. It was about 9:00 pm by the time I made it back to the bar and this guy was LOOPED! But at least he was still there... I switched the tires by hand in the alley, used my trusty 12 volt compressor to inflate and viola! I finally had my first set of EMPI's

A little side note on those wheels~ I was approached by a rep from American Racing when I worked at H&H Motors, he saw the wheels on my Ghia and offered me two sets of any "Spirit of America" line wheels if he could borrow one of my five spokes to copy... Being the Ho that I was I agreed, and as far as I know, the spirit of america five spoke copies came from that wheel.

~Dave

 

Dave, tell them about Terri breaking the axle in the Ghia.

Hey Mark,

You know what they say about guys with big hands? They have big hands... Cool story about the nickname.

I'm not sure about the Kadrons. I used to wheel-n-deal so many cars and parts it's hard to remember sometimes.

A little more about your EMPI's, over the next few years I ran 'em on several cars that I owned including a '64 bug, 62 Porsche, '56 bug, '59 Ghia, and finally the '64 Squareback you saw them on. It always amused me they passed tech, cracks and all, when I had them on the Ghia back in the drag racing days. I always worried about somebody stealing the type 3 from the mall or something since that was our daily driver, that's why I let you talk me out of them. I must say, after you got 'em detailed & installed on your car, they never looked better! I used to detour past Auto Haus once in a while just to check up on 'em.


John, you remember the best stuff!

My Wife (G/F back then) and I happened to line up one time at a stoplight, she was driving my '59 Ghia, I was driving her V-8 Vega. Both were pretty quick cars, she gave me a grin and it was on! Light turned green, she gave me a mean holeshot (Vega was up in smoke) and we had a pretty impressive race going until she hit third and snapped the drive axle! I think she would have beat me in the quarter! I was so proud! The V-8 Vega was her daily driver and I really loved it when she would tell me sweet things like "oh yeah, some knucklehead in a Trans-Am tried to pass me on the right today & I let him have it"... True love!

~DR.

sorry to get off topic, here, but Mark your motor pictured here has to be one of the best looking VW motors I've seen pictures of. Even without Weber 48's.  8)

Dave, tell them the story from H&H Motors when Ernie kept changing the radio station to country music. Ernie was the Frank Burns of VW mechanics.

Well Ernie was an interesting guy to say the least.
I would say he was part redneck, part hothead, part Marine & part mechanic. There was three of us working at H&H at that time. The owners LOVED good 'ol fashioned twangy, yodely, horse ran off, dog died & wife left 'em country music. ANY time the owners would leave, my old buddy Jeff or I would switch the radio to rock (KMET to you So. Cal. locals). Well, the owners went on a lunch run, we immediately switched it to rock. Rock music seemed to upset Ernie... and we felt the need to mess with Ernie when he was upset. Ernie fairly calmly went over to the radio and changed it back to country. Jeff changed it back and turned it up. Ernie changed it back and turned it up more. Jeff changed it back, cranked it, and pulled the knobs off! Ernie grabbed his wire cutters and cut the power cord WHILE IT WAS PLUGGED IN! Shocked the shiznat out of him, ruined his Snap-on wire cutters, and he got in his car and left! This guy was so crazy, we kept looking behind us thinking he was going to shoot us or something... We didn't see him the rest of the day.
Next day everybody showed up to work, Ernie was there, he had repaired the radio, coffee was on and he claimed he cut the wire on purpose to be funny... that was the day we painted the driveshaft on his trusty old Ford pickup to look like a candy cane. I think he finally gave up and calmed down.

That one makes me laugh till I get tears in my eyes! Dave, tell them about when Ernie put his own lock and chain on the shop door when you needed fuel for the Ghia!

Great stories guys !
Keep 'em coming !
 :D

WTF gets into people??  I'm rollin' on the floor over here, Dave!  Great story!! ;D

Keep it coming , Dave. Tell the one about Ernie putting his own lock on the shop when you needed fuel for the Ghia!

Ernie... gotta love that guy.

Two Ernie stories.

First one.
It was the night before Drag Day I think in 1979 and the owners of H&H agreed to donate a tank of race gas to me for my K.G.
Well, it used to bug Ernie that I would come and go as I pleased on the weekends at the shop. I still do not know why he did this, but that weekend this guy took it upon himself to wrap his own chain and lock around the steel half circle tamper proof thingies we had on the back door to protect the shop door lock. This door was the only way in the shop and now i was completely pissed! It was getting late, I could not find Ernie anywhere, so I went home and got my bolt cutters and removed the lock. I'm pretty sure I cut every chain kink on his fancy chain in two and deposited all of the pieces in the top drawer of his tool box. My memory is a little fuzzy, but I think that's when I wrapped my own chain completely around his tool box and locked it to the work bench.
Side note- now that it's finally time to get my race gas, I could not find my clear siphon hose (the pump of course was out on loan). I was really in a hurry by now so I used some type 1 breather hose instead and proceeded to get a serious mouthful of race gas... it was the worst thing ever... belching gas (real gas) all night and at Drag day. 

Second (my all time favorite)

Ernie had just bought another pistol... It was after hours and we were having a cold one before heading home and Ernie said he was going home to clean his new gun. Ernie lived right next door to the shop in a little duplex... well we were all getting ready to go when all of a sudden  BANG!!  We go running over to Ernie's apartment and holler at him ERNIE!  YOU OK?      silence.      ERNIE!!!      what.      ARE YOU OK??      yeah, I'm fine.      WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT??      nothing.      ERNIE, WE HEARD A GUN GO OFF AND IF YOU DON'T OPEN THIS DOOR WE'RE CALLING THE COPS!!      finally, he opened the door, swore we were crazy, told us to go on home and leave him alone.
He never would talk about it or let anybody in the apartment, but when he moved out about a year later, the landlord let us in and there it was... a bullet hole in the wooden floor. When we confronted him he casually said "oh that? it was there when I moved in".

I'm glad I survived those two years we worked together.         

Great Stories!

Across from H&H motors , there was this motorcycle cop that always hung out with a radar. This was on South Street (Orangethorpe). People would go pretty fast, especially the VW crowd. Well this guy wouldn,t chase you, he'd step out into the street in front you and motion for you to pull over. Whenever I was over there and Dave had enough of the joking around, he'd walk out to the curb and yell at the cop , "Hey, look at this one right here! It's too low!" I'd have to wait till the cop was righting someone a ticket before getting out of there. Dave , do you have any good stories about that old cop?

Yeah John,
Since the middle of the headlight couldn't be any lower than 24" or something like that, I was just trying to help the poor ol' motorcycle cop out a bit... I figured giving you a ticket would be like shooting fish in a barrel for that cop ;D

Of course, you know I didn't mean any harm... or did I?  Hmmmmmm.

Anyway, One fine Friday afternoon as we were going through the regular motions of bringing all the good cars inside for the weekend, I was in charge of pulling the shop off road race car in. It was a 2180cc Zenith carbed (remember, this was in the 70's) top of the line class 2 SCORE car. I decided to drive 'er around the block real quick (after all this was Friday), I'm thinking I brought your brother with me... not sure it was either your brother or Glen. I AM sure that I got out on South and gave 'er a WFO trip through at least three gears when I want sailing by your buddy the cop! He was in the process of writing a ticket (suprise) and looked completely slackjawed as we blew by. I didn't know exactly what to do, so I did what came natural... made a quick right, another quick right and hauled butt up the alley to the back yard of the shop and hid like a little girl.
He never gave chace, SURELY he knew who I was, and nothing ever came of it. I'm pretty sure if it was this day and age, I would have made it on an episode of COPS. 

Side note- I found an old thread about Dave Wright's '54 Chop and remember now I was asked to gather a little more info on it. I have located some photos of it from my brother he shot back in 1979. He's going to give me the photos to scan soon. I'll do my best to actually speak with Dave if possible for some of the other details and photos he might have. Once seen in detail, I think most of the Loungers will probably agree that was one of the nicest, best proportioned chop-top cars ever.

Oval window, Chop-top, straight B pillar, working semiphores, convertable W decklid that actually closed and fit, heart tail lights, BRM's, the list goes on. HVW's did do an article and it made the cover, but even with that exposure the car was still overlooked by many.

Everybody has a favorite car, that one was mine. 

I'll follow up on this soon.

~DR.

Dave, was this the brown metallic one on ther cover of HVWs in about '78 or so? I bought that magazine at a swap meet several years ago and always loved that car.

Yeah Neil, That's the one.

You really had to see that car in person...
I have that same magazine somewhere but it's pretty tattered. I'd really like to find a good copy someday. 

I assembled much of that car straight from the body shop... more like a labor of love, because you could not possibly charge a guy enough to make a job like that profitable.

~DR.

                                                   That was my brother with you! I remember him coming home and saying, Dave just did a wheelstand in front of the cop on South St in that rail! There was another time that Bob told me about the guy on the Moped you two chased down the sidewalk in that Type 3 that you could grab the seat rails and make the front end go up and down. I remember that car's front end was smashed and had this rust that looked like dried blood from Death Race. Didn't the guy on the Moped mouth off to you or something?

Dang John!

People are sure to get the wrong idea by now!

~DR.

Yeah, there goes the neighborhood ::) ;D  Good stories, Dave 8) 8) 8)

Really fun topic.  :)

All those old stories are so great.

Thank to share all this memories with us  ;)

Dave! Tell them about when you took the Ghia with the IDA's down for a smog test to see the little black lady.

Oh yeah, the smog test.

I think it was around 1979 or so when the great state of California decided to get in to the smog check business. There were very few "smog stations" at the time, and since they were a government run business, it was about as much fun as going to the DMV. They were checking to see that the cars were still equipped with whatever the manufacturer had installed as a smog device was still in place. This check also involved a tailpipe test with the magic wand. Well, needless to say, my little 1700cc 48 IDA motor ran a little rich. In fact, it would make you weep a little if you were standing anywhere near the slightly upswept exhaust tip. I pushed my car through the long line (sort of like in line at the drags- but much more fun) waiting my turn. When the DMV lady -oops! I mean the Smog Check Specialist waved me in, I pushed it in. She said "doesn't this old thing run?" Oh yeah, I was just pushing it to save gas... The inspection consisted of a visual first, then tailpipe test. I opened the decklid, she stared at the engine and called over a co-worker. They had never seen a VW with "four carburators". I had a breather box on it and they said it would not pass because the breather hose did not go to the air cleaner. There were no air cleaners. Only velocity stacks. I stuffed the breather hose down one of the stacks and that seemed to pacify them. Once they decided they did not know what else to do they asked me to fire it up. She had me let it idle for some time while she fiddled around with the machine, and of course it was good and loaded up by this time. She grabbed the wand, and on the way to the tailpipe, it pegged the meeter! The wand never made it in to the tailpipe. After some discussion, they decided since the car was a '59 they were going to "let it go".
It was obvious they had no idea what the car was, or even what they were doing.
(I did clean 'er out a little as I was leaving ;)).

perfect!
I recall taking my '67 to get smogged when it had the cammed up motor with "four carburetors".... I just played dumb, but that didn't work. The guy that ran the place was Sikh and got almost offended when he opened decklid. He wasn't a savvy VW guy, but he knew "something was wrong." He screamed at me to get out of his shop, how he'd be fined, lose his license, world would end. Etc.
I ended up using plan B

great story, I had a similar time with my 56 when I went to smog it in 79.  what a joke that was.  Those people didn't have a clue as to what they were doing.
jim

So Dave, you ever get "guided" into any of those road side smog checks..., you know the ones where if you pass you get a little sticker for the windshield?  Back in the day, when I was driving around in the '63, I had a friend pass me a free compliance sticker to put in the car...PRESTO, I'm exempt 8) 8) 8).  A few days later, I got nailed in a smog check.  As I'm pulling in, this giant of a CHP guy in a tan jumpsuit is yelling at me through the window...."WHO THE HELL GAVE YOU THAT STICKER?????" ::) :(

Nice one Sarge!!

They got me as well, but I passed...(sort of) My "built" motor was apart (big suprise there) so I was running a borrowed 36 horse at the time... They did, however give me a safety inspection and I only failed a little: 1) Headlights too low. 2) No front license plate. 3) Insufficient bumpers. 4) No wiper arms or blades 5) Modified exhaust. I received a written warning and they told me I would be cited next time. Don't get me wrong, I like Cops, but back in the 70's you could not hardly drive a lowered VW without getting cited for too low. I was not able to adjust my front axle back then because it was cut, turned, and welded... When the inevitible happened, to get the ticket signed off, I had a pair of solid struts that I would install in place of the shocks and it would give you about a 25" headlight center line with 135's.
Funny, I still have those struts ;)

Hahahaha....welded struts! 8) 8) 8)  I used VW chrome tip clamps to hold the shocks open (just couldn't hit any dips hard on the way over to the police dept. or you'd get a "sag" on one side or the other ::)).  For me, if it wasn't fretting over running into a Smog Check, there was ALWAYS the very real threat of the dreaded Brea motorcycle cop.  In the early '70's, Brea actually "leased" a single motorcycle cop from La Habra.  This cop was a real piece of work.  You all know the kind, slow to get off the bike and approach the car, wrinkle free starched uniform, spit shined boots, aviator sunglasses, 5'7", and an unbridled hatred for punks in VW's.  All those "items"..., headlights, license plate, bumpers, etc, etc.  Sheeeeeesh!

Dave, tell them about the truck blazing on fire across from Jim's auto.

OK John... these guys are going to think I never worked.
Come to think of it, both of the shops I worked at and then my own shop later, all of us worked hard.
We played hard too ;D
If you guys can put up with another long story, I'll try to set the stage a little. Now, it's around 1981. At the first shop I worked at, H&H Motors, humor was the order of the day. An occasional acetelyne bomb, greased door handles, or somebody sneaks a few drops of oil on the floor under that engine you just built and got running. We found a little fun made working a lot more tolerable.
Well, that was great while I worked there, but time moves on and I had the opportunity to go to work at a larger shop with better pay, more work, things like that.
Enter- Jims Auto Repair. Jims was a well established VW garage and I was happy with the prospect of working there... until my first day. Don't get me wrong, this place was a class act, but I learned right away that this place was serious. No humor. Dry as a popcorn fart.
This was quite a shock to me given my history, but I worked on 'em. After a while this place discovered a sense of humor too... maybe not as radical as H&H, but we had a good time. One of these times involved fire extinguishers... we all had one, and I can't say for sure who pulled the first pin, but before I knew it I was involved with two other mechanics in a little extinguisher war. We didn't empty them or anything like that, just a few well placed shots at each other here and there. The fire extinguishers ended back up on the wall with not a care in the world, pressure gauges showing plenty of pressure, all was good.
Now, fast forwars a few weeks... it's in the afternoon, just about go-home time (beer-thirty Sarge), and across the street I see this poor old gardener in his To#¤ta truck with the hood up and had quite a nice engine fire going on. Well, my time to be the hero, I grabbed my trusty 'ol fire extinguisher, ran across the street, this guy sees me running toward hin, gives me a huge smile and steps back, I point the extinguisher at the base of the fire, squeezed the handle and   pffffft. That was it. I get this little pffffft and a small puff 'o powder and the extinguisher was done. This guy looked horrified, started cussing something I could not understand and ran to the back of the truck to unload his gardening equipment... I did help him unload. Fortunately, the F.D. arrived pretty quick and contained the fire to the engine compartment.

Moral of the story- APPARRANTLY, when you are screwin' with your buddies, once you squeeze the 'ol handle
on a dry chemical extinguisher, you need to have it serviced. ;) 

~DR.

Now tell them about about my car on the rack just barely kissing the ground doing a burnout, ( while we're on the subject of fire extinguishers. )

I forgot about that one!
We have John's '64 on the rack back when his car was pretty stock. As he said, back tires just kissing the ground and we decided to do a controlled burnout... I think we had 'er up to third gear or so, smoke boiling off the tires, and in the driveway comes the boss... Yep, pretty cool. He looked at me like I was an alien or something and he asked what we were doing? Clutch test boss.  8)
I don't know why I wasn't fired that first year.

O.K. Fred, I'll remember that  ;D

frenchy fiat dave  ;)

here's mark souter inside & engine dave i  love the seat upholstery (http://frenchysrides.com/images/scan01343.jpg)

Thanks for the cool photos!!
I see the Fiat had Kadrons on it in the photo... I'm pretty sure it had 48's when I went for the ride. The photos of Souters car mean a lot to me... that car was very influential to me at the time.

Speedwell, DKK Fred asked if you had any photos of Dave Wright's '54 Chop... any luck? I'm working on getting in touch with the owner, but the HotVW's article would work for me. It was in '78 or '79 I believe.

Thanks guys, the Lounge rocks!

sorry a little off topic, but I have a question.

About 10 yr ago I found an old license plate frame, kind of beat, but it was metal and read "Keep on Buggin" and had the stylized lady bug character as used in Bug In promo stuff. Was this frame related to the club?

it's a topchop  oval model  wich color?? some info to help me to chearch , i'm looking after the report at the moment i will scan if i  found

fabs

Fabian, it was that rootbeer colored car, you had a few photos you posted in my response to some thread that Danny Gabbard started asking about that car. I'm thinking about six months ago. You turned up a Bug In shot, and one at Carlsbad.

Jim,
No relation that I know of, and I'm not sure who copied who.
I have one of those frames as well... I think it was an offshoot of the old Keep on Truckin' saying from that era.

~DR.

O.K. you have to give a history of Chamey, and what all went on with Jose at Jim's Auto.

Especially the kicker at the end of the story!

i made a research on the lounge is this that car ???

[/quote]
i made a research on the lounge is this that car ???

[/quote]
Yep, that's it.
70's technoligy on a 70's built car.
I'll find my old Hot VW's that has that car in it soon... I think it was November, 1978 or something like that.

What I'd like to know is WHERE IS THAT CAR NOW??  Dave sold it to somebody on the east coast, USA and it was never seen by us again. Anywhere.

While Dave Wright (the owner) was building the Chop, his daily driver was a pea green Oval that he ran the BRM's on. It was quite a sight to see that car parked all over town, in parking lots, left outside at night, etc with those wheels on it. Even back in the 70's they were still hard to find, once in a while a set would come up they would always be some unreal price like four or five hundred dollars  ;)

Thanks again Fabian!

~DR

i watched my 78 & 79 issue yesterday , but never seen that car in report
and now just watching the nov 78 nope  :-\

rgd
fabs

It was a cover car Fabs. I'm sure it was late '70s. ???

Well, Dave, you're not done yet, are you? Let's have some more stories. MUSH! ("quote/ Fuckin' Marty)

Hello everyone. My father Dannie "Fut" James passed away 4yrs ago from Multiple Myeloma and I inherited his yellow '73 Beetle. I found some rear passenger side glass with with Keep On Buggin' stickers on it. My Mother told me his was a member of the club back in the late 70's early 80's.

If any of you remember him or his Beetle I would love to hear from you. Here is a pic of him and his '73:
 (http://s50.photobucket.com/user/raichu79/media/0014.jpg.html)

Hello rychu79,

First of all, I'm very sorry for the loss of your father...

I remember Dannie, I knew him as "Good Fut"
Pretty sure the last time I saw him was at one of the Bug-In's when his fresh fully polished BRM wheels (original of course) were stolen from the back seat of his beetle.. or that's the way I remember it anyway.
Your Dad was a cool cat, we got along well  :)
So, what's the plan for your Dad's old car?
-DR

Thank you for the kind words Dave.

Its been parked and in pieces since he got the '74 convertible. I would have that too but we didn't have room for them both so my Aunt decided to sell it.
He made a few changes to the '73 since you've seen it last. Its Porsche Ice Green Metallic now with a ragtop from a donor Beetle.

I'm in the process of putting it back together. Here are some pics of it in its current state.

(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/raichu79/DSC02873640x469.jpg)
(http://i50.photobucket.com/albums/f307/raichu79/DSC02875640x480.jpg)

Such a cool car. :)
The ragtop conversion looks very well done!

Sorry for you father

I will always remember Good Foot and what he brought to the world of early Cal-Look Cars and "EMPI" Products.
He always seemed to come up with brand new caps, lugs, spacers, stickers etc. It  would always bother SHUBEE
because Danny had something Shubee wanted. Drove Shubee crazy, he had to use Good Foot as a source and PAY !!

Your Dad was a good guy, sorry to hear of his passing. Hopefully he taught you how to handle life.