BUG IN 25 1980 DKP Mike Billings 1967 VW Sedan Best of Show A History in Images

[delux67]

Keith Goss and Gene Valdez

At Keith's House in Anaheim 1977

[Matty c]

Awesome pictures mike, keep em coming 

[delux67]

WHEN I BEGAN LOSING MY MIND!!!

WHY WOULD ANYBODY IN THEIR RIGHT MIND TAKE APART A PERFECTLY GOOD
CERTAINLY APPEALING 10 YEAR OLD CAL LOOK VOLKSWAGEN?

BECAUSE GOSS HATED THE WHEELS

[speedwell]

. I'll have to dig up the flier that you handed me back when you were selling the red car. Dug on your car so much, I kept it all of these years. There's a picture of it, somewhere, on The Lounge. Even your flier was a class act. HA!

 

[delux67]

THE BEGINING OF THE BUILD
LAYING OUT THE DASHBOARD CUTTING THE HOLES FOR THE VDO GAUGES
PRIOR TO PAINTING THE CAR

[Rennsurfer]

What WAS I thinking? I keep forgetting that The Lounge has another type of search engine. It's name; Fabian/Speedwell. HA! Thanks, my friend.

Mike, the photos of the car are great. Really cool to see the timeline of the build.

[delux67]

. I'll have to dig up the flier that you handed me back when you were selling the red car. Dug on your car so much, I kept it all of these years. There's a picture of it, somewhere, on The Lounge. Even your flier was a class act. HA!

 

I am so pleased. I was digging around in my pictures and related material and found my single original copy of this same flyer listed above. I forgot I saved one for myself. I have a few more interesting documents I hung onto. They may be of interest to some.

[Lee.C]

OFFICIAL: The Best Thread EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But where is it NOW!?

[70slooker]

WHEN I BEGAN LOSING MY MIND!!!

WHY WOULD ANYBODY IN THEIR RIGHT MIND TAKE APART A PERFECTLY GOOD
CERTAINLY APPEALING 10 YEAR OLD CAL LOOK VOLKSWAGEN?

BECAUSE GOSS HATED THE WHEELS

thanks for posting these, and some of the captions are funny, but when i read "because goss hated the wheels" i laughed!

[volksnut]

SWEET!  My Favorite for sure   thanks Mike

[Zach Gomulka]

WHEN I BEGAN LOSING MY MIND!!!

WHY WOULD ANYBODY IN THEIR RIGHT MIND TAKE APART A PERFECTLY GOOD
CERTAINLY APPEALING 10 YEAR OLD CAL LOOK VOLKSWAGEN?

BECAUSE GOSS HATED THE WHEELS

thanks for posting these, and some of the captions are funny, but when i read "because goss hated the wheels" i laughed!

I was thinking the same thing, Goss was right!

[delux67]

So while the car was out having bodywork and paint I began to refocus on the running gear.
This a couple images of the engine build I did at FAT Performance when the shop was located on Glassel Street in Orange. Yea that's me, full head of (not long to exist) hair and all.
One thing that might be of interest. Even 30 years ago getting a German crank cases was no easy task. Most of the cases we used for new motors then were
Mexican or Brazilian. I preferred the Brazilian. Both however, came with 8mm head studs.
I understood the theory as to why 8mm head studs were supposed to be better but I didn't buy it. So I removed the 8mm case savers, installed 10mm case savers and reinstalled the 10mm studs into my new Brazilian case that were from the German case my 1641 was built on.
The switch worked just fine. I never heard a single head leak and even after the engine was good and warmed up, the valve train seemed quieter than most other motors with 8mm headstuds and chrome molly pushrods.
Note the boss on the right side of the case that I ground down (right side as your viewing it) near the hole for the oil pump. That was to accommodate the "original" EMPI oil pump that incorporated an oil filter. Very, very clean way to go. I personally didn't like the idea of running oil lines all over the place (personal preference).

The bottom three images are of the 2 litre motor I built for it on the dyno at FAT.
For those of you interested... The motor consisted of the following parts and pieces,
-Brazilian Volkswagen Case, appropriately modified
-Okrasa 78.4MM crank X Cima 90.5 pistons and cylinders
-Engle 140 Cam with chrome molly pushrods, stock rocker arms with Porsche valve lash adjusters and hardened and modified rocker assemblies.
-Brand new Heads ported and polished by Ron Flematio hm hm in mean Fleming of FAT Performance. 40mm X 37.5mm valves, inners and outers and all that stuff.
Empi magnesium alloy intake manifold gifted to me by Ron topped off with brand new 48IDA Weber's. In one of the pics above you can actually see the box laying on the workbench that held one of the new carbs.
I used a stock late model doghouse style fan housing and oil cooler off a 1975 VW Thing.
I used stock parts wherever I could as they tended to be most reliable, for example the valve covers. Stock valve covers never leaked although I couldn't resist chrome plating the valve cover bales. The car actually had more chrome under it then on it . I don't know if I'd do all the chrome work again.
The throttle linkage was custom built by Pete Bagnard who was a star class fabricator.
The motor was pretty healthy. I remember the power being 168hp. I just ran across and posted an old dyno sheet that got wet at the bottom of my tool box that said 169hp. Ron and I filled out the form when we were dyno-ing the motor. In either case 168-170hp measured at the flywheel sans belt and mufflers was respectable output by the standards of the day.
If I were to do it again I would try to build as much horsepower as I could reasonably put in a street car as it wouldn't be a daily driver but a weekend warrior. For the time being the car just exists in various stages of build in my imagination.
 
That's all that comes to mind now. If I or someone else can think of something to add I'll do it.


The last of the three is the BERG 5 Speed I built for the car. It was the second street car with this (experimental hadn't been perfected yet) gear box. Gary Berg, naturally, had the first street car with the 5 speed box. The modification and fabrication for this gearbox was ingenious.
Oh...note the B model Porsche brake drum laying on the floor beneath the tranny on the engine stand. Guess where that ended up?

[Rennsurfer]

THIS... is priceless. Why did we not take more photos like this (top road shot) during those days? I only have a couple like that.



GREAT pictures, Mike.

[delux67]

THIS... is priceless. Why did we not take more photos like this (top road shot) during those days? I only have a couple like that.



GREAT pictures, Mike.

I'm so pleased the car so well detailed. If not, I would,ve forgot who took the picture. But I do know as I recognize the VW reflecting in my door. The blue early 60's VW (friend Goss helped me with the ID) belonged Roger's Grago's  girlfriend at the time, Sheila. I think the photo was taken by Christi one of the gals that may have been riding with Sheila at the time. Have to think about though or get confirmation.
Now that I think about it, that image may have been taken while the club was on it's way to Craig Park in Brea where the famous photo of the club was taken for the cover of Hot VW's.
I guess Andy Warhol may have been right?

[Rennsurfer]

Craig Park... love that place. Great memories there and at El Dorado Park in Long Beach. Nothing like seeing our clubs' cars on the grass. We still meet there, after all of these years.

Keep the pictures flowin', please.

[delux67]

And life in So Cal went on and Ronald Reagan was elected president

That is Mike Martinez of AL MARTINEZ Body and paint from Santa Ana racing his black Chop Top ( some of you might get the meaning of this... but as I write AL MARTINIEZ BODY... etc....I hear Larry Huffmans radio announcer voice  saying on the radio in my head, "Sponsered by Al Martinez Body and Paint of Santa Ana.) .

The other image is of some guy, who at the top end of the OCIR drag strip, got the motor in front of the race car.
Eh...It happens

[delux67]

The next few cars/images are favorites of mine from (oops almost used the expression) the DKP II era.
I'm getting sick of the expression "back in the day" that's become popular recerntly.
When I hear it used, I automatically think of the 1850's California gold rush days, you know.." (Walter Brennan, weather hardened, little old man voice saying in my minds ear " you know sonny, back in the day we used to hike 10 miles in waist high snow to get to....). (For our Euro friends...that expression is an American baby boomers thing. You had to watch a ton of syndicated TV show reruns from the 50's or have a father who liked to exaggerate a point.)
If you don't know who Walter Brennan is shame on you. Google it!

[Rennsurfer]

Can't stand the terms "old school" or "back in the day" and they get used in every day speak.

On a more positive note, Mike's black car RULED. Always smiled when I'd see it. Watched him spank a couple of V8s behind Nabisco after cruising Whittier Blvd.

[delux67]

Can't stand the terms "old school" or "back in the day" and they get used in every day speak.

On a more positive note, Mike's black car RULED. Always smiled when I'd see it. Watched him spank a couple of V8s behind Nabisco after cruising Whittier Blvd.

VERY COOL!!!

Goss and I were talking last night. He told me to look up an old episode of Top Gear to check out an episode his Chop Top was in when Keith Seume owned it.
He asked me if I noticed that people (those biased toward american muscle cars, euro rods, guys on TV shows doing topics on cars etc) kind of refer down to VW's , Hot VW's, people that like VW's in a rather disparaging superior manor. The guy on Top Gear kind of gave the impression that fast VW's were kind of like petulant children playing where they weren't supposed to.
My response was, yes, ever since I owned my first dual carb'd car.
We agreed that they hate us out of power to weight ratio jealousy and of course the rear engine weight bias advantage.

[delux67]

Mean Machine

[delux67]

A really nice Spliit belonging to Rick Goodin a guy that hung around DKP II

Ron Griner a DKP II member in his 1969? VW . Nice motor with 48 Weber
I think he currently works at SCAT Truhaft. If not let me know.
Any other pertanent information please advise.

[speedwell]

mike ,, ron worked at the buena park auto haus  no???

and thx for those cool picture ,

fabs

[delux67]

OFFICIAL: The Best Thread EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

But where is it NOW!?

Do you mean where is my car now?

[Rennsurfer]

Ron Greiner's late model... cool. He's has some pictures of it on a thread somewhere around here. Love seeing the old race shots... brings back many great memories of hanging out at O.C.I.R. Wish I took more pictures when I Was there. I have a few, but not as many as you. We really appreciate you putting that scanner to work, Mike. Thanks!

[delux67]

mike ,, ron worked at the buena park auto haus  no???

and thx for those cool picture ,

fabs

GOSS says yes, Auto Haus stores around Orange County. Shoot Goss a message to post about some of these details. He has a remarkably sharp recall for much of this detail.

[delux67]

mike ,, ron worked at the buena park auto haus  no???

and thx for those cool picture ,

fabs

Send Goss a note about your question about Ron Griner or other info. He has remarkably good recall about detail from this period.
As for your question regarding Ron's employment at Auto Haus the answer is yes. He worked at a number of Orange County Auto Haus locations, this according to Mr. Goss.

[delux67]

Ron Greiner's late model... cool. He's has some pictures of it on a thread somewhere around here. Love seeing the old race shots... brings back many great memories of hanging out at O.C.I.R. Wish I took more pictures when I Was there. I have a few, but not as many as you. We really appreciate you putting that scanner to work, Mike. Thanks!

De Nada Fred

[speedwell]

mike ,, ron worked at the buena park auto haus  no???

and thx for those cool picture ,

fabs

Send Goss a note about your question about Ron Griner or other info. He has remarkably good recall about detail from this period.
As for your question regarding Ron's employment at Auto Haus the answer is yes. He worked at a number of Orange County Auto Haus locations, this according to Mr. Goss.

mike have you received my mail??

[speedwell]

mark here're the one with Ron  greiner

fabs the search engine 

[speedwell]