The Cal-look Lounge

This is my 2nd bug, but sadly the 1st one was stolen after 3 days of ownership from a friends driveway  :(
Been looking for a while and found this one on the Samba and amazingly it was as described  :o
bought it there and then and drove it away.
A really solid resto cal styled car, with 1776 engine, kadron carbs, single quiet pack ex, don't know anything else about the motor, but the journey home put a smile on my face  ;D

Had a look in mind for the car, sort of pre/early cal-look , started with dropping the wheels I already had at the powder coaters to be blasted, then coated in silver/aluminium colour.
I got them back 2 days later and fitted them with 145 for the front and 205/70 for the rear.  Then spent the day getting the ride height back up to a more acceptable level  :)

Have since picked up a merged header for it and will fit it as soon as I get the matching dual quiet pack.

Here's a few before pictures

Jo

and here's a few after pics   :)

I like it!

--louis

Love the car. Reminscent of the early days with slotted wheels. Nice stance and touch with the T-Bars too.

Rick M

Cool car!

Hmm, that location looks familiar! Bet it's warmer there than the UK right now!  >:(

looking good! love the color...

How about taking a left on Beach and getting some photos at the In-N-Out? Looking good.  8)

Hey are all the cars in that neighbourhood green? i want to move there, i've got the car.  :)

Well done! Keep us updated on the progress.

Thanks Rick  :)
That's the look I'm aiming for.
Thinking about one piece windows & trimless window rubbers next.
Simple but effective stuff like they did in the early days, to make the car stand out   ;D

Thanks everyone else for the kind words, been out in it today enjoying the sunshine.
Funnily enough the journey did start with a left on beach :)

Green cars rock !!!!!!  :) :D ;D

Jo

I can't believe I missed this thread - NICE CAR!!! and your right Green cars ROCK ;) :)

Jo

Excellent looks really cool, a few simple changes and what a difference. What year is it ? Oh its a 59 in the title daft question, sorry !

Green Car Alley, rocks

I see Jeff working hard as always. ;D

Every journey should, it's the nearest In-N-Out!   8)

Love that car!

Really nice lookin' car!
What color (color code?) is it...?


Mario/DKT

Sadly, No idea what colour green it is, not even sure it is VW?
If anyone has any ideas would be great to know.   :)

Nice car and nice year Jo!  ;D

Cool car.

Found a couple of things that needed attention and my dual quiet pack system turned up from Als headers :)
As we had to have the rear wheels off to replace the axle boots yesterday,I took the chance to clean and paint the rear drums as they looked ugly under my shiny wheels,also the drivers side was slightly lower than the passenger side due to age and wear I think so we adjusted it slightly to suit so it now sits level :)

Hoping to have the exhaust fitted this weekend,pics to follow if it does   ;D

Jo

Looking good - I'm diggin the pre cal style  ;) :)

nice car  :)
can i ask if that is a CB header with a one-off muffler ? or is the whole set-up made by Al's headers ? look great. thanks

It all came from Al's Headers originally, whilst there I noticed headers both CB & Scat being produced.
So it's quite possible that you could buy the header from CB.

Jo

jeffs parking lot hah sorry to hear about the 1st car

thank you Jo. it looks just like the merged header CB shows on the website. they do sell a dual muffler to fit,but no picture on the website. do you think it too would be from Al's Headers ?
If it is the same set up as on Dave Rhoad's car it looks really nice !

The header & system was fabricated by Als headers for Scat on my car

Dave Rhoads
DRF

You wouldn't happen to have contact info for Al's Headers? Thanks in advance ;)

Hey Jo...

Your subtle changes are reminiscient of the mods a lot of us old timers made on our first cars in the late 60's and early 70's before the actual "Cal Look" definition arrived on the scene. 

Your exhaust looks great.  What generation VW fan are you? Did parents, grandparents and others influence your love for the look?  Great mods so far.  Great to see you drive the car too.  Most of us originally owned them as a high school or jr. college mode of transportation.  I've heard a lot of stories from other older forum members talking about their first bugs as the "only" mode of transportation and a project "in da werks!" 

Good to see a gal making the mods.  My daughter followed in my footsteps as a VW lover.  She was the son I always hoped for...as a car enthusiast only.  Shanna was the only girl in High School auto body and also one of my best staff in helping us at our Bug-O-Rama events for years.

Keep up the great work.  Good to see you making progress!

Rick M

could this colour...

L 445 sargasso green

looks good there in Green car kingdom. say hey to the court jester for me.  ;D

thanks Dave

Phone number is : 714 630 1833

Jo

Thanks for the kind words, that early look is what's inspiring me with this car.  I guess I'm still a novice as I'm learning all the time  :)  I feel a car is never truly finished, hence always 'in da werks'   :)
Exhaust looks cool, we fitted it this evening, changes the look and sound of the car completely   ;D  Will take some pictures of it tomorrow if the sun is shining and post them up later on.

Jo

car does look good saw it in person the other day...like it...and the smile on jo's face, she really likes it!  ;D

nice one!!
simple, but works so well!

is it coming to the uk? or going to be the 'states' car?  ;)

I intend to keep the car out here, and use it as my daily when I'm here   ;D :)

Been out and about in the car a fair bit, so had a few photo opportunities, so here's a few pics with the new exhaust.   ;D :)

Looks cool jo 8)

How long before it ends up on the strip though? ;)

thats awesome !!!

If Irwindale was open tonight I'd have betted on about 7 hours but as it is I'll put a $ on 7 days and 7 hours or so. Looking good.

 8)

Keeping with the old school theme, decided the mufflers would look better detailed black, like they used to come, so took them off masked off the tips and painted them with a ceramic high temp paint.  Will be interesting to see how it lasts compared to a regular high temp paint that seems to disappear very quickly.    :)

Thanks,
Cars not quite ready for the track yet, but give it time!!!!!!!    ;)

Jo

I Have Noticed that Most of the New Merge Header Systems Have A Longer Collector Is there any Reason for it? The Mufflers dont tuck under the Fenders near as nice as they use to? On My Old 4 Tuned 1 5/8 Merge the flange was under the apron On the new systems it sticks out about an 1 1/2 inches?? ??? ???

Jo, I've had best results with BBQ paint, believe it or not! It's designed for excessive heat, more so than header paint. Still needed doing every year or so though!

have you a name for that kind of paint or a picture  ??? spray can ???

To me it looks like the collector is in the same spot, it's the extension on the muffler side that is longer.

you're right zach, to make it look purfect about 1 1/2" should be chopped off the muffler side.

p.s. what brand is the header by the way?

Yes Jo i told Nobby i was going to use BBQ paint on my wastegate and he said your joking right.

It still on there. ;D

The Mufflers and The Collector are longer compared to My Old 4 Tuned 1 5/8 merge and Dual QP's look at the picture where the collector sit under the rear apron and the mufflers sit under the fenders

Not quite a left on Beach, but I guess this is what you were thinking!!!!   ;D ;D

Jo

Those burgers with UPS?  :D

Nice shots!  8)

Hi princess,the mufflers look so much better in black.Nice car btw.
 ;)

Shubee, you gotta find some new pictures to scan ::)

Jo, you're illegally parked- please move your car... ;D

Hey Pagan,

Are you from England. If so, what town?

RIck M

hey jo....
the Lowes down on beach and the 22 have the bbq paint. it is the garden section wih the bbqs... :)

 :o That looks ace! you've done a really good job there, It really looks like a 60's (pre"cal-look") bug, Just need a couple of pic in sepia now.

So whats next on the to-do list?  ;D

 ;)

depends on who was with her in the car  ;D

anyway, could we not post pictures off meatburgers please? Jeff's been asking questions lately about why other kids are bigger then him

Deprived kids?

:o

The Belgian economy's got that bad? Maybe we could club together and fly in some burgers?

:P  ;D

yeah probally...  ::) (with me as a dad...)

 i think Richie will gladly cover the shippingcosts to send meat to our little one, just ask him  ;D

(http://cal-look.no/lounge/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=7755.0;attach=25510;image)

Nice One Speedwell that looks very period now  ;D

think I found myself a new Backround  ;)

 :D :D :D :D those burgers are Ridculas :o

Looks good like that Fabs :)

It really needs a black plate now though to make it look more correct :)


cheers richie

This is what I used, not sure if it would be available in europe?

Jo

thx jo  ;)

Richie's not handicapped; just English... ;D

Done a few more little jobs to change my car, picked up this distributor and tach, dizzy needs some work but it was very cheap ;)  , also got nice and dirty doing my first oil change.
Went to Nicks on Sunday for the monthly DKP cruise night, it was a bit quiet due to the Superbowl, but still cool to go in my own car.

Jo

 

very cool non the less. i hope that someday i will attend Nick's as well.
btw is that Fred's car next to yours? must be, no idea what a skater would do on a sunday when there is the superbowl on TV  ::)

yes it's dkk fred at the first sight i was thinking it was brian P cars  . the car look like more white than blue on this picture
but remember that brian 've fuchs wheels on his car

What's a 'Superbowl'? A special at the Soup Plantation?  :)

Interior panels were disgusting, very tired brown velour!!!! Been looking to change that and came across these correct year two tone interior panels.  Wanted them to match the seats which are black, so a trip to Pep Boys for some Vinyl coat soon had them looking better  :)
Also with a little help got the tach in and wired up.

Also thanks to LouisB on here picked up these Skat trak IDA manifolds for a later date  ;D

Jo

nice car with a really cool attitude, love the color

Anymore updates?

Hey Jo....

What are those Skat Traks going to reside on top of?

Rick Mortensen

Very cool car ! What tire sizes are you running ?

Rick, not sure yet, just collecting parts, my latest bargain is this Fourtuned 1 5/8 coated header    :)
Just collecting parts slowly, as and when something I feel suits the style and look of the car I'm trying to acheive.

Jo

Thank you.
They are 145/15 on the front and 205/70/15 on the rear.

Jo

Thanks ! ;D

So having been distracted by my other VW's with my show car and my street/race car taking priority, with both my time and my money I have done very little to my '59, except drive and enjoy it  :)

I did fit a Thunderbird Merged Header and Dual mufflers and fitted the gearbox that Mike Herbert built for this car with 4.12 R&P and closer 3rd & 4th which made it more fun to drive and also got a puncture fixed  ;D

I have been slowly collecting parts for a suitable engine to go with the look I am after, mainly from swapmeets and TheSamba.

2 weeks ago I got my parts back from balancing and with the racing and shows over for the year we had some time to clean everything and start assembly, here follows what I have acheived so far.

So I started by fitting the woodruff key and the bearing to the crank, while the gears were warming on the hot plate, when they were ready I put them, followed by the snap ring, top bearing, oil slinger and pulley key. 
Next I fitted the bearing to the rods, coated them with Torco Assembly Lube then fitted them to the crank, used ARP thread lube on the bolts, fitted them and torqued them down.  :)

With all that done, the case was cleaned for the last time and put onto the engine stand ready for assembly.

With all the bearings, lifters, o-rings and distributor and drive fitted I could lower the crank assembly into place, line-up the bearings with their dowels then fit the cam, aligning the dot to the 2 on the crank gear.
With the lifter clips in place I lowered the other case half on, with a little sealant behind the big case washers, all the washers were fitted along with the nuts, at this time the rear seal was also pushed in place.

Then the oil pump was pushed into place, all the case nuts torqued, then the oil pump cover fitted and nuts torqued.
Engine was turned upside down, the oil relief plungers and springs fitted, then the sump could go on.
Next came the flywheel, which was torqued down to 450lbs/ft with loctite on the threads, at the front the pulley tin was fitted, followed by the pulley, the bolt also torqued with loctite on the threads.

This is where I am upto now, with a piston and cylinder fitted to check deckheight, I need a small shim to go under the cylinder to get the deckheight we want, as I am using old school 90mm pistons there are no off the shelf shims so I will need to get some made next week.

nice work jo
love the pic of in en out can't wait to come back at the bug inn en eat a doubledouble animal style
greetz to Ritchie from you're Belgium friends
Cedric ;D

So here's the full spec of the engine:-

VW Magnesium case, with machine work by Jason Lauffer
DPR 78mm welded crank, with matching 14lb flywheel, 36mm Scat Gland nut
Eagle VW journal 5.5 rods (donated by my red car after it's engine rebuild)
NPR 90mm stroke pistons and cylinders (New)
Engle 125 with bolt on cam gear and Scat lifters
Steve Tims Heads, 42/37 valves, opened up for 90mm cylinders, 52cc chamber
1.1 / 1 swivel feet rockers
VW main bearings, Mahle rod bearings, Silverline Cam bearings, dual thrust.
Kennedy Stage 1 and Super Daiken disc
1.5 qtr sump (no name brand, swapmeet find)
Santana Power Pulley (swapmeet bargain)
26mm Shadeck oil pump, blue printed and plugged for full flow, with swapmeet pump cover
Thunderbird 1 5/8 header and dual mufflers
44 DCNF's on Berg Manifolds
Bosch 010 Distributor with blue coil
12v Alternator with Berg welded fan
36hp style shroud

I like it!

Good work Jo 8)
Fancy finishing off my car when your home? ;D

Neat motor build, I dig the specs. How much compression? I've heard the NPR's don't like it over 9:1, maybe thats just a nasty rumor though.

that makes that car even more special. cool project, which would make a nice engine with the rebuild gearbox.

Jo, the flywheel looks chromeplated... :D

With the deck height we're aiming for it will work out at 8.9, so looks like I'm safe   ;D :)

Looking great Jo, glad your getting stuck in to the engine, better than waiting for the boy, he takes ages...... I'm always waiting.  ;)

Nice work on the interior also, can't wait for you too take me to starbucks, we will get there in half the time now.

Cheers

Russell

ZACH....

Just a rumor on the NPRs.  We've all run them with more compression than 9.0.   

RM

Thanks for the positive comments  :)

and also thanks to Rick M, for confirming what we already believed, that the rest of the components, assembly and final tune are the most important aspects of any build. 

So with the deckheight set at 0.055 I was able to know the desired cc required in the heads, so now I am just waiting for this to be done and my manifolds to be match ported, so I can finish up the long block, I am supposed to have the heads and manifolds at the end of next week, fingers crossed  ;) :)
The compression is now set at 9.1/1

Also this week, I had the pistons balanced (thanks Shawn, for the quick service  :) ) there was 6 grams difference from lightest to heaviest, so they definitely needed doing. 
I also got my stage 1 kennedy cover and a super daiken disc, so they can go on as well

All those parts were then cleaned and we decided to paint the cylinders, with a high heat paint.

With the paint dry on the cylinders, they got a final clean and the insides lubricated, ready for ring sealing, the rings were checked for gap then refitted to the pistons, which were then fitted back into the cylinders, using a tapered ring compressor all that was needed was a gentle push down and they were in, seals put onto pushrod tubes and that was all I could do until the heads arrive.

Nice work Jo.  I'm send these shots of you doing your motor to my daughter Shanna.  She has a 65 bug and wants to do her next motor, with me there to simply give direction.  You do a better job than many guys I've observed trying to build a motor.

Rick Mortensen

Thanks for the kind words Rick, it would be nice to think that me doing this and posting on here helps to inspire her to go ahead and do it.  Having someone watching and giving advice gave me the confidence to try it myself, I'm sure having you there giving direction will do the same for Shanna   :)  It would be cool if you could do a build thread with her on here as well.
Thanks
Jo

On Wednesday morning I got a message to say my heads and manifolds were ready to be picked up, at this point I just would to say 'Thank You' to Greg and Steve Tims for their excellent service, vary rarely do you get parts or products earlier than promised, which is the case here  ;D
So we collected them that afternoon, now I could continue with my engine build.
First the head studs were checked for length and shortened slightly, with a small amount of loctite on each I fitted them to the case.  Then the wrist pins, rod small ends and pistons all were lightly oiled, the inner piston clip was fitted and a small amount of sealant placed on the bottom mating surface of the cylinder.
I then fitted the first piston/cylinder to the rod and pushed it down to the case, this was repeated with the adjacent piston/cylinder and the under cylinder tin fitted.

Now I could fit my new cylinder heads  :) I lowered one into place, applied a little sealant to the pushrod tube seals and fitted them in place, with a little more sealant under the 4 lower head washers, the washers and nuts fitted with some thread assembly lube, I torqued the heads in place.

With pushrod length and rocker geometry sorted for me I fitted the pushrods with a little lubricant on each end and on the tip of the valve, then fitted the rockers, which torqued down and finally adjusted the valves.

So next was all the tin, a vent tube was added to the 1 & 2 valve cover, some pieces of tin got some paint then with some small adjustments and trimming everything was made to fit together.
This older Scat breather box was cleaned and declared fit for use, the carbs were fitted back to the ported intake manifolds then to the engine.
The shroud was marked for the coil mount, drilled then fitted with rivnuts and the coil was then fitted.

Time to take it off the build stand and onto the run stand, took the opportunity to introduce the car to it's new engine  ;D
Then onto the run stand, everything was hooked up, a special run in oil added, carbs primed and it fired up, timing checked and adjusted then straight away we could tell it was a little lean so stopped, idle jets changed and started up again, ran for a few minutes like this, still seemed to want more fuel so up another size on the idle jets and it ran much better and smoother.   Ran it long enough to bed the cam in properly and then shut it off   :)
It was really nice after shutting it down to see it was totally dry underneath, not the slightest sign of a leak, I guess I did my part well  ;D
Carbs are now going to come apart as one of them isn't reacting to adjustment very well so may have a problem from sitting for several years, once that is sorted it will go in the car.

Nice build thread, thanks for sharing. A beautiful, little engine indeed.

I would like to wish you and Richie a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Look forward to seeing you again in 2012.

Kind regards,
Kalle

I dig the mufflers!  cool!

Sweet project  8) I dig the colour!

After a lot of tinkering with the carbs and making several jet changes, we ran the engine again last night, and now todays job is to get it in the car   ;D :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eSBFlEIoqs (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8eSBFlEIoqs)

Sounds great :)

Have a good Christmas

Lee

x2

Thanks for the positive comments

So first job was to remove the old engine, then remove the header and exhaust as these will be used on the new engine (the exhaust shown before is one we just use to run engines on the stand). 
I then cleaned up the header and painted it with high temp black paint (it was ceramic coated silver when I bought it) 
The tin over the flywheel was fitted then the Scat breather box mounted and we now could install the engine.

Engine fitted, no problem, so next was plumbing, I also had a new Berg Traction Bar kit that we bought at the Classic a few years ago, that had been gathering dust waiting for a project like this  :)
This was fitted and we decided it would provide a good place to mount the oil filter, then we measured the length for the oil lines and I made them up, then fitted them.

Carbs were fitted, fuel lines done and all the little things connected or added, mufflers bolted back on and it was ready, first we just checked for any possible fuel leaks, primed the carbs and it fired straight up, a faulty oil pressure light switch gave us a small scare, but after it was swapped everything was good, all we had left to do was adjust the clutch cable free play. 
First time the clutch pedal was pushed down the tube in the tunnel broke away and left us with no clutch operation   :( ???
It sounds good seems to run well, no leaks, but I can't drive it!!!!

Well it seems that even naughty girls get Christmas presents, I just took it on it's maiden voyage  ;D :)

Jo,

What cam did you put in this motor? Just curious.

Rick M

Small job done today, re-installed the original speedo, this was restored almost 3 years ago by Orange Empire Speedometer, reset to Zero, in preparation for a new engine.

Another job done, thought it was time to upgrade the rear lights, so these are now installed and what an improvement   ;D

Been following along Jo. That's gotta feel pretty good. Doin' it your own self, then drivin' it around! Nicely done!

Thanks Mike, it feels amazing   :)  I still can't believe it works, and it's so much fun to drive   ;D

Hello Jo;

What a kind of nice work you have doing to your ride  :o , keep up the good work!
I have also a 59 and i was wondering where did you found the led taillights?

Greetings Wesley

I have PM'd you the details.
Thanks
Jo

Finally picked up my Christmas Present from the DMV  ;D

NICE!!!

Seems they'll let just about ANYONE get a license in California these days!


Looks good Jo!

A bit of an update as it's been a while, with 700 miles since I fitted the engine I decided to give it a treat.

The engine got an oil and filter change, valves adjusted and a general check over to make sure everything was OK.
The oil that came out was still really nice and clean, no signs of anything unpleasant  :) 

I had a nice old looking wood rim steering wheel that came from my Red car which I decided would look nice in the '59, so I took a drive up to Moon to get the correct boss to fit it.
The steering wheel is now in the car and I think it looks perfect for the era the car is being kept to.

[attachment=1]Outside Moon collecting the Steering Wheel Boss

[attachment=2]Steering Wheel fitted, look much better than the cream coloured stock one fitted before

looking good, Jo!
i'm digging the early era look!

I've never been totally happy with the carpet set in the '59, it's too modern looking to compliment the rest of the car so when we found some NOS year correct Genuine VW floor mats in green, I had to have them :)
I think they will suit the late 60's/early '70's era I am trying to keep the car in, so much better

Those are cool!

On the plus side, you can spill your drink on 'em with no worry!

Nice carpet

really cool and a leopard skin headliner would be cool to.

you know you want it  ;D

Love that car, really good job and feeling !  ;)

Did Richie buy that on Hannover on the 1st of Mai?   ;D

When are u back in the USA Jo?

Had a very short visit to the US earlier this month  :(
Back in the UK now, but did get a chance to fit the green mats and drive the '59 :)
Has certainly tidied up the interior.
Here's the before, during and after shots :)

It's certainly been a while since I've posted on this thread,  for now here's a brief update 😀
I've now owned this #green59 for almost 14 years, but now I'm spending less time in California I've made the decision to bring it to the UK,  yesterday it arrived 🙂
First job is to give it a wash after it's long journey,  then hopefully over the winter months I can start on a few improvements 💚💚

So watch this space for updates.........(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20221123/097762759cc1e0a6c220a462514999a6.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20221123/acf6fa0eed966528b84ecdb9f8ce2dbb.jpg)(https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20221123/dc7d6883c075d99147424750805cebb2.jpg)

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