What Vw's Inspired You?

[Geoff]

Over the years there have been many cars that have changed the way the \"Trend\" was or just stood out. Post a pic or tell us about what cars made a difference for you, What cars made you build the car you have now or want to build?

For me there have been a few stand out cars along the way one is Bill Schwimmers 59 rag. I remember seeing it at the Portland Bug In back in 89-90?. It made me want to build my Garnet 59 rag, as well as the Bergler (Gary Bergs Blue 67), seeing that do big burnouts made me want to do the same.

Those are just a few for me, What's it for you?

[ehos]

Mercury!




GFK Style splits.  I won't even post Rich50's split because I'm sure everyone's seen it by now




 

[ehos]

And I like this one too, but I'm biased  (My number 1 inspiration right now as far as VW's go).

[Geoff]

( Mercury!)

That bus was from BC, Menno delivered it to it's new owner in So Cal a few years ago. Very Cool!
 

[ehos]

( Mercury!)

That bus was from BC, Menno delivered it to it's new owner in So Cal a few years ago. Very Cool!

Really?  From SoCal to the UK after that.  

[Lanny]

The infamous '1300 what?' black 66 bug from an early VW Trends, around 83. I remember drooling over that feature back when I was still in high school.  It was stock looking from the outside, although slightly lowered w.145's on stock black and white rims and hubcaps. It had a 11:1 2 liter and a Sam Shackleford close box. Still very cool today. The first Cal Looker I saw was at the Buena Park shopping center in 1981. A bright red lowered 68/69 with Vitaloni mirrors and Empi 8 spokes.

[Matt]

The car that got me was the post 67 that was featured in VWtrends with a white and blue graphic paint job, the rear was white, and the front was blue that broke away into little squares, top it off it had a red pinstripe grid between the two colors. Steiner has all my mags, but it will be in there somewhere.

Without trying to sound like a kissass, your porschebus inspired the notch.

[slammedbus]

Currently using Keith's (VW relics) two tone 23 window with Raders as my inspiriation to get my bus done. That thing is badass


Old skool was a VW trends cover with I believe it was a beetle a motor on a stand and a greyish blue squareback. The square was cool with Fuchs, totally cal look with a bar in the back. AT 18 I thought it was kickass. Now I would just kick my ass for thinking about doing that.

As a young lad, dad had a 76 vert, mom had a 69 semi auto.

[btljuce]

how about jose medrano's double nickle (55) pretty much got me to where my car is today. also merko's oval ( i'm a sucker for black ovals !) other than that, bill schwimmer, art g's 67, mike smith's cal-looker, better yet, all dkp,dvkk,das, also dkr ( hey trev ?) as for busses, i'm super partial to mark rafferty's chestnut brown,sealing wax red, radered slammed barn door samba !!!  freakin hot bus !!!

[silas]

back in highschool ('90-'92) there was a guy named micah that used to cruise his early 60's resto custom all around. that car made me wet myself. wicked lowering job with some serious negative camber in the back, narrowed beam, white vinyl interior, ragtop, metallic green paint job, rolled on 5 spokes. that got me loving the lowered resto custom look vw's. i wish i had a pic.

in the late 90's early 00's i started paying alot of attention to the gfk built cars. a few of my early favourites include

the silver bullet 61...



and what is known as the brown car...



more recently i think the nicest cars built have been...

paul smoots 64



richs 50...



and this 58 rhd...



i was also intrigued by the clean looks, cool rake and raw power of the cal-lookers.

lanny's 67 was one of the first local cars i spotted (around '99) and is still one of my favourites. i admire the amount of detail and thought that has gone into that car. it's so clean. i cant wait to see it's new look.



other cal-lookers that have inspired me include frenchy's old 55 coral red oval, and muffler mikes ride way back before it was turboed and decaled. i also always liked the look of mark thurbers brown car in the cal-look book.

 

[OUTKAST]

The first cool beetle I ever saw and the reason my parents bought me a beetle was lawrence mings slammed yellow ovel with spun discs .But the first one in a magazine i like was a 1986 or so stock 67 blue lowered 2 litre alloys and some goofy guy with mod haircut in front of it early resto cal pop-outs just clean and low .Joined the thunderbugs in 86 also gregs ovel was a quired during that time it was sweet .cooks ghia ,stuart sprages oval ,my lowered white notch was my favorite .   OOPS! rambling 1 Sorry no scanner no pics    

[red snapper]

I would have to say that vwshawn was the one who got me inspired to own a VW. This was way back when graphics were cool (1985?). I could remember delivering my newspapers and driving by on my bicycle I would stop by his house and watch him and his dad work on his 74 standard blue beetle with candy graphics. I wish I had pics. Also, if it wernt for Shawn I probably would not have met Moose or Lawrence or any of the Thunderbugs. I also got my paper-route job thanks to Shawn and that is how I saved all my money to buy my first VW. Boy, do I feel old!! Thanks Shawn.  

[Hansk]

My earliest inspirations were going up to the old Westwood race track during the 70's as a kid and seeing the race cars and cars out in the parking lot.  Then a neighbor that was hot roding an old Fargo pickup. I can remember actually being disappointed that our family car was a VW bug(62 rag).  Then about the same time walking with my Dad and Uncle past the old Bow Wow Performance Center shop and seeing what I think was Tony Hill's blue oval race car sitting out front. I think it had centerlines and slicks , I was only about 10 years old and didn't really know what I was looking at but knew it was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. Then years later started going to Thunderbugs meetings and seeing cars like Al Blanchette's white cal-look bug with chrome sprint stars and Camerons 67 with it's killer little motor and many others.  Then somewhere about 1980 started seeing a 69 bug ( Tyler,I think)around town with some crazy wheels,  turned out they were British made 3 piece Compamotive's , 7\" in front and 8\" in back all under stock fenders.  I was lucky enough to end up buying these wheels a few years later and fitting them to my fastback.
You guys think YOUR old [_[  

[Chris W]

Here are some of mine, any of the GFK cars also.

There was no scene where I grew up, I went to some of the Bug Ins at PIR in the mid 90's an saw a lot of the same cars you see at shows now, but I was oblivious to how big of a scene there was. When I came up for the West Coast Show Down, seeing cars like Jims Martin

[Hansk]

Also , one car that always impressed me all through the 80's (and 90's?) was a clean goldish colored oval ( I think) with centerline wheels low profile tires front and rear which seemed a little too wide.  It always ran at the Seattle bug in's  and had a killer sounding motor on mufflers and would run super hard down the track.  Haven't seen that car for a while. Anyone know who that was and what ever happened to it?

[Trevor P]

For me it was my first taste of Cal-Look on the Jan '90 Trends cover. Porsche red 67 with Empi 5's, and an overly chromed 2180. Followed by most of the old, and current DKP cars that have come and gone over the years. I second the blue 67 Gary Berg used to have.  I came dam close to painting the 69 that colour.
So many clean cars out there to choose from. :wacko:  

[dannyboy]

as far i can remember ive always liked vws, but i think i got hooked when my cousin gave me a ride in his manx style dune-buggy, then my dad started taking my brother and i out to the great canadian/ and the dvkk wally burger meets (bring that back!) its all downhill from there....

[Chris]

I grew up across the street from this guy that worked on his all the time, it was a baja bug one year, stock another, cal looker one year, he had built a turbo motor, nothing big but it was cool helping him and watching him work on it, plus it must be in my blood, both my parents failed to tell me until after they refused to let me buy a beetle for my first car that they both had one, my mom had a ghia, and my dad a 65 beetle, vw's rock, I wish my bus wasnt rusting away....

[AirCooledRules]

I cant narrow it down to any car or even a couple cars. when i first went nuts for vws back in 94 i wanted a beetle with shaved door handles and some custom crap. that changed quickly to wanting a full resto-custom about a year later, ever since ive wanted a clean clean car. one car that i think was really nice among all the custom cars of the early to mid 90s was this Apple Green 67 on the cover of VW Trends with some girl driving it back in mid 96. i cant remember many details about it, (have the issue somewhere) but that car was one of the first super clean cars at the time.

 

[Russ]

Brad Purser was the first and only guy i knew who had one in the early to mid eighties.Brad's car was nothing special a white (63 i think) it had a 1641 in it and when i took it for a boot i was hooked i could not believe the power this thing had (remember this was about 86 )
we bought our first beetle in washington that had come from a California it was a 65 and super solid.i later replaced the front fenders and decklid with bullet fenders and a \"W\" lid (guess i really wanted an oval).I believe Geoff actually ended up with the fenders and decklid after i sold the car.the car now resides in cambell river and i see it every couple of years at the great canadian.i have some shots of it when we bought it but i don't have a scanner.
most if not all of my taste comes from super clean lookers like these ones,although our 55 was going to be stock things have changed hanging around with Geoff and the gang.

[Shane]

Ok I thought those were kewl ok.. I said it

There was a group of guys at my school who had VW's (Flossin) being one.. That was what got me hooked. I still remember whe he cut up his Ghia  

[slammedbus]

Who you kidding, you never went to school

[Darren Dilley]

It was when i was 15 my stepfather Jason ( a thunder bug'r ) was teaching me to drive in his 65 purple suicide door with a 1904cc motor.. man could he drive...got my first car a 69 ghia Mike Gordon came to school with his (i think ) 56 hydro green doors oval witched did a second gear wheelie in the student parking lot That what got me hooked    

[steveo_32]

I got into bug's When I was about 5 years old, My uncle had two and my dad had a dune buggy. My unlce put a 2180, dino dynosaur head's and a 150 shot of good old NOS in the baja to break it in (on the reduction boxes by the way) and we all went out to see it, and shit shot out of the exhaust and hit me square in the eye! When he was puttin the motor in the 68 street sedan he had (two tone black and grey split in the middle) I caught my fingers in the hood and went to emergency for the second time in one week and after that I was not allowed to go near the bugs! I think thats when it all started! they say no, And I'll find away to do it!  Since then my first two beetle's were like my uncles 68! Pre 67 sucked ass in my books!
Now that I have been doing bugs the last ten or so years I have a 54,56,57,59 and dont touch 68's

But I used three bugs as idea's for my collection, Geoff's 59 garnet, Kris Kahle's 57 oval, And Lanny's 67.
Coming soon, At least one is!!

[vwshawn]

Maybe this post should be called a trip down memory lane!
Thanks Brian (Red Snapper for the comments) Yes, as you know,we don't follow the trends we set them(This is definately a test of memory)

Where should I begin, I remember back in the 80's HansK Had a shop off of Scott Rd.in Surrey, there were some cool cars I remember and always lots of parts there.  Frank Graff had his cool oval window, and I remember a guy named Darren that had a blue sunroof beetle that he used to show alot.  HansK-you probably also remember Greg , that had a Orange 71 super beetle that was a show car (I think it was Slyvesters)Later Greg had a gorgeous Green oval that Dwayne Farmer bought.  I remember driving past Darrel's house and seeing a black oval and a red vert slammed with Porsche Alloys.

For shops in the Delta Area, there was Europeon Auto (Vic) that painted many of the cars-Cal-Look Stuff and did performance engines.  Not to mention, Ed at the Bug Shop, and Corey Dahl who used to own a real clean Black Oval,that was a drag car (Now Corey runs a shop in Port Kells,but does not work on VW's anymore.

I remember when Cal Imports was in a lane next to a Performance Engineering Shop in New Westminster when Steve Stanbridge had the Race Car(dark blue) before it turned into Weird Science, and I remember the cal-look 63 sunroof i think-that had 73 fenders on it.

Darren K (Kroc) worked there, along with Clarence.
Cal Imports later moved into a new location, behind A&W off of Kingsway, Lanny used to work there behind the counter, with a guy with long hair (Jim) anyone remember.  Also Greg who I think was the Manager there.

I remember Darren K had a cool black cal-look bug with alloys that I think was sold to Steve's dad.  Thunderbugs did a show and shine in central park-burnaby, where i remember Fritz the car! it was red with a big mill in there.  Also, Markus had a green late model with a big mill too.
Not to mention Rene and Carol Lord, orange Late Model, and van, Roy, Rudy (Fast Rabbit)
This is going a long way back, also , Walt Kaiser Jr's Blue Notch that I detailed for him.
Mark Wisheart 59 and then Dwayne's old 79 Vert lowered!

Hans K-you remember Reese, Mike Walz, Brett Walker and his toys.  I also remember Randy Gadios(not sure of the spelling that had a real clean two-toned bus!

In HansK garage, was my old oval in primer who once belonged to Greg H-later sold to Mike Gordon.  This car was in Primer with Painted Fenderwalls.  The pan was sold to Paul Jones that he used for his drag chopped beetle (X-Mike Hornak's Car)

Going to the Thunderbugs meetings off of Kingsway were great , and also meeting Marty,Mike Grocott, Lawerence Ming, Jeff Boylan (who painted my low 69-peach/piink were great people.
Not to mention Shane Marriot.

Flossin, yes I do remember your Ghia, as well as the vert-before it became a magazine car, do you ever see Kelly? or Jason? or Ted)-Remember Bigsbys off of Commercial Drive-you were always in the Sandblasting booth!

And yes, there was Mike Gordon's shop in Langley, the fondest memories are when his dad opened up his house to have a show and shine there in the driveway!  Brian-you remember that!

I remember all the VW's that Mike and Marty and Brian had.
Brian,ever remember the drag car that we bought together?

Lawerence, Brian, Jeff, Rob Sterk (who owned Jeff's green car) Stephan, On-Zoom (Chris)-the guy that had a grey notch. I found him once on www.vwdov.ca.  Dwayne Farmer, Rob Algard, Pierce Owen, Ken Smith,Mike Hornak were all part of the V-Dub thing-Remember going cruisin in White Rock or down to bellingham etc-all good times!!

I could ramble on but, I will come to a close.  I will see if I can dig up some old pics.
Post some more stories like this
Shawn

[silas]

i'm going to add 2 more cars that have gotten me more interested in the speed side of things.

first is my buddy tod's buggy. most of you may know tod and this buggy. i helped with a little bit of the re-assembly and got to ride in it when it was finally all together. it only had a 1641 in it, but it could scream. the front end is so light that it wasnt too hard to pull the front wheels off the ground and chirp the tires in second. also, with the engine right behind your head and those 8\" tall velocity stacks and ida's and straight cuts...not to mention the 4 unbaffled stingers...your ears where ringing after a few stoplight burnouts. i also dug the overall look. the roll cage was made by tod and the angle of the top bars matched the angle of the hood perfectly. the cage was painted metalic red and it matched the red metal flake upholstered buckets and red metalflake steering wheel. the big & littles with the raised white lettering on those fat fisks in the rear. red pinstriping by the legendary boots over the flat primer grey paint job. spun aluminum mooneyes gas tank and some other old speed parts to complete the look. vintage american tach (cant remember the name, but it had stars and stripes on it), santana pulley, finned aluminum valve covers...

the buggy now has a new owner and a new look, but this is how i remember it...







and another big speed acvw that inspires me is...of course...jim martins chop. i had the good opportunity to see this car in jims garage as it was being put together. i was able to look in all the nooks and cranny's and ask tate (the body guy) and jim all about what was going on. what impresses me most about this car is the amount of modification that has taken place without sacrificing the overall look of the car. the way the huge 2275 hides under the closed decklid with all the nos lines running under there as well. the slam and subtle rake and the way the centerlines compliment the stance and paint. the chrome trim around all the windows. the wicked chop and the gorgeous curve of the roof. under the bonnet is a tastefull blend of race and stock look. i also like how it reminds me of the old school chops from the 70's but incorporates a good blend of cal-look and street & strip rod. of course what really brings me to love this car is that it is the first acvw that i have ever been in that has gone 100mph+ in 15 seconds. i know that there are others here that remember their first \"real\" ride in a \"hot vw\" and how cool it was, and thats how i feel about the chop as i have been lucky enough to ride shotgun for more than just a few 100mph+ blasts.

[OUTKAST]

Man Shawn haven,t seen them guys in a while my first was a 67 when I was 16 in 84 .My mom had when I was 3 a 65 and a 57 with semaphores . 2 vans that I remember likeing was a guy named Duncan and wife cindy with a red and black van with flares totally 70,s .Also the first lowered van I saw was Doug geisbrects blue and white one . He cut and turned my first bus beam and bug beam .I don't have a scanner but have some photo albums .I'm far away but in the summer we should have a photo album party and everybody get together and share photos and stories maybe at the great canadian some kinda of retrospective display .

[Bubba]

My first exposure to VWs was driving my Dad's 1967 pizza delivery beetle on friday and saturday nites.  I used to drive the crap out of that thing...bang the shifter... rev the hell out of it...do emergency brake turns, etc.  I loved it.

Late in grade 11, a guy with a primer grey beetle use to hang around North Burnaby, racing up and down Hastings Street.  That car was hot...had dual carbs and a stinger...man, I was bit.

I bought my first beetle, a blue 67 shortly after that.

Don't have any pictures from those days.

Met my future wife, who happened to own a 70 bay bus.

Then we joined this crazy club called the Thunderbugs...

[vwshawn]

Yes, Marty that would be a great idea to have the pics scanned and to have everyone meet up.  I forgot to add Duncan and Cindy, as well as Lonnie & Cathy Cripps(He had the green beetle with primered fenders and Rick (used to have a savanna beige 68-that was low to the ground.

If I forgot anyones name, sorry about that.

Marty, do you ever remember Mike Hornak's Porsche Raspberry/White late model bus?
I saw this last week in Vancouver and it still looks great!
HansK, what do you think?
Shawn

[red snapper]

Holy crap! Shawn, you have one hell of a memory! Mike Walz works across the street from me at the Burnaby transit garage. Wonder where they all are now. Maybe we need a Thunderbugs reunion.