Master Gumby sent this to me, and I thought to good not to share

My apologies if you've seen these before, but a lot were knew to me and had me in stitches. Enjoy!

I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

More often than not, when someone is telling me a story all I can think about is that I can't wait for them to finish so that I can tell my own story that's not only better, but also more directly involves me.

Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

I don't understand the purpose of the line, "I don't need to drink to have fun." Great, no one does. But why start a fire with flint and sticks when they've invented the lighter?

Have you ever been walking down the street and realized that you're going in the complete opposite direction of where you are supposed to be going? But instead of just turning a 180 and walking back in the direction from which you came, you have to first do something like check your watch or phone or make a grand arm gesture and mutter to yourself to ensure that no one in the surrounding area thinks you're crazy by randomly switching directions on the sidewalk.

I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was younger.

The letters T and G are very close to each other on a keyboard. This recently became all too apparent to me and consequently I will never be ending a work email with the phrase "Regards" again.

Do you remember when you were a kid, playing Nintendo and it wouldn't work? You take the cartridge out, blow in it and that would magically fix the problem. Every kid in America did that, but how did we all know how to fix the problem? There was no internet or message boards or FAQ's. We just figured it out. Today's kids are soft.

There is a great need for sarcasm font.

Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and suddenly realize I had no idea what the f*ck was going on when I first saw it.

I think everyone has a movie that they love so much, it actually becomes stressful to watch it with other people. I'll end up wasting 90 minutes shiftily glancing around to confirm that everyone's laughing at the right parts, then making sure I laugh just a little bit harder (and a millisecond earlier) to prove that I'm still the only one who really, really gets it.

The other night I hit a new low at an open bar. I had already hopped on highway blackout when, inevitably I had to find a bathroom. Eventually I decided it was probably on the other side of the bar so I tried to walk over there, but ran into a guy coming the other way. We played that, Both go left, Both go right game to no avail, so I finally put out my hand to guide myself past and that's is when I realized, yup, that's a mirror I just tried to walk through. And the guy on the other side is me. Even cats can re cognize their own image.

How the hell are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?

I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.

I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.

The only time I look forward to a red light is when I'm trying to finish a text.

A recent study has shown that playing beer pong contributes to the spread of mono and the flu. Yeah, if you suck at it.

Was learning cursive really necessary?

Lol has gone from meaning, "laugh out loud" to "I have nothing else to say".

I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

Answering the same letter three times or more in a row on a Scantron test is absolutely petrifying.

My brother's Municipal League baseball team is named the Stepdads. Seeing as none of the guys on the team are actual stepdads, I inquired about the name. He explained, "Cuz we beat you, and you hate us." Classy, bro.

Whenever someone says "I'm not book smart, but I'm street smart", all I hear is "I'm not real smart, but I'm imaginary smart".

How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear what they said?

I love the sense of camaraderie when a n entire line of cars teams up to prevent a dick from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers!

Every time I have to spell a word over the phone using 'as in' examples, I will undoubtedly draw a blank and sound like a complete idiot. Today I had to spell my boss's last name to an attorney and said "Yes that's G as in...(10 second lapse)..ummm...Goonies"

What would happen if I hired two private investigators to follow each other?

While driving yesterday I saw a banana peel in the road and instinctively swerved to avoid it...thanks Mario Kart.

MapQuest really needs to start their directions on #5. Pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

I find it hard to believe there are actually people who get in the shower first and THEN turn on the water.

Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

I would like to officially coin the phrase 'catching the swine flu' to be used as a way to make fun of a friend for hooking up with an overweight woman. Example: "Dave caught the swine flu last night."

I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.

Bad decisions make good stories

Whenever I'm Facebook stalking someone and I find out that their profile is public I feel like a kid on Christmas morning who just got the Red Ryder BB gun that I always wanted. 546 pictures? Don't mind if I do!

Is it just me or do high school girls get sluttier & sluttier every year?

If Carmen San Diego and Waldo ever got together, their offspring would probably just be completely invisible.

Why is it that during an ice-breaker, when the whole room has to go around and say their name and where they are from, I get so incredibly nervous? Like I know my name, I know where I'm from, this shouldn't be a problem....

You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you've made up your mind that you just aren't doing anything productive for the rest of the day.

Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after DVDs? I don't want to have to restart my collection.

There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.

I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten page research paper that I swear I did not make any changes to.

"Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash this ever.

I hate being the one with the remote in a room full of people watching TV. There's so much pressure. 'I love this show, but will they judge me if I keep it on? I bet everyone is wishing we weren't watching this. It's only a matter of time before they all get up and leave the room. Will we still be friends after this?'

While watching the Olympics, I find myself cheering equally for China and USA. No, I am not of Chinese descent, but I am fairly certain that when Chinese athletes don't win, they are executed.

I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello? Damnit!), but when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voicemail. What'd you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run away?

I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.

When I meet a new girl, I'm terrified of mentioning something she hasn't already told me but that I have learned from some light internet stalking.

I like all of the music in my iTunes, except when it's on shuffle, then I like about one in every fifteen songs in my iTunes.

Why is a school zone 20 mph? That seems like the optimal cruising speed for pedophiles...

As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.

Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

It should probably be called Unplanned Parenthood.

I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

I think that if, years down the road when I'm trying to have a kid, I find out that I'm sterile, most of my disappointment will stem from the fact that I was not aware of my condition in college.

Even if I knew your social security number, I wouldn't know what do to with it.

Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, hitting the G-spot, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet my ass everyone can find and push the Snooze button from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time every time...

My 4-year old son asked me in the car the other day "Dad what would happen if you ran over a ninja?" How the hell do I respond to that?

It really pisses me off when I want to read a story on CNN.com and the link takes me to a video instead of text.

I wonder if cops ever get pissed off at the fact that everyone they drive behind obeys the speed limit.

I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lites than Kay.

The other night I ordered takeout, and when I looked in the bag, saw they had included four sets of plastic silverware. In other words, someone at the restaurant packed my order, took a second to think about it, and then estimate d that there must be at least four people eating to require such a large amount of food. Too bad I was eating by myself. There's nothing like being made to feel like a fat bastard before dinner.

another one
Have you ever wondered if the bills in your wallet were ever in a stripper's butt crack?
If not, you're wondering now




"mmmmmmm smells like glitter"

Bugs N Brats IV

Well it is the last sat of Sept. That means that it is time to host our shops show. While it is a pita

it is kool at the same time. I have spent the last week cleaning sorting putting away all the extra

vw parts that just seem to accumulate in the dark corners of the shop. I swear it is like the reproduce faster than rabbits. Which would be kool if they were good parts, oh well.Not only do we clean and sort, but I also try to set up displays of some of our processes , still got to do that. Most people do the mass/thorough clean in the spring, but since the show is always in early fall, we do it then.

Our show is a bit different . We don't do registration, trophies , entry fees or anything like that . It is a cookout, bbq, bring what you got kind of show. I suppose that we will have to change that at some point. but not yet.

See you here

split bus door glass restore part 1

Split bus front doors windows are a neat piece of engineering . With the shop truck  getting

a slow rebuild,  part by part, I am  taking each subassembly 

 all the way apart

 then fixing anything that need to be fixed , M8 studs in this case . After removing all coatings we now have bare steel, 

well that needs to be sealed with an epoxy sealer then paint, 

after letting the parts cure assembly begins, in doing these windows I found that the og hard ware was to far gone so I replaced them with stainless hardware .

I sourced  replacement rubber/seals/windowfelts  from Wolfburgwest . and started putting it together. The first seal is the vent wing scraper

then the vent wing outer seal start in the bottom and work up the wing window

part 2 I will finnish up the assembly and install the windows

 

fall cleaning

Well we are almost a week away from Bugs n Brats IV. I have been doing a 'fall cleaning' this week and installing a few pieces of equipment that we have bought and not installed, and uninstall a few old pieces . Cleaning out the misc pieces of VW's that seem to collect and multiply all over the shop and get tucked away in the dark corners of the building. I started in back area of the shop and just worked along each wall and keep going till its all done. As of this morning I have on more wall to go, then the front pad. This process takes about 60 to 70 man hrs for the whole shop. the nice thing is I have to do this anyway, ( for my own sanity) . But with Bugs n Brats IV fast approaching, I have to stage the shop with what we have been working on and what process its in and how we do things. We will be having quite a few guest , clients , potential clients and lots of friends over. I like doing this little show. I would like to get our parts room cleaned up and organized my if I get my office cleaned up that would be kool.

On a personal note, Congrats to My brother and my sister in law , they are going to parents again. I love you guys.

out gas

ain't she perdy

This is pattywagon, we have been playing with her for almost 2 years, she is at first stage clear, and out gassing, or

curing. She will sit like this for two weeks. After that we will be scuffing her down , or leveling the clear,and shooting

her sec stage clear. then she will sit for a couple of weeks then we start the polish

9-11

"Least we not forget"

new week, same week

new week, same week, the title says it all, we are in the middle of Pattywagon's paint.

We are coming down to the home stretch for the shoot, All the masking , degreasing ,and tack raging is done, I am waiting on the paint Co to deliver a can of sealer. In out scuffing and last prep some bare metal spots have been exposed, and need to be sealed before color can go on. With that we are still in the same week as last, in the paint booth.

the devil is in the details

In a good paint job there are many thing involved to make it look right. Any monkey can pull the trigger and squirt paint. Body work and prep are critical . If it ain't straight underneath the paint

it will look like crap, shinny crap, but still crap . While you can polish a turd, ( thank you myth busters) it is still a turd.

The Human brain is an amazing thing, the way it processes what it sees, and inputs it to the brain , The way that I understand it the eyes only pick up a certain number of things in a mental image and the mind fills in quite a bit of the picture. As a result a few small 'errors' in a car will not be picked up by the human brain, but the more 'errors' there are the more the mind will pick that up, once it reaches a certain level , or crosses a threshold, the part of the mind that does the filling in, says , " something isn't right". It isn't exclusive to cars, I learned this while I was in my last career , real estate .

The threshold is different to every single person. While I have trained my eyes and mind to have a very low error rate. by looking close and slow, using your eyes, as a secondary sense and using the skin of my finger tips as my primary sense.

We, ( 00 dub and I) well spend 16 man hrs , or more, doing this prep work on each of the sections before we shoot. The reason we do it in sections is more to do with not being overwhelmed , or overloaded with the scale of what we are working on, by breaking it down to a manageable level we are able to make a as close to perfect surface as we can.

All we are doing is eliminating the errors . you must be in the moment and in tune, if you rush it or push it, you will miss the devil because he is in the details.

the trailers are loaded........

One of the best sentences in the english language , at least to a car guy the morning of a trip to a car show. I do love driving my cars but with an aging body and a mini store to set up as a vender, that ain't going to cut it. Jim was first he got his done in a record 1 hr. To his defense He has never used this trailer and never loaded the Red Baron on any trailer, and he was using a come along. The Winkster was next. he was all set , towbar on the thing and away.......during all of this I was trying to get all of my crap together , as well as the shops vending . Now, we could stage all of the shops stuff, but not load it, the single cab is too low to load with out tearing up parts if it is full loaded. so as soon as the shop truck was up and loaded, we was gone.................

It was a good weekend

one more piece of the puzzle

interior on the cheap part 2 sound deading and carpet

part 2 on the shop trucks interior, in part 1 I made interior door cards and trim panels on the cheap, less than 100.00 USD. in keeping with that theme , the carpets needed to be done, and while I was there I wanted to deaden the sound, cause this is a huge steel can that I sit in, very noisy , not in a bad way, but it does ware on me. Doing it on the cheap above is the materials I used for this all bought at Lowes 5 rolls of roofing patch ,it is a alum backed polybutal tape that comes in rolls , It in the roofing repairs section of the store 2 rolls of indoor/outdoor carpet, this amount is enough to do the entire cab, (62.5 sqft) contact cement and a chip brush the metal needs to be clean I used mild soapy water and a rag next I wiped down all the surfaces with Alc and a lint free rag measured and applied , I did have a heat gun to help with the rolling It is not a nessary but it does make it easer.

[

I am doing the whole cab so take your time get it looking good it should take about 7 hrs to do this to a single cab next comes carpet I made my 'kit' in 8 pieces . Behind the seat, there are an upper and lower

wheel humps get one each, stopping at the welded seam, one for the center of under seat

and the floor for your feet

there are two more smaller panels that go in tho the tire well on the insides of the wheel arches and one for the 'floot for that area I made each one of the pieces and left about 1/4 inch extra on all edges test fitting as I went next come gluing, I would suggest getting a cheap pressure pot spray gun with the largest tip you can find then spraying all all the surfaces that are being put in place.If not, than using a brush is fine.

now it is just a matter of installing the carpet. I like working from the top down and in sections . Making sure that the glue is dry to the touch start with the center and working your way out pressing comes after it is were you want.

as you work towards the edges you will need to remove the extra, a stiff putty knife helps,just work the edge and cut as you go usins a sharp box cuter

now come the reinstall of shifter

with the seats and shifter installed looks like it should

all in all not bad, day and a half labor, under 150.00 UDS and a very quiet truck

new panels..... Material List 2 sheets of 1/8 masinite 1 quart contact cement 10 sq. yards of backed exterior vinyl 1 china brush, (cheap) this is what I started with, after I removed the purple fur material that screams 70's All of the interior panels looked like ass. before I threw them in the trash I traced them on to the masinite . after tracing all of the panels and cutting them out, I used an air shear for the cutting and a belt sander for the smoothing , but a jig saw will work just fine lay out the new door cards on the vinyl and cut out leaving a min of 1/2 " extra around all sides coat the face of the panel and the back on the now cut fabric with contact cement, you can use the stuff in the can and spray it, but it is cheaper to to buy the qt can and brush it on. let it dry. If you want to put any designs in the panels now is the time to install them, We went with our logo. after you have that down, coat the top face of your design with contact cement and let dry to the touch,I usually let every thing set up for 30 min. place you material on the card and remove the air bubbles then press the material on to the card. I like using a wallpaper roller. now wrap the edges around the back of the cards and press the edge down, once again using my wall paper seam roller. next I like to compress the cards a vac press is ideal for this, but if you don't have one , stack the cards in pairs in-between two pieces of plywood and set weight on them, and leave them for a min of 12 hrs this is what they look like when them come out of the press after you clean them with IPA notice the inserts I used some scraps of the vinyl for mine, you can use foam but I am doing this on the cheap

nice..............

buggin in july, 2009. It is our local car club annual charity show, lots of work but well worth it , be that it is in our local area, and it is a decient sized event . The club is a group of vw enthusiast

who come from a wide range of back grounds and careers . Some might remember Just Jim or super beetle Jim . he did the promo vid for the shop. Well he , Dolph and Todd did this little ditty for local media

Nice work Guys

Panel time

Starting on rough metal work on Billbots splittie panel today,

hammer time on 45+ year old metal that some mother f*&ker

has already f ed up,

I swear I spend more time fixing old 'repairs'

Billy is a good dude, who builds an bitchen tranaxle

We are going to be retailing bilbot gear works very shortly

ALL QUIET ON THE MONDAY FRONT

Mondays around the shop are a quiet day, I like that......We are open to the gen public

Tue through Fri 7am to 6 pm. Sat and Mondays are an appt day only, by design. In one of

my earlier careers I worked at a mgf plant as an engineering tech , and some of the Dept.'s

that I worked with had 3 dif shift sch's 3 12 hr days or 4 10 hr days or 5 8hr days , I noticed that the production numbers for the 4 10s were better than the 3 12's and the 5 -8's. So when I started Airkooled Kustoms I kept that in mind. Hence the quiet mondays...

During the last gas price spike some other companies were looking at that option. I don't

what happened with that, but the staff here really liked it, and they like there 3 day weekends

Max is happy

so am I

Max's 79 VW T-4 is going home. what rolled in to the shop

and what she is now

boy what a journey

full build

here

doors open

The Ocomoney is a new set of rules that are not clear to anyone. In small biz it is hard to keep the doors open, but I am doing it as are a bunch of others. We went started survival mode back in Dec and haven't strayed from that yet. I have a bunch of TI planed as well as some capital investments that the shop desperately needs, but all of that is on hold. It drives me nuts. I have R&D for new products , building expansion , elec up grades, painting ect ect ect that I can't do, not sure if the revenue stream is going to be what I want it to be,(It never is), much less what it has to be. I am just grateful that we carry no debt. It does make it a little easier .

rest in peace

I got word yesterday that an icon of the VW world passed away, Jerry Jess, he has been a fixture in the westcoast scene longer than I have been alive, and I am an old fart. He always had a smile, and a kind word, he will be missed.

Rest in peace my friend

Sweeping the floors in my mind

"The broom in my hand is an extension of me."

Sounds stupid but it is a valid statement, sweeping the floors is a good way for me to center myself. It gives me time to think about what I want to get done and what has to be done, today. Tomorrow is not here yet. In my last career I was in real-estate , rentals, both com and res, New construction , and development . Mostly running companies day to day . Before that I was building, remodeling, and TI, before that , the trades, I think as those decades as as all one career.

One the First tools that you are handed is a broom, and it must be mastered before you are ever allowed to strap on a tool belt. Yes there is a right and wrong way to sweep. If you can sweep a work zone and then sweep it again and get a pile that is less than 1/10 the volume of you first sweep then you are doing it right.

Anyway..... I learned through out the decades that by sweeping the you can see alot of the finer details of the job and find small errors that can magnify later on done the road if they are not addressed , think of it as quality control on a macro level. While sweeping I would find myself collecting my thought and getting mentally set for the day. One of my friends is retired army. He now works in the defense business, on the civilian side with the troops as his clients. One of the things that he does when ever he come to the shop to work, we have an unpaid intern program here at the shop, is sweep. I have never asked him to do this, he just does it. When I asked him about it he told me "I need to sweep the floors in my mind" I simply nodded and walked away, understanding completely

one more

Breaks are now bleed of all there old fluid, and another new master cyc is installed

Mr Mark is on his way back down here for one more set of tuning.

and since I was asked all pics of all builds are on the projects page at

www.airkooledkustoms.com

one more milestone

One of our long time restos is nearly complete, a 75/76 vw transporter, Nice ride, We have had our share of issues with this resto. Some time projects will fight every step of the way, and this one has. But one more step is completed. M Harney aka Dr. Dell has made a few trips down from his shop in Nashville to help out with this build, from re-casing the motor, ( new block for a already new motor, with a crack in the case. to building the carbs, to tuning. Today he did the drive test, where he hooks a AFM to the tail pipe and drive the bus around watching the air/fuel mix, and stopping a few times to make small adjustments till he is happy with what he is feeling and what he is seeing on his meter.

As far as stopping..... new master cyc is on its way up from the parts house in huntsville.

the rest of the slogan

burnt,

from all the hot metal that I know is hot

scarred,

all the old cuts and involuntary blood offerings these car seem to require

bloodied hands,

see above

Its a Zen thing,

means to me, that all the above is ok,

The tools in my hand become extensions of myself, and the parts that are being worked

the same.

Don't fight it, let it flow.

It's a Zen thing

Burnt, scarred,bloodied greasy hands, ......its a zen thing

that statement is more that just a tag line. It is a way of life...

For those that don't understand the concept of zen, it is so simply

harmony .

Look at the water,” he instructed. “It does not slam into the rocks and stop out of frustration, but instead flows around them and continues down the stream. Become like the water and you will understand harmony.” Soon, the student learned to move and flow like the stream

bugs in the garden

Show with the euro brits this last weekend, had a blast they always throw a good time, 

No issues on the way or at the show, but coming home the shift rod coupler worked lose , causing 3ed gear only all the way home. shill had a blast.

 Next sat we with be at Huntsville Botanical Garden   .the  event planer reads

June Buggin' in the Garden - VW Antique Car Show

Saturday, June 13, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

Cruise on into the Garden for the hottest beetles around. Antique air-cooled Volkswagens will be swarming into the Garden for a show-n-shine sponsored by the North Alabama Volkswagen Club. Pick up a judging form in the Linda J. Smith Visitor Center and vote on your favorite Beetle for the Peoples Choice Award. The cars will be parked in the very back of the Garden.
Show is included in Garden admission. Anyone owning a 1980 and older Volkswagen who would like to participate may submit a registration form or call Special Events Coordinator Kay Curry at 430-3572 ext. 241 for further information. 

If you are in town, come by and see us . 

She live again......

the Single cab lives and drives yea, now for some fine tuning 

put you left foot in.....

Thursday,

 by all rights better then wed, the beating of my head on the wall has stopped for now....... After fighting with the bus from hell,

The latest issue has been solved. A small counter weight on the pressure plate , installed during spin balancing, was interfering with the bell housing little work with the grinder,problem solved. Now to get back to the point that we were 3 days ago. Motor needs reinstalling and all the sub components need  to be reinstalled. 

2 steps forward 1 back

 On the shop trunk, nock in the motor,son of a porsh, thanks to Pat,a loaner will be going in next week, seams all of the shop loaner motors are out.... wonder how that happened

"And its only Wed"

Some days be that way, and some weeks all them days are clumped together .

this has been one of them weeks, and its only Wed.

 As I fight through today, doing battle with 50 year old auto, I have to remind myself

that I choose this, and am generally happy to do so. Showing up early, saying late, 

and in here on weekends. deadlines, paper work, gov regs, cold calls from tele-marketers .

and interruptions in the battle. All of it, I still like it, some not as  much. 

 Kustom work sucks sometimes, work a bit till you reach a bind, figuratively and literally . Then back up and figure out the bind, then the work around,  start again till the next bind. Then do it all again. The results are always worth the effort .

 Now if you will pardon me I need to go back to beating my head against the wall.

Sweeping the floor

Some times large projects cause a type of paralysis . Don't matter if is is cars , home improvement , projects at work what ever.....the way I get around this is to break it down in to smaller chunks . That is how we do it around here.

 Take it apart, tag it and bag it, clean it ,inspect it,fix it,  paint it ,and put it back together.  Repeat

 Most people take it apart, and put all parts in one place, usually a coffee can, then get overwhelmed or distracted , and lock up, They get stuck,Fear of f ing it up is usually the culprit . It is hard to get out of that frame mind, Even for professionals , even when it is recognize .

 Working through it is the only way to move to the next step. and that is the key ...... the next step. make a list , organize your thoughts , sweep the floor and think about it. 

well last sat Jim and I tore apart his  super vert. and it is still on the lift, no worries, 

I told Jim, you see he is stressing out on it, hope he has fun with that. The shop is a drama free zone, and homie don't play that.Don't get me wrong, we to stress out around here, but only on major shit, and this is minor.So I was all prepped to get the vert back together , Jim had painted all the parts, nuts and bolts, they look good, but there were a few pieces that need to have the old bushings pressed out, and we don't have a press,  got to build one, so back down to huntsville

they go to be pressed out. and the car sits on the lift. That is ok, cause I need to buy tires for it so it can go lower, way lower.Insert evil laugh here

Sat at the shop

Mcpherson strut front end,1303, super, fatchick, you either love 'm or you don't. There is luke warm ,

 If you have no clue what I am talking about then I shall explain, if you do have a clue, then skip this next part.

   The super beetle was introduced in the states in 1971,starting with the 1302, The Mcpherson strut   A fairly well designed piece of engineering . They had been standard on most cars of the time. but in order to put this in the vw design engineers changed the body lines a bit . The 1302 was a bit rounder and wider, the line of the car grew.

 in 1973 the 1303 was introduced , the front suspension was fine tuned a bit, the wind screen got wider and had a big curve and it got even rounder . I suppose as we age we get wider and rounder, so why not the vw bug. 

 Any way........

  Just Jim, (mad props, madder skills)is bringing over his daughters 79 fatchick  'vert

for some suspension work. What a surprise.......... we are lowering it. who would have thought it

'chuckle' .

 Top Line  is a bunch of guys who love the supers, and have figured out how to make better parts for these cars  in doing so, the car will handle better tighter and yes lower, lowering a cars CG makes them more stable at todays speeds. When the 1302 and 1303 were new the speed limit was 55, yes 55 and these little cars did just fine at 55, they had a 64 hp motor, 4 speed, with ok breaks.

 With todays traffic speeds, we do see more clients wanting to upgrade there breaks, motors,trans,suspension , basically making the bug a modern car. Jim has 4 wheel  disk and a 64 hp motor, and he has the "super shimmy". This shimmy  is caused by worn out parts, and there are alot of parts under there. We can do this with factory  or after-market parts. we are going with the top line kit, all new, all urethane .

 got to love it

FORE

back at it after a strange trip, I have heard that expression before, but never lived it. I have now.

As we grow up and have kids of our own, gasp grandkids now. our family ages with us. perhaps more so. My folks are getting settled in to there life after kids,  and I have been going through that as well. My kids are all grow and moved out, making my wife and I empty nesters .This is life, so we live it, good, bad , ugly and pretty , but watching my folks it hit home for me. My step mom has been getting ready for her chemo, and Nana is well Nana, just a bit slower. Then there is Dad..... It was watching him that had the most effect on me he works to much, and loves it, I think

So after watching that for a week, I have redoubled my effort to balance my life between work and home. Not so easy when the walk from my home to my office is a real short sand wedge.

FORE

cells,texts and tweets in the blk hills of sd

working remotely is always kind of nice, but it does kind of suck, I have most of the files that I need, but not all , iDrive is looking better and better, remote file transfers take a bit, but they are

something I need.

 No cell service, spotty wireless for the mac, take a bit to get use to. How on earth did we ever get to the point of 24/7 contact and communication . I kind of like not having that  contact with the outside world, but it is weird, blogs, e-mail,  tweets, text and cell phones.....all part of everyday life. But not when  I am in the middle of the blackhills of South Dakota.

 When I go in to town, Custer SD, my cell goes nuts, with texts and msgs. I am not looking forward to that, but it is an necessary evil of modern life.

we take care of ours

vacations are funny things, I have always needed a day after the trip to recover , and I suppose this one will not be any different in that respect, 

This one is a little different,In the fun factor. My paternal grand mother, nana, is getting up there in age, she just turned 96 years old. I know that women don't like there real age divulged , but shes 96 fracken years old. She has been the head of our family since before I was alve, the martaric , the glue. 

 She has taught me so much over the years, and I am a better pearson because of her,She is definitely on my fav 5 list. 

 Being that she is nearing the end of her time here, I have to come connect with her . She is my Nana.

 Last night I cooked dinner for her,my dad , mamadar, and my step mom, never mind that I had just spent 21 hrs on the road to get here, and was beat tired . Sandy , my very loved step mom,

has been diagnosed with colon cancer, and is in treatment for it. She just did not have the energy to cook and clean up after wards and asked if I would do it. I was honored to help her.

I give her a lot of crap, but always with a smile and love.

 Then there is my dad, the man who taught me how to be a good man, husband, father, and son.

the 2 women in his life who matter most to him are needing him to take care of them, tough role for my dad...

 Vacations are a good thing, they are a break from the normal stresses of life, this is a hard time for me, this is not a 'fun' vacation. I will enjoy the time I get to spend with both of these very important women , but I am having a hard time seeing both of them like this. 

We take care of ours nana said last nite, damn near at the same time I did....funny how that works. 

 She is a pretty good grandmother , a great grand ma, and a really great great grandmother, all puns intended.

 

macafacation now complete

In any business , small or larger, computers play a huge role in the back ground. Information, organization , storage,  communication, advertisement all handled by computers . I have been playing and working on computers since the cassette tape drive  came out. For those of you that are to young to remember that, now I feel old  they look like this .  During my decades pecking on a key board I have been in the microsoft world, dealing with the windows line of products was just that ,dealing with windows. I have become pretty good at crashing the os, As windows has matured it has gotten better,( I did like the NT os) and it has gotten  harder for me to screw up, but I have been crash os's for a few decades and can still do it. Case in point, My good friend , biz partner, graphic designer, web master, art guru,actor rock band and all around level five.... Master Gumby   rebuilt his old G10 tower for the shop to run. Our old server, running NT, and I had a disagreement  and the server decide to take his ball and go home. So the Mac came in ...... and I liked it.It was what I had wanted windows to be, it was smooth, intuitive and clean. the g10 stayed in my office for a bit, till the main house server decided to join his network buddy and crash. So being a man who has been married for 20 years, ( as of yesterday) , and wanting to keep it that way, I brought the Mac in to the house so my wife could do her thing on the web, while biggene built us a new MS computer. Mama Dar tried to use the mac,  and did not like it. She found it hard to switch back and forth between work and home, two different operating systems , so when the new computer was ready, the mac went back to the shop, and I have been on it full time.The more I use it the more I like it, it has gotten to the point if I want to use the computer I would go out to the office instead of using the MS 'chene .I found it clunky, even though it was new.

 Well I also have a lap top, that my brother,  MS and Mac God, had refurbished for me that I have been using when I travel . It is an old IBM Think-pad, a great machine in it time, but it was SLOW, and very limited . But it did the job. Well another friend , Greg had an older G-4 note book, running g-10 that had out lived Greg's usefulness , so he rehabbed it for me, and brought it over yesterday. I LOVE IT. 

 Now Master Gumby has been a mac guy since day one, and had changed jobs a bit back and had to learn the MS OS, not a fun thing he told me Now I understand what he means, it is like talking to a child vrs having conversation with a college grad. Man I love my macs........

B O P 11

even more pics  here

and here

some pics  here

show season is here

Well the first bug show of the season is done. If you did not get a chance to join us in Chattanooga , you missed a good event. With the arrival  of most of the camper peeps on Friday night. the party was on. For those that don't do the camping thing at 2 day shows, you all are missing half of the fun. With being able to walk the swap meet early, and seeing old friend. It is well worth effort, and it is quite a bit cheaper.

 I like sitting around the camp fire, and watching the drunken  ass hattery, listening, (and telling ) tall tales. It is almost a sure bet that someone ends up clean up the result of to much fun,  and this year was no different, but I digress. At the time of asshattery it  is always entertaining, even if the end result, ends up in 'clean up isle 6'. 

 There was lots of nice cars at this show, and some that are not so nice, but they are on the road, and is what I like to see. I always look forward to seeing  what people have done over the winter.

 As I wrote in a previous post  We were one of the sponsors of this show. The charity of this show was Ronald McDonald House. It is a good organization , and worthy of our support .I spoke with some of the club members of the Scenic City volks folks , and I was told that the first day revenue was more than the previous years totals for both days.

 363 days to bug a plauza  12

 

Drop Smoke

D-day as is departure .......

All the beams are made, the truck is packed, still need to wash and vacuum the purple people eater. and we roll.......at noon. We have 2 cars on trailers , 1 pulled behind an suv, and 5 that are driving.... this should be interesting. 

Is the car clean , is there gas in the tank?

In e-mailing with my first cousin, bob the climber, dude is crazy for climbing, but I write about him at a later date. He let me know that he to has one of these blogthingies , but hasn't updated in a while. So it made me think that I need to do updates, but updates would imply going back and bringing current some of the items that were in the past, being that this is my 5th post, there are not to many things to up date.

 Show prep......

 Getting ready for a show used to be, is the car clean and is there gas in the tank.......? Then it was need to get the canopy and chairs, and then there is camping shows, all that is there, but as I do this more for the shop  and and less for me, them more shuff I have to get ready. there is the displays of beams, weighing any where between 10 lb to 40 lb, there is the canopies ,tables, chairs, flyers, coats, brochures,trike trailers , patches, stickers, and on and on. Part of the night mare is the gathering up of all the  shtuff . Being that we out source most of our swagg, to local venders, all that has to be done, and gathered up, payed for,priced and sold. 

 Don't misconstrue , I still enjoy there shows, the little boy is still inside me, and there are alot of shiny cars going to be in one place, and, I get to hang with my friends, 

That is the best part

back to work

Mad Props To Just Jim

Let me tell you about my buddy Super beatle JimJust Jim, or JJ .

he is one talented dude!!! He is a car guy, he owns a 69 camaro ,

lifted stepside 4X4, and a 79 convertable bug. and all are nice, but

that is just his hobby. In real life he is a defense sector graphic artist .

 I don't really know what that is , but I do have an idea of what he does

cause of a promo vid he did for the shop. 

 See we are growing a bit, and  are helping to sponsor a few shows

this season. the first one will be Bug a paluza 11 anyway... part of the deal is

the shop gets a vender space, and need draw peeps in, this is in all fact a 

temp store for the shop, so After talking with Master Gumby, the other 

owner of the shop, we decided to get a dvd made for display of the shop,

a 5 min commercial if you will. Now  Jim is a member of the vw club

and hangs out at the shop once in a while, and I was talking about this

in passing about 1 month ago, and he offered to help out and give it a try.

 well this is the result .

We the teaching went well, don't know about the learning........

TJ seem to understand what I was telling him, we shall see.

 On to the week, 

 On Friday we at the shop are heading out to  bug a paluza

http://www.bugapaluza.com/ . We are one of the sponsors 

this year and have to really get ready. 

 I have one more beam to build, and got to get mamadar buggy

ready.

Sat

I have always love sat morning, but no cartoons for me,

at least not this weekend, my granddaughter who is 4

is not here today, and I have a wrench to turn and

a bit of teaching to to.

The client coming in this morning is a good kid, but

kind of quiet. At 17 , he is driving his dads old 63 bug.

a few months ago we dropped his ride, hard.....

at his age it is surprising to see that he drives this car

everyday. It is good to see the next gen of dub heads.....

and being that he is the future of this hobby I have an obligation 

to teach him. Today it is just the basics a valve adj and a dizzy/

carb swap.

 The valves are something that every dub owner should do . Even

though I own a shop I want all my clients to do their own valve adjustment 

by the owner doing this and oil change, they can  keep in touch with

what is going on with their car.

And so it begins

Why the hell not, everyone and his brother has a log, come to think about it my brother does as

well. 

 Since this is the first posting  I have not a clue....

I will include whet ever strikes my train of thought.

mostly about classic volkswagens, and the ass hattery that ensues 

with own and wrenching on on these cars, and owning a shop.