My day at the OCTO bus show

I drove to the city of Long Beach this morning to attend the OCTO (Orange County Transporter Organization) show. This show is for pre-1967 buses only and the entrance fee is $5. If you bring any other vehicle to the show area, the entrance fee is $50. 

I decided to hold on to my wallet and avoid buying any rare parts that I do not really need. It is really tempting to buy rare parts specially when they are reasonably priced. Some guys have garages full of junk parts that they don’t know what to do with. Yours truly has come to the realization that I need to be in a “parts diet” and avoid falling into the junk trap. 

During the show, I saw a few new pre-67 buses that joined the VW bus community. As expected, rare parts are priced a bit high. Many bargain hunters were aggressively prowling the whole show area. 

I was looking for a good doghouse shroud and saw a few that are in shabby state. I came upon a nice guy who is selling a complete 1600 engine for $350. The doghouse in it is in very good condition and I asked how much is the doghouse. He said that he is thinking of selling the engine as a whole instead of piecing it out. He said that he rebuilt the engine 15 years ago and used brand new pistons. For the cylinder heads, he used a used pair and when he started it, he noticed that cylinder #3 does not have a lot of compression. Though $350 is a good price, it is still a risky purchase because brand new cylinder heads are pricey. The guy is not an engine builder and so I don’t know how well he did in rebuilding this engine. He told me that his wife has cancer and they are temporarily staying in southern California so that his wife can be treated at a specially hospital here. He has sold two of his pre-67 buses and all his parts to fund his wife’s treatment. I felt bad for the guy and wanted to help him. Unfortunately it would be a $350 gamble for me to buy his engine which I am not willing to pull the trigger on. I apologized to the nice fellow and told him that I am hoping that his wife eventually recovers from her battle with cancer. 

The crowd at the show was light. By mid-morning, I decided to leave the show early because I still have things to do at the house. 

My first set of auto body hammers.

January 28, 2014

Ever since I started teaching myself how to do auto body work, I have been wanting to buy a good set of auto body hammers and dollies. When I checked the catalog of Snap-on and Mac Tools, the prices of their tools are way above the regular tools in the market. I guess quality tools does not come cheap. 

The very first auto body hammer I bought was a hammer that I purchased at a local swap meet for $3. I bought it so that I could have something to use while I am refining my welding skills. 

Every time I go to Pomona swap meet, I would check out if anyone is selling Snap-on or Mac tools but I can’t seem to spot anybody selling them. I also did not have any luck finding them at vintage VW shows in southern California. I have been checking the website Craigslist.com everyday but majority of the auto body hammers being sold there the cheap ones. 

Finally, I had an idea. I decided to check out the items being sold in Craigslist.com outside California. I spotted a guy selling 3 Snap-on body hammers and 2 dollies for $180. I called the phone number listed on the ad and a guy answered the phone. When I told him that I am from California, he became a bit suspicious and did not really wanted to talk to me. 

It took another two weeks or so before I found another advertisement in Craigslist.com and this time from a person in the state of Michigan. The guy from Michigan was selling 3 Mac tools body hammers, 3 Mac dollies and 1 Mac  light spoon for $120. After studying the pictures in the ad, I decided to call the phone number in the ad. An old timer with a southern accent answered the phone and after I told him that I am calling from California, he told me that he does not want to deal with long distance buyers. I did not want to lose this one and so I had to explain to him that I am a legitimate buyer and I am willing to send them the money via US postal money order. I also explained to him that the U.S. postal money order is known to be the safest way to send money to someone you do not know. He then said that he will talk to his wife who will be the one to decide if we will proceed with the transaction. 

After I hang up with the guy, I waited for a couple of hours. After no call came in, I decided to send a text to the old guy and gave him my home address, work & home phone number and where I work. I finally got an email from the wife of the old guy who told me that they are willing to sell me their Mac tools if I send them the money via US postal money order. I got a call from the lady seller the following day and she seemed very nice. She and her husband are now retired people living in a small town where neighbors live a bit of a distance from each other. Though I am a bit hesitant to send money to total strangers, I figure that these folks are worth the gamble because there are no huge indicators that tells me that they will run away with the money.

It took 5 days to my check to reach Michigan using a first class mail stamp. I received a text from the seller informing me that that they got the check and they are now on their way to the postal office to mail me the tools. After 3 days, a box arrived at my doorstep and when I opened the box, I found the Mac tools in good condition. 

Today, tested the hammers & dollies on some damage vintage bus hubcaps. I felt more comfortable with the Mac tools because they are solid and handles better. 

I read an article written in an auto body fabrication forum that tells people to continue buying different styles of dollies because you will always find a way to use them as you continue working on auto bodies. 

The sad oval 1956 bug

I was driving home last Monday when I saw my neighbor waving asking me to pull over. After I pulled over the curb, my neighbor asked me if I would be interested in buying an oval bug that his friend owns. I said, “sure” because there is not a lot of  pre-1957 ovals specially the earlier split window bugs. My neighbor seemed quite excited which tells me that he has a commission agreement with the owner. 

My neighbor handed me his cell phone and the owner of the bug was on the line. I asked the owner basic questions like: Does your bug have a matching pan? What kind of paper work does it have? Type of engine? Owner said that the pan is original, he has the title and the engine is a 1641cc. 

We drove to a house about a mile or so away for me to check the bug. The bug is painted Dove Blue. But when I checked closely on the edges of the interior, I discovered that the paint underneath the dove blue is either ivory or possibly light beige (which is one of the original colors for a 1955 type 1). 

The bug is slammed really low. The front probably has only about a 3 or 4-inch ground clearance while the rear has about a 5 to 6-inch ground clearance. I checked the condition of the floor underneath the bug and it has nasty scrape marks on several low areas. The front apron had been disturbed before but has no signs of frontal collision damage. The bottom of the wheel well is partly gone and has a combination of rust and road scrape damage. The interior area under the hood is painted black and when I lifted the hood, its left side sags a bit causing a metal strain on the right side. From this strain a small rip opened up on the right side of the hood just after the hood prop. The dash seemed to be in good shape except the control knobs are all not original. The steering wheel does not match the year and the sun shade is obviously from a 1960’s bug.

Looking at the small details of the interior, I have the impression that this 56 bug was probably a stock rolling shell before and some young guy decided to buy it. This young guy is probably a “Lowrider” fanatic and decided to slam this 56 bug to create his VW version of a lowrider vehicle. In my personal opinion, it would have been better if the previous owner just lowered it to just achieve that Cal-look style. 

Though the paint seemed descent, it has several noticeable runoffs at different parts of the bug. The roof also has a slight dip area that you will only notice if you follow the curve of the whole roof. I don’t know if a heavy kid sat on it at one time. 

I spoke again to the owner over the phone and asked him how much does he really want for his bug. He kept on telling me to “make an offer”. To force him to spill out a number, I decided to use an old negotiation technique by probing how much has he spent on the bug. This is how our conversation went:

Me: “Are you in this bug for $3000?” 

As I expected, the owner became a bit annoyed and answered, “Huh?! Are you offering me $3000? Heck NO!”. 

Me: “I am NOT offering you $3000. I am just asking you if you are IN THIS bug for $3000?” 

Owner: “This bug is worth way more than that. I know people from West Coast Customs and they told me that my 1956 bug is worth about $10,000 to $12,000”. 

Me: “Let me do this, I will run the numbers on how much it will take to bring this bug to stock condition and I will give you a ring. Is that ok?”

The owner agreed but what I was just simply trying to do is to end the conversation as smoothly as I can. 

The following evening while I was eating dinner, my door bell rang. It was my neighbor and he told me that the bug owner wants to make an offer to me that I cannot refuse. Though I know in my heart that there is no way I will shell out any money for that 56 bug, I hesitantly agreed to talk to the owner on the phone again. 

The owner told me that he is willing to sell me his bug for $8500. He claims that at that price his bug is a “give-away”. I politely explained to him that I don’t feel that his bug is for me. I can tell that he is desperate to off-load his bug to someone else and plans to use the money on another vehicle whom he seemed excited to own. I told the owner that I would gladly purchase his car IF it was in a complete stock condition. Unfortunately, the 56 bug has been modified to an extent that I am not comfortable owning it at any price. I suggested to him to place an ad on thesamba.com and hopefully someone else will agree to buy his bug. 

Whoever owned that 1956 oval prior to its current owner committed heresy because he/she desecrated it. Back in the 1970s and 80s, VW bugs & buses were so plentiful that they were a dime-a-dozen. People were just trashing them to the point that they are rendered unusable. 

Awhile back I saw a short black & white film that showed several split & oval window bugs being dropped into a vehicle shredding machine that chewed to bits these iconic vehicles. I felt like hunting down those lunatics who were responsible for destroying those rare bugs. To this day I flinch whenever I recall that horrifying short film. I guess during those days the split and oval windows were not as valuable to car fanatics as they are right now. 

Cheap Car paint repair door-to-door Scam

Early this afternoon, my son called me and said that someone is at our driveway asking if I am selling any of my Volkswagens. When I stepped outside, there was this fast talking guy who said, “Any of these cars you need to sell? I just want to make money. Do you want to sell them?”.

I was not comfortable with the way he talked to me and so I told him that none of my cars are for sale. Once he heard that, he just ignored me and went to talk to my neighbor who was standing next to his wife’s car.

The guy told my neighbor that he could fix the small paint damage on the bumper of his wife’s 2011 Nissan car for only $90.

I am familiar with this type of cheap “Quick-fix, Quick-money” scam. I made eye contact with my neighbor and gently shook my head sending him a signal not to fall for this scam. My neighbor dismissed my concern and gave the guy permission to work on his wife’s car.

The guy borrowed a cutting blade from me and started to scrap parts of the paint off the bumper. I decided not to watch because I know it is a scam. The guy spray painted the area on the bumper with white paint and covered it with thick layer of car wax. My neighbor paid the guy the $90 and said that he will be back after a few minutes because the wax needs to set.

I checked on the workmanship of the guy and it looked like a paint touchup job done by a 5-year old kid. It was totally horrible. The wax hid the bad job!

Two and a half hours later after the guy who did the paint job left, I told my neighbor that I don’t think the guy will be coming back. I showed him the “disaster paint job” that was done on the bumper of his wife’s car. The guy just did a quick spray of paint and the paint runoffs were all over the “repaired” area. My neighbor said that the guy left him a cell phone number and decided to call the phone. A minute later, my neighbor told me, “Guess what?”. I answered him, “The phone you called is disconnected, right?”. My neighbor said, “How did you know that?!”. I replied, “I have been trying to tell you that the whole thing was a scam! Why didn’t you believe me?!”

I explained to my neighbor that the way these scam artist works is they sweet talk you into saving you a huge amount of money on paint repair by offering you a quick-fix at very affordable rates. They will say things like, “I will repair the damage on your car and make it look like factor paint”. Once you give them permission to repair your car, they will use a razor to chip the paint off and use a paint from a spray can to quickly paint the area that needs to be repair.

If you know a little about car painting, you know that you don’t use a razor to take off the paint. You use different grades of sanding paper from 300 grit up to 1200+ grit. The higher the number of grit, the finer the grain on the sand paper.

The reason why the scammer applies a thick layer of wax on the area that was worked on, he just wants to cover the bad job that was done. He will then say that he will just buy something at the store and be back in 30 minutes to finish the job. Actually, what he is doing is he wants to do a quick escape and you will never see him again EVER.

I felt sorry for my neighbor and promised him that I will try my best to fix his wife’s bumper. I told him that I am not good in painting cars but I could at least try in repairing the botched repair that that scammer did on his car. I promised him that I will do it totally for free.

My neighbor is one of my very best friends and he is always generous. To make him feel better, I told him to just "charge the whole unfortunate incident to experience". Then he asked me, "Man, I don't know how I am going to break this bad news to my wife". Then I said, "Oh boy, that is a problem".

Cruising the 2013 VW classics

June 10, 2013

Last week, the sightings of vintage VWs around southern California increased because of then impending 31^st annual classics scheduled at Irvine Meadows at the city of Irvine, California. Prior to the Classic event, there were also smaller events that many VW enthusiasts call “pre-classics”. One of these events is the DKP (Der Kleiner Panzer) cruise held at Nick’s burger in the city of Fullerton.

For the past few years, I have taken days off from work to enable me to attend the DKP gathering at Nick’s burger because it is always held on a Friday. This year is a bit different because the demands of my regular work plus supporting the needs of my academic driven daughter has kept my hands loaded with numerous tasks. (My daughter’s academic trait is not rooted to me because I was a beer loving party animal back in my youth. She mostly got the nerdy gene from her mother).

After work last Friday (June 7^th), I drove to Nick’s burger at around 5:30pm. When I arrived at the place, I saw that all parking spots at the Nick’s were occupied by VWs. There were lots of people checking out the VWs parked around the restaurant. For years now, the DKP members would park their cars on the left side of the parking lot while the rest parked their vehicles on the back and right side parking areas. For some reason, this year the DKP occupied the right side of the parking lot next to the VWs belong to the “German Folks” members.

While I was walking through the rows of VWs at the parking lot, I was a bit disappointed because most of them are the usual VWs in the area. Unlike the previous years where you have spectacular display of VWs that are worth $75k, $100k and more, this year’s show did not have the usual dazzling bling.  Yes, there were nice looking bugs and buses at the parking lot but what was absent were those ultra rare 1950s bugs/buses that had $20,000 paint jobs.

I heard of a story narrated to me by a witness who saw a terrible incident that happened during one of the VW shows where expensive VWs were parked on tight rows. During that show, some guys decided to do a dumb thing by dangerously throwing around a football at the parking lot where the showroom VWs were parked. These idiots thought that nothing wrong well happen. Well, something terribly wrong did happen! When one of the guys lost his balance while trying to catch the ball, he landed on the hood of an early 1950s VW that is allegedly worth more than $100,000 plus. When everyone heard the loud crash, everybody frost and a big hush came over the crowd. The witness who told me the story said that he does not know how the whole thing was settled. So, the moral of the story is—Don’t play with your balls around rare VeeDubs!

Back to my Nick’s story; I noticed that the parking lot next to Nick’s burger restaurant was opened to accommodate the overflow of VWs that were still arriving to join the show. I spotted two single cab pre-67 buses parked next to each other loaded with old parts for sale. One of them had several guys hanging around its gates. It is obvious that these guys were waiting for the owner of the parts to return so that they can start bidding for the parts. Most of them had been eyeing the bus bumpers that were sitting on top of the pile of parts. Since these guys pretty much placed their claim on the pre-67 bus bumpers, I decided to peek through the small spaces between the pile of rusted metal to check for rare parts that they missed. I spotted a light blue engine lid for a pre-67 bus underneath the parts with a price tag of $75. Hmmm…not today.

It is no secret that beer disguised as sodas was the drink of choice of the day. Across the street, a bunch of people setup chairs hoping to watch VWs doing tire burnouts when they leave the parking lot. During last year’s event, the police issued a number of tickets to VW owners who did burnouts and speed drive-bys. When I crossed the street, I saw at the end of the parking lot a partly hidden dark colored car with two guys inside talking on radios—Police spotters! These guys would call out patrol cars whenever someone drives erratically while leaving the parking lot. Pigs!

While I was in the parking lot, a private security officer was calling out on his radio for a tow truck to tow away an early white convertible that is double parked. The owner of the bug was nowhere to be found and so to save the bug from being towed, a bunch of us took matters into our hands. One guy jumped into the driver seat of the bug and we pushed the bug to a parking spot that was just vacated by another bug. We were a bit jubilant for saving the bug from being towed. Tow yards sometimes charge between $200 to $300 before they release a vehicle. I noticed that the bug we saved had an out-of-state plates. The owner would have panicked if he discovered his vehicle was missing. Well, at least this tiny episode at the parking lot had a happy ending.

The following day (June 8^th), different VW repair and part shops located around Orange County and nearby cities held their annual open house. Some of these shops offers free food and refreshments including the ever fun essential—BEER! Instead of visiting several VW parts and restoration shops, I decided to visit just one shop, Top Line Parts located at Anaheim, California. The owner’s name is Jon Chabot and he first opened his shop back in 1979 and had repaired countless VWs over the decades. I buy parts from him because he always gives me advice on how to attack a repair project whenever I purchase parts. One of the things that I like about Jon is he is a honest and hard working man who will try to save you money if he can while doing simple straight forward deals with you.

Jon served everybody hamburger, hotdogs, salad and home made cup cakes and brownies. In front of the shop, there were a few VWs parked and one of them is a 67(?) bug whose looks seemed to suggest that it is on its way to becoming a rat rod.

While sinking my teeth on a freshly grilled burger, my cell phone received a text message from my VWCP buddy, Tox. He said that he won’t be able to make it to the Classics tomorrow because he will be cruising with the guys from Herrkooled Inland Impire, which is VW club located east of Orange County.

The evening before the classics, my daughter was stressing out quite a bit because of her upcoming high school finals. Since a number of my VW buddies and Tox won’t be able to make it to the Classics, I decided to just stay home and be with my daughter.

The following day, I received a text message from Tox that read, “Hi, I’m here now at the Classics. Where are you at?”

Oh man, why do people do this to me? Hey Tox, after you told me that you won’t be able to make it to the Classics, I had to cancel the Las Vegas dancing girls that were suppose to perform before us, freeze up the barbecue ribs and return the kegs of ice cold beer!

My Honda Headache

I took Thursday and Friday off this week from my work so that I will have some free time to do some repairs on my VW and also do some spring cleaning around the house. I was expecting to just have some peaceful time to myself working on my hobby… but it did not turned out the way I planned.

A Filipino guy named Bong called me and introduced himself as a friend of the owner of the Nissan Altima that I recently repaired. He told me that he just bought a Honda Accord 1994 model and its engine is not functioning well. When I heard the word “Honda”, I immediately felt that this will be a difficult job because the spaces around the engine is so cramp that it is hard to work on it. I hesitantly agreed to check his car hoping that the problem will be a quick fix.

While I was doing some errands last Thursday, Bong called me and told me that he is parked in front of my house waiting for me. I can’t believe this guy would just showed up at my doorstep without at least texting me in advance.

I test drove the car and discovered that on idle it is doing fine but when I accelerate, the engine struggles and skips. Oh boy, this could be anything. I told the guy that I don’t mind doing repairs on Hondas as long as the repair does not involve me working around its engine. When I saw that the ignition switch was missing, I concluded that this car must have been stolen before and was recovered with missing parts. The mechanic that tried to work on it just gave up trying to put a new ignition switch and so he just installed two flip switches to turn on the ignition power and a red button to start the engine. Some of the things around the engine does not seem to be original.

When Bong asked me to fix the radio of the Honda, I immediately told him that I will not touch the wiring of this car because it had been altered and who knows what will happen if I start messing with it.

After Bong left the car with me, I sadly looked at the car that is full of gremlins living in it. I then asked myself, “Why did I accept this job?”.

I worked on the Honda on and off during Thursday and Friday but it does not seem to be getting better. It sounds that it is getting worse even though I have not done much to alter its current state. Since the engine behaves on idle speed and only struggles whenever I accelerate on driving, I felt that there might be a problem on either the fuel pressure or there is a clog in the exhaust, possibly the catalytic converter. Since the wiring of this car had been tampered , I don’t know if I can get an error code from the computer

I am currently trying to replace the fuel filter but the nut behind the filter is as stubborn as a mule. The master cylinder and other mechanism is partly blocking my reach to the fuel filter and so I can only reach it with one arm. I had to buy a set of larger flare tools (tool used for brakes, fuel, transmission & cooling lines) to try to loosen the nut. So far the progress is slow.

This Honda is just eating up a lot of my time. While I was working on the Honda, another Filipino called me and asked me if I can replace a few things behind the dashboard controls of his van.

Though I am able to earn extra income from repairing cars, the amount of earnings I receive does not seem to compensate the amount of time I spend fixing the cars the right way. You see, almost all of my customers during my free time are people who want to spend as little as possible on their cars. They always expect to save around 70% to 80% on the repair cost. They basically want to pay a few pennies on a few dollars worth of repairs. At the end, they also expect to have a world class quality repair done on their cars!

I actually prefer working at the auto shop than working on cars in my garage because at the shop, the service charges are reasonable and you actually earn a decent income. Working on other people's cars at the garage of my house is terrible because of the mentality that customers bring with them when they drop their cars at my house is that they will only pay dirt cheap prices.

Oh boy, What did I get myself into? I sure miss the time when I was actually able to enjoy my weekends and vacations. 

The Good, the bad at the Bugin

I woke up at 4:30am last Sunday, April 28, 2013 to prepare myself to drive to the annual Bug-in show at Irwindale. The day before the event, I wanted to bring some VW parts and vintage items to sell at the show. But after thinking things over, I decided to just skip the idea and go to the show without the hassle of hauling around a huge baggage pile of junk.

I jumped in my 62 bug and turned on the ignition—nothing happened. I was then feeling a bit flustered and so I started talking to my 62 bug, “I know it’s very early in the morning but we need to get going, man. Do you want some coffee mixed with starter fluid?” Then I spotted the problem—the headlight switch is on the “ON” position. I forgot to turn the lights off the last time I drove it and it drained the battery dry. UGGH!!!!

My 63 bug & 66 bus are tightly packed inside my garage with inches to spare on all sides. It would take time to pull them out of their tight squeeze safely without scratching them. At that moment, I did not really feel like spending even a brief period of time pulling out batteries from my other cars because I have got to hit the road and head towards the VW show.

Bug-in show is quite popular among VW enthusiasts and so a lot of people show up at the gate early to avoid the long line at the main entrance. Every minute that I am delayed in leaving my house would mean that I will be further and further behind the line of cars waiting to get to the show.

If you are a swap meet vendor, it is to your advantage to be at the show early. Both VW club members and vendors would normally show up in force very early in the morning at the gate. If you are not an early risers, chances are you will have a long wait at the entrance line.

The only option I have is to drive our 1988 Toyota pickup. I already started feeling sick to the stomach by the thought of showing up at the Bug-in show driving a Toyota Pickup. I am sure my VW buddies are going to have a field day poking fun at me.

The fuel gauge of my Toyota showed that it needs to be refilled and so I drove by a nearby gas station from my house. When I stopped at the gas pump, there was a shiny early bug parked in front of me loading up fuel. I asked the owner if his bug is a 1960. He said it is a 59. I did not see his engine but I would guess he has a 2180 under his lid. I asked the guy if he was headed to the Bug-in show. Initially, he was surprised that I knew where he was going and nodded confirming my guess. When I told him that I was also going to the same place, he immediately looked at my Toyota pickup and gave that “puzzled” look. (I knew this was going to happen and it only took 7 minutes after I left my house for it to occur). Trying to be polite, the guy asked me, “What do you have?” (Meaning, what VWs do I own). I told him about my tiny collection of bugs and buses and briefly explained the small misfortune that caused me to bring my Toyota to the show instead of my beloved VW. 

While I was at the freeway, two early mint looking squarebacks zoomed by me traveling at a high speed. I guess some people are just too eager to arrive at the show. As I approached the show area, I immediately noticed a very long line of VWs waiting outside the gate.

I parked behind a white bug and sparked a conversation with the owner. VWs from different clubs started arriving. A group of 15 VWs from one club drove by and parked behind us. By then it was around 6am and I heard someone said that they will open the gate soon. I walked around checking out trucks packed with parts and did not find anything interesting to buy.

While I was walking by a groups of guys talking in English, I heard a familiar accent—A Filipino. I spotted the Filipino guy and looked at him briefly to show that I recognized his accent and wanted to say hello. He looked at me for a second and immediately knew me as being a fellow Filipino. But strangely, he immediately looked away and pretended that he never saw me. I rarely see Filipinos at VW shows and this guy was the first one that I met at a Bug-in show. I have seen this type of behavior among a number of Filipinos who feels uneasy to be seen talking to other Filipinos. It also made me wonder if my Toyota pickup contributed to the snobbish behavior of this Filipino guy because my pickup made me look “uncool” and an outsider among a crowd of VWs. Going back my Toyota pickup, I tapped its hood and said, “Don’t worry, old guy. You have more power under your hood that any of these guys near you”.

The line started moving indicating that they finally opened the main gates. As usual, one or two VWs struggled to get their engine to start. One bug owned by a young guy flooded his carburetor while trying to start it. His friend(s) had to push him while he struggled to get his VW to start.

After parking my car, I saw a guy acting quite upset because he was directed to park in the wrong area even though he clearly had parts to sell. During his brief venting, he complained that he drove to the show very early in the morning so that he can park at the best spots in the swap meet area. Because of the parking snafu, he now has to content with whatever leftover spots that are still left at the swap area.

After witnessing the flustered person at the parking lot, I began to sense a sour mood in the air. My feelings were confirmed when I stopped at one of vendors selling old tools. I saw he had a couple of used Wiss snips (brand of sheet metal scissors) that he was selling. When I picked them up, the seller said, “Do you know what they are? Do you know how to use them?” His voice had a tone of arrogance and viewed me as a person who is clueless about metal fabrication. Not wanting to be annoyed, I simply said that I know what they are. He then asked me, “Do you know what each of these is used for?”. At that point, the man was beginning to annoy me. I still kept my cool and told him that I am familiar with the design of the snips and why the handles have different colors. He then asked me if I know what brand of snips they are. When I told him that they were Wiss snips, he became quiet for a moment.

Since I was looking for auto body hammers, I asked the man if he is selling any. He said yes but said that he left them at his house. I figured that if he owns good brand hammers like Snap-on or Mac tools, I would be interested in buying them from him even though they cost more. I asked him what brand of hammers does he have? He became irate and started telling me that if I want good hammers, I will have to pay more for them (Huh?!) This guy is a lunatic and his brain is not firing on all four cylinders. I calmly explained to him that I am just asking what is/are the brand of hammers that he owns because I am looking for a particular brand only. He finally puffed out the name of the brand of his hammer that sounded like the name of an extinct baboon. I am wasting my time with this bonehead and so I decided to continue my search around the swap meet.

A spotted a 13-window mid-60s bus that has a “For Sale” sign on its window. I asked the owner how much is he selling his bus and he said $XX,XXX (double the market value of his bus). I quietly walked around the bus and it seemed decent enough, but not $XXK decent. The middle seat in it came from a 1967 bus but its grab handles were missing. While I was checking the interior of the bus, I noticed several holes that were drilled through one of the support frames of the roof. I casually asked the owner the purpose of why the holes were drilled? For some odd reason he became a bit angry telling me, “Those holes are not relevant to the bus. One of my friends asked me about holes in my bus and I told him F-you and I have not spoken to him for more than a month now. So, don’t start pointing to holes, cuts and rusts because they are far detached to what the whole bus is all about”.

Oh boy, this guy is more looney than the first one with the tools. This nut has obvious anger issues in life and so I decided to peacefully walk away before he starts biting people or worse starts tearing through nearby VWs with his teeth. Other prospective buyers were also turned off by this guy’s attitude. He wants to deny the fact that condition heavily dictates the price of any bug or bus. If he is asking for a “dreamy price” for his bus then the only buyer he will meet are those that exists only in his dreams.

After encountering seemingly deranged and edgy people, I looked up to the sky and started wondering if there was a full moon that evening. Almanac indicated that a full moon occurred in Los Angeles last April 25^th. I guess its effects are still lingering in some people’s minds three days later.

As I walked around the swap area, I cannot seem to find anything interesting to buy. Most of the parts are just common junk. One guy had a box of vintage California plates and so while I was sorting through them, I saw three 1956 CA plates. Only one of them had a renewal tag. I asked how much for the plate and he said $20. I haggled a bit and got one for $15. This 1956 plate is joining the small but growing collection of wall decors inside my garage.

I made the mistake of not buying an event t-shirt during last year’s Bug-in and so I made it a point to buy two t-shirts this year. One shirt is the regular Bugin #38 design and the other one is for the 45^th anniversary souvenir t-shirt.

I observed that there were only a few sellers at the show that had rare parts. Almost all the rare parts are priced beyond the reach of any regular buyers. I saw a guy selling a complete cutoff dashboard taken off from a 1965 bus and wants $80 for it. I initially was interested with it but had to back off after discovering small portions of the frame was missing. I found a NOS doghouse oil coolers and stands but they were priced at full retail. I did not really score on anything during the show except the 1956 plates that I got for a cheap price.     

By 10am, I was ready to head home. The crowed then had grown with more people arriving after attending the morning service at their church. Now these church-going people are more sane than the ones that I met earlier in the day.

As for me, I have a bathroom and shower to restore and so I packed up my stuff and headed back home…driving my Toyota pickup.