Midwest Treffen 14, chicago 8/22/10

spent the weekend outside Chicago for the 14th iteration of Midwest Treffen. CVO has been outing this on for a long time now, and i always try to make it down for the event, though i haven't been down in a few years due to conflicting schedules, etc. but this year i made it down. me and pancakes crashed with my pal Steve in Kenosha Wi, and had a pretty uneventful drive down Friday afternoon. that is, if you don't count the combination of Milwaukee rush hour traffic, and a hell of a thunderstorm. not usually a bad deal, but with no a/c anymore, that also means that the defrost function sucks as well. but we made it, and all was well, if just a tad damp.

spent saturday afternoon washing all the grime off the car, then off to some of the gtg's planned for the night..
what happens when you come back from dinner, and just about everyone is gone already lol.

then it was the show on Saturday. had to roll in late, due to having blown off the throttle body hose racing a Charger on the Tollway coming back from Illinois (everyone wants to race in that state I tell you?) so late, but still in time, we rolled into the show.

and by far, one of the coolest awards i have ever received, a billet beer stein, from Mike and the folks at Forge Motorsport! and even came with a beer to drink out of it, no less!


ended up taking home 3rd in class, Best in Show, and the above mentioned Forge pick of the show. made our way back to Steves place, and chilled out and bbq'ed with some good folks, while helping to feed little Gavins (Rich and Katie from Dubwerks oldest child) mind on cars a little more so.

enough for now, hope you enjoy. thanks to pancakegrl for most of the pics, and everyone else on vortex that i sniped others from ;)

a quick blurb on Dubs in the Valley

so i went and changed the look of the car just a tad! literally finished it up right before heading out to OshKosh Wi, for the Dubs in the Valley show. always a good time to be had by all, so we road tripped out there with decent group of locals.
it was fun watching all the people just stare at the car in traffic. i am sure i made more than a few good ole boys days along the way to the show..

the dyno video...

olsons mkIV dyno from Kristopher Clewell on Vimeo.

Random working shots..

as funny as it sounds, quite often i forget to get pictures of alot of the stuff I/we work on around the shop. sometimes, i am really good about it, others not so much. but from time to time, Lawrence, or Talon, or who knows will be milling about, and i will toss them the camera to get some pics. and just about always, i end up coming across alot of pics of myself in action. always looks funny seeing myself in a picture, cant say why though. i am a little more used to the car getting the lense time, not me lol..

B.L.M.F.S. and some more dash pics..

sorry for the lack of updates. been a busy SOB the last few weeks. just dropping a few pics from the Bearded Lady Motorcycle Freak Show that was held a few weeks back now. quite a few bikes, but only a handful worth the pic space to be honest.
and an updated at the time, pic of the dash flocking mid process. i will get some more pics up here soon of it all finished up.

dashboard "flocking".. ("oh yea, flock you too!") part 1

spent the weekend working on the dash in the golf. i have been wanting to try this for a bit now, after seeing it done on a pals Subaru out east a few years back. the process is called flocking, and its more or less a suede look when its all said and done. I needed a new wind screen, so why not take a wack at it while I could have it out for few days. so far looks good, but i cant get a final look for a few days, so as to let the adhesive cure properly before I try and clean up the mess..

taping it up for the first section. you have roughly a 15 minute time-frame from putting on the adhesive, until it starts to cure. and it shows lines if you stop halfway through. so i figured i would use the existing separation to split it up

and after the first go around with the fibers. its a mess to deal with, but nothing i havent dealt with before.

sorry for the rest being kinda dark, its hard to capture a good image of it right now. have to wait a good 24 hours for it to kick over before blowing it off at low pressure. and another couple days until i can brush it out. but you get the idea..

goodbye to Tek. for now...

D.Tek is back in jersey as far as i can tell. no good byes or nothing, but at least i know he made it back safe and sound. at least i hoope he had a chance to get a good feel for the scene here in mn while he was here. me and Pancakes will see him again in september for h2oi. until then, a few more shots from the man himself..