Classic 2012...

[silas]

Thanks Silas for helping fix my fu$# up's! 

damn...i didnt do much besides mis-diagnose the problem and get in the way...i know you'd do the same for me...

plus...you got that evil knob on your rig set to 11...you gotta turn it down a hair.

[AirCooledRules]

Awesome pictures and really impressive that you guys drove your Beetles all the way down to so-cal.

[silas]

wow! the big show. up at 5. out the door at 530. through the gates at 6. and the lots just keep filling up. what an insane display of vws!! i found it quite incredible to see all these cars and clubs i had seen, followed and admired in the magazines and on the www up close and in person. what a sight!! totally overwhelming!!

so...1 more pic of the black & white turds (i know you all are getting sick of seeing them  ) just to prove that we actually were at the show...



a nice collection from the oil drippers & 407 speedshack...



clean old school ex-dkp car with some old speed goodies under the lid...





nice oval with a badass motor...



random cool buses...







the chromosexual, jurrassic and another barndoor cruising around...



snorkelstang in all his/her glory...



muffler mikes car, one of my favourite race-cars of all time (with the late, great andy costellos car in the background)...



dbk debuted a sweet squareback and blacked-out split (nightmare)





dkk line-up..



dkp line-up...



gfk debuted this unbelievably clean notch aswell as a freshly restored og race car from the 80's, bad temper II...





and the lightning bug. what an amazing piece of machinery that is with so much history. i went up to paul schley (didnt see his brother mark) and introduced myself, told him where i was from and thanked him for all he's done for this hobby and for racing. we had a good chat about how special it is to have the car back and shared some laughs. he is one genuine, friendly, good natured and welcoming man (i hugged him extra long for you kevin!).



paul, lori, me, a sign taken from ocir during the last night of racing in 1983, and the lightning bug!!



more to come later, i'm beat and need to rest and we need to plan our exodus out of so-cal. we've had so much fun but it's time to leave!!

[buddy boy]

nice ,..thanx for all the pics you keep posting silas!!

[Jodasa]

Thanks for the pics guys!

[Chris W]

It's nice and open on the Cali freeway at 5:30! The sun held off for a chunk of the day which is nice for us PNW people. Highlight for me was seeing all the DKP/Cal-Look cars
and the quality that goes into them. Looking at how long some of them have been together it shows how nice they were built years back.

Here are just a few pics I took. Will have more after I get home and sort through them.

No introduction needed-



DKP engine shot







We did not enter in the show as we did not want to have to haul all the trophies north. We will leave them in Cali till next time.   





Black on black on black







Car is all loaded up for the trip home, going to hit the LA freeway first thing Monday!

[Chris W]

Some more-

[Chris W]

Monday was a hard day, Silas did about 11 hours and I did about 15. Temp was around 90 to 97 the whole day. He made it to Santa Rosa and we parted and I kept going to Eureka. Today its the Redwoods for us and home tonight!

[silas]

Monday was a hard day, Silas did about 11 hours and I did about 15. Temp was around 90 to 97 the whole day. He made it to Santa Rosa and we parted and I kept going to Eureka. Today its the Redwoods for us and home tonight!

spoke to chris earlier tonight and him & allison had a good day today in the redwoods and made it home safely. yay!!!

monday was a tough day. 11 hours on the road in the beetle in some serious heat took it's toll. by the time we got to santa rosa we were beat. checked in to a nasty motel, unloaded the car and passed out.

we caught up to this sweet barndoor on a trailer on the grapevine and played some back & forth all the way north to just after the bay bridge...





infra-red temp gun readings (no gauges in the car, so i was comparing readings during each stop to monitor fluctuations...not dead accurate or realtime while at speed, but gives me a ballpark idea) showed the engine was a little hotter today than previous days so we rigged up a decklid stand-off with a screwdriver & some electrical tape to try to keep head & oil temps down and stable...seemed to help a bit...



short day today from santa rosa to eureka on a more relaxed and very scenic hwy 101...




tomorrow we'll plot a course further north (redwoods, oregon coast) and see some more sights...

[silas]

i'll appologize in advance for more pics of the black turd, but thesamba.com is hosting these so they must include some vw content. 

eureka CA, kind of sketchy when we got there last night, but found a nice hotel and explored the historic downtown today...



then drove north up the coast and said hi to paul bunyan, the incredible redwood forest trees and trails and the drive thru tree...



the hardest part about driving up the northern CA coast and southern OR coast is having to stop every 15 minutes to take in the scenery. spectacular!!





tomorrow it's up the coast a little further, then inland to #5, and up to portland to regroup at the Zündfolge Car Club US headquarters and then back to Canada on friday...

[Trevor P]

Great pics Silas, glad you guys decided to do the drive.
 I think I may need to fly to the show one day just so I'm less zombified when I get there for once.

[silas]

Great pics Silas, glad you guys decided to do the drive.
 I think I may need to fly to the show one day just so I'm less zombified when I get there for once.

hey trevor...it was great seeing you in so-cal. and major kudos to you, ken, fred, dp, chris and the rest of the gang for making the drive...especially with the barndoors. just awesome. we'll see you in august, right!!

here is one more of the open road of the coast just after gold beach, OR (sorry about the dirty windshield)...



hanging out with some "old friends" (and cleaning the dirty wind shield)...



hwy 38 from reedsport on the coast inland to I5...



the Zündfolge Car Club roaming the streets of portland trying to stay out of trouble...



back home in east van....we made it!!!!



what an epic trip. drove +/- 3000 miles. took +/- 3000 pictures. had a load of fun with alot of good friends and made some memories to last a lifetime. full trip report and more pics to follow in the next little while!!

[Jord63]

Wicked trip, thanks for sharing.
Nice t-shirt Silas

[Jeremy]

 

Thanks for taking us along.

[DarrenE]

Silas, you and Lori are too damn cute!   

[Chris W]

Your home! Great trip good times all around.

[buddy boy]

what a trip !!!.. good to see you home safe

[Randy]

Thanks for taking us along.

X2

[OUTKAST]

Great photos looks like you too really enjoyed it.
 Like the Snorklestang shirt Silas : )

[Chris W]

Slias never took that shirt off, wore it 2 weeks straight. I even saw a tear when he first saw the Stang!

[Mike Scott]

Thanks for the pics guys, sounds like quite a Silas! 3000Miles! Impressive stuff............time to dust off the Oval

[silas]

glad that everyone enjoyed the pics and updates. i always look forward to seeing and hearing from others about their adventures with their acvw's so i like to try and do the same...plus it's cool to see events from different perspectives, so i really liked seeing chris' pics. and i know there were other locals down there doing lots of fun stuff, so hopefully they'll post up too!

...really impressive that you guys drove your Beetles all the way down to so-cal.

there have been plenty of folks that have done this trek before in an old acvw, and there will hopefully be plenty more that will do the trip in the future. it's been a dream of mine to make this trip for a long time and driving to so-cal and back in an old acvw with my girl by my side was an awesome experience!!

Silas never took that shirt off, wore it 2 weeks straight. I even saw a tear when he first saw the Stang!

ahh yes, my precious snorkelstang shirt. i love it!! but i couldnt take it off because the shirts are made with original mold spores from the snorkelstang itself, so if you wear the shirt for longer than 30 minutes, the spores actually start to graft themselves to your skin making it impossible to take it off. and the tear in my eye when i first saw the car was from the raw stank that emanated from the rotten shag interior...it'll make your eyes water!!

...3000Miles! Impressive stuff............time to dust off the Oval

when we left vancouver the odometer read 33131, and it now reads 36861. that's vancouver to costa mesa (I5 and 99), driving all around so-cal for 5 days (LA, beverly hills, hollywood, venice beach, huntington beach, irvine, fullerton, anaheim, long beach) and then costa mesa back to vancouver (101 and I5).

but...we need to take into account that my speedo/odometer isnt 100% accurate because i have smaller tires (145/65 15's) on the front. and after referring to the roadside speed displays (the ones that tell you how fast you're going) it seems that my speedo reads approx 6mph fast and the entire miles travelled/odo/speedo requires about a 10% correction factor (unless my math is just right f'ed).

mike...get that oval out, baby!!! it's cruising time!!

still going through pics...but they're coming!!

[beetleboy]

Awesome Silas!!!! Glad you guys made it home safe!!!
Props to both of you guys and gals from the Harbour city!

[silas]

allright...i dont want to bore you all with vacation pics, but i wanted to include a couple non-vw pics to show that an acvw trip to so-cal can include alot more than just acvws. maybe use these pics as leverage to peak the interest of your better half that a trip to the vw classic can be fun...!!

nice sunset in oregon at the end of day 1...



entering california on day 2...



mount shasta...



cali horizon...



cool spot at the top of the grapevine on day 3...



drove to venice on day 4...

it's like looking into a mirror...



mmmm...



venice beach...







some dudes jammin' some sublime on the porch...



skatepark...these 2 little girls in the pink helmets were really shredding hard...



and these 2 dudes were getting some wicked air...





$1 extremely well spent...



weird cali agriculture...



on day 5 we drove further into LA and visited the Getty Center. outstanding in every way (art, architecture, landscape, location)!!

http://www.getty.edu/







the view of LA...



drove around beverly hills, hollywood & LA for awhile afterwards, ran out of time to stop anywhere too cool, and got this close to the "big sign"...



after long, hot days seeing the sights in so-cal...it sure was nice to have these at our disposal...



next up...nicks burgers!!!

[silas]

nicks....



enroute...



pulling in...







it fills up with a quickness...























some dkp action...





one of my favourite dkp cars, art guiterrez' street dragon...





this car was badass, super sleeper, stock looker with a big motor...





for the bay window lovers...



and slammed thing lovers...



clean split...



beautifull gfk oval rag...





nicely detailed oval rag from cookers vw out east...





gfk oval with turbo...











gfk delux...





one of my favourite gfk rides of alltime...jays dove blue 58 rhd rag from arizona. it's been around for awhile, but it still holds it's own...







ronnies ragtop, another older gfk ride...



ryan reeds (so-cal speed shop) old rag...





very og empi gtv car, which unfortunately was in a little bit of a wreck that weekend (after these pics were taken). the owner is ok, just bummed, and the car is in rough shape...





inside a gfk single cab...



ghia motor...



even the adjoining parking lots are jammed with sweet rides...













roger crawfords killer street machine...



i'd roll it...







hard to tell but the big slicks and cosmics looked pretty good on this barndoor...



barndoor that made the trek from florida...



the jurassic, i love it...



and some club windows...



















 

one more from the parking lot...it looks like the DVKK better step up their astro/safari game if they want to keep up with this crazy tubbed & bagged ride from some bitchin so-cal ford aerostar club...



 

next up is octo...!

[Geoff]

[[ one more from the parking lot...it looks like the DVKK better step up their astro/safari game if they want to keep up with this crazy tubbed & bagged ride from some bitchin so-cal ford aerostar club...]]

Our club has changed direction, were all about MKIV Jettas... 

[silas]

octo...

i was really looking forward to this event as it was going to be the largest gathering of barndoors ever together in one spot (since they left the factory), plus i've always secretly been a big fan of '67 and earlier buses. needless to say, it was a phenominal show, and i've got a hefty chubby for busses after this octo (not hefty big, but hefty wont go away) might be time to start looking for a bus...

so what better way to start off this string of pics than showing off ken king's sweet rides. outstanding work ken, doing us all and canada proud!!!

the 54...







the 52...it's absolutely incredible the transformation that this bus has gone through. from columbian bucket, to canadian classic!! for anyone that hasnt seen the build thread, check it out...great work!!

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=471779



















and all the other barndoors that got together for this special gathering. spectacular...!









bus pilots...





childrens hospital bus, og paint & logos...













here's another shot of that cosmic'd big slicked barndoor...

























johnny from the barndoor mafia...





nice row of swr/cb deluxes...















































another columbian project, i believe being built by pip from the dbk...



















cool ambulance...lori was pretty amazed that they actually used these old buses as ambulances back in the day...do the best with what you got i say...!













some shots of the swap...















check out the custom tail light holes...



pretty sure this is from chris morley's stash (someone please correct me if i'm wrong). he drives around an old chevy van packed with crap and hauls out a few nice items to all the swaps...







funky old school vannin'...america, f@#k yah!!





cool custom swap meet wagon...





and more from the show side...

clean swivel seat panel...









































alot of work in these tubs and custom seat...





slow take down to og paint in progress...







from trp...





check out that sweet driftwood bumper...





nice og split double door slider...





the scream'n eagle...is just awesome...





imagine seeing this bearing down on you in your rearview...kakaaawww...



a few more random shots...









after the show, the bakers led us into long beach...



where we enjoyed some very tasty cambodian cuisine at a diamond in the rough restaurant...



and then cruised back to the hotel via huntington beach and the PCH...





next up...

a few pics from the host hotel parking lot show and the GFK 30th anniversary party...!!