We continued our trip through a lot of suppliers, unfortunately it became so hectic we weren’t able to take pictures everywhere…
This was at Rancho transaxles… BBT distribute Rancho for ages, a visit is always impressive to see how many transmissions they have!
or drive axles…
or drive axle housings..
or diff carriers! really amazing!
From there we went to DPR machining, the people who make our welded counter weighted crankshaft, the crankshaft that don’t break.. Jose, the owner, gave us the full tour!
Their experience in VW crankwelding and grinding is unique on planet earth
Jerry, Jose and yours truly!
Can You figure out this plate?
in case you couldn’t…. its kreativ one
Next stop… Hot VW’s magazine HQ!!
our “bus” buddy eddy (for life) received us so well, it was ad Editor Shin was in Indonesia for Yogya VW festival, but we enjoyed at a magical VW place!!
Oh, the dog’s name is Joda, and Joda is the most famous VW dog on the planet!
And when the editor is not there, I’m glad to take his seat.. hi Shin, its me from your captain’s chair…:)
another burger every day for Jerry… and saved the best for last… today its Islands time!!
Finally we helped our buddy Rick to empty the last remains of Bugpack… will the Herbie body fit the white whale?
I dropped Jerry off at another friends place and he flies back home on Sunday… me… I have another week to go with a lot of things to do… i will report as good as i can… so stay tuned!
Jerry and I continued our trip, today we did TMI, Wob West and we finished @ our friend Alex from ISP West….
TMI is a huge operation, over 300 employees! Making interiors for all kind of classic cars but also pillows and seat foam for office chairs and such!
Huge shipping dept as well, yours truly between the boxes!
From left to right is Carmen, Travis, BBT Jerry and Dean! We made ourselves a new BBT TMI team and smoothed a lot of the problems we had lately, we get again guaranteed production times, separate shipping for ocean and air freight orders etc etc… we had long discussions for sure!
From TMI we drove to Wolfsburg West, where Tony, Carla and Sean gave us a warm reception.
The shipping dept…:)
we continued with our daily lunch… after In and Out and The Habbit it was time for a real Fatburger! as always I eat very diversified in California… a different burger every day!
In the afternoon we visit the shippers, and continued to our friend Alex from ISP West fame, Alex has a cool shop… always! Now with his recent modelling its better as ever!
Alex is hyper space effective… small long high rows of everything, especially Type 3
and rows of sheetmetal, amazing how much sheetmetal he got! if You need sheetmetal for a type 3 we can get it from Alex for you! Just give us a buzz!
As always as well i needed some seats for something weird and Alex still had a few, so we build our local “crane” to get them down from the shelves… always action when You travel with bob, ask Jerry!
After a cool dinner with alex, with loads of stories from our “early days” we found a small hotel and slept! like babies…:)
Tomorrow more California! !
Jerry was hit hard by jet lag at arrival, so first day we went to bed early and Jerry slept like a baby!
Next day early morning we had breakfast at the Boss Hog cafe in Farmersville, highly recommended!!
Taken care for the inner us, it was time to start the serious matters, we visited some suppliers, and we like to highlight CB Performance! Marianne was awaiting us! With her beetle!
CB performance makes more High Performance VW parts as ever, and more than likely the most on planet earth right now!! We give You some impressions about their operation here!
Jerry in Marianne’s office!
So Cool! With the start of the Baja 1000 tomorrow, one of CB sponsored cars came by to show off right before entering the race in Class 11!! Very experienced team of American style off-road drivers with 15 guys, and 5 Chasing trucks and all for one beetle!
We all checked the car out thoroughly!
And even in Visalia they have a street with my name on!!
After CB performance we headed south to see and meet Sherry and Beverly from Vintage Parts, but more of that later… on the freeway You mainly get to see cool cars, this was not an exception, especially the license plate!
and when it gets dark traffic only to turn more beautiful! We tried hard to capture some of it for You in the next three pictures….
And after a hard day work You need a good meal!! Jerry and yours truly in the local “Goodfellas cafe”…:)
Tomorrow we see more of California! And why Jerry is here!