I'm searching for a car I built almost 30 years ago

[delux67]

I built a 1967 VW sedan with Calif licence plate DELUX67. Has anybody seen this car? It won Best of Show at Bug In 25. I would appreciate any leads. My name is Mike Billings and was a long time member of DKP II. I built the car, essentially, at FAT Performance in the very early 80's.
Thanks

[speedwell]

waouww mike billing himself   , welcome a board mike ,hope you will enjoy the place like your ancient friends of games

greeting from belgium
fabs

oh beer are for sarge 

[speedwell]

i suppose that you're talking about this one 

[speedwell]

 

[speedwell]

 
i hope that you have some old pictures of your old ride  , because there's a small group fans of your 67  , and the only know pictures  came from the vw trends

rgd
fabs

[Neil Davies]

Monkiboy is going to freak out! Welcome Mike, I thought I recognised the number plate but couldn't work out where from! There have been a few discussions about your car - do a search for your name and see what comes up!

[67worshipper]

mike your ears must have been burning welcome and thanks for a great alround looker

[roland]

Killer car!

I have to admit i've found some inspiration in the building of my 68 in your awesome 67..

Welcome here and good luck with the search.. 

[Sarge]

real good, another old guy with a red car.....

[speedwell]

i've just buy this 



scan will follow when it arrive

[Rennsurfer]

I built a 1967 VW sedan with Calif licence plate DELUX67. Has anybody seen this car? It won Best of Show at Bug In 25. I would appreciate any leads. My name is Mike Billings and was a long time member of DKP II. I built the car, essentially, at FAT Performance in the very early 80's.
Thanks

Right on, Mike. Good to see you on here. Heard that you were at the D.K.P. display at the recent Bug-O-Rama in So Cal. Sorry that I missed ya. Back when you were selling your red car, you gave me one of the fliers... I still have it to this day.

I remember watching you win Best Of Show at Bug-In 25... I was very stoked for you and your car. Always admired the workmanship and overall look of that '67. The wheels just made everything so right.

I wish you well in finding your car... I'm still looking for my orange '66, as well. Rumor has it that yours went to Japan. However, that's yet to be confirmed.
And because I never tire from looking at your car:

[delux67]

WOW! What a response. Yes that is my car, regardless of who owns it. I'm the culprit
I had no idea so many folks find the DELUX so inspiring ( another person's word).
Anyway its good to be back in touch I'm looking forward to meeting new and old friends.
Good bye for now,
Mike

[Dan Mazur]

Mike, you might find it easier to just start over with another car. Create another work of art.

[nicolas]

a very big welcome! your car is very very nice, not only monkiboy thinks it is one of the best ever made.

[Cornpanzer]

Here is one of the other threads on the car
http://cal-look.no/lounge/index.php/topic,8646.0.html

Nice to see you here Mike.  Your 67 was one fo my favorites when I was a kid and influenced my love for 67's

[Lee.C]

OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (Neil was right  )

How on earth did I miss this one 

A very big Lounge welcome Mr Billing  As you my have noticed from the other threads your 67 is probably my ALL TIME favourite Cal Looker - I have been trying to find out what happened to it for AGES, I will be watching this thread thats for sure 

Mike plese give us some personal memories of your amazing little 67

[delux67]

Well guys when I get a chance to get my thoughts together I'll try to share some memories that may be of interest to some.
However, if you want to know who my all time favorite car belonged to it is Keith Goss and his Chop Top 62 Sedan. His was the level of clean that I was competing with. I still think his car was better than mine. The only thing I had on him was the fact that mine was a 1967 versus his 62. The 1967 Sedan has a mystique all it's own. Anybody out there agree?

[javabug]

Anybody out there agree?

Well, of course!   

[Cornpanzer]

Amen...testify! 

[speedwell]

Well guys when I get a chance to get my thoughts together I'll try to share some memories that may be of interest to some.
However, if you want to know who my all time favorite car belonged to it is Keith Goss and his Chop Top 62 Sedan. His was the level of clean that I was competing with. I still think his car was better than mine. The only thing I had on him was the fact that mine was a 1967 versus his 62. The 1967 Sedan has a mystique all it's own. Anybody out there agree?

both were employed at FAT at the same time , keith won the best of show at bug in 16(apr76) and you at bug in 25 (oct80) , thus 4 years later , so keith was still with the car at the time at bug in  25
and DKPII were still active too

 

fabs

[delux67]

True enough, although by the time I finished my car Keith had left the employ of FAT but he was indeed still in possesion of his Chop Top. What a car, the absolute best chop job I've ever seen. At the time there were some other chop tops but the lines were nowhere near as natural as Keith's. His car looked like it came from the factory with that low profile roof line.
DKP II was very much active at the time. Roger Grago was president, I was secretary and that's all I can remember. As they say if you can remember the 70's you weren't there. LOL

[speedwell]

mike keith's car is still alive ,  she's in scotland now , and the new owner is on the this forum too 

here's keith car at european bug in 2 years ago  still the same

[Russell]

HI Mike

Thanks Speedwell

Yer im the owner of the Keiths chop, but like everyone else, I love your car too.

Im sure your not the only one looking for it....... 

Welcome to the lounge and looking forward to some stories.

Russell

[speedwell]

. Im sure your not the only one looking for it....... 

Russell

russell you have too many red cars in your collection .........................

fabs   

[delux67]

I don't recognize the deck lid or the two horizontal bars between the front nerf bars but I do the wheel combo, the color, the roof line and the awesome way those front seats head rests pop up in the rear window. I love that car.
Lets see if I can remember...motor 84/90, cam???(Engle 130??) 48IDA Webers (naturally); 15/8 exhaust thru merged collector, although the collector I see in the image looks more modern. I'd love to see more.
Heck I'd love to see mine! IF it ever shows up, I hope it was left alone, no funky mods. I wanted as best I could, to build the car like  Wolfsburg would if they were ever going to produce a performance sedan.

[ugly duckling]

alot of nice cars 20years ago went to japan thats were i would be looking thats were my 67 went. good luck on your search.and welcome. if you wanted to talk to keith i have his #. he was a long time freind and still is. but when he moved away things were not the same. yea i loved his car to. keith was one ANIL MITICULAS to detail SOB  UD  . 

[kingsburgphil]

I don't recognize the deck lid or the two horizontal bars between the front nerf bars but I do the wheel combo, the color, the roof line and the awesome way those front seats head rests pop up in the rear window. I love that car.
Lets see if I can remember...motor 84/90, cam???(Engle 130??) 48IDA Webers (naturally); 15/8 exhaust thru merged collector, although the collector I see in the image looks more modern. I'd love to see more.
Heck I'd love to see mine! IF it ever shows up, I hope it was left alone, no funky mods. I wanted as best I could, to build the car like  Wolfsburg would if they were ever going to produce a performance sedan.

Hi Mike!, long time no see....it must be pushing 30 years since we worked for the excitable boys at FAT. I hope you find your 67, ands its still in decent shape after all the time and effort you put into it.

Regarding Keith's car, I recall his car having the first dual Q-P muffler setups, and one if not the first with 7 inch alloys. Also, wasn't Keith's car
stolen at one time?  I remember him being heart broken at the time.  While we're in the way-back machine, what ever happened to Guy Newhouse, Keith's fellow galley slave. Last I heard he was working for Nissan...one sharp cookie.

Best of luck in your quest   

[Fastbrit]

I don't recognize the deck lid or the two horizontal bars between the front nerf bars but I do the wheel combo, the color, the roof line and the awesome way those front seats head rests pop up in the rear window. I love that car.
Lets see if I can remember...motor 84/90, cam???(Engle 130??) 48IDA Webers (naturally); 15/8 exhaust thru merged collector, although the collector I see in the image looks more modern. I'd love to see more.
Heck I'd love to see mine! IF it ever shows up, I hope it was left alone, no funky mods. I wanted as best I could, to build the car like  Wolfsburg would if they were ever going to produce a performance sedan.

Hi Mike. When I bought the car off Keith in 1995 (for $6000), it had been sitting minus its engine, since 1984. He'd blown up the original (912 rod broke...) and rebuilt it using a new FI case and had to have one of the Fumio heads duplicated by Clyde Berg.The engine was complete but not fitted. The spec at the time was 84mm Okrasa crank, 912 rods, 90.5s, Engle 125 with EMPI ratio rockers, 48s with Keith's own linkage based on the EMPI one, 1 5/8 header and a very rusty (and unoriginal) dual Q/P. The paintwork had gone bad, and blistered all over, so we had to bare-metal and repaint it, using the correct Sahara Beige paint. The chrome suspension parts had lost a lot of their plating over the years, but the pan was still good and shiney, if a little battle-scarred in places. It had a stock transmission with H/D side-cover, Berg sideplate stiffeners and a Super-Diff. It still had Porsche 356C discs at the front and redrilled 356B drums at the back, with the fins machined down so the Fuchs would fit OK.

I rebuilt the motor with an Engle Fk87 and Bugpack H-beam rods, and a Berg header, along with a Vertex magneto. I also installed a full close-ratio trans with Quaife LSD. It ran 12.84 on 215/65 radials, driving to and from the track.

The decklid was the Keith Goss original, while the two bars between the front nerf bars were original Keith additions, too, to allow the fitment of a license plate.

A great car, so far ahead of its time, and one which I am honoured to have 'saved' from the Japanese! 

Keith sold me the car with a heavy heart (his family was moving to Oregon), but was delighted to do a deal on three accounts: we were both called Keith; we were both the same age and, thirdly, he remembered an article I had written about his car in an English magazine back n 1977... He knew it was going to a good home. I only sold it when my life was going through what we shall call 'a difficult personal period'. I would only sell it to someone who would appreciate it for what it was, and in Russell I found that person. It was the car that pretty much kicked off the whole 'Gasser Garage' collection. It's in safe hands. 

[ST DRAGN]

while the two bars between the front nerf bars were original Keith additions, too, to allow the fitment of a license plate.


You did what to the original rare Fat T-bars?










[/quote]

[Fastbrit]

Troublemaker...