Split Screen

1st MOT for the 181

2012-01-02T20:43:00.014Z

Today I booked the 181 for the MOT or controle technique I should say. I need it to be able to do the log book so I took the chance to see what would happen.The guy looked at everything and was well impressed. He Passed it straight away to my surprise. A few little points will have to be looked at but nothing too serious.

A bit of oil is leaking from the gearbox and engine. Nothing unusual here for a VW.The shock absorber is a bit dodgy but is still ok.

Nice to see the IRS from underneath.

The 1600cc works like a charm....

Oops I thought it was... On the way back, I broke down. It was in fact a petrol problem. Thanks again to my friend "la truite" who came to give me a hand. After a big investigation around the carb, petrol pump it happen that some crap has blocked the fuel pipe.

30 min later everything is back on track. Until next time.

Happy New Year 2012

2011-12-31T20:45:00.001Z

Type 181 - German Army

2011-12-31T17:26:00.004Z

New VW in the family. This time it's a 1976 German Army "Thing". Thanks to my mate "La Truite" from my old VW club Coxipauman. More picture will come later.

Happy Christmas everybody !!!

2011-12-24T17:08:00.001Z

A roof over my head.

2011-12-18T19:31:00.036Z

I needed a roof attached to my garage on my back garden. You never know it might be useful one day. ;-)
So this is how it started. By holding both wall together as it has been weaken when I removed the wall of the garage.

The posts are on the ground
The garden has a funny shape and the roof will not be square so I have to calculate where the posts are going to end up.
And this is how it should be.
All the posts are in place and the frame can be build.
This beam will support the roof.

Everything is getting into shape

The structure is now complete

Time to put the roof.

And now the felt.

No even had time to put the last bit of felt and it started to piss down.
New home for the bus. I will now have enough space to do some work and it can rain now....

Hey!!! I have a spare space now....

It took about 6 months to build and I now need to make a concrete base, so I will be busy in spring...

Slough Swapmeet 2011

2011-11-17T21:05:00.023Z

One, two and tree 356's

OG Split

Porsche 912

Indoor Swapmeet

Flashy Low light

Ace Cafe Swap meet 2011

2011-11-17T20:55:00.012Z

Early start for Andy and myself. Direction, London...

Nice Crew Cab.

This Variant used to be owned by Jamiroquai.
Tony's Notch

Journey back home

2011-10-07T22:34:00.009+01:00

Sunday morning, we all stopped in town for a stroll to the pier
Ooops, bit of a problem on Stuart van. We were driving on the M25 and the van started to have some problems. We managed to stop on this magnificent area. We couldn't find a better place to stop. we even have toilets, sandwiches. We also took the opportunity to open the engines lid to cool down the engines.
So time to get dirty. At first it looks like it was the distributor but when we tryed to look for a spark at the end of the leads, they were soaked in oil. It happend that the coil was leaking and all the oil who was supposed to cool the coil was dripping along the leads. So I went to my van and took a spare coil which I carry with me for emergency.
The new coil is in place, Stuart ready to start the engine. A few sec later everything was back on track and the van was ready to go.

Off we go again, back home....

Brighton Racecourse - Camping

2011-10-07T22:13:00.019+01:00

The Aylesbury gang are setting up the site. Nice little area.

The night has fall, it's time to chill.
Pizza party tonight.

Darren/Lucy & Kieron/Kim have been marshalling and are still sleeping in there Bus.

View of the camp from the racecourse stands

Custom Radio Flyer

Brighton Breeze

2011-10-07T21:49:00.027+01:00

We all meet up at the Tesco car park to leave on a convoy to Brighton
Alden & Tim at the services

Madeira Drive here we go....

Ellie's Beetle.

Nice line up on the sea front, Stuart's van, mine, Dave's & Spike/Zoe's.

Carl's bus on his new set of wheels with narrow beam.

One of the best day of the year to go to the beach.

Flashy 356.

Ace Cafe London

2011-09-24T21:17:00.016+01:00

Nice turnout tonight from the Aylesbury Low Life's. It was the first trip for the van with the red light I bought at the VW Classic in Los Angeles back in June.

Flashy Mayers Manxs

Dave's early bay is the lastest addition to the gang.

That's Shrek...

Visit Stuart blog http://chequeredfrontvw.blogspot.com/.

Vanfest

2011-09-11T21:12:00.033+01:00

Very nice plot reserved by Darren & Lucy

Go and visit Manflowers. I had a long chat with them and was well impressed with this van.

We had about 30 mins of rain just as I was lighting the fire.

Spent the Weekend with John, Lucy & Darren, Jean and also Karen & Steve who left a bit early.

Californian Plate

2011-09-04T20:30:00.000+01:00

August House of Dubs meet up

2011-09-01T07:34:00.016+01:00

We meet up tonight to the Tesco car park where Stuart had a bit of a flat Battery. Thanks to Dave who gave him a bit of battery power.

Eleanor and Tim came on the Beetle.

Nice new Motor for Dave...

Saturday night at the Bottle & Glass

2011-07-31T22:22:00.002+01:00

It was nice to meet up with the Aylesbury low Life's crew. It was also the first trip for the van with the new Bra bought at the Classic in June.

House of dubs Meet up

2011-07-27T22:28:00.007+01:00

We went to the House of Dubs Meet up today with Stuart, Dave & Tim.

Very nice slammed Karmann Ghia.

Come on Dave you know you want to. Ben and his Split.

Tour de France in VW

2011-07-15T18:31:00.015+01:00

I went to see stage 13 of the Tour de France today between Pau and Lourdes, and I was surprised to see that they used a lots of VW's for the "Caravane" name of the publicity convoy.

2 Bay windows Low light wizzed pass in front of me.

This New Beetle had Mickey on the top Another New Beetle.And another one.

A Volkswagen Touareg

Volkswagen Transporter

This trike had a flat 4 engine and was built on a VW chassis.

Opening of the garage

2011-06-28T19:36:00.023+01:00

This is the sectional garage door I went to pick up in Herne bay the other day. Good job I had the van because the panels were pretty big.
This is ruthly where the garage frame had to go. A bit of tidy up was necessary.
The left side is in place...
... and now the right side.
It didn't go as plan, the support of the roof is on the way.
I had to make some new timber to make the support of the roof higher.
That way the roof shouldn't fall on me.

After cutting the existing timber I also had to make a notch.
Everything is now square.
And this is how it looks.
A support for the spring has been made.
And the cable to lift the door is in place.
A bit of tension.
And the door is ready to open
Hey Hey !!!
Now the hard work. I had to hire this angle saw to cut the brick and it wasn't easy to cut the wall.
All the bricks are removed one by one.

Nearly there.
That's it, the door was behind so I was able to close it straight away.
And I can now move the van on the back garden.
That's it, until next stage.

Snap shot of my trip to California

2011-06-24T03:36:00.015+01:00

Balboa Island is certainly one of my favorite places.Huntington Beach with the lifeguard look out.

Santa Monica Beach with the pier in the background.

Venice Beach at sunset.

Universal Studios.

Malibu Beach. (Baywatch)

Found a rattle snake while eatting lunch. Must remember not to walk on the grass....

View of Los Angeles from the Observatory at Griffith Park.

Union Station in Downtown L.A.

Even the tramps have designer homes in Santa Monica...

Mexican Market in L.A.

Farmers Market.

LAX Airport.

Holiday over 'til the next time....

Petersen Automotive Museum - Los Angeles

2011-06-22T06:47:00.050+01:00

1911 American Underslung - Model 50 Traveler1901 Breer

2 cylinder Stean - 5 HP

1903 Cadillac - Model A Runabout

Scene based on the Laurel and Hardy movie Hog Wild made in 1930.

1915 Stutz - White Squadron Racer1955 Cobra - Motorama Custom.

1959 Ol'Yaller - Mark III

1922 Willys-Knight.

1931 Twin Coach - Delivery Truck.

1932 Harley-Davidson.1921 White - Tanker Truck.

1922 Chevrolet - Series 490 Coupe.1917 Detroit Electric - Brougham Model 61.1932 Ford - Model BB Tow Truck.

1932 Ford - Doane Spencer Roadster.

1959 Cadillac - Series 62 Convertible.

1950 Mercury - Custom

1939 Bugatti - Type 57C Atalante.

2006 Bugatti Veyron 16.4

1959 Chevrolet Corvette

1926 Ford - Model T Sedan

K.S. Pittman Willys Gasser

1932 Ford - Miller Highboy Roadster

1932 Ford - Little Foose Coupe

1992 Aluma Coupe

1932 Ford.

1967 Ford Mustang - Malco Gasser1912 Harley-Davidson

1927 Indian - Big Chief Formerly owned by Steve McQueen.

Scale 1:1 Hot Wheels - 1939 Lincoln Zephyr "Scrape"

Huge HotWheels collection inside the museum.

Nerly every models were represented.

HotWheels Mould.

1946 Salsbury - Model 85

1944 Cushman - Airborne Model 53 with M3A4 Hand Cart.

The real VW of Los Angeles + other stuff Part 2

2011-06-21T05:19:00.035+01:00

On the way to Venice, this guy was in a rush. Maybe he couldn't wait to go surfing.An Airstream parked.

This one has seen better days.

A day out with the Westfalia...

Seen near Universal Studios.

This is Magnum Ferrari at Universal Studios.

And the DeLorean from Back To The Future

Santa Monica.

The Route 66 ends in Santa Monica

This Early Bay was going towards Malibu.

Seen at the junction between Malibu and Sunset Boulevard.

Cool Beetle seen in Zuma Beach

I think this is the Chevrolet I saw in Venice the day before

Another Early Bay in Malibu full of surf boards.

This guy seems to be having fun in his Porsche 356 in Hollywood.

A matt Blue Aston Martin in Beverly Hills in front of the hotel where Pretty Woman was filmed.

An Audi R8, There is definately some money in Beverly Hills.

Bugatti Veyron In Rodeo drive

The Black Widow Hot Rod at the Petersen automotive Museum

Big 1:1 set for the premiere of the film "Cars 2" in Hollywood

Loved this helmet...

The real VW of Los Angeles + other stuff Part 1

2011-06-20T06:14:00.031+01:00

This is a few shots of a lots of VW's and other cool cars spotted during my visit in Los Angeles.
This yellow cab was on the Pacific coast Highway going to Santa Monica.

Here, seen on the Santa Monica pier, a cool orange Beach Buggy.

This must be the most rotten Beetle in LA. I can't believe it's on the road. Look at the sign above it.

In Venice this Bay Window was parked. It had a few surf Boards inside.Amazing, this is the view I had when I turned into one of the street in Santa Monica.A 21 Window Samba Bus.

A bit further on, a small garage with a few VW's, like this early Bay

A 1303 cab in Santa Monica

Another garage, another cool car, this time a 356.

And another one...

Porsche Targa

Repair garages are everywhere.

Out of a supermarket.

$4995 will buy you this Karmann Ghia. I was so tempted.... But not this time.

Yep so tempted.....

In Venice people are driving this kind of car.

Or that kind....

This one was very very cool

VW Classic Show 2011 - Part 2

2011-06-13T05:52:00.035+01:00

Hey Andy what are you doing here?

Nice to see some known faces, Mark was there representing MCJ Products
This head were half machined from an aluminium block.

I knew the Americans could be big but on these chairs they looks tiny.

Nice DKP Motor

This guy had 3000 number plates frames...
Very rare magnesium BRM

All the goodies I managed to bring back. I might need to buy another suitcase.

VW Classic Show 2011 - Part 1

2011-06-13T05:04:00.037+01:00

7 am, view from the hotel room at the Crowne Plaza in Irvine CA. what a view when you are still half asleep and you open the curtains. We managed to get a lift to the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre with some guys from New Jersey. So a big thanks to Bill, Popeye and his mate (sorry I don't recall your name.)

Need some heads for your VW?

This westy was for sale but needed a lot of work.

Anything could be found at the Classic, here 2 back panels for an Oval.

Slammed Radio Flier.

Yep Darren, I looked for a set of back lights but the ones I saw were too damaged or too expensive.

Slammed Land Rover.

Mooneyes Stand.

This guy from Mexico was selling any bits you could imagine for Karmann Ghia's. But didn't have a complete one. He must break them and make more money buy cutting them.

Yep anything....

I still managed to find this Low light for sale for only $1700. Yes, just a bit more than a grand. I was very, very tempted but it wasn't complete and Stuart would have hated me when I would have asked him to help me with the welding....

Nice Beach Buggies on the Meyer Manx stand

DKP line up

This beetle was powered by an electric motor....

... and obviously had batteries everywhere.

KG Low rider

Hey Keiron, what are you doing here?

The Baja California isn't far from here.

That's sweet.

Helicopter with VW aircooled engine

2011-06-12T13:53:00.001+01:00