Author Topic: The Classic Road Trip (Read 2233 times)

Geoff · « **on:** June 20, 2006, 06:08:33 PM »

Now that we have been back a few days and are just now starting to catch up I thought I'd post a few pic's from the weekend.

Tom, Jim, Bruce and myself left the tuesday afternoon before the Classic with the Heb in tow. As usual the trip started out well with the \"I'm going to eat well this time, no crap for me\" we stoped at Safeway across the line for some food, loaded up on vegies and sandwiches and hit the I5. Well it didn't take long for the seinior on the trip to need a pee break. Tom has a few years on us and in his old age I think his bladder has started to fail

Fist stop also saw Tom buy his fist 1LB bag of beef jerky, little did we know that someone can survive 8 days on Jerky and coffie. Anyway once again we were driving south, This was the point in the trip that whatever Bruce had eaten started to rot inside him and seep out.....This lasted all 8 days!!! Many hours were spent with the windows down (when Bruce was driving the windows would get locked as to gas us to death!)

Anyway, We arrived at Mutt's for a few much needed beers on Wed afternoon. Later that night we drove past Foose Design so we could come by in the morning (and know where it was) and check it out. As we pulled past the garage door was open and a bunch of friendly faces were looking out at the car. We stopped and got out to say \"Hi\", Charlie welcomed us and said he would like to check out the Heb. Before long all the guys in the shop had come out for a peek. Can't say enough good things about these guys, all very nice and just as you see them in the show. Scott from (American Hot Rod) is now at Chips and thought the car was \"Bitchen\"

Can't tell you how good that makes you feel after all that work. We hung out for a little while then headed back to the host hotel to meet a well rested Amanda and Shane (they flew in a few hours before).

Not much happened that night, went to our Super fancy hotel....Motel 6 and got some rest. Thursday was the Irwindale race night, Lot's of great cars and racing. We brought the Heb there on the trailor and got a great reception. Had a small electrical issue....melted a few wires as the lic light shorted out as well as burnt my hand.. ouch! Jimmy and crew helped repair the car at the new Hotel, The Mariot was a little nicer than the good ol' Motel 6. In fact in true Jimmy fashion he even got us a parking spot out front of the hotel beside a DB-8! Whatever you do don't give the Valet kid your keys to your DB-8. He wanted to show off so he fired it up and began revving it stone cold...all the way to the limiter.

Friday we were all over but ended up at the Nicks Burger a little late, Jim and I were in the Heb about a mile away and another Beetle rolls up. Sweet! It's Lee Leighton (read more here) http://www2.cal-look.com/nostalgia/lee.html
Lee starts to look over and smile, a little revv of his motor and I get a big grinn. I look at Jim...\" I know the car runs like shit but when the hell will I ever get the chance to race Lee Leighton on the streets of Orange again?

?\" The light go's green and away we go! It wasn't much of a race as the Heb had some fuel issues but damn if it wasn't cool!

Lee came over to me later that night and in true old school cal look fashion say's \"Sorry b'out that\" I had a good chuckel and we snapped a pic.

Had a great time at the Burger meet, great people and some of the best cars.

Unfortunatly this was the time that our good friend Mark Herbert was killed while driving to the meet.
Mark was a great guy and a friend to everyone in the VW comunity, he will be missed!

As it was Friday night we all headed down to Newport Beach for some dinner and drinks......Thats about all I can say about that night besides There was a African Avacado tree sighting, a Tattoo, a Hulk sighting with a antenna and a large shortage of beer.

Oh yeah, and Gavin peeing on anyone he could find :ph34r:

Sat morning came way too early but Tom and I hit the swap at the Octo show and scored some good deals.
By noon Bruce and Jim had opened their eyes and staggered down to meet us. Julien from Super VW shot the car just outside the host hotel, in between having the security guard give us a earfull.

Ok gotta go but will continue tomorrow with more of our trip.

G.

silas · « **Reply #1 on:** June 20, 2006, 06:15:27 PM »

very cool geoff.

hanging out and racing with the legends. truly amazing.

Geoff · « **Reply #2 on:** June 21, 2006, 01:50:55 PM »

Sat afternoon we headed on over to the finish area of the Berg Rally, There we met up with all the others. Mirko, Darren,Lanny,Gavin,Gary,Cam,Shane,Amanda,Chris,Courtney and all the rest. I have to say the Canadians were in force at this years Classic.
Had some good food and checked out all the cars.

By this time Tom was on the 3rd or 4th 1lb bag of Jerky and would only stop eating it to answer questions about \"His\" Car :lol:

Bruce....well you could smell him all the time, Jimmy was always busy checking out all the cool turbo cars and engine mods.

That night we met a few friends for dinner in Newport and went home for some much needed sleep. 5 am wake up call and Jimmy and I were off to the Classic. We were given a great spot in front of the main stage with some of the other more \"unique\" cars. It was called the freak show? Well I was asked to park it in front of the freak show area, good enough for me!

As the day went on we had a lot of questions and great feedback on the car. It was in the afternoon that I had Bo Bertilsson come up and ask if I owned the car. He told us that Scott at Fooses shop had shown him the pic of the Heb and said \"You gotta check it out\" We got to talking and he has done a lot of Photography for Chip Foose and asked if he could do a photo shoot on the car. Well I was grinning from ear to ear, we went and shot a few pic's by the exit area with Jimmy as the light man.

After the shoot we got to talking with Bo and it turned out he had shot my Brothers 37 Ford @ the Vegas show. We had a good laugh then Bo offered to take us on a tour of some shops if we would stay a extra day. Needless to say we didnt take long to answer.

Monday at noon it is, we meet Bo at Chips shop for a tour of some of the coolest Hot rod/ custom shops around.

We took a spin thru Chip's shop, sorry didnt take any pic's but Jimmy got some good video. Then we were off to meet Chica the bike builder.

Chica and Bo checkin out the car.

some of Chicas bikes

Chica is a great guy, he was kind enough to open his shop to us and let us look around. He took the time to show us around and tell us a little about every bike there. Thanks Chica!

Next Scandinavian Hot Rods..

We pulled up and once again met another great guy who droped what he was doing to show us the shop and talk. For the life of me I can't remember his name or his partner. We were already in overload and doing what we could to try and take it all in, Bruce then tells me one of them just called West Coast Choppers to tell them about the car?!??!?! WTF? I had goose bumps...
We were told we should swing by the shop and show some of the guys but Jessie wouldn't be there as he was away.
Cool!
First off we checked out the shop.

32 frame anyone?

a few Roadsters

an original dry lakes racer!

cool bike in the showroom.

More cool cars!

Next it was off to more shops... Brain was melted at this point, Bruce or Jimmy may remember the name. I'll post it when I find it.

All alum body by Marcel.

insane chassis for the alum body.

A beautiful 32 getting some work done.

We then hit a few more shops before we headed to WCC...........TBC

notchback · « **Reply #3 on:** June 21, 2006, 05:10:20 PM »

If i remember right the shop where that crazy alum body and chassis were was GMP fab or something like it.

Also to set the record correct on smelly bursts of air, Mr.Peterson was right there with me along with MR. 8lbs of beef jerky

hellgti · « **Reply #4 on:** June 22, 2006, 01:45:41 PM »

nice work boys!!

1blk66 · « **Reply #5 on:** June 22, 2006, 02:52:27 PM »

Awesome shots Geoff et al. Keep them coming.

Geoff · « **Reply #6 on:** June 28, 2006, 12:31:25 PM »

So it was off the WCC in Long Beach...

We arrived with car in tow and headed into the showroom. If you havent been there before it's a cool shop with lot's on display. Cars, bikes,quads and a store. As we were looking around Bruce and Tom went out to the car a few minutes went by and I looked out side to see Bruce waving me over. Turns out Jesse and a few others were already checking out the car!!! Cool! as I walked over Jesse and his crew were talking with the guys and shaking hands.

Jesse and the guys liked the car and complimented us on it

Rick (shop manager) was great to talk with, very cool guy. He told us of a few other VW's Jesse just purchased and one he's having restored. Turns out he has a KDF car and a 4 door Heb as well.

It was great to meet all the guys at WCC and show them the car, next it was up the coast to Cole Fosters shop.

We arrived a little earlt as it turns out they don't open until noon B)

There are a bunch of other shops in the complex so we hung out and talked with some of the other shop owners.
Thomas arrived on his very cool modified Honda (hand formed alum panels and frame mods among other things).
Thomas works in Coles shop as his right hand man.

Great guy and a VW lover as well.

We were given a tour of the shop and all the cars and bikes, Thanks guys!

check out their web site @

www.salinasboys.com

Then we hit the road with a full tank of gas, 5lbs of Jerky for Tom and a cork for Bruce.

We stopped off at a wrecker that I have passed for many years, this being the first time I had a chance to look around.
There were over 300 vintage cars,20 plus Edsels, Furys you name it! Wish we could have pulled a few home.

As we were looking around we heard a rumble......we saw a little dust then there it was staring us down just like in the movie.......Christine!
Yikes what a sight. The owner had just finished the restoration on the 1957 Gold fin...beautiful car!

We took 10 min of film and a ton of pic's in the yard if anyone is looking for a project and want to see more.

Then it was back on the road and north home.

We had a great trip, the best yet!

Glenn · « **Reply #7 on:** June 28, 2006, 07:52:58 PM »

Geoff,

It was nice to finally meet you face to face. I wish there was more free time so I could of bought you a beer.

One of these days i'll be making a trip to the Pacific North West and i'll be sure to stop by for a visit.

The car is just sweet and the nicest full custom i've seen.

Geoff · « **Reply #8 on:** June 29, 2006, 11:14:08 AM »

Hi Glenn, It was nice to meet you as well. Sorry I didn't have time to talk more, maybe the next Classic 07