Today I delivered a rear clip from a bus to the port for shipping, the warehouse we use is huge and they ship a lot of cars for the military…  so I found myself unloading next to the “real” car haulers…

but that was the end of the day… let’s start with the beginning… I had this rear clip sitting in the bay area… but it’s too large for our car containers as it takes space up from a car, so too expensive, so I had to bring it down south so we could ship in the BBT parts containers once space allowed…

So I gassed up…

…. fed myself well….

…. and hit 101 fwy south…

101 is one of my favourite Freeways especially this time of the year, when all is green along the road…. unfortunately traffic was bad….

Every year You see here the ever-growing grape farming expanding… for the excellent Californian wine off course, every year there’s more and more land turned in to  wineries….

This is the last real oil field along 101 that I know off, there used to be way more!

Past Ventura You gonna hit traffic, You never know where exactly, but I never drove from Ventura to the 405 (that goes to Los Angeles) without hitting traffic, except during night-time…

Pacific Volkswagen, that was the first Volkswagen sign I ever saw along the freeway my very first time in California… a mere 27 years ago….. orso…..

and once arrived at the shippers I had to unload along the big car haulers, quiet in impressive for a guy out of the country side of Belgium!

So now I have an empty trailer, guess what???? …:)

Stay tuned and You will know!!

Exciting news this week as the CB performance Panchito heads have arrived, and some new cool bus sheet metal too!

The PANCHITO head is the newest addition to our high performance program! Perfect for those mild tuned engines! Super strong heads with all the features  you need to build that perfect engine!

The all new Panchito 044 is dyno proven, horsepower making, ports cast right in. These port designs are race proven winners with years of use in engines around the globe. Countless hours were spent on our Superflow 600 flow bench designing the intake and exhaust ports. Our goals were to achieve the highest port velocity and air flow through a 40mm x 35.5mm size valve. The 40mm intake port has an extremely small port volume of 62cc and flows an incredible 162 CFM and over 300 ft. per second port velocity, right off the shelf! The 35.5mm exhaust port has a reduced bowl size and increased short turn radius creating phenomenal port velocity. This higher port velocity allows for improved low-end and mid-range performance without sacrificing top end power.

CB Performance has also added extra material around the combustion chamber to give the Panchito 044 more strength and support for larger bore cylinders. The all new high quench combustion chamber has a volume of 54cc, a perfect size for small displacement engines. The Panchito 044 is designed to incorporate bore sizes from 85.5mm to 94mm.

Available in all different bore sizes, they come with valves, springs and are ready to install.

Now available from our shelves!

1724-3 “Panchito 044” heads 85,5mm
1726-3 “Panchito 044” heads 92mm
1727-3 “Panchito 044” heads 94mm

As for sheet metal we have one new addition this week, the center side panel for all years bay window buses…

0891-315 Center side panel left 80cm – Bus 08/67-07/79

We’ve found an alternative for our BBT 0891-170. We used to buy this panel from Volkswagen do Brasil, but as Volkswagen Germany took our export license from VW do Brasil away, we currently can’t get that part.

So we found this panel on the aftermarket. It differs slightly from the original, but it gets the job done

The difference between the substitute and the original is especially that the upper part is not on it anymore.

We tested this part ourselves and we guarantee a perfect fit!

0891-170 Rail side door – Bus 08/67-07/79

Arm rest left or right side 1968-72 VW Bug & Ghia – tan smooth vinyl
TMI16-1614-13        Sold each € 32.00/ excl.

Dash cover woodlook KG 69 only    € 117.00 excl.
W434-141-857-071A WD

Dash kick pads (2pcs) KG 68-71     € 165.00 excl.
W434-141-857-061B

BBT FPU team wishes you a wonderful weekend…

The road from Phoenix to Reno was hard and long, I was pulled over by a brave bored trooper in one of the sleepy towns down the road for speeding… You know why I stopped you? he asked … Because you did 67 where it was 50…. btw are You a VW guy? (he saw my license plate “WBUYVWS” ) I said; yes, I am, I do buy old Volkswagens here and ship them over to Europe... turned out he was a VW guy himself! he start talking about his off-road bugs and engines etc etc, and let me go! My plate did wonders!

Down the last stretch to Reno I saw this nice billboard!

Long straights…

Once in Reno I visited some friends that are VW guys, one was selling a mango bus he just got out of California, very nice bus with very little work, and yes it was for sale, if you should be interested? I can broker the deal, no problem!

Oh, and what was peeping out of the garage????

That looks nice, right?

Having lunch with my buddies!

cool place, with a cool painting…:)

Next stop was a guy that just had too much… at arrival I was greeted by this Notchback… interesting to anyone?

This guys backyard was better as Disneyland! (to me at least!) Full with American and German iron… most was for sale, as he needs space and cash to build a larger shop… if you see anything? Just let me know!

6 door Thing anyone?

and we move to the next… a small back yard from another friend with some cool sheet metal…:) Real cut up buses, and not just one!

and a cool split window bus trailer, he has forever!

This was a super nice bay window that crashed hard in the front….

…. I mean real hard… the 80-year-old driver did survive, but nobody understand how! This was the cabin of that bus…

Last legs in Reno… passing by one of the “beetle spiders” in the Reno area… This one is super cool and has lighted “eyes”!

Bye bye Reno, we leave now…

I’m on my way back to the bay area to pick up some very interesting stuff “down south” as they say…… the rest of my trip will be in the state of California… so stayed tuned! If you keep on readin, I keep on writen!