OK, so like two years ago, my friend in Grass Valley and I (I'm in San Francisco) completed our Herbie replicas. I just a few minutes ago stumbled on this group on The Samba.
Immediately, a message and a phone call went out to him.
We did an El Dorado run from Yosemite, Grass Valley, Lake Tahoe, Virginia City, and back in October. Had a logo, T shirts, the whole deal. Met some nice VW people along the way. I wish we'd have known about you!
Anyway, I get out to Grass Valley in one of my two VWs every couple months. I'll certainly plan my next overnighter on the night of your meet so we can attend. Hopefully he'll be able to show up this month to introduce himself. it's too short of a notice since I just discovered you and can't make it this weekend.
We run a well attended forum (60-100 posts a day), and are always willing to assist with technical advice without the attitude and poor-answers gleaned from the Samba's forum. Most of us have been through complete teardowns of 1960s VWs (for obvious reasons) and have quite a good log of experience to pull from, places to avoid dealing with for parts, etc.
Example tidbit: Despite having the highest prices, MAM carries only low and mid-grade parts.
For VW advice, you'll want to visit the
Volkswagen General Discussion Forum on our board. Many of our members are long time VW mechanics.
I'm at work, so I'll leave you with a photo of our cars. Next up, we have one of the bodies used in
Herbie Fully Loaded which needs virtually everything. It's just a body shell cut off 12" from the windshield. It was a camera platform car for interior shots.
Also, another car's getting a sunroof graft (EEEK! Ragtops are convertibles! End the misuse of the word in VW circles!).
Last, my name is Kyle. Jim Douglas is the main character from
The Love Bug.
Kyle, Buddy & Herbie the Love Bug ll53