Thursday 25 April 2013

House of Dub Monthly VW meet,

Well it looks as though Spring has finally arrived in the UK, OK it's not quite summer just yet but at least it appears as though the rainy season has gone. That can only be good news for the numerous VW shows and club meets that have been planned for this year. One such VW club meet is the House of Dub monthly VW meet. The house of Dub have a new venue for the foreseeable future, and as I have not been to this new location before and as it had been a nice day I decided to venture over to the neighbouring county of Bedfordshire to see some old friends.
 
 
The entrance into the Globe Inn, in Linslade
 looked promising.

Canal side bar and restaurant, on a lovely
spring evening what could be a better
location for a club meet.

Ben left his split screen at home and came in
his lovely T5 in brilliant white.

I was very impressed with this T5, I would like
one of these, but that would mean getting rid
of my bay.. and that isn't going to happen.

Ben has already started to modify the interior
to his own taste. He has fitted some white
LED down lights and also this lovely blue LED
strip down the centre of the interior.

Zoe, who runs the House of Dub club came
in her newly acquired convertible Beetle.

A new member who came down for the first
time was Phil and his son Nathan, and their
newly acquired beetle. Nice to meet you Phil,
and Nathan hopefully see you both again.

Phil was saying that he recently bought this
Bug, and was having a few teething problems.
At the moment he said he had a love / hate
relationship with it, don't worry Phil we all have
teething problems.. after all it is a VW.

Phil's bug has a rare factory fitted sunroof...
very nice. Just need some decent weather now.

Andrew came down in his Buggy after an 18
month rebuild. It does look and sound very nice.
 

Andrew was saying that he was thinking about
getting a tonneau cover in the future, maybe
a wise choice in the UK.

Really nice colour a sort of purple metal flake.

Interior is purely functional.

Lovely looking rear end. When Adrian started
his buggy to leave, the exhaust was so loud it
set off the alarm on Richard's Polo parked
next to him.!

Elliott arrived in his lovely cherry red Beetle,
which looked as clean as always. My bay in
the background, looking not quite as shiny
as Elliot's Bug.

Lovely straight, clean Bug in cherry red.

I do like Elliot's wheels, I think they suit the
style of his Beetle perfectly.

Mark also came down in his lime green T5.
This van seems to appear on my blog more
than my Bay.!

But it's ok, I never get tired on seeing Mark or
his T5. I did hear a rumour that it may be
featured in a magazine soon? Watch this
space...

Richard came in his lowered Polo, I think this
was probably the lowest vehicle at the meet
last night.

This really is a cool looking car.

Another regular at the H.o.D club meets was
Mark who came down in his bay window.

Mark has so many accessories / stickers on
his bay, it would take most of the night to see
everything, but that's what makes this bay
stand out.

Spike came down in the official House of Dub
company car. As you would expect from a guy
that works on VW's all day, this isn't your
average company car!

Lowered as only Spike can do... very low.

Gavin also came down in his new Caddy
which looked really nice.
 
Sophie arrived after I had left in her VW UP.
Thanks to Zoe for taking a photo and sending
it to me.


So that was the House of Dub club meet, this
was the first time I have been over to their
meet since October last year. It was great to
catch up with old mates and to meet the new
members and their vehicles. See you all next
month guy's.
 

Wednesday 17 April 2013

Ace Cafe Air-cooled Night.

On the 3rd Tuesday of each month the world famous Ace Cafe, London hold an air cooled night and as I haven't been to this event since October last year, mainly due to the great British weather being so bad, I decided to go. I knew my mate Stuart who normally goes with me would not go as he was still designing and making a home grown turbo system for his '71 bay, but his son Tim said he fancied going... so off we set.
 
Tim and I made good time getting to north
west London and arrived quite early. At least
it was still light enough to take some good
photos.


The first vehicle I saw as I drove into the Ace
car park was my mate Mark's lovely T5. Mark
is from Dunstable Dubbers VW club

Mark's Super clean T5 with my bay in the
background. Being such a lovely bright green
colour, Mark's ride is kind of hard to miss.

T25 lowered crew cab pick up looked sweet.
I reckon this would look even better with a
canvas top to cover the pick up bed.

Another member of Dunstable Dubbers was
my mate Darren, who was celebrating his
birthday with a trip to the Ace with his fellow
club members.

Nice windscreen sticker on Darren's
bay window.

Another sticker on Darren's fuel filler cap...
I can see a theme here.

This freshly painted early bay looked good.

Another blue bay, but this time it's a late bay
with a pop top.

Satin black cars always appeal to me, reminds
me of my old hot rod days. This bug was
lowered, had nerf bars and painted in satin
black and looked cool.

This turquoise beetle has been a regular on
my blog for some time now, the owner attends
a lot of the shows I attend.


Nice and low, and a lovely colour.

This very rat looking bug is a regular at the
Ace Cafe. It has rust on most panels and a
narrowed front beam and sits real low..
but doesn't it look good.

From the front you can see how low it really
is, loving the rusty roof rack and the rusty
spot lights.

The phrase on the beetle number plate made
me smile.

Fresh from exhibiting his '66 Beetle at the
Volksworld show, my mate Tom brought his
bug up to the Ace. Nice to see you mate...
maybe see you at our club meet sometime?

This really is a lovely looking beetle from every
angle. Tom is a member of the Wolfsberg
Weed Huggers VW Club.

Nice photo of Tom's beetle showing off the
classic lines and lovely deep gloss paint of his
early bug.

This lovely early bug used to belong to a friend
of mine, Zoe, who with her partner Spike run
the House of Dub. These are the guy's I bought
my bay window from so if your looking for a
solid imported bay window, give them a call.
http://www.houseofdub.co.uk/Welcome.html

Maybe work in progress...but it doesn't matter
it's just nice to see another air-cooled VW on
the road.

Another early bug, this time in what looked
like original paint with roof rack filled with
accessories.

Love how low this was, and the camber of the
rear wheels.

Early '70'S bug sporting a chequered
bra and big spot lights.

A late bay, riding at just below stock height
with a two tone paint job and a pop top.

Very clean split screen in a off white colour,
very nice.

I hadn't seen this beetle before. Sitting really
low and with pastel blue paint.

The bonnet had an un-usual design so I took
a closer look. It looked as though the owner
had somehow rippled the inner sections and
then painted the 2 sections in various colours,
then rubbed down the sections to varying
degrees to reveal different coloured high and
low spots.   

You can see the varying high and low spots
better in this photo... along with a script the
owner has somehow created. Un-usual, yes,
but kind of cool.

Another stock height late bay, very clean.

Yes it was air-cooled night, but you can't turn
away water cooled VW's can you?

Stock height late bay, this was very straight
and very clean.

Another member of Dunstable Dubbers was
Carlo in his retro T25.

Bright orange and white early bay. Again very
clean.

Lovely green paint and cream coloured steel
wheels on this beetle looked just about right. 


A very clean bronze coloured rag top bug.

A dark blue T5 with tinted windows and
custom wheels. Very nice.

My bay parked up enjoying the spring evening.

My bay at the Ace Cafe, London.

A nice looking bug parked up next to me later
in the evening.

The first of 3 beetles I hadn't seen before was
this lovely gold, race themed beetle.

Although I didn't find out much about this
bug, it did look nice.

A window sticker in the back of a bay window
 


The 2nd beetle I hadn't seen before was this
blue beetle, it was advertising the 'Apex
Festival'.
 
Love those wheels.. not sure what they are
but they suit this bug.

The 3rd beetle I hadn't sen before was this
white one. It had so many decals I wasn't
sure if it was advertising something or not.


Ah, now this is better, a rat looking stock
beetle.

The local kids on their twist and go scooters
were on hand to give us Vee Dubbers an
impromptu show of their skills.
 
The 4 scooters spent well over an hour pulling
wheelies as they rode past the Ace.

As I mentioned there were 4 kids on scooters
providing the entertainment, but the other 3
were going past so quick it was hard to get a
good photo, this guy was pulling really slow
wheelies... which are much harder to do.

He would virtually come to a standstill, resting
on his number plate before accelerating off.

They were wheeling past this monster Chevy
truck. It was that big I couldn't even look in the
windows!

Massive pick up bed, was the size of a normal
hatchback car

Twin rear wheels and massive bore exhaust.


That was the April VW meet at the Ace Cafe,
After a long cold winter it was nice to get
along to a VW meet at last. Yes it could
have been a bit warmer, but that will come..
eventually. It was just nice to drive my
bay, and catch up with some old faces and
what better place to do that than the Ace Cafe.