Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2022 i dune buggies and hotVWs

In last month's Semaphore column, I mentioned that my transmission project turned into a whole drivetrain project. The transmission is now done. Special thanks to Mike Herbert of Rancho Performance Transaxle. However, in parallel, my 1958 36hp crankcase-based 1398cc hot rod motor is currently torn apart to obtain additional power. Now is the time to focus on my engine, to rebuild it and increase power. We thought it would be a quick rebuild project, but it seems like a new motor experiment. Wolfsburg West's Tony Moore and I disassembled the engine and inspected the various components. I plan to run a detailed tech article about my project in an upcoming issue once we complete it. Meanwhile, I will share some updates via this Semaphore column. Let us know if you…

Oh, the interesting people you meet in Volkswagens! Case in point: Diana Schut, who is living the gypsy life with her dog in her wildly graphic-covered 1985 Vanagon named Hale Koa. Inside Diana beats the soul of a hippie. She's traveled all over the world, from South America to Europe to the Far East. So, when Covid put her job as a lithotripsy technologist on hold two years ago, she decided to buy a vintage camper. Diana has always wanted one since she was 12, and looked all over the country, finally settling on a 1985 VW Vanagon near her mother in Tennessee. After Mom looked it over and said it was definitely for her, she went to the bank and drove there the next day. The Vanagon was previously…

This autumn, the AutoMuseum Volkswagen is launching a new exhibition series called “VW culture around the World”. A significant part of this living tradition is played by the countless VW clubs all over the world, for whom we have the utmost respect. As a first step, the AutoMuseum Volkswagen is inviting any VW Clubs around the globe to enrich their exhibition with VW clubs’ logo in the form of stickers, patches, banners, etc. The wall collage is meant to grow, so there is no time window for submissions. SUBMISSIONS TO: VOLKSWAGEN AUTOMUSEUM FOUNDATION Attn: Susanne Wiersch, Dieselstraße 35 38446 Wolfsburg, Germany The Automuseum prefers actual stickers, but they will accept digital files too. To submit a digital file of your sticker, please send email to info@automuseum-volkswagen.de.…

SO. CAL'S LEGENDARY VW SHOW IS BACK! Back in the day, along with the VW Classic, many popular pre-Classic events took place in Southern California, such as the DKP Cruise Night on Friday, the OCTO and Toy & Lit shows on Saturday, plus open houses and parties hosted by local shops and clubs. It arguably became America's greatest VW event weekend and attracted fans from all over the world. People eventually found a name for this pack of Volkswagen events; and so was born “The Classic Weekend”, though we cannot confirm when the moniker came about. We used to see over 1,000 Volkswagens at the VW Classic every year – many of their owners chose this specific weekend to debut their beloved project cars. The first week of June in…

Team hotVWs prides itself in searching for the most unusual Volkswagens all over the world. But sometimes we don't need to look too far. Picture this: Mother's Day in So-Cal, a trip to the bakery early in the morning to get pastries, and there it was… One of the most elusive air-cooled VWs ever, parked on the side of the road less than a mile from home – a Brazilian 4-door 1600L of 1969 vintage. Ever seen one of these “in the flesh”? We hadn't until then. We soon met owner Kim Ridley and photographed the vehicle a few days later. In the following days, we even had the great fortune of unexpectedly hooking up via social media with the gentleman from Brazil who rebuilt the car. We'll get to…

The heart of our engine is a 69.5mm stroked and counterweighted crank. The crank features an 8-dowel connection to the flywheel and VW-sized main and rod journals. We will use H-beam rods bv AA Performance. Since the stroke is a little longer than stock and the big end of the rods a little bigger, we will need a trial assembly or two. Once the rods were assembled onto the crankshaft, it was dropped into the case for a trial fitting. We found that the big end of the rod cap was hitting the engine case in several areas. The area nearest the junction of the cap (where the bolt exits the cap) would need some clearancing. Taking all the rods off the crankshaft, the cap area was trimmed back a…

As I write this month's column, I am still coming down off cloud nine from my trip to Monterey, California for the annual car week. What started out as a simple car show in Pebble Beach so many years ago has now turned into a weeklong festival of everything automotive, with vintage races, auto manufacturer releases, multiple auctions and show after show after show. I think it is physically impossible to see absolutely everything during the week and attempting to see as much as you can turns the mind and muscles of even the most motivated gearhead into mush. It's epic in all possible ways, and if you have never been, you need to go. This is one of those bucket list events that you build yourself up for, get…

Through the 1950s, VW kept introducing new models of Buses and trucks. The Double Cab [aka Crew Cab by enthusiasts - Ed.] pickup would be the last major model to be introduced to the lineup, and by 1958 all the regular models we know and love were there for the public to buy. According to legend, a landscaping company/nursery took a Single Cab pickup to a German coachbuilding firm called Binz, and they converted it into a “Double” which had seating for five or six people or for plants to be transported inside the truck. This conversion was apparently available directly from Binz early on, with a Binz company sales brochure indicating such and showing a Barndoor-era Binz Double Cab. VW liked it so much that they contracted with Binz…

In this article, I'll be talking about starters. There are different kinds, different brands, different applications, different gears, etc. I will be addressing all of that, starting with the different kinds. There are 6-volt and 12-volt versions, as well as standard transmission ones (clutch cars) and automatic ones. From the factory, there was a fixed gear on the end that we call a 6-volt gear or a 12-volt gear. How can the gear have electricity? It doesn't. What I'm talking about here is the tooth count and pitch. It must match the flywheel. 6-volt is typically 109 count and 12-volt is 130. If you mismatch, you will find it grinds the teeth off one, the other, or both. Not to mention the awful sound it makes. So, what is the…

In the first Super Street class qualifying session, Ron Fleming (hotVWs Cal Look Note column contributor, Cal Look VW Godfather, great ambassador of the VW scene all over the world, founder of FAT Performance, and Mike Hunsaker's drag car pilot) had a terrifying crash. While running in the left lane against Joe Maestas, he lost control of the car at top speed, right before the finish line at approximately 1100 feet. The Hunsaker Bug made a hard right turn, spun and flipped 180 degrees, and the driver's side roof/side body hit the right lane guardrail… hard. 10FT HIGH @106.45MPH The driver's side door flew more than 50 feet away, outside the track. Then the car jumped almost 10 feet in the air and landed on its back, hence the engine…

The OEBC Spring Picnic & Campout typically offers three nights of camping, starting on Thursday, and a car show on Sunday for all kinds of Volkswagens. This event has always been held at Featherly Regional Park in Anaheim, California, and this year celebrated the 22nd edition. The Thursday-to-Sunday campout welcomed a variety of VW campers, their owners having a great time. This year, we started participating in the event on Friday, we brought a surprise guest: a brand new pre-production prototype of VW's latest electric vehicle, the ID.Buzz. Special thanks to Chris Schlüter of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles from Hannover, Germany, for bringing this special VW electric Bus to the event. Unfortunately, they could only stay on Friday but many VW fans were still able to see, touch and feel Volkswagen's…

For the last 60 or so years, I have been known as a “VW guy” for I have had numerous Volkswagens, mostly Beetles with a few Buses thrown in for good measure – many different models produced for years by Volkswagen and all having similar traits. Among them are reliability, low operating cost and simplicity. So, in 2006, I was looking for a vehicle possessing these same qualities. I was after a multifunction-type vehicle without unnecessary frills or accessories, and it was my hope I would find it under Volkswagen's famous blue and white logo. Imagine my shock to find no van or Bus with all the qualities for which they were famous! Now I was clearly aware that the move to water-cooled vehicles had brought many changes to the…

A few years ago, I was chatting with Ron Fleming about his black 911. It was at the height of the Porsche hype and prices for the rear-engined sports cars were rising almost daily. Back then, Ron told me that he would hardly drive his car anymore because it was worth so much, and he also saw the Porsche as a bit of a retirement plan. The risk of the 911 being damaged during a joyride was too great for him. Kind of understandable, but also a real pity. Fast forward, August this year. I saw on Facebook that a VW buddy participated in the Sachsen Classic Rally with his factory all-black 964 Speedster. This rally is not a real racing event, it is more of a tourist outing. The…

Tom's VW life started 44 years ago as a 14-year old living in Hawaii. The Volkswagen scene on the Aloha Islands was already big, and all his friends grew up with VWs. Helping a neighbor wrench on his Bug project got him hooked on our scene. After moving to California, he turned his Volkswagen hobby into a full-time business called California Auto Image, repairing and towing all makes of vehicles. It is a true family-run business. Grandpa Tom is the owner, who also does estimating, painting, drives a tow truck, and more. Grandma (Tom's wife Sherri) is the bookkeeper, Mom (Tom's daughter Stacey) is the receptionist who runs the office, Dad (son-in-law Devin) is the shop manager/autobody technician, and Grandson (Kainoa, four years old) runs around Grandma's office every day.…

It was pretty difficult not to be infatuated with air-cooled Volkswagens in the '80s in Hawaii. Michael Cruz was no exception to this. As a boy, he remembers seeing them everywhere. Then as a teen, all his friends in high school began the addicting process of buying and building them. It wasn't until he was 17 years old that he got his hands on one of his own. His mother purchased him a 1974 Super Beetle, admittedly a beater, that he spent countless hours making it his own. Years passed and more Volkswagens were purchased, loved, and sold. Michael estimates he has owned 25 to 30 thus far in his lifetime. A 10-YEAR VISION IS FINALLY A REALITY FOR MICHAEL CRUZ Michael moved from Hawaii to California in 1996 and…

Back in September of 2021, hotVWs Magazine traveled to Ohio to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of the VW & Porsche Reunion, a top-notch event hosted by the Cincinnati VW Club - see our May 2022 issue. This trip gave us the opportunity to photograph several bonestock VWs with great history, including the subject of this article: Kentucky-resident Don Vinson's Westfalia, which has only clocked 46,000 miles since it came out of the factory in 1966. The vehicle turned out to be quite a score, having gracefully aged - a true time capsule. Thankfully, Don had no issue finding information about the camper's past, as he bought it from the original owner in 2001. The same gentleman even supplied him with a stack of documents tracing its history, plus some VW…

HotVWs contributor Stephan Szantai once named the May Show in Hanover “Germany's best kept secret”. That was almost 15 years ago [see May 2008 issue – Ed.]. Magazines and the internet have spread the word since. Nowadays, the show attracts participants and visitors from around Europe and even from the U.S. and South America. When the pandemic hit the world, the “Mai-Käfer-Treffen”, which loosely translates into “Maybug Show” (a play of words because it always takes place on May 1st, a national holiday in Germany) couldn't be held, of course. It was located at the Hanover fair, in the parking lot to the east, to be precise. As no shows, fairs or concerts were taking place since the beginning of 2020, those responsible for the Hanover fair looked for new…