The House of Dub Open Day.

On Saturday 28th September the House of Dub & House of Dub Imports held their 2nd annual open day with show and shine at their workshop in the village of Cublington, nestled deep in the Buckinghamshire countryside. I, along with several fellow Outcast VW Club members attended the show last year and I have to say it was a really good day out. The attendance of VW's both air-cooled and water cooled was impressive as was the general layout of the show. It is a good chance to see a large and varied selection of VW's, catch up with some old friends and have a look around the House of Dub workshop as well as looking at the import buses they for sale. I agreed to meet Stuart & his kids, Claude & Jean, Tim and his boys, Ellie / Andy & Esmé, at our club meeting place for a short cruise over to the show. We took a short cut en-route to meet Andy & Annelise who joined our convoy.

The show field was divided up into vehicle
categories, so Stuart and I both headed to the
'RAT' section. Stuarts chequered bay, and
my bay parked up.

Also parked in the RAT section was our good
friend, Nathan who came along in his patina
red '69 bay, and a very nice looking split
screen single cab pick up.

Stuart's '71 bay and my '69 bay.

Single cab pick up looked lovely and had
some neat touches, like the single spot light
on the US style bumper.
 

Even though it's in the RAT line up, it was in
very good condition and looked quite solid.
It appears to have Porsche 356 wheels all
round, just like my bay.

Nathan, who is a member of Oxdubz VW
club, won 'best Rat' and it's easy to see why.
Well done Nathan.



Rear view of my bay and Stuart's bay.

Claude and Jean went to the show in Claude's
1961 Kombi 11 window split screen,and won
'Best Split'. Congratulations Claude.

The guys that owned this two tone late split
window came down from Scunthorpe in
Lincolnshire, a round trip of about 320 miles
but it was worth it as they won 'Best Interior'
Well done guys.

Tim and his boys were part of our convoy in
his very retro chocolate brown T25.

It proved to be a good day for Tim who ended
up winning the runner up award in the 'Best
T25' category. Well done Tim.

The winner of the 'Best T25' was this lovely
blue model owned by Tony, a member of
the House of Dub VW Club and it's not
hard to see why it won. Well done Tony.

Spike, from the House of Dub lined up the
company's workhorse T25 and sporting a
thermal screen cover.

Andy and Annelise parked up in the 'Bay'
line up. Annelise bought this California import
almost a year ago from this show, and here
it is on the road and looking so cool.

Just a small selection of the Bay windows
on show this year.

Winner of 'Best Bay' went to a friend of ours,
Joe, who's 1970 bay is always immaculate,
and features a steel sliding sunroof. Joe is
a member of the Wolfsburg Weed Huggers
VW Club. Well done Joe.

Phil and his son Nathan attended the show
in 'Buzz Box', Phil's '75 two tone beetle.

Elliott arrived in his super clean 1970 cherry
red beetle. Both Phil and Elliott are members
of The House of Dub VW Club.

Beetles were parked in a semi circle around
the trees.

Zoe, from The House of Dub showed off
'Donkey' her 1967 two tone blue and white
beetle.

I do like 'intresting' vehicles like this.. I could
spend hours just looking at all the details and
other mods the owner has made.

The winner of 'Best Beetle' went to this lovely
mid '60's gun metal grey oval bug. The body
is super straight and super low, it has a
narrowed front beam with what looks like
polished Fuchs wheels.

Such a lovely looking car from every angle, it's
easy to see why it won the trophy.

A cool looking addition was the roof rack, so
sleek it's almost a work of art.

Runner up in the Beetle category was this
gorgeous green '63 beetle owned by Karl.
Such a lovely looking car, well done Karl.

Another member of the Oxdubz VW Club was
Seb who came over in his '67 bug with a
unique looking body. The only paint on the
body was the red Maltese Cross.

I heard rumours that Seb had some trouble
getting up the lane into the show field due to
the bug being so low...

This lovely looking black Golf won the 'Best
Water cooled' trophy. It's owned by Neil 
who is a member of The House of Dub VW
club. It features a one off paint scheme with
orange flecks over the black and it looks
awesome. Well done Neil.

Ellie put her 1995 Golf, christened 'Nitro
Nancy' on display in the water cooled section.

Scott went along in his green Lupo. Scott has
attended the Outcast VW Club's meetings in
the past but is off to Uni soon so we won't see
him for a while. Good luck at Uni Scott.

The T4 / T5 line up was varied as you would
expect.

This nice T5 belongs to Darren and Leonie,
who produce these great looking thermal
screens. They come in numerous colours
and designs for the bay, split, T25, T4 &
T5. Check out their web page at:
http://rainbowthermalscreens.com/

Super bright lime green T4. I do like the green
detailing on the black wheels.

Mark, a member of The Dunstable Dubbers
and the House of Dub VW clubs won, for a
second year running best 'T4 / T5' with his
super clean lime green T5. Well done Mark.

Kevin, who is an Oxdubz member came along
in his lovely two tone T4. Kevin has just
wired up his TV to his stereo speakers and
the sound is awesome in the back of his bus.

The 'Best of the rest' category was for
Buggies, Trekkers,Type 3's, Baja's etc.
This lovely looking buggy caught my eye.

Another House of Dub member is Andrew who
brought his very trick buggy to the show. I just
love Andrew's exhausts.

This lovely bright green Karmann belonged to
Steve a member of the Oxdubz VW Club,
I think it won the runner up award in the 'Best
Other' category.

I do like the shape of the Karmann Ghia, it's
such a timeless shape. A true design classic.

Oxdubz VW club member, Tony came over
in his totally immaculate square back. this
is a '68 and it's finished in deep gloss black.
Tony scooped the 'Best Other' & 'Best in
show' awards. Well done Tony.

You can see why Tony won the award for
'Best Other' with his super straight square
back that also has hydraulic suspension.

If there was a trophy for 'get to the show, no
matter what' then this guy would win. On his
way he got a tyre blow out, which is never
going to be pretty in such a lowered car.

As you can see they tyre let go completely,
which in turn dropped the car onto the road
which in turn ripped the front fender bolts out
and pulled the running board off it's fixings.
But after changing the wheel and with the
front wing flapping in the wind, and the
off side running board just about hanging
on they made it to the show. Well done.
Hope you get it fixed OK.

The guys from the Hayburner magazine were
there giving away goodies and selling some
items of merchandise. I believe they also
gave away some prizes to the winners.

Just a couple of bays that the House of Dub
have recently imported. To check out what
other vehicles and parts they have check out
their website:
http://www.houseofdub.co.uk/Welcome.html

Another vehicle that was for sale was this
RAT looking fastback and with a price tag
of around £500 it was tempting.


So that was the 2013 House of Dub Open
day with show and shine. Overall a very
good day with a great variety of vehicles,
in a well laid out arena. The weather was
kind to us yet again and there was lots for
the kids to do. A very big Thank you and
well done to Zoe and Spike and all the
H.O.D helpers who done such a great
job with putting on the show. Also a
well done to all the winners and runner
ups of the days prize's. (btw, I won
the runner up award for 'best Interior',
which I'm chuffed about, and Stuart won
the runner up for 'Best Rat, well done mate)
So here's to next year.!

Outcast VW Club visit Chearsley Classic Car Show + Hell Fire Hotrods.

Chearsley is a picturesque, off the beaten track Buckinghamshire village, of the TV drama series Midsomer Murders fame, which is only about 6 miles from my hometown of Aylesbury and just across the river from the nearby Oxfordshire market town of Thame. I believe this is only the second year the classic car show has been organised and as fellow Outcast member, James works on classic cars all day and also lives in Thame, he asked if any other Outcast members would like to attend. Steve, his wife Pauline and I also like classic cars so we said we would love to meet up with James and Helen and cruise the very short distance to the show, just to ensure there was some classic VW's in attendance!. The weather forecast was promising so Steve, Pauline and I arranged to meet James and Helen at Thame service station at 10.30am.
 

Steve / Pauline and I met James and Helen
at the services. Steve's white beetle, James
baby blue beetle and my bay window.

James led our small convoy through the
country lanes to the village of Chearsley.

Outcast VW Club parked up at the show.
Nice blue sky and sunshine when we arrived
but the sun didn't stay long.

This Cooper T3 ( I think) F1 racing car circa
the late 1950's.

It must have been frightning driving this around
at breakneck speeds with those skinny tyres
and I shouldn't think that roll over bar would
help much should the car roll over.

A bit different from the F1 cars of today, note
the 4 speed manual gearbox changer down
on the drivers right hand side.

A nice looking 1972 crossover bay window.

A lovely looking Zeus ZR163 Formula Ford
racing car. This has the Ford Kent 1600cc
cross flow engine.

Another Zues ZR163, this one was produced
but never assembled by the manufacturer.

This 1957 Berkeley B65 Sports in light blue is
believed to be one of less than 100 that still
survive. Berkeley produced 2500 of these
fiberglass bodied micro sports cars from 1957
to 1959. They had the 328cc 2 cylinder engine
and had a top speed of 60mph.

It's probably just as well it only had a 2 cylinder
engine with a 60mph top speed because 
considering how the wheels are connected
to the hubs I'm not sure it could survive much
more power.

A late T25 with high top and bright paintwork.

This 1980 T25 looked as though it had been
freshly painted, nice colour though.

Interior was clean and functional with full
camping interior.

This lovely 1967 Type 34 Karmann Ghia
painted in a light bronze really caught my eye.

Such a lovely classic shape that will never go
out of fashion or style. This car has been all
over Europe including, France, Germany,
Switzerland and Hungary now that is a lot of
miles...

But I reckon sitting in the drivers seat in this
Type 34 the miles of driving would be so
enjoyable they would just fly by.

This enormous Pontiac looks like a 1950
Silver Streak eight convertible to me and
finished in a spotless light blue colour.

I do like all the chrome work the 50's American
cars had, I don't think there is enough chrome
around on today's cars.

That bench seat must have been 6' wide,
and with column change you could easily
fit 3/4 people in there. That dashboard is
a work of art with the styling and even more
chrome.

These two MK3 Ford Cortina's brought back
some happy memories as I had a 2 door MK3
in Carnival red with a full length sunroof.

This 1600cc GT finished in deep gloss black
and didn't look this nice when it left the Ford
production line back in 1973.

Another car from my era was this MK1 Ford
Escort. This race / rally style themed car
looked tough.

A 1967 Ford Mustang fastback finished in
a deep red. This car used to be called the
'Enforcer' and had airbrushed pictures of
Clint Eastwood back in the day.

A stunning Jaguar XK150 FHC ( fixed head
coupe) finished in Old English White, with red
leather interior. This had the 3.4 litre engine
with twin SU carbs. This car back in 1958
would have cost you the grand sum of £2,110.

That was the Chearsley Classic Car Show,
not a bad one day show with quite a good
turnout of classic cars.

James and Helen had to venture over to
High Wycombe to visit the 'Hell Fire Hot rod
Club' who were holding their small show.
James attended last year and won best of
show, and had to pick up his prize, and as
I'm partial to hot rods I tagged along.

This Austin Eight was running a 2 litre pinto
motor with Vauxhall Viva HC front suspension
and Ford Capri rear axle.
 

It has model 'B' rear fenders and running on
Wolfrace slot mags. A pair of good looking
VW's in the background.

This mid 1950's Ford Popular was finished in
blue with dark blue flames and again running
on slot mags.

Classic 1980's styling from the rear of this
'Pop', teardrop rear tail-lights and wide rear
wings

A lovely 1958 Chevrolet Apache 31 series
pick up truck finished in a lovely emerald
green with super bright chrome work.

Such a lovely looking truck in excellent
condition that just looks so cool.

A lovely baby blue Dodge Challenger circa
1970.

These Challengers are massive but they had
the big block V8 to power them along.

A 1954 Chevrolet step side truck in matt black
with white bumpers, pure hot rod. This truck
was imported from California 2 years ago.

White painted steel wheels with whitewall
tyres, and lowered all round,again pure hot rod.


So that was how Steve / Pauline, James /
Helen and I spent our Sunday. Two shows
in one day, albeit both very small shows and
quite close together. A good day out with
some good friends.