Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2022 i dune buggies and hotVWs

On September 20, 2022, at 11:35 am, my buddy Sub (Pug, 15 years, 8 months) crossed the rainbow bridge. During his later years, he suffered from a collapsed trachea and chronic bronchitis. Slowly, he started having issues breathing properly. In September, my wife called me while I was on an overseas trip and told me that his symptoms were getting worse. I was praying for Sub while I was traveling, and it seemed that he was waiting for me to return home. Two days after I returned, Sub took off on the next journey very peacefully as he slept at home with us. He pulled the plug by himself. For my wife and I, Sub was like an irreplaceable child. Sub joined the Watanabe family on March 25, 2007. He…

Midwest Scene The summer car show season is wrapping up here as I write this in late September, and looking back, I can say Herbie and I have had one heck of a year! It started with our winter in Florida, Herbie following us on a flatbed from Michigan, to enjoy the warm weather. The Herbie 53rd event was the primary reason, but we ended up enjoying everything Florida had to offer, from sightseeing and sandy beaches to outdoor dining and car shows. That included the wonderful Lakeland VW Classic in March, with over 250 Volkswagens, as well as the Advent Hospital Car Show in Tarpon Springs. We also hooked up with Local Volks, a great VW club in the greater Tampa area, and joined them for several cruise nights,…

The countdown has begun: Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles' VW Bus Festival 2023 is happening in nine months. It will be the biggest meet of its kind anywhere in the World, from June 23 to 25, 2023. The organizer, Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, expects over 100,000 visitors from around the globe. The VW Bus enthusiast community will party together, listen to live music, talk shop, and camp out for three days – a festival as an expression of an approach to life. Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles started offering the camping tickets on Aug 15. They sold 4,132 pre-registrations from over 25 countries in just a week, and the number is still increasing. Like the legendary “Bulli Festival” in 2007, the exhibition car parks will become a campsite for more than 6,000 VW Buses. The…

In the late 1950s and early '60s, the standard of living in West Germany improved markedly thanks to the so-called economic miracle and post-WWII welfare state measures. One of the most important was the housing policy which not only alleviated the quantitative shortage of housing through the '50s but also improved the standard of living by enhancing the facilities in the houses. During this period, many German financial institutions offered various types of mortgage products for home buyers to support the fast-growing housing demands. One of these institutions, located in the Northwestern state of Baden Wurttenberg, decided to start an advertising campaign promoting their mortgage products using a fully customized Volkswagen Type 2 pickup truck in the late 1950s, which is the topic of this feature. The building society, called…

Mike Lewis' 1964 Beetle Mike would work at Blair and Sons for more than 12 years, gaining valuable Volkswagen knowledge along the way. “The things I learned there and the experiences were priceless. Some of the wrecked VWs that came through the doors would blow your mind. Not to mention the unique people who would come in for parts. We even sold Type 3 taillight housings to the person who was building the [movie] Ferris Bueller's Days Off replica Ferraris.” This 1964 Bug didn't come into Mike's possession via the wrecking yard, but rather a private sale in Lake Havasu City, AZ. The previous owner had done a basic restoration on the car right there in his home garage, including repainting the Bug the original Bahama Blue. Mike had always…

So far, in 2022's journey through the regular models of Buses, we have covered commercial versions (panel van, Kombi, Single Cab, Double Cab), passenger versions (Standard, Deluxe, Deluxe sunroof) and Westfalia campers. Now, for this year's last installment, we can dip our toes into some special models. Throughout the Split Bus era, sales literature in the States showed all the previously mentioned models. There were also passing reference to three other models in a few pieces of sales literature: the ambulance, the firetruck and the police Bus. These were all regular common versions in Germany and Europe, but not so much in the States. Let's discuss those models. There were ambulance conversions as early as 1951, and they got their own model number in 1952 or 1953, model 271. There…

The owner of this Double Cab, Jimmy Hendrik Pardede, is a hardcore Volkswagen toy collector based in Bandung, Indonesia. Yes, Indonesia, in the Southern Hemisphere of Southeast Asia. Incidentally, Bandung is the capital of the West Java province, about 100 miles southeast of Jakarta. A car feature from Indonesia? Does a VW culture even exist down there? Well, you might remember that we reported on an Indonesian car show in 2017 and 2020. Indeed, the country has a huge VW crowd and a rich Volkswagen culture. No wonder: the Beetle was the people's car in Indonesia in the 1970s and '80s. Also, VW used to have an assembly plant (a joint venture with Daimler AG) in Jakarta to build CKD cars. CKD? The three letters stand for “Completely Knocked Down”,…

IT ALWAYS MAKES FOLKS TURN THEIR HEAD AND SMILE If truth be told, Ian Hebner had little interest in old VWs over a decade ago. Yet the San Diego, California resident certainly qualifies as a true “gearhead”, thanks in part to his father who drove a 1962 Chevrolet Corvette decades ago. During Ian's high school years, the “lunch lady” approached his auto shop teacher with a proposition: she wanted to donate her derelict '71 Dodge Dart Swinger to a student. “I was that teacher's first pick,” remembers Ian. “I must have restored every nut and bolt, body panel, interior trim and component on this car with no prior knowledge – only an obsessive-like vision to see the car back to its full glory once again.” He even rebuilt the engine.…

Over the years in the VW scene, we all accumulate knowledge. Some of us learn how to weld or how to assemble an engine, and others are more into facts regarding changes in certain model years for instance. But we all learn something. Some stay “on the surface of the VW sea” so to speak, others dive deep down, finding out things no one else had before. And sometimes we are not aware of the fact that we know more than others in a certain field. Maybe you are one of them! So why don't you share your knowledge? Your creativity? Did you ever think about being an author? Writing your own book or having your photos published? This dream can come true. You just have to think about your…

RHINO TRANSMISSION MOUNT KIT CB Performance RHINO Transmission Mounts provide the very best performance and durability available. They were developed to address common shortcomings of most other VW tranny mounts on the market. For more information, visit www.cbperformance.com. GENUINE VW-STYLE STEERING WHEELS Volkswagen-style steering wheels by FLAT4. These steering wheels are exactly the same as the genuine VW steering wheels in every detail. Type 1 1960-'71 / Type 31961-71 steering wheels are available in Silver Beige, Graphite Black and Ivory. FLAT4 also offers a version to install on Mexican Beetles and 74-on Standard models. (Originally came with 2-spoke steering wheels). These FLAT4 steering wheels are high in quality. For more information, visit www.flat4.co.jp. RALLY SERIES SPEEDOMETER & TACH COMBO GAUGE New Rally Series 120MPH Speedometer & Tachometer Combo Gauge. Black…

H022: HESSISCH OLDENDORF INTERNATIONAL VINTAGE VOLKSWAGEN SHOW LIFETIME EXPERIENCE ONE MILLIONTH VW THE CAR SHOW RIVER CROSS & SCHWIMMWAGEN SWAP & PEOPLE Hessisch Oldendorf, or simply HO as spoken among VW enthusiasts, isn't solely the name of a small town located in the northwestern area of the Lower Saxony state. Among Volkswagen fans, it refers to the best vintage meeting in the World. The Hessisch Oldendorf International Vintage Volkswagen Show, held every four years, finally returned in 2022 after a one-year postponement due to the pandemic. During the last 25 years, I have been lucky to attend countless Volkswagen events in the Americas, Europe, and Asia. Being involved in one air-cooled VW-related publication or another, folks regularly ask me: “Which VW show should I visit at least once in my lifetime?” My answer is always the…

VTO DID IT AGAIN – $20,000 DONATED TO THE RONALD MCDONALD HOUSE During the second round of the So Cal VW Week in June, we truly had a wonderful time at the Blackstar Campout and El Prado VW Show & Shine. The new venue selected by VTO is a 200-acre recreational park and campground called Rancho Jurupa Regional Park. It is located along the Santa Ana River just west of charming historic downtown Riverside, California. VTO managed to book the whole park for the Blackstar Campout and El Prado Show. The park includes Lakeview Campground for RVs/trailers and tents, along with Cottonwood Campground, which is designated for RVs and trailers only. All 73 sites at Lakeview Campground offer at least partial hookups (12 lakefront sites have full hookups), while the…

To go fast on the street the formula is fairly simple. Big heads, big cam, long stroke, and big carburetors. In this case we will be using the iconic and large Weber 48 IDAs. We chose a welded and stroked VW crankshaft; by DPR Machine in Santa Ana, California. These cranks have been available for many years, and have become a trusted basis for many a fast street engine. A stock VW 69mm crank is counterweighted by welding on the balance weights. The rod journals are increased in diameter by building up material with a submerged arc welder. The journals are then ground off center to the desired stroke. Once the rough grinding is complete it is sent off for heat treatment. After returning from heat treatment, the crank is…