The Cal-look Lounge

Diggin the site! so I thought I might contribute a little.

I grew up in Riverside, my Family had VWs, and VWs were everywhere in 1975. First car was a 58 bug and I wanted to learn to work on it so.....
Still in high school, I went to work for a guy who just started a shop (he was a Factory trained wrench at economotors) I learned service work and worked my way up to rebuilding engines, building rails, Baja bugs.

Looking back, some of the highlights were going to Bug-ins, going to Empi's garage sale when they closed and buying boxes of steering wheels and 5 spokes cheap!
One day John from fourtuned swung by in a split, (might of been an Oval, can't remember) but it had BRMs and a 2180 - coolest car I had ever seen, I think I was 16 years old. That planted a seed For sho!!

Fourtuned was down the street, Leighton and Fumio were across town. Riverside was heavy into the offroad scene, but Orange County was where the cool cars were. Everytime I'd go to Bergs or FAT Performance I'd see the Badass bugs on the street and that inspired me to build my 67 CalLook sedan.
 
Switched gears, got into Construction, wife, kids, ended up in Denver, got back into the scene about 4 years ago. Gotta pretty sweet Og paint & 54K mile 66 Beetle that I'm building a 2110 for right now.
   

Hi Tom! I'm glad to see you're on here.

-Sam

The old '67 looks killer.  Real cool stuff.

what up Sam!
Eddie and I were talking the other day about Fourtuned Exhaust and I thought I might share an old story.

Thanks, I was pretty proud of that car - that pic is from 1977 - ouch I'm old :o

Great! Thanks for posting.

Ooh, that's the year I was born! :D Awesome car though! What colour? :)

welcome to the lounge and by the way very cool 67
 ;)

fabs

Sounds like a good neighbourhood to have been living in one way or another, welcome to the Lounge. :)

hey, welcome.

i sure hope the 66 gets the same treatment as the 67 did in 77. really cool. altough i have to say/admit that the turnsignals are a thing off the past...  ;D ask Sarge he knows that by now.

  sigh.... ::)  Welcome to the Lounge, Tom... here's hoping you have thick skin ;).  Old guys get beat down pretty bad around here... watch out for Fastbrit; he's always on me for some reason. ::)  Nice cars you have!  I spent five years working at Sierra / Colley Porsche Audi in the mid 70's and really enjoyed the Riverside vibe... got to know a lot of the local VW guys, too.  Have fun here; it's the best place to be!

Welcome to the Lounge dude - I'm pretty sure you'll fit right in here  ;) :)

It was an awesome cal-look, you have more pics maybe ? And welcome to the Lounge.  8)

Thanks everyone for the welcome and the props!

I repainted the 67 - Factory color Java Green

I installed clear Hella lenses on the 66, so they don't pop as much :)

I'll try to dig some pics up and get them scanned - unfortunately back in the day I didn't take many pic :(

Might as well get the beat down over with then ;D
I'm sure I met you then - buying parts (not buying 911s!!) The 2 piece 5 spokes were bolted up with porsche studs - I paid a grip for thoses 14mm studs and had FAT press them in.

I used to work for Car Craft - they are still around today - just into turbo sand cars. I think Godfrey is racing a vintage 69 camaro.

    Welcome to the lounge Tom nice story you have.

   Take care
   Frenchy

Welcome to the lounge Tom.  I  just stumbled onto this site a week ago and I am glad I did.  Great rides, great stories and great people!  Nice looking ride!

Hey Jim Ratto, if you read this I tried to email you about the piston rings but I am not sure if it ever got through.   Can you PM me or email me?  Thanks

Thanks Frenchy -

Yeah your 67 is cool too Zenith Blue right? Looks like the right forum for me. Little different than the samba. There are some bitchin' cars here!!

I picked up the 66 about 3 years ago - been out of service since 1984 just sitting in a barn. 54K miles, og interior & og paint with the exception of the rear fenders and deck lid.
Runnin' 356 wheels right now - but may go with grey BRMs.
I've got a 4" RLR beam and pair of CSP discs for the front that I need to install, and collecting parts for a 2110 build.
Its a project that I can drive as I build it.

Good to see you here finally!!

Yep - I'll keep everyone posted - I think I'll like it here :)

No kidding, I finally posted - thanks for the heads up Zach 8)

Welcome aboard and thumbs up on your cars. Have fun here!  8)

Thanks Jim!

Sarge said tell your story so.... been on the site for a week now and been using the "SEARCH" function, and I found this car, Jim Logudice's 67!! 

This is like Deja Vu - I had just turned 16 when I bought this issue, I wanted this car! My dream car was a 911, but this car was so Badass, Right then and there I decided I had to get a 67.
This car is probably the single most influential car that got me into Cal-Look VWs.
 
After buying & selling about 15 cars, and by the time I was 17, I found a super clean 67 for $600 and built it up.
I couldn't afford Fuchs, ported heads, and IDAs, so I built a 1835 - Berg C/W crank, Engle 110, and a single Zenith - It ran pretty good.

Seeing Jim's 67 after all these years really hit home, I think I might have to look for another 67 ;D

Thanks for the pics fabs

So's the RED paint job  8)

Agreed - Al Martinez paint work -

And the turn signals ;)

 >:(