Triple stable of cabby's

Ok, ok, I mean the cars and thats all I mean. If you have pics of your "Cars" out on the net somewhere, link the image of your "Car" here.

For those of you that don't have a place on the net to host your pics, contact our pic master Calimus at calimus@techography.net

Moderators: kamzcab86, CalAltaDubber

CajunSpike
Posts: 14
Joined: Tue Jul 20, 2010 12:38 pm
What year is your cabby?: 1991
Do you own a Cabriolet?: Yes

Triple stable of cabby's

Post by CajunSpike »

Those on another board may recognize my id, but for those who don't, I'm from New Orleans, Louisiana. I used to dabble in the air cooled cars years ago, but have recently gotten into the cabriolet scene.

I bought a 92 Carat to fix up for a young driver. The engine was locked up when I bought it. Went thru the whole car, replacing everything.
Image
This car was recently rear ended and is in the shop for total body overhaul and paint job.

Once the green car was fixed, I saw how easy it was to repair these cars, so I went looking for my own car. Found this in Port Arthur, Texas.
Image
This was was also in an accident and has been fully refurb'ed. Thats why the paint shines so much.

At this point, I thought I was done, but then Mom said 'wheres mine'?
So the search began again, resulting in this car from San Antonio Texas.
Image
When the green car is out the shop, we'll put this one in and get painted as well.

Hoping to have 3 of the best looking stock cabbies out there, including two Etienne Aigner versions.
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Briano1234
Whats that smell?
Posts: 4105
Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2005 5:45 am
What year is your cabby?: 1992
Do you own a Cabriolet?: No
Location: Duluth, Ga
Contact:

Re: Triple stable of cabby's

Post by Briano1234 »

Welcome to the TRF, my original lurking grounds, and I beg to differ about the best looking cabbies.... :)


Cristines is totally awesome (save for the top).....
Mine is not to shabby either save for the broken tranny, and the seat that need recovering.
Briano

Yes as matter of fact, I have the Luck o'the Irish...everything I touch turns to fertilizer of the bovine variety.
You can lead a user to a link, but you can't make him Click.... :screwy:
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bbrown
Posts: 191
Joined: Tue Dec 23, 2008 8:44 pm
What year is your cabby?: 1986
Location: Longview, TX or Exeter, ME

Re: Triple stable of cabby's

Post by bbrown »

Welcome. I know you from over at the TEX. Like your work. Keep us posted. :thumbup: :thumbup:
~Buster

1986 VW Cabriolet 1.8 5 spd.


~__|__\__
[(O)__(O)]
CajunSpike
Posts: 14
Joined: Tue Jul 20, 2010 12:38 pm
What year is your cabby?: 1991
Do you own a Cabriolet?: Yes

Re: Triple stable of cabby's

Post by CajunSpike »

Lol. I do think your car is slick brian, totally. I personally love blue colored cars and would like to have one of those as well. I still find my eye wandering to junkyards and for sale ads...even having three cars already..must be a sickness.

In any case, just was looking to let these people know that theres somebody down the bayou, that can get it done when it comes to keeping the cabby's alive.


Maybe I should have said 'three of the best looking stock cabbies in New Orleans'..... :roll:
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Briano1234
Whats that smell?
Posts: 4105
Joined: Mon Mar 21, 2005 5:45 am
What year is your cabby?: 1992
Do you own a Cabriolet?: No
Location: Duluth, Ga
Contact:

Re: Triple stable of cabby's

Post by Briano1234 »

CajunSpike wrote: Maybe I should have said 'three of the best looking stock cabbies in New Orleans'..... :roll:
I would tend to agree with that statement..... :)

Which side of the river you live at? I used to live in Algiers in the 70's worked at the Coast Guard Air Station in Belle Chase.
Briano

Yes as matter of fact, I have the Luck o'the Irish...everything I touch turns to fertilizer of the bovine variety.
You can lead a user to a link, but you can't make him Click.... :screwy:
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Calimus
Grand High PooBah
Posts: 2892
Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2002 11:40 pm
What year is your cabby?: 1989
Do you own a Cabriolet?: Yes
Location: Cartersville, Ga

Re: Triple stable of cabby's

Post by Calimus »

Welcome to TRF and yes, those are some very nice cabby's.

Thx Brian for the vote on Crabby being one of the nicest cabby's out there, but along with the top, she's far from perfect. Though I'm hoping we can at least fix the top in the not too distance future. I have some job interviews lined up, and Cristine has really been itching to get crabby out of the garage lately.

Looking forward to some more pics of those cabby's, those A&E's are always a treat.
16' Challenger ScatPack
05' Yamaha FJR1300
02' Honda VTX 1800C
CajunSpike
Posts: 14
Joined: Tue Jul 20, 2010 12:38 pm
What year is your cabby?: 1991
Do you own a Cabriolet?: Yes

Re: Triple stable of cabby's

Post by CajunSpike »

My actual house is in Marrero, just a tiny bit from Belle Chasse and still on the westbank. I've been to that air station a few times for the airshows, its pretty cool. I actually work at a hospital uptown New Orleans, off St Charles Avenue as a computer guy. I baby sit the server that runs all the financial systems at the place. So long as it runs, I'm a happy man.

Any chance of a pic of that car you said was pretty awesome? I love to see classy cabbies.

If anybody wants to browse some unlabelled photos I've taken over time about vw's, you can click on this to go thru them. Some will make sense, others may not.

http://cajun.dyndns.org:81/images/vw

I have my own real nice server, so can post anything within reason. That folder holds all of the vw pics i've posted to the boards over time. I enjoy helping but also know when to defer to others that know more. Nooo problem admitting im wrong.

Its funny to learn the back stories of these cars. I do know some stuff about them.
The green car was first bought in Ohio. This is ironic considering its current owner WAS from Ohio as well. The owner lived there for a while, then moved to Massachussetts and then to New Orleans. There were notes posted all over the car when I first saw it, like 'THIS CAR IS -NOT- FOR SALE! I WILL DRIVE IT AGAIN'. It was plenty obvious that whoever had it, loved it dearly. Unfortunately the car developed a head gasket leak that let antifreeze into the cylinders. By the time the owner brought it to a shop, the engine was rusted solid(and still is. I can't get a piston out of the cylinder still). having spent so much to maintain the car over the years, she finally gave up and told the shop owner to try to sell it. I saw a craigslist ad right about the time we had a kid with dreams of driving. Went over and checked it out, said I'll take it after looking at it for 5 minutes(praying I could do something with it). Went rent a car dolly, handed over $500 and hauled it home. It sat in my garage for close to 4 months with me wondering where in the heck to start. A couple friends came over for a crawfish boil one day and I mentioned the car in the garage. Within an hour or so, they had the head tore off exposing the rusty cylinders. But the ease of getting that much done was a huge jolt of confidence that I could really do this. Over the next few months, I got an entire engine shipped in. Was able to get the rusty block out, the replacement engine in and running pretty sweet with the help of all the people online.

The first etienne came from a guy in his mid 20's that lived in port arthur texas. He had bought it for $1100 and adding in all the receipts I found in the car, spent close to $3000 repairing it and buying parts for it(including purchase price). He spent several hundred dollars on a kick butt stereo while the car didn't run right. Kinda funny. I did the write up of this car restoration on 'tex. He knew it was an etienne, but when he lost his job it just didn't matter. I gave him $600(asking price) and promised to take care of his car and keep him up to date with the work. I did both. Now that the car has been thru the body shop, the outside is as nice as the inside. It didn't need much mechanical work, other than the usual fuel pumps, injector, brakes, and new belts. Got lucky on this one.

The second etienne came from san antonio. Found it on craigslist for $500 as well.
The day I got back from hauling it home, I posted on 'tex that I had the car. I got a note from somebody who said they had planned to get that car, strip it, and sell the parts on ebay. Said sorry its mine now. This car was in the worst outside shape of all three. The clear coat was nasty and the trunk lid had a huge punch in it as well as the passenger rear corner panel. I'm guessing that somebody had tried to tow a trailer with the home made trailer hitch on this car, and that it had come loose inflicting the damage.
On the other hand, the interior looks like the day it was made. The burgundy is still rich and dark, with no rips or apparent damage. Its a bit of a contradiction. Outside nasty, inside just about perfect. The owner was the kind of person who buys cars, uses them for a while, then sells them off. He had bought the car for his wife as a run around car, but she didn't want it. I'm thinking the $1200 repair estimate for cv joints and other items may have scared her off.

So now Im stewing on what to do with this car since body work is expensive. hmm.... At the time, I had been looking at a car in alabama for sale. The owner started stripping the car. I knew that he still had the major body panels...sooo....I offered to buy the remains of the car to transplant onto the san antoinio car. He said ok, so I towed that one home as well. Hood, fenders, and hatch were moved over and voila. Shiny good looking ea cabby...mostly. Mechanically it was in sad shape. Wrote this one up on 'tex as well. But now it runs nice and is due to go to body shop too.

Soo...thats how I got from there to here. Hope I didnt bore you.
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Calimus
Grand High PooBah
Posts: 2892
Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2002 11:40 pm
What year is your cabby?: 1989
Do you own a Cabriolet?: Yes
Location: Cartersville, Ga

Re: Triple stable of cabby's

Post by Calimus »

Wow, awesome background story's, not boring at all. Shows you are truly into these cars which is great. Not to mention, lucky with some of the prices you are finding them for.

I'll be checking the pics link you posted up in a few. Your initial pics and Brians comments gave me some motivation to start getting crabby out of hibernation, so I've been doing that for the last few hours since I posted.

Pics of crabby have a few stages.

The day we brought her home can be seen here
http://www.techography.net/gallery/cabbynew?page=1

Outside she was in pretty good shape, but as you have experienced with your own, mechanically, this car was wiped out. Engine was pretty much toast so that had to be rectified. Pictures of much of that process can be seen here.
http://www.techography.net/gallery/cabbybuild

The end result off all that work can finally be seen in these shots. The damage to the passenger side that you can see has since been fixed, but there's still a lot of work to do.

http://www.techography.net/gallery/cabshoot1
16' Challenger ScatPack
05' Yamaha FJR1300
02' Honda VTX 1800C
CajunSpike
Posts: 14
Joined: Tue Jul 20, 2010 12:38 pm
What year is your cabby?: 1991
Do you own a Cabriolet?: Yes

Re: Triple stable of cabby's

Post by CajunSpike »

I just love this. When you can take something thats basically dead and breathe life back into it...well thats the closest a guy can be to giving birth! LOL.

Your car is way cool! Theres something about the clipper kit cars that just catches your eye.

Each of my cars has their little items that still need fixing. I do all the safety and drivability stuff first, then work on the minor things as time/money permit.

Thanks for the compliment. I'm also fixing a car for a co-worker of mine. Its a tornado red 90 cabby. The fix list is getting shorter and its drivable now.
Found that one in florida for $500 as well.

The work isn't usually too irritating and when its running sweet, all the worries go out the window.

Hey, the body shop just sent this photo of the green car within the last 20 minutes. Its got color!
Image
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Calimus
Grand High PooBah
Posts: 2892
Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2002 11:40 pm
What year is your cabby?: 1989
Do you own a Cabriolet?: Yes
Location: Cartersville, Ga

Re: Triple stable of cabby's

Post by Calimus »

Man, where were all of those $500-$600 cabby's when my wife and I were looking for one?

Dig the new paint, should look great when it's finished. We have a bit of a stable ourselves. The cabby isn't our only VW, we also have a Turbo-S New Beetle, GLX Jetta, a pair of 16v Scirocco's and a Karmann Ghia. So I know exactly what you mean about the worries going out the window when they are running right.

Keep us posted on your projects, we love seeing that type of thing around here. :thumbup:
16' Challenger ScatPack
05' Yamaha FJR1300
02' Honda VTX 1800C
CajunSpike
Posts: 14
Joined: Tue Jul 20, 2010 12:38 pm
What year is your cabby?: 1991
Do you own a Cabriolet?: Yes

Re: Triple stable of cabby's

Post by CajunSpike »

I know of a 91 Etienne automatic in georgia, listed for $700. The guy bought it with visions of driving an expensive german car....until it quit running because of a bad fuel pump.
He says its sitting on a trailer and his wife told him to get rid of it. Probably could get it for $500. He never sent a pic but said it didn't look as good as mine.

They're out there if you look hard enough. Also saw a running one in alabama for $1000.
I seem to be good at finding them.

Again thanks for the kind words.

I will say this though. Every person I got a car from loved their car greatly and were very happy(and sad at the same time) that their car was going to
be fixed and saved. As much as they would miss it, they wanted it to live on.

I have thoughts of finding the previous owner of the green car, if she's still in town, and letting her go for a drive in it so she could
fulfill her comment stuck to the window. "I will drive this car again".

Since ya'll are such a nice bunch, I'd be glad to post progress notes on the green car as it goes.
If anybody is interested, I also posted rebuild stories on 3 of my cars. Let me know if you care to read them and I'll post a link.

I've had a super beetle, ghia, van, porsche 914, and a 411. These are the first water cooled cars for me.

Heres a pic of the 90 I'm working on. It had a bad starter, bad fuel pump, and needed a new top(among a couple dozen other problems).
Image

Here's my ea and the green car lined up before they got painted.
Image

And for the last pic, all the cars lined up in the front yard.
Image
CajunSpike
Posts: 14
Joined: Tue Jul 20, 2010 12:38 pm
What year is your cabby?: 1991
Do you own a Cabriolet?: Yes

More progress on the green car body work

Post by CajunSpike »

Shop owner just sent these pics of the green car paint work. Enjoy!


Image
Image
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bbrown
Posts: 191
Joined: Tue Dec 23, 2008 8:44 pm
What year is your cabby?: 1986
Location: Longview, TX or Exeter, ME

Re: Triple stable of cabby's

Post by bbrown »

Love the back stories. The new green on the wife's Cabby looks great.
~Buster

1986 VW Cabriolet 1.8 5 spd.


~__|__\__
[(O)__(O)]
User avatar
Calimus
Grand High PooBah
Posts: 2892
Joined: Mon Sep 02, 2002 11:40 pm
What year is your cabby?: 1989
Do you own a Cabriolet?: Yes
Location: Cartersville, Ga

Re: Triple stable of cabby's

Post by Calimus »

That green paint just keeps looking better. A few layers of clear and some wet sanding and I bet that paint would almost jump off the car.
16' Challenger ScatPack
05' Yamaha FJR1300
02' Honda VTX 1800C
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kamzcab86
Queen and Popette of Cabbydom
Posts: 1277
Joined: Wed Sep 11, 2002 3:54 pm
What year is your cabby?: 1986
Location: Arizona
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Re: Triple stable of cabby's

Post by kamzcab86 »

Welcome to TRF... 'bout time you got over here! :P

The green Cab is coming along nicely. :thumbup:

And, by the way, the best Cab out there is the one sitting in my garage. :mrgreen: Cars are like kids: We all think our own is the best. :wink:
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