The Riverside Years

[Sarge]

Don't know if this belongs here or not but tought maybe it might be of interest to some of you guys.  In 1972, after screwing around at my insurance"job", I took my first "real" job at a VW dealership (Renfree VW) as a parts tech.  I figured since I was in a VW club that it would be "no problem" selling VW parts.  Well, I started my day at the mechanics counter with a Frenchman named Pierre who had a Type III automatic trans in a million pieces.  I soon discovered I knew absolutly nothing...so did Pierre.  I lasted about eight months before bailing.  My next stop was at Sierra Porsche Audi in Riverside in parts again with long-time friend Harvey Weidman.  Working in Riverside brought me in contact with a whole new bunch of aquaintances.  One of the first was Darrell Vittone who ran the dyno at Econo Motors at the time and had just purchased a 1972 911-S.  It was a four mile drive to Econo and we had many lunch hour cruises together in either my Datsun Pick-up, Darrell's '56 bug, or the 911.  Sometimes we'd be joined by DV's  friend Carl "Grub" Robinson.  Grub and I soon became best of friends....my wife and I spent a lot of our weekends hanging at his "compound" in Highgrove (aptly named The Highgrove Gypsie Camp).  Grub's beautiful camo Ghia took us on many orange grove "tours" back in the day.  For helping DV with parts for his 911, I was given an engine for my Datsun truck that had been built for a customers 510 track car but was never picked up and had been around The Race Shop for a year or two.  Fumio did the head, Racer Brown cam, 2000 Roadster clutch and flywheel, dual Solex Mikuni carbs, and Badger high compression pistons...just what the Doc ordered!  A couple of pics...    More later.

[Carlos De Alba]

Sarge,

Thanks for sharing !!!      Great pictures !!!

[louisb]

Cool story.

--louis

[Allen Wiess]

Who is the skinny dude in the top picture 

[speedwell]

are those manifold were made by empi 

[Sarge]

Who is the skinny dude in the top picture 

  who wants to know?? 

are those manifold were made by empi 

No...All the performance stuff was sold through the Datsun SSS racing catalog / dealership.  Those were the days!

[Stephan S]

Love that truck!
Satoshi would love it too ;-)

[Jim Ratto]

 

Sarge can you post that pic of the Sierra Porsche parts getter bus and all the Carrera alloys? And you and the long hair? 

Awesome post dude.

[ST DRAGN]

Cool story Sarge,
 I also had a Datsun p/u and a 1800 Roadster, fun cars to own..BTW: Do you still live by the words on the rear license plate on the Ghia.

[Jon]

This is so great, sometimes the lounge is just like reading in KS bible... but on here, new pages keeps popping up!!
Fantastic stories Sarge!

[Sarge]

Sarge can you post that pic of the Sierra Porsche parts getter bus and all the Carrera alloys? And you and the long hair? 

Awesome post dude.

Gonna have to be in next week's installment, Jim...I think I know what pile it's in  

Cool story Sarge,
 I also had a Datsun p/u and a 1800 Roadster, fun cars to own..BTW: Do you still live by the words on the rear license plate on the Ghia.

Who ME?? 

This is so great, sometimes the lounge is just like reading in KS bible... but on here, new pages keeps popping up!!
Fantastic stories Sarge!

Thanks for the nice compliment!  Fun trying to remember how it all went down sometimes...

[louisb]

This is so great, sometimes the lounge is just like reading in KS bible... but on here, new pages keeps popping up!!
Fantastic stories Sarge!

Aye, I agree. So much history on this site. Now we just need some of the other members to open up and tell some stories.

--louis

[Sarge]

In the five years I spent working in Riverside at the dealership, Darrell was responsible for my getting to meet a lot of interesting characters.  One was Chas Morse.  Darrell grew tired of Econo Motors and finally pulled out to start Techtonics (stuff for water cooled VW's).  His shop was in a small complex with Richard McPeek (the pen striping on the Datsun truck was done at Richard's shop) and, sandwiched in between, was Chas' metal fabrication shop.  I'm pretty sure Chas was responsible for building some of the very first meged collector VW exhaust systems.  Chas was a real artist at metal fab and a pleasure to spend time with...always working on cool stuff, too.  When I was building my first sandrail, it was Chas that built the carb linkage, the breather box and a unique flat collector exhaust system.  The price was always right and you could always count on hearing some good stories while he was building your stuff.  Sadly, Chas passed away from spinal cancer sometime in the '80's at a relativly young age.

[Jim Ratto]

Love the pic of the KG with the John Muir-esque shade tree guy with it...

you can almost smell the dust and hear The Marshall Tucker Band playing from a transistor radio in the background.

I was born too late.

[Sarge]

Love the pic of the KG with the John Muir-esque shade tree guy with it...

you can almost smell the dust and hear The Marshall Tucker Band playing from a transistor radio in the background.

I was born too late.

See the big "W" in the background?  Sharon and I spent more then a few weekends "camped" inside. 

[Shubee2 (DSK)]

Don't know if this belongs here or not but tought maybe it might be of interest to some of you guys.  In 1972, after screwing around at my insurance"job", I took my first "real" job at a VW dealership (Renfree VW) as a parts tech.  I figured since I was in a VW club that it would be "no problem" selling VW parts.  Well, I started my day at the mechanics counter with a Frenchman named Pierre who had a Type III automatic trans in a million pieces.  I soon discovered I knew absolutly nothing...so did Pierre.  I lasted about eight months before bailing.  My next stop was at Sierra Porsche Audi in Riverside in parts again with long-time friend Harvey Weidman.  Working in Riverside brought me in contact with a whole new bunch of aquaintances.  One of the first was Darrell Vittone who ran the dyno at Econo Motors at the time and had just purchased a 1972 911-S.  It was a four mile drive to Econo and we had many lunch hour cruises together in either my Datsun Pick-up, Darrell's '56 bug, or the 911.  Sometimes we'd be joined by DV's  friend Carl "Grub" Robinson.  Grub and I soon became best of friends....my wife and I spent a lot of our weekends hanging at his "compound" in Highgrove (aptly named The Highgrove Gypsie Camp).  Grub's beautiful camo Ghia took us on many orange grove "tours" back in the day.  For helping DV with parts for his 911, I was given an engine for my Datsun truck that had been built for a customers 510 track car but was never picked up and had been around The Race Shop for a year or two.  Fumio did the head, Racer Brown cam, 2000 Roadster clutch and flywheel, dual Solex Mikuni carbs, and Badger high compression pistons...just what the Doc ordered!  A couple of pics...    More later.

Love the Plate Frame in the Picture of the Ghia Sarge Right out of the 70's LOL

[WCB Hitler's Hot Rod]

Love the pic of the KG with the John Muir-esque shade tree guy with it...

you can almost smell the dust and hear The Marshall Tucker Band playing from a transistor radio in the background.

I was born too late.

See the big "W" in the background?  Sharon and I spent more then a few weekends "camped" inside. 

"DON'T COME A KNOCKIN' IF THIS MOTOR HOME IS A ROCKIN'" 

[stealth67vw]

Love the pic of the KG with the John Muir-esque shade tree guy with it...

you can almost smell the dust and hear The Marshall Tucker Band playing from a transistor radio in the background.

I was born too late.

See the big "W" in the background?  Sharon and I spent more then a few weekends "camped" inside. 

You got any pics? Sheep does 

[deano]

Sarge, I got that photo of you and Havey on my art table at work. I also have some photos of your Ford truck as well!

[speedwell]

here's  a new pictures from SARGE
nice bay window with cool paint scheme , 7"fuschs maybe news at the time ; watch there's some cool  porsche box in the bus 

[Diederick/DVK]

cool pic!

just one off-topic question, do 7" fuchs fit under the rear wings on long axles? just wondering.

[Sarge]

Compared to my short stint at Renfree VW, working with Harvey Weidman at Sierra Porsche Audi was quite an experience.  I'd known Harvey from High School and his older brother Al had taught me to swim many years before.  Before Harvey became Parts Mgr at Sierra, he spent a number of years working at Paint by Molly in La Habra (Molly did the paint on Vittone's Inch Pincher Too).  It was Harvey's influence (as well as his brother's) that got me interested in building a sandrail.  I remember that first trip to the dunes before I'd built a car and being "hooked."  The "group"  at the dunes included Don Bradford (Brad's Upholstery), Dean Kirsten, Mike Martin (Mike sold me the red 1965 Ford Pickup in the "Off Road thread...his wife, Julie bought Dean's blue '67 bug) as well as Harvey's brother Al and Al Noriega (my old boss from Renfree).

The Porsche parts business was strong back in the mid '70's.  Along with all the normal stuff we used to sell, Harvey got involved with buying direct from Stuttgart.  We imported hundreds of alloy's back then...7X15, 8X15, 9X15, and 11X15.  Lots of turbo and Carrera weld on flairs, too.  When Vittone was building his '72 911-S, we got him some factory Recarro seats along with a limited slip diff, short ratio ring and pinion and a set of "airport" gears.  Definatly the good old days!

[Sarge]

Thanks for posting that pic, Fabs!  I'm the skinny guy on the left...Harvey's on the right.  Deano snapped the pic.  The shop truck had a Molly paint job, too!

[speedwell]

cool one my friend  love that panel van with molly paint jpb , do you remember the color of the bus
rgd
fabs

[Sarge]

cool one my friend  love that panel van with molly paint jpb , do you remember the color of the bus
rgd
fabs

Chartruse green, dark blue and some others I can't remember for some reason...

[Jim Ratto]

Compared to my short stint at Renfree VW, working with Harvey Weidman at Sierra Porsche Audi was quite an experience.  I'd known Harvey from High School and his older brother Al had taught me to swim many years before.  Before Harvey became Parts Mgr at Sierra, he spent a number of years working at Paint by Molly in La Habra (Molly did the paint on Vittone's Inch Pincher Too).  It was Harvey's influence (as well as his brother's) that got me interested in building a sandrail.  I remember that first trip to the dunes before I'd built a car and being "hooked."  The "group"  at the dunes included Don Bradford (Brad's Upholstery), Dean Kirsten, Mike Martin (Mike sold me the red 1965 Ford Pickup in the "Off Road thread...his wife, Julie bought Dean's blue '67 bug) as well as Harvey's brother Al and Al Noriega (my old boss from Renfree).

The Porsche parts business was strong back in the mid '70's.  Along with all the normal stuff we used to sell, Harvey got involved with buying direct from Stuttgart.  We imported hundreds of alloy's back then...7X15, 8X15, 9X15, and 11X15.  Lots of turbo and Carrera weld on flairs, too.  When Vittone was building his '72 911-S, we got him some factory Recarro seats along with a limited slip diff, short ratio ring and pinion and a set of "airport" gears.  Definatly the good old days!

Same Weidman that restores alloys up in Oroville CA?

He had a display booth at the Porsche fest in Ventura last summer. We used to send him business when I worked @ BH.

[speedwell]

cool one my friend  love that panel van with molly paint jpb , do you remember the color of the bus
rgd
fabs

Chartruse green, dark blue and some others I can't remember for some reason...

thanks buddy

[Sarge]

Compared to my short stint at Renfree VW, working with Harvey Weidman at Sierra Porsche Audi was quite an experience.  I'd known Harvey from High School and his older brother Al had taught me to swim many years before.  Before Harvey became Parts Mgr at Sierra, he spent a number of years working at Paint by Molly in La Habra (Molly did the paint on Vittone's Inch Pincher Too).  It was Harvey's influence (as well as his brother's) that got me interested in building a sandrail.  I remember that first trip to the dunes before I'd built a car and being "hooked."  The "group"  at the dunes included Don Bradford (Brad's Upholstery), Dean Kirsten, Mike Martin (Mike sold me the red 1965 Ford Pickup in the "Off Road thread...his wife, Julie bought Dean's blue '67 bug) as well as Harvey's brother Al and Al Noriega (my old boss from Renfree).

The Porsche parts business was strong back in the mid '70's.  Along with all the normal stuff we used to sell, Harvey got involved with buying direct from Stuttgart.  We imported hundreds of alloy's back then...7X15, 8X15, 9X15, and 11X15.  Lots of turbo and Carrera weld on flairs, too.  When Vittone was building his '72 911-S, we got him some factory Recarro seats along with a limited slip diff, short ratio ring and pinion and a set of "airport" gears.  Definatly the good old days!

Same Weidman that restores alloys up in Oroville CA?

He had a display booth at the Porsche fest in Ventura last summer. We used to send him business when I worked @ BH.

Yeah, same guy.  When Al moved to Northern California, he sold his business in SoCal to Al Reed.

[Zach Gomulka]

just one off-topic question, do 7" fuchs fit under the rear wings on long axles? just wondering.

Nope!

Great pic Sarge, keep 'em coming!

[deano]

Same Weidman that restores alloys up in Oroville CA?

Yes, Harvey still has the wheel resto business in Oroville, while his older brother Al, has retired, sold his (second) polishing business, which was based just down the street from Harvey.

Harvey once built a sand buggy trailer using the stop sign post from the corner of his street. Living only two doors down from that intersection (Palm and Whittier Blvd.), he figured no one would ever notice that the stop sign was no longer there, and only a stub was left in the ground.

I remember shooting that photo of Sarge and Harvey, which would be about 1978. Hot VWs never ran the story (those rat bastards), so after all these years, the photo comes in handy to haunt Sarge once again.