[T3] The DDB and The Great Canadian VW Show story.

[Toby Erkson <air_cooled_nut@pobox.com>]

<x-flowed>Hey Volks,
Back from Canada and their show.  Had a really good time and those 
Canadians are down right nice volks!  Beautiful region and the weather 
was toasty!

We left Oregon after 7:30am with Adam's Fasty (Z-CHEF), Bob's rat rod 
Fasty, and the DDB shop car, The Bucket with Martin and I.  Brook didn't 
have a VW and borrowed his mother's new Nissan.  Ken and Susan had to 
use Susan's turbo Thunderbird because 3 CV bolts snapped on Ken's Fasty 
and he felt it best to leave the car on jack stands at home.  At the 
border in customs Martin and I got pulled over and were asked 20 
questions and then some.  They finally let us through.  I was driving 
The Bucket at this point so as we left I dropped the rear of the car at 
the crowd of security officials staring at us.

We hit our camping spot and relaxed.  The air suspension with the third 
revision of the upper front mounts was working well on The Bucket.  
Saturday morning we headed out to Air Speed for their pancake breakfast 
and to get a sneak peek at some of the cars that would be going to the 
show.  We met up with Annie and her two roommates from the host hotel, 
Clairessa (which I'm sure I just butchered her name) and Daniel.  Daniel 
had a very cute Bug that had an original 33,000 miles on it when she 
bought it (she does her own work...she used to work at a Porsche 
restoration shop...and she's only 20!).  After that we headed out to 
Stanley Park and cooled out feet in the ocean.  We finished the night at 
a big BBQ at an enthusiasts very nice house/yard.

Sunday morning we cleaned up the cars and hit The Great Canadian VW 
Show.  Guess what...the Type 3 category was grouped with the Karmann 
Ghias!  Almost every one of the 14 Type 3 owners let them know we were 
not happy with their decision.  Anyway, it was a good turn out for both 
air- and water-cooled.  There was a PRISTINE '73 Squareback driver (tan 
car in photos) and a nice '73 stock carbed Squareback (the red car in 
the photos) with a different type of air intake preheat system.  Many 
beautiful cars that photos cannot do justice to, believe me.  After the 
show Annie and her girls left (Daniel got first place for her car, 
yeay!) and we went back to camp for a great dinner cooked up by our 
chef, Adam.

Monday was our last day in Canada.  We blew a front air bag at the show 
(looked to be a manufacturing issue along with over-pressurization) so 
after some phone calls we were able to hit a VW shop and install a 
replacement air bag.  As we left the shop to hit a lunch place we lost 
our clutch.  After lunch we told the group to go home without us and 
Martin and I, along with Bob in his Fasty, hobbled back to the shop and 
lowered the engine.  Yup, the NEW clutch arm lost its right arm (weld 
failed) so we had it welded back on and Martin re-installed it.  We were 
lucky that it failed when it did otherwise we would've been too far away 
from any place to fix it and that would've made for a long trip home.

At the border in customs Martin and I got pulled aside again!  They 
asked us a few of the same questions, quickly searched the car, then let 
us on our way.  Bastards.  We only traveled a short distance when Bob 
radioed that he was having engine issues.  It was a simple fix:  New 
engine cooling boot, tighten down his left carb linkage base, and 
confirmed his back-firing was due to improperly mounted, lower exhaust 
clamps.  Martin undid the forward bolts on Bob's rear trunk lid so air 
could get scooped in (Bob was running without an engine lid).  Back on 
the road and Bob's Fasty was doing much better.

We didn't get home until 2am and it was a very chilly ride in The Bucket 
without heat but we did have coats and hats (and eventually we wore our 
ski goggles!) for just this situation -- I even wore my cold-weather 
motorcycle gloves.  But we made it and so did the air ride suspension.  
Here are my pictures and videos of the event:  
http://www.icbm.org/erkson/gallery/TGCVWS-2005  We had a good time and 
will be doing it again.  Enjoy!

--
 Toby Erkson  --  http://www.icbm.org/
 '72 VW Squareback Darksider, 5-speed, 2007cc, rag top
 '95 VW Jetta 2.0L, CHE w/LSD, 270¼, TT Chip ~ SCCA Solo 2 EP #3
 '73 Porsche 914 2.0L; '81 Honda Gold Wing, 1100cc, stripped
 Portland, Oregon

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