2011, a great year for me or "How do i get my car in a magazine"

[marc1951]

It's been an exciting year for me!  I drove my Split for the first time in over 30 years. The car has been featured in 3 magazines, 2 on the cover!  I've been reunited with a bunch of old friends, club members, and made many new friends. Wow! What a blast I’ve had!

Something that amuses me is when someone asks me how I got my car in the magazines and how can they. The answer I give is "With the exception of agreeing, I had nothing to do with it".
But now I will reveal how I really did it…

Step 1   In 1975, there were hundreds, if not thousands of Cal-Look bugs in dozens of VW clubs located in Southern California.  My car was one of them.  I did some work on Jere Alhadeff's Baja bug and he saw the split window at my shop and liked it. When Hot VWs magazine decided to publish the now famous article describing the "California-look", Jere chose my car as one of the five examples.

Step 2    I started to do a major redo of the car that was interrupted by life's twist and turns. I lacked time and interest for the car, but I always hoped one day I would get to it and because the car was taken apart, even selling it was out of the question....so I just kept it, taking it with me when I moved to Washington State for work in 1985.

Step 3    Fast forward to 2008... Dean Kirsten posts an inquiry to my whereabouts on the Lounge and I respond. All hell breaks out when I mention I still have the car. I'm unable to understand what all the excitement is about.....after all it's just a car I’ve had since 1972.

Step 4    Russell Ritchie convinces me that the car is an important piece of history, an icon, and I realize I should bring it back to life.

Step 5   With the encouragement and support of my best friend (Bob Spencer), my wife (Robin), Ed Craig’s posts and everyone on the Lounge, I plunge into removing every nut and bolt on the car and restoring it back to the daily driver it used to be.

Step 6   Two years later, Dean Kirsten and Stephan Szantai contact me to do photo shoots, I say yes ..........and that’s it! …..I just built a car for myself, to have fun with.

But not everything went that smooth......the car had lots of problems. Deadlines led me to make some compromises that caused me grief. It was winter in the North West and there weren't many opportunities to drive the car and sort things out. About half of the problems had to do with using parts that were 30-40 years old.

[ Attachment: You are not allowed to view attachments ]  
When I took the car to California for the Bug-In, the 40 year old Porsche brake linings fell off the shoes! (It seems the glue that held the lining on the shoes had a shelf life).  Did you know gaskets can have a shelf life too?  The intake and exhaust gaskets turned to dust and caused multiple air leaks.

The car sometimes ran great and other times wouldn’t even start. It wasn’t until I went to California for the Classic that I realized the magneto was the problem. The magneto was being used on a VW drag bike and it seemed to work perfectly, so I thought it was good.  A stop at Joe Hunt Magneto on the way home revealed the coil epoxy had deteriorated due to age (I bought the magneto, used, in the late sixties).

Then there was the dead battery, a brand new Car Quest battery. It turned out to be a bad battery, but also a bad regulator and also a broken wire in the Porsche generator. I went nuts trying to figure that one out.

The list of problems is long (fan belts, generator strap breaking, replacement rear windows too thick to fit properly, wiper motor frozen, etc.), longer than any car I've ever had. It seemed like every time I drove the car, something would go wrong. I had promised to attend some events and never knew if the car would make it or not.
 
It wasn't until October that I had everything fixed or knew what needed to be done. After my last commitment in October, I pulled the motor, yanked out the windows, removed the tail lights and took the car back to the painter to repair the body damage and repaint the car..........yes, I said  body damage.

[ Attachment: You are not allowed to view attachments ]
You see, during my 2 trips to California for the Bug-In and The Classic, the car sustained some damage. On the way to the Bug-In, a strap came loose on the trailer and the car bounced up against a trailer box and put a nasty crease under the rear split window.

[ Attachment: You are not allowed to view attachments ]
On my next trip down for the Classic, I was fighting the magneto problem and when I started it up at the hotel, I was so happy it started and it was running so good that I lit up the tires in the hotel parking lot. I was so excited I munched the rear fender into my trailer.


So, it's been a frustrating year....but a great year too and I've had so much fun with my “15 minutes of fame”.

Thanks to everybody for your support and interest.     

I'll be starting 2012 with the car I should have had a year ago. A car that I can drive on weekends without worry and now that the car is back from the painters, a car looking even better than before. It’s great to be back into VWs.

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!   

[TexasTom]

Far OUT, Marc!
So that's what it's like reviving a 60 YEAR OLD Car!!!

Well, the results speak for themselves! So glad you found your way back ... We love seeing it and You.

Take care out there!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

TxT

[johnl]

Marc, this was an EXCELLENT read about you and the car.  Here is a story that you probably don't know.  Prior to your ownership I had a connection with the car under Billy Arroyo's stewardship.

Christie and I had several rides with Billy in the car and one I'll always remember was when the rear seat shorted out on the battery and started a small fire.  I always thought Christie was a "Hot Chick" but never realized how "Hot" until that day when we pulled over and all bailed with smoke and flames coming from inside.  We got the fire put out by beating with rags and I think throwing dirt on it. 

There was a period when the car was not in operation and Billy let me borrow his seats which I ran in my then Firemist Green '63 for a period.  This was really "up scale" as they had been custom done.  Attached is a photo of "your" driver's seat in my car way back when.

[Fastbrit]

It just gets better...

Love it when you old guys start reminiscing....

[johnl]

It just gets better...

Love it when you old guys start reminiscing....

Sonny Boy, so glad you are enjoying the "old guy" "reminiscing"...........   

[Fastbrit]

 

Too cool...

[H67bug]

 

Thank you for sharing

[edcraig]

Fun year Marc.  It was great seeing you and your car at the Bug in and VW Classic!  I still think your should have one a award for "least likely to make it home in one piece" award at the Bug in!      Really would have been fun to have my Spilt parked there with you at the events for our massive Legendary DRA Display, but I think my Ghia filled in pretty well.

BTW...I got the DRA Badges in.  I'll be shipping your up today.

...Ed.

Legendary DRA

PS.  Hope to see Bob's Scirocco at the Classic this year!

[Lee.C]

Happy new year to you too Marc, I think all of us here on the lounge can relate to the "problems" with a build/restoration 

And Thankyou for for such a COOL car, its been a MASSIVE influence on me 

ps have you seen my new ride 

http://cal-look.no/lounge/index.php/topic,16494.0.html

[Rick Meredith]

Great Story Marc... I love that you kept the car all these years... sounds like someone I know. 

It was great to see the car at Bug In and to meet you briefly.

Your car was an inspiration to me. I really wanted to buy a split for my 1st VW but I ran across my '67 and it was so much easier dealing with a 10 year old car instead of a 25 year old car.

[Rick Meredith]

Fun year Marc.  It was great seeing you and your car at the Bug in and VW Classic!  I still think your should have one a award for "least likely to make it home in one piece" award at the Bug in!      Really would have been fun to have my Spilt parked there with you at the events for our massive Legendary DRA Display, but I think my Ghia filled in pretty well.

BTW...I got the DRA Badges in.  I'll be shipping your up today.

...Ed.

Legendary DRA

PS.  Hope to see Bob's Scirocco at the Classic this year!

BADGES???

I wanna see.

Pics Please! 

[Frenchy Dehoux]

    Cool Marc glad you had a nice feature in magazines of your car way cool. Take care and have a Happy New Year.

    Frenchy

[Jason Foster]

  Awesome write up Marc!  You Rock Dude!!!

[marc1951]

Tom,
Thanks for kind words.

John,
Interesting, the picture you show of the seat is not the seat that was in the car when I bought it. I'm thinking the seats were swapped out again. I had the seats redone exactly like they were, minus the buttons as the buttons created problems with the seat heating elements. See below.

Ed,
2 trips to California and each took a piece of the car. I'm almost afraid to take it down there again (almost). Because of the damage, I wasn't able to park the car on my front lawn with spot lights on it this year. LOL

Let me know what I owe you for badges.

Bob's winning award hangs on his wall of shame. Next year I think he is planning on bringing down his invisible car. LOL

Lee,
Congrats on the new job...sounds exciting. I hope you can buy that car....it sounds great.

Rick,
Thanks......you and your club have been great.

Frenchy,
Thanks....I got a new grandson a few days before your new grandchild. My wife bought some flowers for my daughter from your sister. Another reason it's been a good year.....right?

Jason,
No, man...YOU rock!  I'm "Super Star" (the glasses make it so)

[marc1951]

One of the changes I'm making to the car is to give me some more room. I'm quite a bit bigger now than I was in the seventies

and it's uncomfortable, if not dangerous, driving the split. I've already moved the seat back as far as I can but I needed a

way to tilt the back of the seat a little more. I came up with a way to accomplish this without destroying the seat.

[ Attachment: You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Here is the seats before


[ Attachment: You are not allowed to view attachments ]
The back has arms that pivot on the pins shown. I welded on a nut above each pin.


[ Attachment: You are not allowed to view attachments ]
By moving the pivot point about an inch up, using the nut and a bolt, the curve of the arm rests on the stop at a different
place.


[ Attachment: You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Here you can see the difference where I've modified the passenger seat. The best part is I can move the seat arm back to the
stock pin anytime I want and I can simply grind off the nut if I want to return the seat to original.

[So.Cal.Life]

  Marc, hope all your frustrations are behind you, and now that youve fixed the seating issue, you might want to do something about headroom too you Super Star you...      Happy New Year, and many trouble free miles ahead , enjoy , its a great piece.         KG

[johnl]

John,
Interesting, the picture you show of the seat is not the seat that was in the car when I bought it. I'm thinking the seats were swapped out again. I had the seats redone exactly like they were, minus the buttons as the buttons created problems with the seat heating elements. See below.


Something was changed because the seat shown in my car was definitely from Billy's split as he and I did the switch.  That was late 1969 or '70.

[edcraig]

The Badges I spoke of are a exact copy of the original DRA decals, but made in a UV stable poured urethane with 3M adhesive on the back side.  They are a few MM's thick have a deeper "lens style" look as compared to a standard decal. 

Ed

Legendary DRA



 

[Rick Meredith]

Those are way cool Ed!

Thanks for sharing!

[Russell]

Step 4    Russell Ritchie convinces me that the car is an important piece of history, an icon, and I realize I should bring it back to life.

Mark, firstly thanks for the mention, but you were already on the right track way back in 72, your Car is an Icon and a very important piece of cal look history, so I and many others are delighted that its back on the road, as you guys are ones that have helped shape our life's with these special little cars.

I slightly disagree with the route to the feature 

I think its a lot easier.....
Step 1 Faith
Step 2 Style
Step 3 Effort
Step 4 Respect

And you have all 4 in abundance. Your features are 100% deserved and a nice little crown to your efforts in our VW hobby.

So all the best for 2012 and I also hope you have some trouble free motoring....... but guess what; there would be no fun if it didn't break !

Best regards

Russell

Ps Ed, Still loving your Ghia
PPs Ed, Love those stickers, way cool and fantastic quality.

[Lee.C]

this has reminded me Russell...,... Do you still have Marc's old dash panels for me 

[.]

Marc,
It was great getting to know you and see your car come back to life !
I was glad to be in the right spot at the right moment at the Bug-In to see old friends reunite after so many years.
Hope to talk to you again soon.
:-)

[Russell]

Lee

Yes but where

I think they are still in my trailer in the states........ Will find out.

Russell

[Lee.C]

Lee

Yes but where

I think they are still in my trailer in the states........ Will find out.

Russell

Its cool, whenever you get a chance dude - maybe you could delivery them with my IDA's