From the success of this repair workshop they have also formed a club for local VW owners to meet up once a month and chat about their VW's, they can seek or give advice and generally have a chilled evening with other like-minded people. The House of Dub held an open day 2 years ago where local VW owners could visit the workshop and have a look around the premises, chat to Zoe and Spike and browse all the U.S. imported bay window buses they had for sale. Zoe also organised a catering van to be on site, a kids zone, where the little ones could paint and colour in pictures in a safe environment. And she also organised a show and shine show for the attending VW owners to show off their vehicles and there were even trophies up for grabs for the 'best of class' and 'runners up' for numerous categories of both air-cooled and water cooled VW's. The first open day was an instant success, and this years 3rd open day is billed as the '3rd big end of summer BBQ' This is a well attended event with members from many local VW clubs from various counties attending. I have been to all three events and I wasn't going to miss this one as this is where I purchased 'Fiona' my 1969 imported bay window, and it's like taking her home. I had arranged to meet a few of the fellow Outcast VW club members at our club venue in Aylesbury for a short 8 mile cruise over to the show.
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| The Outcast VW Club convoy arrives at the House of Dub open day. A single track lane leads to the workshop and show field. My '69 bay window, Claude and Jean in his '60 Kombi split screen, John in his blue and white '60 split screen and Kevin in his '71 trial Beetle. |
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| Once in the show and shine field, we were directed to the appropriate area for parking based on what type of vehicle we had. They did not have a 'RAT' line up this year (which was a shame) so I had to park in the 'Bay window' line up alongside lots of nice and shiny painted bays. |
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| John and Claude headed for the 'Split Screen' line up. John's gorgeous satin white over satin blue1960 splitty looked so good in the morning sunshine. |
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| John and Claude's split screens parked up. We arrived quite early in the day which is why the the show field looks a bit empty. |
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| Claude parked up and promptly opened the safari screens on his '60 Kombi, not only to let some cool air into the bus but also because the bus looks so good with them open. |
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| Jean insisted I took a photo of the interior of Claude's bus. I believe Jean papered the roof lining and obtained matching cushions. Another Outcast member, Steve made the bespoke table for Claude. |
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| The first thing we did once we were parked up was to visit the workshop. I quickly noticed this lovely 1972 twin slider panel van that the H.O.D. had recently imported alongside the workshop. |
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| I do like panel vans and this one, having twin sliding doors was gorgeous. Spike was telling me that this bus has lived most of it's life in Hawaii, which means unlike Californian buses it did have a very small amount of rust, but certainly nothing major. |
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| A nice photo showing both sliding doors open. This bus is very solid and is a blank canvas for someone to stamp their own mark on it. |
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| An imported panel van, sitting at stock height. Spike told me that this panel van is due into the work-shop soon to get it running and on the road and then hopefully sell it. |
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| A imported 1972 panel van from the U.S. with twin sliding doors for just £6500.00 ($10,571) seems like a bargain. |
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| Another imported bay the H.O.D. had for sale was this lovely red '69 Westy with full patina paint. I think this one which had a full U.K conversion and a current M.O.T. was for sale for £13,500. |
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| Around the back of the workshop is where Spike keeps his collection of various VW's. This right hand drive type 34 Karmann Ghia had seen better days, but as its believed there are less than 50 right hand drive type 34's in the country, Spike was not even thinking about selling it. |
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| Almost every panel had rot, both front and rear screens were missing ( not sure if Spike has these or not) and what was left of the interior was also looking rough. |
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| The floor was totally rotten, you can see the big hole in the drivers foot well. All the clocks and dials were missing and seats were long past their best. Having said all the negative things about this 'Razoredge' it is still a lovely looking car... now if only I could weld. |
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| A small selection of VW's that Spike has 'out the back' I'm not sure if these are to be repaired or whether they are donor vehicles. Either way, it was a varied collection. |
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| Moving back to the show and shine field, I made my way to the Beetle line up. Zoe had her blue and white '67 Beetle on show. unfortunately the clutch decided to break yesterday, but when your other half runs the workshop I can't imagine it'll be long before it's repaired. |
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| Zoe has owned this car almost all her life, and apart from the clutch going, it's normally so reliable. |
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| Another '67 Beetle sitting on steel wheels and lowered to within a inch of it's life. The contrasting white paint on the wheels looks great against the deep red body colour. |
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| A lovely oval Beetle, lowered and plenty of bright chrome work. I believe this oval won the 'Best Beetle' at the show. |
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| The rear end of any oval bug, with it's flowing body lines just looks so beautiful and when the oval is as clean as this one, it just makes it simply stunning. |
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| The oval was lowered about as far as you can physically lower a bug. The chrome detailing on this bug really makes this car stand out. The alloy roof rack is another detailed accessory. |
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| A very clean and tidy 1971 Beetle finished in bright red. Nothing flash or fancy on this bug but it still looks so good. |
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| Onto the Beach Buggy line up I headed for this lovely bright yellow buggy. I'm not sure what make of body this one has but I did like it. |
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| Lovely colour matching high back seats and plenty of accessories in this buggy. |
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| Andrew came along in his cool looking buggy. Andrew was telling me that since the rebuild he has covered almost 6000 trouble free miles. Very impressive. Andrew is a H.O.D club member. |
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| Another buggy that caught my eye was this long wheelbase beauty in gloss black. I did like those wheels which very unusual but looked so good. |
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| Another great looking interior on this buggy. |
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| This buggy looks lovely from this angle, I did like this body style. There are numerous body manufacturers, and each body style is different. |
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| A stunning dark blue over white 1960's split screen. It's unusual to have the darker colour on a two tone paint scheme on the top, but I like it this way. |
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| Another blue and white split screen, but so different from the last one. This one has the white on top and the baby blue on the bottom half of the body. This one is a 1966 split screen with Porsche wheels. |
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| Simply gorgeous 1960's split screen panel van finished off in a beige / white colour. The owner was saying that he wants the van sign written and was looking for a sign writer to help him out. |
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| The sunshine always makes buses look better and the line up of split screens proves the point. |
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| A lovely 1971 Beetle arrived later in the day. This bug was not a show winner, but it did look so good with those 'Centerline' look- a-like wheels. |
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| Nothing flash and fancy but some cars don't need to be, and this is one of them. I did like the old skool hot rod style pin striping on the bonnet. |
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| If your going to paint a car black, it needs to be straight, and this lovely 'notch' is certainly that. Almost perfect reflection along the length of the body. |
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| This is such a lovely looking car. Simple black gloss paint, a nice set of BRM wheels and all red tail light lenses. Just about perfect. |
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| Mark is a House of Dub club member and he came along in his very distinctive cross over bay. Mark has so many accessories and stickers on his bay that once you start to read them, you'll be there for ages. |
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| The interior of Marks bay has just as many accessories. Mark won 'Best Bay' at the show today. Well done mate. |
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| Neil is also a House of Dub club member and came along in his newly acquired T4. Since purchasing this van, Neil had replaced many mechanical parts, lowered the van, painted the wheels and made a comfortable area in the back complete with a bed. |
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| Neil has done a lot of work on his van, but it does look much better now than when he first got it a month or two ago. |
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| Just a few of the 'water cooled' line up. A nice variety of cars. So that was the first of two installments on the House of Dub open day. The second installment to follow in a few days. |
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