1990-1993 (FORMERLY 4 YEARS- NOW CONDENSED TO 3)

[Nico86]

Thank you again for the stories and pictures Jim!

[Steve67]

nice story, it is really great fun to read it!

[Eddie DVK]

I'll start with this clipping from an old Hot VW's as this was basically the line up of cars that weekend.

Ah the september 1990 issue of Hot vws, was the first Hot vws I bought.
Already knew the californian look from Colin Burnham book, but the sep 1990 issue pulled me over.
I wanted a Cal look beetle, nothing else.

Cool reading Jim

[Brian Rogers]

It's so much fun to see this through another's eyes. I'd bought the OG Feb '75 Cal Look issue just after getting married. We owned a 67 sedan and I was hooked without any way to support the dream.  Wife wouldn't drive a stick and sadly it had to go as there was no room for toys or babies at that time. Now there's an 1835 on the stand waiting. The '67 vert is on jackstands awaiting brakes and suspension and a freeway flier. Yes it's a hood ride but I can dream for a bit yet.
Thanks for the stories Jim! And now back to our regular day dreams.

[Andrew]

Please keep telling the story Jim, it's powerful stuff.

My guess is we're roughly about the same age from the timelines, so I can relate, it seems you had a lot of fun in the late 80's and early 90's doing what you loved.

 best regards,

Andrew

[Jim Ratto]

I am happy you guys are enjoying these old times too. When I think about this period, it reminds me of how enthused you can be when you're young and before adulthood takes hold of you, and forces you to straighten up.

[Jim Ratto]

There's still 1991-94 to cover, so more to come. I do actually get the big engine running, and running better than I expected. All kinds of road trips, nighttime street races, broken parts, being held at gunpoint by cops in South Los Ang, and learning to make 48's work (sort of). It's all part of the upcoming stuff.

Jim

[andrewlandon67]

Held at gunpoint, eh? The lounge awaits with bated breath...

[Stephan S]

Great stuff Jim! Thanks brother!

[Jim Ratto]

VW Jamboree, Costa Mesa CA, Summer 1990, Berg Merged-Heater Header Mistake

Sorry I forgot to mention in that last post with pics of DKP cars, those are pictures Glenn Gaskey took. The only pics I still have of that lineup, are of GB's car.

Back to that day, so I ended up talking to a guy that was probably a few years older than me, with red, wild curly hair, and a backwards baseball cap. The other black sedan with BRM's was his, if I recall. It had what looked like a serious motor, topped by 48's, a Berg breather can on the generator stand, and a big exhaust. This is one car I wish I still had pictures of. I don't know what ever happened to this black car, I never saw it again. I understand the guy I was talking to worked at GBE at the time and his name was Brody Hoyt. In any case, he was cool to talk too, and I told him about the engine I was hopefully going to build pretty soon, pointed out my merged header, told him about the heads I had, and the Engle 125. Fortunately, in talking to this guy, it sounded like my plan made sense. But... after asking him about some of the cars that were lined up in front of us, and their engines, mine sounded awfully plain vanilla. He did mention the 125 Engle was a great cam for a fast street car, and my car should run hard once I was done. But to hear "that car's running an FK89, that car runs's 12.40's, there's another guy that didn't make it that runs FK87 in his car....", wow, I thought I was pushing the envelope. These guys had blown right through the envelope, and seemed to running drag-race only parts, on the street! How can they do that? The ads in the magazines clearly say "Drag Race Use Only." It was clear to me that these guys had figured out how to get around the "rules", and walk softly, all the while, carrying a big stick. I asked how they all managed to run such big Webers, and make them idle, respond, etc. He answered it was all in how the motors were set up to work with them.
I strolled around the lineup a few more times, and snapped a few (now lost) pictures.
I had a few bucks left, so I thought it'd be smart to cruise the indoor swap meet spots. After passing a few spots that were either selling unremarkable parts, or stuff that I wasn't smart enough to recognize (most of them), I came across a couple of guys and a spot full of pretty radical heads. A bunch of VW dual port heads that had been welded all over, and had huge egg-shaped intake ports, and very organic looking chambers. The fins even had weld bead across them. There was another set of Super Flow heads too, with some kind of tube in the rocker area with an aircraft fitting on it. I asked what it was, the man there said it was an oil spray bar for the rockers, etc. At the time I had no idea what that meant. But again, the guy was cool. He handed me a wrinkled business card, which read "JEFF'S VW SPEED", yep it was a man that was later to become a real friend of mine, Jeff Denham.
A few spots down, I spotted a big merged header, no mufflers, bolted to VW heater boxes. The guy also had a bunch of stuff in Gene Berg skin packages, like oil pump covers, gland nuts, a set of VW rods, etc. I inquired about the merged with heater boxes, which I thought was the holy grail. I don't remember what size it was, but I asked what he wanted for the system. Now this fully shows how stupid I was.... I THOUGHT I heard the guy say "Fifty bucks." I still am incredibly embarrassed that I did this, but I asked him "Would you take forty?" The guy just looked at me and said "What did you think I said?" Man I felt stupid, I felt like I was going to choke, turn beet red, etc. I said I was sorry and walked away. With that, it seemed like it would be a good time to take off. It was now getting close to noon, and I had 6-7 hours in front of me, back in the Fiat, on my way back to the Bay Area.
I remember walking back to the BRM car lineup, and just taking one last look. The overcast had kind of burned off, and the cars were now looking outstanding in the mid day sun. All around were suicide doors, murals, way-out paint schemes and colors, yet here were these almost stock looking cars, that had very few observers, that would change the VW world in a few years. I turned to walk back to the parking lot, and told myself, going forward, I knew where I was going to fit in. I knew how I'd find my career. I knew I'd learn these cars, the parts, I'd learn how to listen, I'd learn how the little things would make a big difference. All of the sudden it was as if my brain got some kind of message from the future, saying loud and clear "keep doing this, keep figuring this stuff out, keep trying and learning, it's all going to make sense someday."

[Jim Ratto]

Summer 1990, Back At Work, and the White '67 Sedan with 2276 Super Flow motor

Once I got back to the Bay Area, the focus on getting the big engine in my car pretty much edged out anything else. That week, I had all the internals dropped off at Ashland Grinding, just a few minutes from BH, to get balanced. The header I found at the OC show, was bead-blasted and painted with high temp VHT grey (which I hand rubbed with a cloth to get a gloss sheen out of). I ordered a new set of dual quiet cans from Phoenix too. I started buying all the ancillary stuff, like a full flow filter housing, Mesa cooler, new transaxle mounts, and a set of VDO cockpit gauges. In my head, next time I drove to Southern CA it was going to be in my '67, no matter what time of the year. The next few weeks, I spent time bolting the new gearbox in, painting stuff, mounting oil system, making AN hoses, and eventually building the short block. Here's a picture of it, before I took the CB pump out and replaced it with a Melling, a Berg cover and drilled and tapped the case with the lower end together, using rags and lots of high pressure air. I got as far as getting the short block together, never considering that with a 74mm crank, I'd have issues with pistons nosing out of top of cylinders. So, between having around +0.100" of piston proud of cylinders, and still waiting on Jerry to do a valve job and bore my 044's, I was once again at a standstill.
While at the shop, working the counter one day, a regular was at the other end of the counter, talking to Big Mark about Weber jets. This guy drove a stock height, white '67 with full US bumpers and chrome 5.5" wheels. Inside it had Scat Procar seats and some gauges. Rear tire width and the merged collector told me something was up with this guy's car. I was getting some wholesale order parts together to deliver down the street, when Mark asked "Hey Jimmy, wanna go for a ride in Roger's '67?" (Roger was the '67's owner, a huge guy, probably 6'5 and built like Mt Everest, who worked as an elevator repairman). "Why don't you have him take you down the street to run those parts?"
Something was up.
"Yeah OK." I said.
We walked out to his car, me with a To#¤ta 22R valve cover gasket and thermostat, Roger with a small paper bag with jets in it. As I walked to his car, I caught a glance under the rear of the car, at the valve covers. They looked like meat loaf pans and said -UPER FL- from what I could see.
We got in the car, and I strapped in, as did Roger. He flipped a toggle switch and a fuel pump began to growl down by my toes somewhere. Then he turned the key.
The engine cranked a few times, and then caught. It was unlike the 1641 that was in my car a few months ago. When this motor caught it was like a big hand grabbed the entire car and gave it a shake. Where my car sounded raspy and tinny, this car sounded like the engine was trying to escape from the car, very deep, and angry. He blipped the throttle a few times and the induction noise was very obvious. He engaged first, brought the revs way way up and broke it loose, as he made a hybrid U-turn/burnout all the way across Mission Blvd, in a big cloud of tire smoke and intake roar. He was holding the stock steering wheel at 6 o clock with his finger tips, correcting the car, as we slid sideways, left then right, through second gear. Once the car straightened out, the power really came on and I was thrown back and the nose of the car went high and light. Tach flashed 7500, and into 3rd now, nose still high, probably now 75mph down Mission Blvd, accelerating like a psychopath. I was laughing so hard and couldn't believe the rush this car was, as it accelerated without limits. In a few blocks, we came upon an intersection at Grove Way and a red light. Roger slowed and stopped I was literally out of breath. I had been in one fast VW before, a few years prior, but this was a whole different deal. This car was dangerous and violent.
We dropped the order off and Roger took it easy going back to the shop to drop me off. I thanked him a few times for the ride, which really, was so much more than a ride. I walked into the shop and Mark was standing there, with his signature grin and asked me "Well? How was that?"
To be honest, that ride ruined me.
I asked about what engine was in his car and here's what I was told:

German fuel injection, filled-back case from very late model convertible
SPG 82mm crank done by Jim Wellington at Rennsport Werke in Santa Clara
94mm pistons
ARPM Super Flow heads, ported by Jimmy Hannan
Engle 125 with 1.25 rockers
48IDF Webers

The story was, Buggy House's engine guy, Rob, had the motor for himself, made out of parts he had collected, needed cash and sold it to Roger. In the context of my 1641, this engine seemed a million times bigger, faster etc. To me it was a big deal when I went from 1500cc to 1641cc in 1987. And my new motor was going to be 2054, but this guy Roger went clear to an 82mm crank, with 94mm pistons. I didn't even know what engine cc that equated to, I had to look it up in the Bugpack catalog, where you'd cross Bore Size with Stroke Size. Well Roger's motor was way at the lower right hand extreme corner of the chart: 2276.
In 2016, it's very common for every hot rodded car you hear about to have at least a 2276, but in 1990, in the Bay Area, this was unheard of. The way the car pawed the air as this guy stomped the throttle was unheard of. The sound it made, even just at idle, made goose bumps on my arms.

Between the line up of cars at The Jamboree and this 10 minute ride in the roller-crank car, I was completely condemned. My on-again, off-again junior college career was over. My interest in patching up things with the girl from before, done. If I was awake, I'd be doing something involving VW's. That was it.

[Demian]

This has been a good read, thank you.  It may have even inspired me to get off my ass and start working on my own 67.  Again, thanks and keep them coming.

Demian

[jpperf]

Jim,

Always enjoy reading your stories of the good ole days at BH and the Mission Blvd test track!

Popper

[Jim Ratto]

Summer 1990 Drags On, Machine Guns at the Dragstrip in Famoso, CA

Next stop on the 1990 VW-memory train takes us to farmlands just north of Bakersfield, CA for the Goodguys show and drags held at Famoso in the very late summer of that year. This year my buddy Frank rode with me, from Bay Area down I-5 in my X/19. We left sometime Saturday early evening, and made the long drive down to Highway 46 Lost Hills, and got a few hours shut-eye. The next morning we emerged from the luxuries of Motel 6 into a blindingly bright starkness that made up the southwestern plains of the Central Valley. Those of you from far-away places that have never visited California, should understand what a lot of our state looks like. Yes we have the picturesque beaches with waves crashing and the palm trees and sunsets, but I'd guess greater acreage here is made up of flat, dust, hot and field-rats. Which is exactly what awaited us, not much more, other than the smells of insecticide, fertilizer and cows.
The Famoso track was about 45 min due east from Lost Hills, a straight shot on Highway 46. Again, I don't have many pictures still around from this day either, in 26 years since then most of them are lost. I had a very cool picture of Bill Schwimmer's 1776 with 42 Webers on it from this day, but can't find it now. This was Frank's first time seeing Bill's car, and a car running BRM's. I seem to remember Bill's as the only "DKP" car present at the Bakersfield show. Frank was pretty hip on Bill's car, we probably spent at least an hour circling it like turkey vultures, pointing out to each other all the trick details that made it stand out to us. Obviously the wheels, but also the Thing fan housing, the V-8 looking turbo muffler attached to the merged header (way before this was de rigueur on modified VW's around the world), the white Fram HP1 filter bolted to the big bar running under the motor with aircraft looking hoses, the Berg linkage, the bumper spring bars. What was so cool is how subtle it all was, but at the same time, making such a statement. I remember Bill kind of eyeing us, maybe worried we were going to unscrew parts from his car  , but Frank introduced himself and asked a few questions about the car, hopefully proving we were perfectly innocent idiot kids that just really dug the car. We did see a very sharp set of Skat Trak IDA manifolds on the floor behind the driver's seat. A sign of things to come, for sure- as I'd see in about a year.
We also ended up talking to a guy that was running his car at the drags, a '68 I seem to remember, I think it ran 8-spokes of some kind. What I do remember was his fan shroud, another Thing (181) version but was painted red and had hot-rod flames on it. A conversation starter. We asked about the engine, it was under 1700 cc can't remember if it was 1641 or 1679 but I remember the guy telling us it was built most with Gene Berg stuff (we questioned the 87's pistons I think), I know he said it had a Berg 69 crank, Engle 110, the rest is foggy now. But I remember also it was running respectable ET's like high 14's.
We strolled the swap spots next. I was on the lookout for US-style bumpers for my '67 (my car was currently wearing European blades while up on jackstands at home. Part of the transformation to go with the new motor and trans was to put stock bumpers back on it). I ended up finding a very nice reproduction bumper, with uprights and over-riders for $30, but then remembered we came down in an X/19 Fiat. Real smart. Maybe 10-15 min later we were walking by a swap spot with the usual blue tarp in the dirt, and the seller had some expensive looking stuff on it. We had no money left and again, didn't know what most of it was. What happened next will haunt me for years to come.
Some guy walked up, picked up a few things and then picked up a magneto. He then darted and ran. The seller immediately pulled an Uzi machine gun out and went after the guy. Frank looked at me, and even though he had sunglasses on, I could she his eyes said "Let's get the hell out of here"- which we did. We hustled to the Fiat, pulled the targa top off, dropped it in the front trunk, and propped the bumper up in the passenger floorwell and overhanging the targa bar and left in a cloud of Bakersfield dust.
Once we reached the intersection of Hwy 46 and I-5 I mentioned to Frank I was sick of the heat and dirt and wondered if he minded if we continued west on 46 to US-101, which was probably 65 miles west, closer to the CA coast (and all those images of swaying palm trees, ocean waves, silhouettes of girls in the sunset... right?). He didn't care. Right on, westward we head.
The landscape didn't change as we headed west. It got worse and weird. All signs of life were now gone, and it got flatter, dustier and hotter. In place of cattle, the landscape became dominated with bobbing oil-pumping derricks, literally thousands of them. No people of signs of human life. No tractors, fences, animals, nothing. Just these giant alien looking machines, all going up and down in almost perfect rhythm. The sun was getting low in the sky so the shadows of the machinery were long and made the scene even more bizarre. in the distance we could see a single building with signage that looked like a truck stop. Wonder if oil derricks run the place?
We stopped for orange sodas and fuel. Outside the store a big sign displayed a rendition of James Dean's face and declared this spot to be "The Last Place James Dean Was Seen Alive." Another smaller sign pointed west and said "Site of James Dean's death 28 miles". As if the megatropolis of oil derricks in this desert wasn't freaky enough. Of course we had to check this out.
This was before either of us knew about the ill-fated ride Dean took from Hollywood, en route to Salinas, CA and the accident. We had no idea this all happened in a Porsche 550 Spyder. We knew this guy had been in old movies way before our time. That was it.

[Olaf A./DFL]

Thanks again! I'm so enjoying this! 

[Jim Ratto]

Autumn 1990, A Star is Born

All through September, efforts were made to get the engine together and in the car. The guy that built the engines at Buggy House, Rob, helped me a bunch. He sent my 044 Magnums next door to Hannan's Machine for Jimmy over there to port the exhausts and do a valve job. When they came back, the exhaust ports were opened way up and now 'D' shaped. Rob showed me how to use valve lapping compound to check the seat margin on the back side of the valves, and how to grind the valve keepers so they wouldn't meet in the middle. He had Jerry's friend, Tom Palmer, make me a set of spacers to go between 94 cylinders and the case, to make up for using A pistons with the 74 crank. He helped me set end-play. Once the heads were on, he took over setting up valvetrain geometry, which I was completely lost with. He also made a suggestion to ditch the Claude's "In n Out" oil pump (as seen in earlier picture), as he said the passageways in that cover were too small, especially by the time I had screwed Earl's adapter fittings into it to use AN-8 hose. I was horrified to think the engine was now going to have to come all the way apart so it could be drilled and tapped for full flow return fitting. But Rob said nope, we can do it with engine like it is. He rigged up compressed air into oil pressure switch hole and rags in oil pump cavity and drilled the galley and tapped it. The rear bypass was out too. He made a plug for a new Melling pump and I was in business. We used to stock these trick 90 deg AN-8 elbows to use with parker push-lok hose, but since I was running Earl's aircraft hose, we modified it for the AN fitting.
I also painted some good used OEM cylinder cover semi gloss black, and my 1641's 36hp style shroud was done in tool cabinet grey. Instead of running the 36DRLA's, Big Mark convinced me to buy a new set of Weber 44IDF's ($375 cost back then, new). I'd plan on selling the Dellortos later to make up the outlay on the Webers.
By mid October, a very hot Sunday, the engine was in the car. Around noon I had finished wiring it, plumbing it, and burping the oil system. It had new W6DC Bosch plugs in it, Kendall non detergent 30W poured in it and carbs were spraying fuel. By all accounts, it was ready to fire up. It did, with just a few cranks. I knew to bring the idle up to 2500 and wait. It never gets any easier, even 26 years later, to fire up a brand new motor and sit there while it roars away at 2500, all the while watching for oil leaks, watching oil pressure gauge/light, listening for loose parts, and praying it all goes well. On this day I was dumb, and thought it would be cool to break the cam in with an open stinger on the car. It did sound good though, very sharp, very angry. After the 20 minutes of cam break in, I shut it off and assessed things. No leaks. No smoke. I let it cool completely and while doing so, removed the stinger, bolted on the new quiet packs, and changed the oil. Then adjusted the valves. The oil came out looking new and nothing looked wrong in the rockers. Man I was ecstatic. By now it was late in the day. I still hadn't driven it!

Here are pics from that day. The black and white one is my neighbor (and also owner of BH's son) Chris, he had stopped by when he heard all the noise from up the street. The dog was my basset hound that always hung out with me. The pink shoes are my sister's.

[Jim Ratto]

These are out of sequence, I'm sorry. I found a few more pics from the day I drove to VW Jamboree.

[Jim Ratto]

Some pictures from this era at Buggy House. The guy in the shades is Frank. You can see all the stuff that time-stamps this picture in the background. Other guy on the phone was a kid our age that worked there part-time, Javier, a great guy that we had tons of fun with.

[Bill Schwimmer]

Thanks for the memories Jim, 26 years ago, thats a long time. I had forgot where I bought the manifolds, but I now remember. They were nos, you could still buy the good stuff if you looked around. They are still on the car. Keep it coming, thanks again, Bill

[Tony M]

Having been that guy in the 80's at BH, i truly relate to you story. My time line was a little more in the 70's but down the same road.
Thank's for sharing and i'm glad to be still part of it.

[Jim Ratto]

Having been that guy in the 80's at BH, i truly relate to you story. My time line was a little more in the 70's but down the same road.
Thank's for sharing and i'm glad to be still part of it.

Yeah, a few years before I ended up there, you were the "go-to" guy for all the VW kids at Amador HS. I had heard about you even before I had my car. The guys in my sophomore drafting class that sat across from me had Bugs, they were seniors I think. One guy had a maroon '69 with gold 8-spokes and a 1776 with S/E heads and 45mm Dellortos, the other guy worked for Randy where you are now! He had the yellow '77 standard Bug with yellow 8-spokes and Fuldas, Dan Jackson, and he had the hot rodded 1776, with fuel injection, I think he said he ran injectors from Datsun and some other throttle body, the motor had CB Eagle cam, I remember him always talking about advancing the cam timing with the gear. It was supposedly like a VZ25. I never rode in that car but I saw him cook the tires off in it. Pretty cool for a kid in high school.

I bought my chrome adjustable beam from you in 1987, Tony. 

[Bruce]

    .... Bill's car, ......, the V-8 looking turbo muffler attached to the merged header (way before this was de rigueur on modified VW's around the world), .

This was more significant than you think, Jim.  That was the first car to ever have a big V8 muffler on it.

[Nico86]

Really enjoying both words and pictures !

[Bill Schwimmer]

    .... Bill's car, ......, the V-8 looking turbo muffler attached to the merged header (way before this was de rigueur on modified VW's around the world), .

This was more significant than you think, Jim.  That was the first car to ever have a big V8 muffler on it.

there were a few others before me, Mark V. , Steve Wilkerson & a few others from DKK, but it was still pretty uncommon.

[Fastbrit]

Fun reading! Realise that our paths must have crossed at shows back in the late 1980s/1990-ish as I was in the USA three times a year back then, going to a variety of events along the way including Jamboree, the Goodguys VWevents and a whole bunch of PRA and other non-PRA drag races. Buying my Wilwood brakes from SCS, served by this tall skinny guy in glasses who I later came to know and love as Mark H. Seeing the rats running around the back warehouse area at Johnny's Speed & Chrome on Beach... Seeing Bill's car at a cruise night at the burger place on the corner of Beach and Orangethorpe way before I ever met Bill. Happy days - when Pomona swap meet was really good, too.

[Jim Ratto]

    .... Bill's car, ......, the V-8 looking turbo muffler attached to the merged header (way before this was de rigueur on modified VW's around the world), .

This was more significant than you think, Jim.  That was the first car to ever have a big V8 muffler on it.

Hi Bruce, I remember Greg Brinton's car, when it had the 1914 in it, had same style. Greg was my contact at Rimco way back then, and when calling down there, must have been 1991 (?) I asked him about it, he told me some guy named "Tiger at A1" made them.

Of all the cool "one off" mufflers I've seen over the years, it was Dave Mason's side exit that I liked the best. It looked all-business, and sounded like Mt Vesuvius going off. I'm surprised his muffler style didn't take off like the V8-turbo/magna-mega flow style did.

[Jim Ratto]

Fun reading! Realise that our paths must have crossed at shows back in the late 1980s/1990-ish as I was in the USA three times a year back then, going to a variety of events along the way including Jamboree, the Goodguys VWevents and a whole bunch of PRA and other non-PRA drag races. Buying my Wilwood brakes from SCS, served by this tall skinny guy in glasses who I later came to know and love as Mark H. Seeing the rats running around the back warehouse area at Johnny's Speed & Chrome on Beach... Seeing Bill's car at a cruise night at the burger place on the corner of Beach and Orangethorpe way before I ever met Bill. Happy days - when Pomona swap meet was really good, too.

Thanks Keith. We probably did cross tracks somewhere. Back then I tried to make it down to every Southern CA VW event I could. The following summer, 1991, I was out with a girl, having dinner and a movie, the night before Jamboree. When the movie was over and I was taking her home, she asked what I was doing after. "Driving to L A" was my answer. She ended up just coming with me. Fiat again.

[Bill Schwimmer]

Fun reading! Realise that our paths must have crossed at shows back in the late 1980s/1990-ish as I was in the USA three times a year back then, going to a variety of events along the way including Jamboree, the Goodguys VWevents and a whole bunch of PRA and other non-PRA drag races. Buying my Wilwood brakes from SCS, served by this tall skinny guy in glasses who I later came to know and love as Mark H. Seeing the rats running around the back warehouse area at Johnny's Speed & Chrome on Beach... Seeing Bill's car at a cruise night at the burger place on the corner of Beach and Orangethorpe way before I ever met Bill. Happy days - when Pomona swap meet was really good, too.

We used to have a bunch o fun at Pomona, I am thinking I taught Keith the concept of buying & selling stuff out there. It was pre internet so there were plenty of deals out there. I remember Mark H. had upset one of the vendors out there and I had to do the deal for him. It was for a set of gasburners, I am pretty sure it was $180 for the 4. Great times.

[Jim Ratto]

Fun reading! Realise that our paths must have crossed at shows back in the late 1980s/1990-ish as I was in the USA three times a year back then, going to a variety of events along the way including Jamboree, the Goodguys VWevents and a whole bunch of PRA and other non-PRA drag races. Buying my Wilwood brakes from SCS, served by this tall skinny guy in glasses who I later came to know and love as Mark H. Seeing the rats running around the back warehouse area at Johnny's Speed & Chrome on Beach... Seeing Bill's car at a cruise night at the burger place on the corner of Beach and Orangethorpe way before I ever met Bill. Happy days - when Pomona swap meet was really good, too.

We used to have a bunch o fun at Pomona, I am thinking I taught Keith the concept of buying & selling stuff out there. It was pre internet so there were plenty of deals out there. I remember Mark H. had upset one of the vendors out there and I had to do the deal for him. It was for a set of gasburners, I am pretty sure it was $180 for the 4. Great times.

Pre-internet is the key. I would have never got the Fourtuned header discussed above as cheap as I did after the internet.
Sort of off topic, but in mid-nineties, when internet was barely used by car-hobby people, two similar situations happened over the counter at Buggy House:

1. Guy comes in one day and ask if anybody knows about Weber carbs. I was asked to talk to the guy. He said he was cleaning out his garage and found some Bug Webers and wanted to know if we'd buy them. I told him Webers were dated now, nobody really ran them anymore, but bring them by and we'd look at them to cannibalize for parts. Guy comes back in an hour with a pair of 48's, and asks me If I'd give him $100.00 for the pair. I tried to talk him down to $75 but paid him the $100.
2. few weeks later another guy comes in with a "VW distributor" and wants to know if somebody will trade him some H4 conversion 7" lights. The "distributor" was a Vertex mag. I traded him, but turns out the mag didn't fire. I forget what I ever did with it.

[Zach Gomulka]

That stuff still happens!
When I was still doing upholstery a guy came in with a 69-70 convertible. All stock but with an original EMPI Eliminator shifter on it. I traded him straight up for a stock shifter
My buddy has a bunch of those stories. People just drop valuable stuff off at his shop every now and then. Or sell it for pennies on the dollar. It's the only perk that makes me wish I owned a VW shop