Since those halcyon days, ‘the collective’ has grown in number to include members from not only the local community, and the VW Club too, but nationally and internationally, dubbers found themselves hooking up with ‘the collective’…. Expats, friends and the VW community heros all spend time here at NoH2O…. I think it’s an amazing thing, that something so personal to us all, has grown to include a huge range of like minded VW people from around the globe…. This goes a long way to confirm our ideas from all those years ago…. Ideas that at the time, many thought were elitist and confrontational… But this story has been told before, and I might tell it again one day, but for now we look to the future…. ‘The collective’ is by no means the ‘be all and end all’ of VW life, but I like to think that is has made an impact on the local VW community…. And truly in a positive way….. The old guard have acknowledged us as equals, have shaken our ‘collective’ hands and continues to invite and include ‘the collective’ in every event they host.

Speaking of NoH2O events….. Earlier this month Kim (Way2cool) and his amazing family hosted NoH2O regulars at the most excellent Fairbridge Festival…. An event that has become somewhat of tradition for ‘the collective’…. Yet again a brilliant time was had…. Highlight acts for me would have to be The Fancy Brothers, Dave Mann Trio, The Chipolatas and The Joe Black Trio…. Look’em up!!!…. Other very cool moments that come to mind was being invited to chat the with James Lush, host of the Saturday morning radio show on ABC 720…. What a crack that was!…. For more cool pics and feedback from the event, be sure to check out the Fairbridge thread.

Other cool stuff going down is the recent ‘growing’ of the collective in the form of members in the South West of WA hosting their first day out…. For those of you have never been to the South West of WA, I can honestly say you are missing out… Something you really need to put an end too…. Spriggo got this little shindig happening in very short order and by all accounts it was an awesome day out…. Many of us ‘city folk’ are planning to make the trip down there for the next one…. Here’s hoping the planets align for us.

Finally I’ll close with yet another milestone for you all…. The collective is about hit 400 members!…. Mind blowing stuff…. Can’t quite comprehend that one…. Unfortunately there are many members that don’t spend a heap of time here…. They don’t know what they are missing really….. Here’s hoping that some of our less frequent visitors come back soon and say high…. The regulars around here are all pretty cool peeps, with some equally awesome stories to tell…. If your a lurker, don’t be shy… The ‘collective’ doesn’t bite!

Much!

Some of the latest happenings have been a blast…. Not VW specific, but VW inclusive…. Gotta love that…. And the dress code was something else!!!!… Our man Von Kustard was on hand to lay down some lines…

Other stuff is afoot… Steff had his second coming of his swap-meet… Didn’t sell much, but the chat and laughs made the day a blast….. Haz and Mikey turned up in their stupidly low VW’s…

And Vic in his badass OG paint/interior/engine/trans and 6volt Bug….

Cheers Steff….

And here’s the closing shot…. I’ll leave the final quote to your imagination…. Enjoy!

Next up I’d like to let you all know that the Free’n'Easy might be making it’s return this year…. Back in the Freo location, and hopefully with the same format as in previous events, but this time I’ planning to build the drag event up a little on the Wednesday night before the show…. As in previous drag nights, we will have our own “VW Only” at the Motorplex which is open to any and all VW’s…. Whether they be making the car show or not, all are welcome to race…. Stockers, modified streeters, daily drivers, vintage classics, or full on drga cars…. All are welcome…. There is also some naming right’s in negotiations for the drag night… And it’s very possible we might have a contingent of east coast drag cars coming over for a blast too! But more on that later….

Just yesterday I got back from the VWMA Drag Day and WSID in Sydney…. I’ll leave you guys with a selection of pics from Saturday’s event, but make sure you check out the pic thread… I’ll be posting some more images over the next few days…..

Cheer’s to Craig Hughes for hosting the event, Morg’s and Ben for allowing me the honour of hangin’ out with them all weekend. Reub, Craig, Brian, Dean (from Dino’s Pizza), Dave, Rodney, Crazy Col, Matt, Daimo, the Pells, Chris, Henry, Rose, Ian, Aaron, Greg, Wayne and all the other dudes that I had the pleasure of spending time with over the course of the event…. All I can say is…. Cheers for a fantastic weekend, and I will most definitely see you guys at the next one.

See you at Steff’s Swappi on the weekend!

Took the car to the drags (on my fancy trailer!), ran some good TnT times and learned heaps from the trip…. Still more mods to complete, but I know I’m heading in the right direction…. For more info on how the car ran and some cool pics from the evening out, be sure to check the thread in the projects section…

Off to Sydney later next month… The VW Drags run by Craig Hughes at VWMA is coming up…. I’m not racing, but will be flying over for the weekend…. Be good to catch up with a few old mates, and finally meet up with some of those kookie online acquaintances..

There’s a few cool projects on the go at the moment…. Sure it’s been pretty quiet on the project front, on account of the festive season and the heat, but some peeps have been getting it done…. Tony being one of them… Check out his progress on his Bay.

Bernie has made awesome progress with Norm…

The body work on Blair’s Oval is coming along nicely….

And Sachetr’s Bus and Fasty are looking awesome!

So you could say, things are going pretty good around these parts…. Keep it up fellas…. Really looking forward to seeing more of these beasts on the road real soon.

This one will be a short message though…. No point beating around the bush…. NoH2O has gone through plenty of trials and tribulations, highs and lows this year… Some members have had health scares, some have gotten married, some have had babies, some have left the scene and many have just discovered it, some have left the country, some have just arrived, some have completed projects, many have begun new ones… The cycle continues and long may it do so.

In closing I thought I’d post up some of the pics that you guys have put up in the various threads this year…. Cheers for your support this year guys…. I really appreciated all the work you guys put in to keeping this forum WA’s most active and comprehensive ‘collective‘.

Happy New Year everyone!

That’s right folks…. The Humpster is having a birthday…. That’s not unusual I know, we all have them…. Once a year in fact…. Unless your the queen (that’s twice she has got a mention on this blog!)…. She celebrates her birthday twice a year here in Oz….. She must be fuggin’ ancient!… Speaking of ancient…. I just referred to myself in the third person…. Is that a sign of aging too?

To prove that I’m not too old, I’ll post here a link of my namesake homeboy getting it on…

I’m just so hip it’s scarey!

Cheers Stevie for the link….. Other news to hand…. We’ve recently had a spate of  lil’dubbers joining the family ‘collective’….

Welcome Keira Amanda and congrats to Joelene and Dero and not forgetting the rest of the Beaver clan… And to Dave (Modnrod) and his family on their new arrival… Daniel Troy…. We’ve also got a recent wedding happening soon too…. Rusty is tying the knot real soon…. Awesome stuff!

Back to the VW stuff….. Earlier this month we had a very successful ‘fill in’ VW event…. As you know the “Free’n'Easy” didn’t happen this year, for reasons I wont go into here, but at the last minute Kim (Way2cool), our events management hero, came to the ‘collective’ aid and hooked us up with a spot of parking in Hillarys for the afternoon….

Check the thread for more pics and feedback from the arvo out…… That’ll do for now…. Got some work to do tonight…. Only two weeks to go before I’m on 2 months holidays…. Ya for me!

Peace out.

The Queen is in town, the pollies from around the globe are patting each other on the back, and they are all looking forward to a very bright unilateral future…. Get your CHOGM fix here if you like!

But enough of this, we are all here for one thing, and one thing only…. Dubbin’!…. News of the day include the Great Continental Cruise of the Boz and his Bus….

He’s been on the road the best part of a week, taking it easy in brand new bus, taking in the sights and sounds of this amazing landscape, all the while enjoying the freedom that comes with driving a strong running 23 Window Splitty at speed!… I’m sure Boz will update his build thread as soon as he gets back….. Another very active ‘collective’ contributor is young Chris (or cnfabo on the forum)… He’s been constantly developing his street Bug in to a sprint/hillclimb/track contender the past couple of years…. Turn up the volume!!!!

Awesome development to be sure….. If you wanna see more…. Click here, and here….. Other news on the project front is our old mate Simon (canyoudrivestick) is back from the UK temporarily to put the finishing touches on his awesome Squareback…. I know this car very well, it was such a sweet car when Simon got his hands on  it… Frankly I would have rolled it just as it was, but ‘our kid’ Si had other ideas…. He’s a perfectionist…. Nothing but perfect is good enough for him….

So a complete resto (short of a pan off deal) would be good enough for him!

That’ll do for this month…. I gotta get back into the shed and get the POS running!

Joel has been slowly and methodically building up a stonkin’ great stroker to put in his Dad’s dbl door Splitty PV… It’s gonna be a massive step up for Bob… The current very tired 1600 will soon be retired, and we will see Bob scootin’ down the highway (and the drag strip!?) in the very near future.

Also news to hand is that a few of the local dubs have been moving inot other people garages…. All legit like…. nothing dodgy going on…. My SquareHack II has gone to Matt, Marks early Fasty has gone to another gentleman with the same name, and a few other members have moved on some very cool projects…. Most of which have stayed within the collective too, which has got to be a good thing.

Other projects making waves at the moment have to be mentioned…. Tony has been going hammer and tongs with his late DC project, as has Coastlaw and his SC project….

And of course lets not forget Jason’s bad bug project!… This is the way to do it…. Buy a solid car, get your hands on the best engine combos, built by the one of the best engine builders in the country and your on your way to having a very hard core streeter that will scare the live crap out of everything on the road!

That’ll do…. I need to chill out…. Chat with you lot at the next one.

This day out was a hoot for one and all…. Tucker was top notch, the service was a little slow, the beer was cold and the company was typically awesome…. Cheers Moz for sorting out this event, and for everyone that made it out for the day… For more info on this great event, pictures and comments, be sure to check out the thread in the events section.

Also in the last weekend, the Western Australia Hotrod and Streetmachine Spectacular…  I didn’t make it this year, which was a real shame, as this is the final year of the show being held in the Burswood Dome…. The Dome is coming down in the very near future, soon to be replaced by a 60,000 seat stadium so I hear…. Shame really…. The Dome is not huge, has terrible acoustics, and it a pain the arse to get in and out of, but that’s part of it’s charm…. Anyway…. Here’s some pics from the day, and check the thread for more.

Another update on the Free’n'Easy show for this year…. It’s most definitely on again…. The Freo council is still pulling their plans together, so have not given me details confirmation, but I’m pushing to finally be able to get the advertising stuff together in the next week or so…. Got a few cool little limited edition trinkets lined up for the show too, along with a new range of t-shirts.

That’ll do….

Unfortunately, this was yet another event I couldn’t make it to, but from what the gang have posted here, it was a awesome weekend…. In no small part for those that made the camp-out in York on Friday night…

I hear the drive out there was also a gas….

Planning for this years Free’nEasy is well in hand…. Meetings with the Freo Council are ongoing, the Festival Committee is looking forward to having us there and the space for this years show is confirm…. Be sure to check the “event’s” section for upcoming details.

The workshops are getting a hammering this winter…. Joel is working out the tricks for building a big arse stroker for his Dad’s dbl door PV…. Evan has begun his baby stroker that will ultimately be fitted to “the whale”…. His high roof low-light….

And Steff has made massive progress on Terracotta…. Or maybe “the PhatBus formally known as”?…. And finally…. The T34 is slowly getting closer to local rego….

Loads of parts have been making their way into the shed and onto the car…. Scored a genuine GTV wheel, some correct bumper over riders (with very good chrome) and license plate lights housings, loads of seals, some NOS tail-light lens, NOS side marker lens, near mint fog lights, NOS doors strikers, check straps and wedges…. The PS door is working perfectly now in every way, all the locks are working and keyed, and I have most all of the rubber seals needed to make the car water tight…. Who said T34 parts were hard to find?

That’ll do…. Hopefully next month I’ll have some progress on the 2276 and the POS to report, and maybe Ev and Joel will have their engine projects completed…. Plus I know there are a few other cool things that will be ready to show to you all….

Peace out.