ISP West open house

Today's ISP West pre-Classic open house was the place to be.


I was relieved to see Jack's notchback pull up. I had gone down to Irvine for the VW toy and literature show and as I was heading back up on the freeway I caught sight of a gulf blue notch stranded on the far left side. Jack's notch had a flat and he had no choice but to pull over in the car pool lane. Dangerous to say the least. I tried to turn around to help but ended up getting lost on the meandering side streets of Irvine. Luckily he got the tire changed without incident and was back on his way.


Pedro's notch was sporting his decklid and roof racks.


Deena drove her incredible low-mileage safari beige 1500S Variant all the way from Arizona.


Yep, that's safari beige alright.


A RHD Aussie notch with original vinyl upholstery that was unique to Oz. A Blaupunkt Derby radio looks right at home on the back seat.



Russell's just-completed '65 Squareback looked great.


Original brown cord interior in Corey's low-mileage nutria Variant.


Rob and Kir with their Ghia, all the way from Colorado. I also got a chance to meet Jeremy of Motorworks Restorations, who is currently wrapping up the meticulous restoration of Rob's notch.


Now this is what you would call a patina.


Alex and Anthony pulled out some rarities from the ISP vault for everyone to see. This is a '63 Variant with a huge Golde "refrigerator door" sunroof, which just slides back instead of being operated by a crank.




Also from the vault, Glenn's October '61 notchback, which also has a Golde sunroof, though a slightly different one. Also interesting and rare are its very early fresh air control knobs.





Glenn also showed us a bizarre Vanguard performance exhaust for 1962–63 VW 1500s, similar to an Abarth exhaust and also made in Italy. The decals are really great.





Pedro brought a truckload of new roof racks, demonstrated here on Jason's '63 (driven all the way from Texas!).


Here's Pedro explaining the secret of getting just the right curve for the rack frames.


Many Type 3 luminaries in attendance, including Bill and Steve Makepeace, Everett Barnes, Jason Weigel, Neil Mast, and many other 1500 Clubbers and Sambanistas.


And Gizmobob brought the very nice new 1500 Club badges, seen here installed on his accessorized '62 notch.


All in all a great afternoon. Thanks again to Alex, Anthony, and everyone else at ISP.