Bob & Mark's Excellent 1967 Cal Look Adventure

[Rennsurfer]

Since 1972, Bob and I have been best friends. The year 1979, while in class, during high school, he found my first car in our local newspaper... the orange 1966 Bug that you see in my signature. The year 2008, while on my way to buy another 1966 Bug, he stopped me and found the Zenith Blue 1967 Bug, on The Samba, that's also in my signature. He's enjoyed and owned more cars than many car dealers (we gave up trying to count 'em years ago... somewhere around 100). Many of those cars have been and continue to be air cooled VWs. Currently, he owns a gorgeous Java Green 1967 Bug and the Turquoise 1962 Bug convertible that took first place at this year's VW Classic.

Recently, he found a late model 1967 Bug that had only one paint job over it's original Ruby Red factory finish. He bought the car for next to nothing and scored pretty well... beings that it has the late low back seats (w/side release levers), and the original glass, body panels, fenders, and bumpers. Wanting to make this one a Cal Looker, he asked me if I'd like to be the project manager for it. I was more than honored to say the least. I'm looking very forward to seeing this car's transformation take place, obviously, but there's also the notion of building this car together with someone that I've known since I was 9 years young.

The car, right after Bob acquired it.


The engine is nothing fancy, as you can see. A single port, but with a later factory doghouse type fan shroud.


Original fenders and bumpers, all around.


One of the first things that I noticed, was the car is a 49 state model. Meaning... no undercoat. We quickly found out that the Ruby Red paint from the factory has held up rather well in the fender wells, after a brief cleaning.


Like I said, he got a nice car in the way of being all there. The original glove box, still intact.


More of the cabin. No rubber mats, but has the cool factory seat belts.


The spare tire well is flawless. Original paint color sticker still there, too. Both front and back aprons have never been in an accident.


Original door lock pull knob! The doors, decklid, and hood all feel like brand new. Just amazing that the car has never suffered any real impact damage.


One more last shot of the car and it's owner before we started taking it apart. By the way, this car fully ran when he bought it. Good deals are still out there if you're patient enough to look.


And so it begins... components from the trunk are removed.




Rear exterior items are gone, now.


Same with the front.


The car had some sort of relay under the dash. And if you look on the left a-pillar, another dome light switch used to reside underneath the normal location. It was also a factory unit, but without the rubber grommet surrounding it. Could've been for an alarm or something. Whatever the case, it's all being being removed.


Rear passenger area all gutted.


After everything was removed, it was time for the body to come off of the pan.


The day before this, Bob and one of his sons built the cradle for the body to rest on, complete with caster wheels.


Success!




As we stood there, inspecting the pan & chassis, we all laughed at how quickly the body was off... only 35-40 minutes. My girlfriend had never seen that operation before, so it was really cool for her to witness.


And there you have it... more pictures and updates to follow. All that we need now is for Bob to log onto The Lounge, introduce himself, and start helping me with the posting on this thread. HAHA!!

 

Future plans for this car call for a mild street engine, a fresh factory interior including the correct style headliner (like the original one that it currently has), alloys, (Fuchs, for you kids), & factory VW paint color. We've narrowed the paint options to three.





 

[danny gabbard]

Hey mark I did that little operation one day when the now x-wife was at work with her convertable ghia while she was at work, She got home and was not happy. Anyway nice looking 67 project.

[Rennsurfer]

Hey mark I did that little operation one day when the now x-wife was at work with her convertable ghia while she was at work, She got home and was not happy. Anyway nice looking 67 project.

HA! I bet that she wasn't at first. Hopefully, she appreciated it after the car was completed.

[Wout]

Good luck!

Allmost impossible to find such healthy cars here in Europe  .

gr
Wout

[Neil Davies]

I can't see the photos yet (as ever, school firewall blocks photobucket!), but if the body comes off in 35 minutes, and the bodywork is all original and solid, then you're already three years ahead of the average European retoration! On my car I'm replacing or repairing panels that I already replaced on a full body-off resto 12 years ago! Like heater channels, quarter panels, bulkheads and valances...

Looking forward to seeing how this one progresses Mark, and get Bob on here too!

[Rennsurfer]

Wout & Neil, you guys are right... Bob got extremely lucky finding such complete car. Plus, like you both pointed out, one that has managed to stay devoid of rust. So far, we've inspected the pan and it looks solid. Amazing in this day and age.

Alright, Bob... time for you to get on this thread. Remember, I'm only the opening act, my friend.

 

[louisb]

Looks like another cool cal-looker is in the makes. Keep us posted on the progress.

Thanks,

--louis

[Rick Meredith]

Looks like a great project!!

Hey Bob... just remember...

Anybody can restore a VW back to stock.. It takes a REAL MAN to cut a VW up and make a Cal-Look out of it!

 

[Christoph]

the thread title reminds me of "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure" just an accident? 

good luck with your project and like the other guys mentioned, it´s hard to find such a healthy car in europe!

party on, dude! 

[Rennsurfer]

Rick, I thought that I put the words "Cal Look" on the subject title. Hmm... maybe my keyboard's broke.

 

Christoph, you're right on cue... Bob came up with that idea and I like it. So, yes... we poached that from the movie.

Louis, will do. The rest of the week and this upcoming weekend are fully booked. But I'll be updating this thread as the work takes place.

[Shubee2 (DSK)]

Nice car to Start with thats a +

[Nico86]

Nice project, can't wait to see more !

[pupjoint]

more pics please!! great base to start!!

[OgCalLook]

Future plans for this car call for a mild street engine, a fresh factory interior including the correct style headliner (like the original one that it currently has), alloys, (Fuchs, for you kids), & factory VW paint color. We've narrowed the paint options to three.

 

Bravo! Nice solid base car and its in good hands with Mark as PM!

If you can let the cat out of the bag..... what are the 3 paint options?

[Rennsurfer]

Bravo! Nice solid base car and its in good hands with Mark as PM!

If you can let the cat out of the bag..... what are the 3 paint options?

Don't know if Bob wants me saying that just yet, Tom. But one of the colors is Sea Sand. Whatever color it ends up, we're painting the headlight bezels to match. We've decided on that much.

[roland]

Very cool story, can't wait to see what's next!

[Rennsurfer]

Nico, Pupjoint, & Roland... the original plan was to go work on the car tomorrow night. But I can't. Looks like next week, I'll have more free time to get some more work done on it. Next chance that I get to get over there, I'll post pics and updates.

[Nico86]

I'll post pics and updates.

 

[alfie the monster]

Good luck!

Allmost impossible to find such healthy cars here in Europe  .

gr
Wout

They're still out there, only a few years ago I picked up a 67 from Vienna with 70k km on 

[Rennsurfer]

Since Bob and I have both been busy with our jobs, our families, and life in general... we haven't had much time for the '67 project. This week, however, a lot of progress has been made on the car, thankfully.

The original plan was to take the gold paint off down to the factory Ruby Red, then start the bodywork. That plan got 86'd and down to the bare metal shoe goes.


Volkswagen original paint will always amaze me... I barely buffed out this area with a rag and it looks like new.


I walked around the car, taking pictures, and I hear some laughing. When I get back to this side of the car, I saw why. At least you got my fat thumb correct, Bob. HAHA!!


Bob, removing the last few items from the rear portion of the cabin.


An overview of the bodywork process.


The rest of the cabin has been fully stripped.


Plans for the decklid will include a convertible unit, which will look nice, as we all know.


The original fenders on this car only had minor dents. Bob got really lucky when he scored this car... having all original body panels is pretty cool when they're in such great preserved condition. Pretty soon, the body will be primed and we can start dismantling the pan. More pics to follow as we move forward.

[OgCalLook]

Nice!! Pan-off..... Do it right - Do it once!!!

Looks good Mark, we're ready for some details Bob.....

[Nico86]

That will look good with that red.

[Wout]

Verry nice and fast when you don't have any welding to do 

Are the convertible 67 decklids easy (read cheap) to find in the states, cause here in Europe you allmost have to sell a kidney to afford one 

Keep up the good work on the 67! The longer I'm here on the lounge, the more I feel I have to make a nice 67 callooker myself  .

gr
Wout

[Zach Gomulka]

Verry nice and fast when you don't have any welding to do 

Are the convertible 67 decklids easy (read cheap) to find in the states, cause here in Europe you allmost have to sell a kidney to afford one 

Keep up the good work on the 67! The longer I'm here on the lounge, the more I feel I have to make a nice 67 callooker myself  .

gr
Wout

Convertible lids aren't cheap here, either. Probably a bit easier to find, though.

[Rennsurfer]

That will look good with that red.

No, Nico... the car is going to be an Earth tone VW color. Something like Sea Sand.

[topnotch]

Hello ALL, My name is Bob, I'm the guy that Mark (AKA) Fred has talked about in a few of the threads, and this is my first post. I would like to take is opportunity to acknowledge Mark and his skillful eye and in the shots he post of our thread and the build of this new project car. Mark and I have been best friends for nearly 40 years now, and truly what an adventure it has been, we have been through so much, Up's and down's, High's and low's but through it all we have never stopped being there for each other, he really is an Amazing person!!! and Friend. Thank you Mark for everything!

Well now, to get back to the project, as stated in the header 1967 Excellent Cal look Adventure, that is what we hope to accomplish with this build, to do the car together and build something that we could both be proud of. There are alot of ideas being kicked around and with each passing week we keep refining the look of the car. Today we ordered the primer for the body, (Glasserit White base) the color is most likely going to be on the lighter side of the spectrum, so we wanted a primer that would compliment it. we've managed to get alot done in a short matter of time,as you can see from the pictures above. We will continue to post pictures as things get done, and would appreciate any comments and or ideas you might have. Thank you, and Remember, BE EXCELLENT TO EACH OTHER!!!!!
Bob. 

[Rennsurfer]

Most triumphant, dude!

[OgCalLook]

Hello ALL, My name is Bob, I'm the guy that Mark (AKA) Fred has talked about in a few of the threads, and this is my first post. I would like to take is opportunity to acknowledge Mark and his skillful eye and in the shots he post of our thread and the build of this new project car. Mark and I have been best friends for nearly 40 years now, and truly what an adventure it has been, we have been through so much, Up's and down's, High's and low's but through it all we have never stopped being there for each other, he really is an Amazing person!!! and Friend. Thank you Mark for everything!

Well now, to get back to the project, as stated in the header 1967 Excellent Cal look Adventure, that is what we hope to accomplish with this build, to do the car together and build something that we could both be proud of. There are alot of ideas being kicked around and with each passing week we keep refining the look of the car. Today we ordered the primer for the body, (Glasserit White base) the color is most likely going to be on the lighter side of the spectrum, so we wanted a primer that would compliment it. we've managed to get alot done in a short matter of time,as you can see from the pictures above. We will continue to post pictures as things get done, and would appreciate any comments and or ideas you might have. Thank you, and Remember, BE EXCELLENT TO EACH OTHER!!!!!
Bob. 

Welcome to the Lounge Bob!
Enjoying the build so far, oh and you will get comments and ideas, but its all good, we all have the same passion.

[Nico86]

Welcome Bob ! 

[Rennsurfer]

Same old story... we're both very busy so work on the '67 has been slow. Bob did manage to get some paint stripping time in this week, though.











Also, the speaker holes in the front lower kick panels are filled in.



The car had a non factory looking hole on the a-pillar where the '67 style antenna should have gone. Instead, there was an early style antenna mounted on the driver's/left side front ¼ panel. Both holes have been filled... more on this car's radio installation later.



(edit) In case anyone was wondering about the yellowish looking primer on the left side of the car, it's only an experimental formula that a vendor was showing. Bob's car happened to be the one that got it sprayed on. The Glasurit primer has already been purchased, and is a different color... more like white, so the final color can look it's proper hue.