The Volkswagen Beetle is a classic VW model that’s famous worldwide. A convertible means the roof can be opened up. In this story, it’s the first VW the host remembers riding in.
The Karmann Ghia is a classic Volkswagen coupe that looks more sporty than a regular Beetle. It uses similar basic components to the Beetle, but it has a different, more stylish body. The podcast mentions it because it was one of the cars someone rode in occasionally.
“Fully automatic” means you don’t shift gears yourself—the car changes gears for you. It’s a different setup than the manual transmissions many classic VW fans prefer.
A “full nut and bolt restoration” means the car gets taken apart a lot—down to individual parts—then put back together carefully. It’s basically the most thorough kind of restoration short of replacing the whole car.
A “complete teardown” means taking the car apart so you can really see what’s going on underneath. It’s how restorations start before parts get repaired or replaced.
A “disc brake kit” is an upgrade that changes the front brakes to disc brakes. It’s meant to help the car stop better and handle heat more reliably than the original setup.
“German look” is a style people do on classic Volkswagen Beetles. It’s meant to make the car look like a classic European build—lowered and with certain front-end details—rather than a generic hot-rod look.
Kami is the name of a company that makes an air dam for these classic VW builds. An air dam is a front spoiler-like piece that helps the car’s look (and sometimes airflow) match the German-look style.
An “air dam” is a front add-on that sits low near the bumper. It can change how air moves under the car and it’s also a common styling piece on German-look builds.
A “Bay Window” bus is a Volkswagen van/bus generation with big, distinctive windows on the side. Collectors pay close attention to the year and condition because that affects how rare and valuable it is.
Barrett-Jackson is a famous collector-car auction. When a rare Volkswagen bus sells there for a big price, it can make other similar cars more desirable and more expensive.
“Type 1” is Volkswagen’s classic air-cooled flat-four engine design. In this context, the point is that some buses still used that well-known engine, which made them more appealing to buyers.
“Van life” is the trend of living in a van and using it like a mobile home for travel and camping. The host is saying this lifestyle made more people want classic vans, including VW buses.
Term
MP engine battle build motor
They’re talking about building an engine for a competition. The “build motor” part just means they’re putting together an engine with the goal of doing well in that event.
A “top end” rebuild means working on the upper parts of the engine, like the cylinder heads. It’s usually less work than a full engine rebuild because it doesn’t require splitting the engine for the bottom parts.
Cylinder heads are the top metal parts of the engine where the valves live. If they’re worn or damaged, the engine can run poorly, so replacing or rebuilding them can fix that.
“Machine work” is the precision work a machine shop does to make engine parts fit and seal correctly. If you skip it, the engine might not run as well or could have problems sooner.
Term
MP engine build off
A “build off” is a contest where people build an engine and then test it. “MP” here sounds like the name of the specific competition series.
Ignition is what creates the spark that lights the fuel in the engine. Disconnecting it lets you spin the engine safely to check for problems before firing it up.
Torque is the engine’s twisting strength, and horsepower is a measure of overall power. Together they help describe how strong the engine feels and how it performs across RPM.
Term
empty exhaust
“Empty exhaust” sounds like a simplified exhaust setup with less stuff inside it. In competitions, the rules may require that to keep things fair and predictable.
The camshaft controls when the engine’s valves open and close. A “custom cam grind” means someone reshapes the camshaft to get a specific valve timing and power feel, instead of using a standard cam.
This sounds like a specific camshaft that’s approved by the rules for a certain class. The rules limit what cam you can use so everyone is playing by the same basic timing setup.
Rocker assemblies are part of the system that moves the engine’s valves. They help translate the camshaft’s motion into valve opening, and different rockers can change how the valve motion behaves.
On air-cooled engines, the fan has to push air in the right places. Fan shrouds are the parts that guide that airflow so the engine stays cool where it needs it most.
A velocity ring is a ring-shaped piece that helps the cooling fan move air faster and more evenly. Better airflow helps keep the engine from getting too hot in certain areas.
Term
horsepower plus tour divided by displacement
They’re using a math formula to score engines. It mixes horsepower and torque, then adjusts for engine size (displacement) so it’s more of a fair comparison.
The FK8 cam is a particular camshaft design. Changing cams changes how the engine’s valves open, which can change the power and how the car feels to drive.
The GTV7 cam is a specific camshaft choice for this build. It’s meant to produce a similar kind of valve timing to another cam, but with some geometry differences.
Here, “geometry” means the cam’s shape and how it’s positioned. Even small differences can change how the valves move, which may require adjusting the rocker setup.
This is an oil pump upgrade. “Full flow” means the oil is sent through the oiling/filtration route before it lubricates the engine, which helps protect the engine—especially when it’s working hard.
These are upgraded cylinder heads for the VW engine. “Stage three” usually means they’re built to flow more air, so the engine can make more power than with the factory heads.
Term
thick wall 92s
This is about the engine’s cylinder parts. “92s” means the cylinders are made to a 92 mm size, and “thick wall” means the cylinder walls are thicker than normal, which can help the engine last longer when it’s built for more power.
In VW hobby talk, “Baja” usually refers to a Baja-style off-road conversion based on a Volkswagen platform (often a Beetle-derived or similar VW chassis). It’s a project category combining rugged suspension/stance with a build meant for dirt and rough terrain.
“Desert dub show” is a VW-focused event where people bring their cars and projects to show them off. The host mentions it as the place they saw the Baja build.
In classic car culture, “patina” refers to the worn, aged appearance a vehicle develops over time—often considered desirable because it looks authentic. When someone says “throw back patinas,” they mean a build that intentionally keeps or recreates that older, lived-in look.
Jackman is a company that makes aftermarket wheels. In this conversation, they’re talking about Jackman’s aluminum wheel designs and whether the brand has restarted selling again.
A “20 spoke wheel” is a wheel style where you can count 20 spokes. It’s basically a way to describe the wheel’s look and design.
LIVE
Happy Friday guys and welcome to another episode of Let's Talk Dubs. I'm your host Bill Teeble. If
you've been watching YouTube this week, you know that we're on the Impi Engine Battle Build-off
and that's on Impi's YouTube channel and you can also check it out. Be live streamed on my channel
as well. So check out Let's Talk Dubs or Impi. Make sure you hit the subscribe button and the
alert notification so you get alerted the second we go live. We go live this morning at 10am Pacific
Standard Time. So check it out. One of the guys that's in the competition today is our podcast
guest this week. It's Sam Mebane and he's with JBugs.com. Sam's got an incredible story of
literally starting at the bottom and then working his way into a Volkswagen shop in
San Diego area and then eventually turning that into one job that gets bought by another place
that continues to keep going. He's been with JBugs.com for over 25 years. If you've seen any of
there in the Engine Battle Build-off this week down here in Impi's headquarters and don't forget
if you're going to be down here in Southern California this weekend make sure you stop by
Impi's headquarters on Saturday for their 70th anniversary celebration. We're all going to be
here. It's a big open house. Check out, do a warehouse tour. Check out lots of vendors. Tons of
Volkswagen's will be here so it's going to be an excellent time so I encourage you not to miss it.
But before we get into this podcast, don't forget to support those who support Let's Talk Dubs.
VW Trends, a magazine for the people, buy the people back on the scene after long hiatus. Check
it out today. A unique perspective on the VW scene. VW Trends magazine. Go subscribe today at
vwtrendsmagazine.com. Also Ross Wolfe, high quality aftermarket parts built for enthusiasts,
buy enthusiasts. There's some controversy a few weeks ago with their engine that they built 1914
with some heads. Headgate went down. It was a whole situation. Well, the results are going to
be coming out soon. They've switched to the new to the Impi GTV heads so we'll check it out and
hear the results of that coming up shortly. Not on this podcast but in the next few episodes.
I'm sure you'll hear about it if not on social media soon enough. But go support them today.
High quality aftermarket parts for you guys. Use the code LTD10 for 10% off of your order. Also
the best pistons in the market icon pistons available at any of your icon piston distributors.
Matter of fact, one of the distributors I talked to today is a right gearbox. So if you need some
pistons, some high quality icon pistons, go check them out at right gearbox and pick yourself up.
Some 85 fives, 90.5 and 94s are now available. So well guys, this podcast is a great story.
Sam's been in the game for a long time. Started as a young kid in an orphanage going from foster
care to foster care and worked his way through the foster system. He's got an excellent story
that I might leave a link to that's on iron sharpens iron podcast that's really it's a great
story to hear. So it's probably something you guys be interested in. But Sam's a solid dude,
continue the generation of Volkswagen enthusiasts passing on to his son Nathan who's down here
to build off with him. And it's just great to see generation to generation continuing the hobby
and the enthusiasm that's going with it. It's a great story. Find out a lot about how the business
went from mail order to internet. And there's a lot of interesting changes that go on throughout
this time here and give you some perspective on a small business growing into one of the dominant
businesses in the market today. That's JBugs.com. So without any further ado guys,
let's get into it this week. Here's a story about a guy who rises above it all in spite of your
circumstances and no matter what become the success you want to become. Sam Mebane with JBugs.com.
Okay, everybody. So on today's show, we know we've got on the this weekend coming up, we're
at Lufsegen show, but the following weekend on the 20th, we're going to be at the MP event.
And the MP is going to be 70th anniversary. And with that anniversary that's going on there,
it's going to be they're going to have the MP engine build off World Cup edition.
So with that into consideration last year, there was several people at the event this year.
We've got a lot more people coming on. And last year, one of the guys that was there was Sam
with JBugs. And we've got Sam maybe with JBugs on the podcast today, we're going to talk about his
history, the engineers building for the event and a lot of that good stuff. So on today's podcast,
welcome Sam Mebane from JBugs.com. Sam, welcome to the show. Thanks, Bill. Thanks for having me
in correction. That wasn't last year. That was two years ago 2024. That's right.
It's been a little while. Two years. Two years since.
Yeah, it hasn't seen that. I had that thought of a dyno.
I know time truly flies. It absolutely does. So I'm excited to have you on the podcast. We've
talked a few times before trying to get you on here. And typically, the way that we start the
podcast always is we want to get into knowing you a little bit before we get into the juicy
details about the engine build off. And so the way we always start the podcast is what's your VW
story and how did you get into Volkswagen's? That depends on how much time we've got here
as far as the length of the podcast. We can go way back when to a lot of my just even my life
history, my foster, I'm sorry, not even that, my adoptive, not even that when I'm trying to think
of the word here. Foster care representative. There we go. What's the name of it? I can't remember.
But anyway, my foster care worker there, that's the word foster care worker, right, picked me up
from my biological mothers and stepfathers home in a Volkswagen Beetle convertible,
roughly based on the little bit of I have my memory. I want to say it was 1965.
And that was kind of essentially my kickoff. And I went through the fires, I'm sorry, I went through
the foster system all the way up until 18 years old, I actually signed my own adoption papers
after I became an adult. But my foster care worker, he had various Volkswagen's and kind of just
that was kind of ingrained in me from that very first encounter as a child. And then he
picked me up occasionally in a Carmen Gia that he had, he had a couple sedans, and of course that
early convertible. And I go in from that and to later on in life being in Southern California,
at the coast near the desert, my older brother bought a Baja bug or my dad bought my older
brother a Baja bug a 1964 Baja bug when I was about 13. And I ended up working on it more
than he did in a lot of cases, successfully and successfully at points. But it's just all part
of the learning process. I'm still learning this day as I'm a one day short of 49. So
well, happy birthday tomorrow then, right? Yes, happy birthday tomorrow, which is odd because
at two years ago at the empty engine battle was also the day before it started was my birthday
as well. So it's just kind of that all all goes around in circles. But yeah, so I got started
at 13. I got my first bug 1974 at roughly I was out of high school working at the gas station. So
yeah. And then and you and what part of California did you grow up in?
I grew up in Oceanside. So North San Diego County, essentially, it goes Oceanside and then there's
Camp Pendleton. And then you go into San Clemente and all that stuff in there for San Clemente,
Mission Viejo, etc. So Oceanside is it was a very cool place to grow up as a kid. It's not the same
place nowadays. I don't recognize anything downtown anymore. It's kind of gotten all
tourist and populated. And there's one way streets where it used to be Mission Avenue,
I would go from my high school all the way straight down to the beach. And Oceanside is
just not the same place it was when I was a kid. Yeah, that's the important
thing about change is everything just keeps on changing, right? No matter what. So yeah, yep,
you've got to adapt. Absolutely. You get your 74 Beetle. How do you end up
transitioning into working in the VW industry? How does that come about?
Very, very fortunate. God's hand and all of that. Absolutely. So I went from working at
a gas station. And one of my co workers now, he was actually working part time at that gas station
as well. He went over and he was friends with one of the old employees under Mike Watson when it
was just specific bugs. And Mike Watson had just sold to the old owner, Gary Vogel. Gary Vogel had
just bought J bugs. And he was inspecting and he was expecting an influx of business. So Jamie got
hired on and then about a month later, May 1998, I started working at J bugs. Oh, wow.
So you've been there, you've been there for a little bit, huh?
Yeah, a couple decades, almost three decades now. Yeah.
And then, uh, so you, so were you working on Volkswagen at the time, or you started as a
counter guy or just mostly doing part stuff or J bugs has always been a, you know, what we call
it a mail order or even back then it was a walk in. So we had the walk in counter and the phones
and shipping and it was all hands on deck across the board. If somebody was walking into the front
counter, you'd help them at the front counter. They walk out, phone ring, you pick it up, you take
an order, you take that order, walk into the warehouse, pick it all up and put it on the UPS
truck and ship it out. And then how big was, how big is, uh, well, it was called, uh, Pacific?
Pacific bugs slash California Pacific. Yeah. So Pacific bugs was the original started by
Mike Watson. He later bought California custom interiors, which was a drop ship only place
out of Fogart, California. It became California Pacific. California Pacific was sold to Gary
Vogel. Gary Vogel bought J bugs, became California Pacific J bugs, and eventually to make things
difficult or to make things easier rather because I was a whole lot to say we're just J bugs, you
know, just J bugs. Um, and I forgot what the question was in that. Well, how did you,
will your position when you were there? Well, it kind of started with my question about
J bugs and the original name of the, the original name of the business. Cause I had some,
the first place you got call up California Pacific, are they the ones that made the,
the, cause I just bought a set of door panels from my car that had last year from
probably the late nineties. And I think J used to just do interiors, right?
Um, well, J bugs was owned by TMI. Right. And TMI had that the car and truck depot,
which they actually still have that building in Hawthorne. So J bugs was a pseudo mail order
and they did everything and they had the jump for J bugs ads back in the eighties and nineties.
Whereas California Pacific was predominantly known for our interiors and Mike Watson produced the
interior restoration DVD, which I mean, there's been probably hundreds of thousands of those
sent out through the years. So that was a big claim to fame. And there was a, cause I have a,
I have some gray velour door panels in my white car, my, um, my eighties car. And they're,
they're like a purple and a fuchsia or like a lavender and a fuchsia strike with a triangle
and a circle. And it's kind of like a, those sound like so fine graphic panels, but they,
well, they came in a, a J bugs box. And I remember seeing some sort of back in the day
that, and I thought this is like a late eighties, early nineties J bugs interior. But I, I, I might
be mistaken, but I got to look at it again. But yeah, it was, you know, there was a lot
of different companies back in the day. And I mean, you had, um, uh, geez,
how many companies were doing mail order when you guys got into it? I mean, when you, when you,
Oh, I mean, it's, everybody was pretty much mail order, right? You had Barrett enterprises that
were, um, mid America, Rocky mountain motorworks, um, J bugs, Pacific bugs. I mean, West post
metrics, but then they're still around. I mean, a lot of these places are actually still around,
but I mean, it was, there was no shortage of companies selling products. I mean, you had
Bill and Steve's, you had, um, ISP West. There's one started with a K. What was the K?
Um, Kimco, Kimco motor. Yeah. KY MCO, Kimco, and they might still be around. I can't, I,
it's hard to keep track of everything. And, um, God with, uh, three kids at home now,
almost, I, I, I, it's hard for me to be really involved in just all Volkswagen's all day. But
you know, here at work, obviously, yes, but,
and you started in what year you said 98? 98. So 98 98 when you're starting, it's, it's at the
beginning, like the mail order thing is starting to transition into the internet thing. So you've
kind of, you've kind of straddled both sides of that market. How, how has that been going from
like a, essentially like a mom and pop mail order, like you're getting to your customers
through the magazines. And then at some point, the internet by, by a large margin just blows
past all the print publication. How that is essentially, that's essentially why Gary got
into the Volkswagen product industry. Um, so, uh, the old owner, he had actually come from
healthcare industry. It was, you know, very successful enough to the point where he could buy
California Pacific, uh, but he saw the dot com thing blowing up and realized that, hey, if I can get,
uh, get into an industry, get in ground level and get products selling online, then, you know,
I should have a very successful business. Um, uh, in history at this point tells us that he was
correct. Uh, and that's a half the reason why he bought JBugs was to get a shorter dot com name,
because whether it be Pacific bugs or California Pacific VW, which I think
was actually our first website, um, he wanted something shorter and JBugs just fit the bill
perfectly. So that's why it's now JBugs.com. But yeah, Gary bought the company with the intention
of going online and history might prove him correct in the fact that, um,
I want to say JBugs.com was the first e-commerce, uh, that was my phone, sorry,
first, first e-commerce, uh, website where you could buy products for Volkswagen online. I want
to say JBugs or California Pacific VW was the first company to have products online.
And so with that, you know, you guys transition from, from a, uh, you know, kind of a walk-in
mail order type stuff. And I got, so this is probably early 2000s. And if we're going to,
we're going to, if we flash back to the early 2000s, there's a, there's a pick of you with your VW
thing that was also featured in, uh, in 2004, right? In, uh, hot VW correct. And that was
correct. Yes. September 2004. But, um, you know, I find it interesting that, that you're there
at that point that you start to see it. And in your capacity, have you been moving up the ranks
as, as time's gone on, or are you always the manager or what position have you done over there?
I, um, self titled myself as the general manager and probably 2003, 2004. So we watched, you know,
when I come in where it's predominantly phone order, um, or walk in to, we come into the dot com
kind of bubble to 9 11 hitting and the entire ground floor dropping out of everything.
When I, when I first started, I want to say we were like maybe eight to 10 guys working
in across the board. Everyone did everything. Um, to after 9 11, we were essentially four guys.
So we went up the, the entire industry and the entire economy, uh, tanked for after 9 11 and
the dot com burst. Um, to the point where in 04, we were a crew of I think five guys, maybe we
started to pick up a little bit there at that point. So we went from that point to, um, just
essentially growing and ever since. Uh, but at that point again, 2003, 2004,
when there was like nobody there, uh, only four guys, I just, you know, kind of gave myself the
title of general manager and I've grown into it and grown through it to the point now where
I'm not on the phones. Um, I'm not answering emails typically. I'm more on the back end.
I'm in my office either working on editing videos for our YouTube channel or I'm back
in the shop, uh, filming videos. Um, or I'm working on product development, uh,
like the wheel back there. I actually designed that and had that, um, had that come to fruition.
Um, it's just stuff of that nature. So I don't do anything on the front end now.
We've got a whole bunch of sales staff. I'll help them out. Um, just on our inner office,
a message system slack, um, and help where it needed there. But at this point, I don't
really deal with the public for the most part. I'm, I'm all in the backside stuff.
And with, so going through that point, how many employees are there now approximately?
I don't know. It's hard to say because, because we actually have, uh, an office in Santa Marcos,
California, we have our warehouse out here in surprise Arizona and we have so many people
working remotely. If I was to take a wild guess, I would say we're between 50 to 80 people,
company-wide maybe, but I just don't know. Honestly, I can tell you this in ocean side,
before we left at our high, we were almost a hundred people working in our old warehouse
or in our two warehouses. And that's, that's incredible because, you know, all of us in the
VW hobby, you know, we go to, we go to these shows and events and there's 23 to 400 cars there.
And we all look at each other like we're like this really small group of people, but actually
it is a worldwide hobby and there are people that get so into it. And what's, what's interesting is,
you know, there's reaching those people is really the key, right? And so getting that
prominent space where you guys pop up first on online and you've really, um, kind of,
you guys have kind of saturated that, right? You search, you search a part online and usually
it's going to be you guys or CIP one, I think popping up first each time. And, uh, you know,
there's gonna, there's gotta be, there has to be a learning curve with that, with the beginning
of the internet and then finding different avenues because what's interesting is that's a,
that's a never ending, a never ending moving goalpost. It's always something changed, right?
Whether it's, you know, so talk a little bit about that, but about learning how to,
because going essentially from, I would say a small business, but really a large business,
right? And, and staying on top of that in a competitive market where there's really,
who would you say is your guys number one competition out there?
With CIP is obviously again, search engine optimization. Whoever, whoever wins on SEO,
search engine optimization is, you know, you figure these are going to be the top dogs. So
CIP always shows up. We've got like apple tree automotive. Um, I've got, you know,
SoCal imports, all those guys that are showing up when you search something with the JPA,
I'm sorry, with anything, you know, 1970 BWB little Cedarpole Street, whoever shows up typically on
that, you know, the top above the fold, as we call it, that those top three or four or five results,
those are the big dogs. That's our competition. So that's, uh, that's the market we play and SEO
through the years has changed. Again, I mentioned Gary bot with the intent of going online and he
spent, I can't tell you how many hours, uh, going to seminars, you know, listening to people that
were in the, the industry of SEO and marketing just to try and figure out what the goalpost was
or where the goalpost was. And like you said, that's moved throughout the years just because
Google will change their algorithms, uh, YouTube being owned by Google feeds Google. So you're
always trying to make certain that you're trying to get to the goalpost, but it's,
realistically, it's an unattainable goal because as soon as you think you've got it figured out,
yeah, they change something. And now the entire algorithm's changed. It's, it's like along, along
the lines of YouTube, um, it used to be, you know, short form videos, five minutes long, nothing
longer, anything longer never got watched. Uh, you see that transition to like longer by 15 minute
videos to 30 now, like long, long format videos are like king of YouTube now, uh, along with
the little, little baby clip of shorts. Um, so it's interesting. It doesn't matter where you're at.
Yeah. Yeah. There's, there's a lot of different dynamics, especially being, I mean, essentially
what you do, the average mom and pop business has to deal with as well, whether there's,
they're your size or smaller, because it's, you're, you've got, you know, you've got a product
to sell and you're getting it out there to people. Um, the, the advantage is I think the benefit is
right that you are an enthusiast as well as an employee at an, at a place, you know, it's like
I, my day job is Thailand granite business and it's what I do, but I don't think, I don't think
you can be in the Thailand granite hobby unless you're never building something over and over again.
You know, and so it's kind of an envious position to be in, to be able to do, be on that side. And
now with JBugs continually growing, have you guys, have you guys worked in scenarios? I would
assume you guys have had stuff manufactured for you. Um, because you guys are at a point where
it's like, Hey, we've got the demand where we can purchase a, or we can actually have it manufactured.
And then what, when did you guys start doing some of that? And what are some of the, like some of
the, some of the things that you thought were great ideas that turned out to be not so great
ideas? And what was something that, something that completely surprised you that it was a,
there's something that you didn't even think there was a market for?
Um, as far as surprises, I can't really think of anything there, but one of the first products
we first started making was, um, I want to say it was window rubber. So, uh, just because West
Coast metric has had a lot of ups and downs throughout the years, um, being again, they are
a mom and pop business as well. And with that, if something happens to mom or pop, there's going
to be a drop in supply, whereas we still have the demand. So we had to come in to that point
and have seals made. So we reached out to a supplier in the US and I want to say this was
probably mid 2000s, probably between 0406. We first started doing that. And it's one of those
things where that was kind of just the beginning. And we started with the window rubber seals
and we've gone into everything from, we have a lot of our own wiring harnesses made,
and we sell those side by side with the wiring works, uh, harnesses from Bob.
We have a number of other rubber seals made as well. It's, it's expanding and expanding further
and further. I mean, we have the wheels and we're starting to jump into more of that.
As far as surprises of things that maybe we thought would go well, but haven't,
I don't know that we've, I mean, there's things are going to be a better,
you're going to sell more of one product than another. And it's the supply versus demand.
And oftentimes we have to spend so much to have something made
to fulfill the demand that's only this much. So we have to spend a whole lot up front,
but we're not going to see our ROI on this product for 10, 15, 20 years possibly.
So those are the items that we, you know, as time allows and, uh, the business allows,
we'll start adding some more of those less popular, but still necessary items.
You know, like the Gia turn signal seals. We don't sell, you know, one tenth the amount of
Gia turn signal seals as we do a Beagle turn signal seal. However, it's still, it's still the man
and it's still, if our customers need it, we can't get a readily supply of them. We're going
to see what we can do to try and bring ours to the market. So yeah, it's interesting. You bring
up rubber, right? I've had, um, I've had a few people on that manufacture rubber and parts and
stuff like that. And that's got to be kind of another with, with the change of EPA regulations
and manufacturing that has changed. Cause you know, you'll, you'll buy a bug that's a 1965
bug that hasn't been roached outside its whole life. And that rubber is still supple, it's pliable,
it's all that stuff. The car, the car's been garage kept. And then you'll buy some rubber from
a shop today and the car parks in the garage and all of a sudden it just starts drying and
cracking out within a year. And, and it's just interesting because, you know, you see like
there's a, you know, the manufacturer, one of the ones that I'm like, the ones that large ones I
can think of is like steel rubber parts, right? They're the, you know, you look at all these
things that they, these people make and you think, well, there shouldn't be a problem making some
rubber seals, you know, and then trying to get the shape and the profile and all that stuff,
right? But that's got to be a really difficult avenue to traverse as that whole rubber parts
because it's depending on where they're manufactured, how the, how the process is made, you know,
we have the same thing in our industry, right? They came out with porcelain slabs. And when
they first came out of them, they were incredibly brittle and they were, can you hear me? Did I
lose you? Yeah, I'm showing. Okay. Maybe something happened to my hearing. But they were incredibly
brittle and then as manufacturing processes evolved, they got better and better and less
brittle and more capable to work with. But with, when you're buying something like that, it can
be so detrimental to you guys that you get a batch of stuff and next thing you know, that whole batch
of everything you got has gone sideways. That actually does, and I'm not going to say this is
a surprise, but again, but you mentioned that kind of like the learning curve. So car covers,
car covers was one of those items where we didn't have a good supply, we had a huge demand. So we
went and we sourced a supplier. And again, it's one of those things where trying to have something
made in the US is very difficult. So at SEMA and APEX, which happens alongside with SEMA,
we found a supplier overseas to make car covers and we're like, okay, we want to buy these car
covers. And they didn't really take us seriously apparently. That's so the story goes. So we got
our first batch of car covers. And it was like, you know, four or 500 car covers came in, they
looked great, size right, perfect. Send them out. And about a year later, they literally started
falling apart. Really? So we go back to our supplier and we're like, what's up with this?
It was like, well, we didn't actually think you guys were going to be successful in selling these.
So we didn't actually make them out of a decent material. So needless to say, we were slightly
not happy. And we've since gotten, you know, their top of the line material, they know us,
we know them, we trust them. They trust us, I guess is the most important part. And so now
we have our car covers made. Fantastic material. We have them. I have them on my cars in my backyard
in Phoenix, going on two and three years now. And they're still holding up. Fantastic. Yeah. So
it's just a matter. Yeah. Yeah, well, I would just yesterday, I covered three cars,
my, like every Volkswagen guy, your garage gets full and then you just keep getting cars.
And I have three different covers. So I had a cover that was manufactured that came with the
Mexican Beatles. It was made by a company called Feeler or something like that. And they came,
you bought it out of Mexico and it's like a, it's a shiny silver outside with like a fleece inside.
And then, and then I bought some from one of the, one of the retail car covering manufacturers,
because obviously being in the desert, you're trying to get something decent. And it's so hard
to find, because you have indoor car covers and outdoor car covers. And it's tough to find the
right cover at a good price and know what you're getting. Cause I've got, I probably have four
different car covers at my place. And I never even looked online to check your guys' car covers
out, but I'm going to have to do something because the car covers that I'm buying, you know,
they either show up and they're a little too thin and they don't, they can't withstand the
weather because if I'm covering a car, it's usually going to be outside, you know, and so.
Yes. But it's, it's interesting you say that because I was just dealing with that experience
yesterday and it was like, man, these things don't fit right. Even the ones that I have for,
the ones that I had Mexico are pretty decent. The problem was they have that shiny silver
outer cover and the sun was banking off a window by my house and concentrating on the back of the
cover. And it kind of made the back of the, that silver stuff kind of crusty. So like almost
like turn that vinyl hard in a couple of spots. Yeah. And that's actually similar to our very
first covers that we brought in. It was a silver material, reflective, a white fleece on the lining
on the inside, which is essentially the same cover style that we have today. It's got the
reflective outside layer, a Tybeck liner, I want to say in inside that. And then the fleece lining
on top of that. So, but again, it's our covers are silver. So you're still going to get some of
that reflection, but we actually take some of our bigger covers, our bus covers, and we put them on
our swamp coolers on the roof up on our building here in Phoenix to keep the, yeah. And these things
are on there for six months straight hard corners on the swamp coolers and they still held up season
after season. So when you winterize the swampers. Yeah. Nice. So now let's get, let's get a little
into some of your personal history with some of the cars. There was earlier, I put a picture up of
your, of your VW thing. Now there's a picture of you here with a square back. And yeah, I don't
know. I'm trying to figure, there we go. And that's your square back. Now what year was this,
the square back you built a late model? That was actually, we didn't even build that other than I
did do some sprucing up on that. That car belonged to my wife's family. So that car had been in her
family for probably 20 plus years. Oh, wow. And that was, I want to say it was a 73.
It was a fully automatic. We bought it from my wife's grandmother. And she had driven that thing
daily until she stopped driving, at which point we bought it from her. I put a new interior in it,
put a stereo in it. I think I put some chrome wheels. And I think I had Porsche Nipple Hub
caps on there, Wolfsburg Crest Nipple Hub caps. But yeah, so that's, that's the car that my wife
drove daily. That picture actually is the day I proposed to my wife up on Mount, up on Polymar
Mountain. So yeah, so that was pretty cool. That was a cool car. And then actually, we ended up
selling that to a young lady that worked for JBugs in Oceanside. And so she drove that through
high school. She gave that to her younger sister, who then drove it through high school. And then
their mother drove it after both the girls had moved out. And she drove it for a number of years.
So very, very cool car that stayed in a couple of families for a lot of its history. I'm not
certain where it's at nowadays, but that was a fun little car. That's good stuff. And then
we showed the thing a little bit earlier. You also did the German look beetle here.
And that was something. Now you did a bunch of YouTube videos as you were building this car
for your YouTube channel on this one. Yeah, that was essentially a beginning to end. We did almost
every, there was almost 100 videos on that that we filmed in our warehouse. I didn't do,
I didn't do the filming of stuff I did at home. I really wasn't set up for it. And
nobody wants to watch somebody stand a car for, you know, two weeks straight while I did the
bodywork on it. But yeah, so virtually everything on that car, the complete teardown, I built the
engine on our YouTube series, pulled apart the chassis, did the entire bottom to top inside and
out. That was a full nut and bolt restoration and all of it was on our YouTube series. So
very cool car. What made you pick a Super Beetle to do?
That one was actually kind of, I just fell into it. I was, I was moonlighting for my paint and
body guy. He had that sitting in the back of the shop. The first car that we had for our YouTube
series was owned by a guy that got hired off by a different company. So he took his car with us or
took his car with him. So we were kind of sitting there like, well, we need a car for a YouTube
series and I want to do something beginning to end. Again, that five to 10 minute format that
YouTube used to use to like. So talking to my paint and body guy, kind of looking for a car,
he's like, well, I have this thing sitting here. And I'm like, well, one of our most popular items,
even to this day, is a Super Beetle front and disc brake kit. So I'm not a big Super Beetle guy.
However, doing the German look is the only really, really acceptable way, the way to build a Super
Beetle in my opinion. They just don't look right otherwise. So I'm like, how about we do this
Super Beetle German look build and a lot of our customers will be able to relate to it. Obviously,
seeing a Super Beetle disc brake kits are one of our most popular items. There's a lot of Super
Beetle out there, obviously. So let's do it. So I got the car from my paint and body shop guy.
He actually owed me money. So I essentially got the car for free. I kept working for him doing
wiring installs. He ended up actually painting the car for me. He had to buy the paint. He painted
the car. And I think at the end of my tab within, he actually ended up giving me like $800 at the
end by the time I actually left, because I worked so much for him and just never gotten paid and
not in cash anyway. So not until the end. So building that car that I mean, I agree that
Super Beetle looks the best done in a German look style. And that, now that front, that front
air dam, is that an original Kami air dam, or do you guys reman... Yeah, yeah.
It does, it does. And now do you guys, as far as, so let's talk about that. As the hobby's been
evolving over the past few years, you've seen things go from like, number one, it was all mid 60s
or early 70s bugs selling stuff. And now you've seen the split buses got popular, probably mid 2000s
and on. And then now you start seeing, because of the expense of Volkswagen's, now you start seeing
72 later Beatles becoming more popular, because people can't... The Bay Window buses. Yeah,
all that stuff. Yeah. Yeah. And it was definitely, and I remember talking to, I want to say it was
Lenny from Lenny rather, from West Coast Classics, about that kind of that transition where if it
wasn't pre 67 Beatles, nobody wanted to touch it to, all right, well, 68 73s aren't too bad to,
you know what, a Super Beetle convertible is not bad. And I actually had a good friend that
passed away a couple of years back that all he did was 73 to 79 Super Beatles. And he made a
heck of a side profit off of doing those cars. And then the same thing on the buses were,
I think it was Dave Cormack's bus was the, he had sold it, and then that person ended up selling
it at Barrett Jackson. That was the first bus that broke that 66 figure selling price
out of Barrett Jackson. And that was kind of the takeoff for the split window buses where nobody
could get into a split window bus hardly anymore. So Bay Windows became, all right, you know,
a 68 71 Bay Windows not bad, at least it still has a type one engine to now it's like, it doesn't
matter if it's a bus, it's popular now. So it's the rarity and the price. Yeah. And so your, your
job is J bugs to stay on top of what people are going to be calling for. And so you start, I mean,
I guess you can see the things people are searching for just based off of orders, right? And you guys,
I mean, I'm assuming you following trends and stuff like that, seeing what people are starting
to order what they're pushing towards and then starting to get it trying to be ahead of that,
right? That's got to be a little bit of work on that part. Yeah, absolutely. And our marketing
team, we've got a number of guys and gals on our marketing team that that's all they do is they're
sitting through and looking at the analytics, they've got spreadsheets and Google docs and
trouble boards where they're all communicating and watching a what's selling be where the trends
are going and see where are we going to try to be to be ahead of it, hopefully. And it's, it's,
it's a guessing game. Absolutely. But for the most part, we've, we've stayed, we've, we've been
riding the wave for a long time. Even so now it's like the van again, I think really when COVID hit
and the van life thing really got popular, the vanigans were already kind of on the rise and
then they just shot up like a rocket. So a lot of the van again market just went crazy. So we're
still we're now rather getting into offering some van again products. If you're looking on J bugs,
you'll see some stuff for van again pop up now. So no, that's, it's, it's interesting to watch the
hobby evolve. And me, I, I look at it as like, I appreciate everybody's anything that they put
some energy into, man, if it's not my speed, thing, but it doesn't have to be right.
It's, it's there, it's their thing. Now you said earlier that you built the engine. I know you
started there kind of as a counter guy working the warehouse all stuff. Where did you get your
experience on building engines? Because it's a pretty bold move that you're rolling up into this
MP engine battle build motor. So, uh, when did you start building motors and, and, uh, how's that
been for you? I did my first top end and I will say, I won't even say a rebuild, but I replaced
pistons and cylinders and cylinder heads on my 1974. And this was, shoot, I want to say,
they actually know it was before I started working at J bugs. So this was probably
96, 97, uh, one of my best friends, his dad worked in the European automotive field. So he was
actually able to get me at costs, a set of pistons and cylinders, gasket kit, uh, and some heads.
I want to say at the time it was probably maybe $300 for two brand new heads, uh, brand new,
slip fit 88. It's not the wisest choice. But of course I'm a kid and I want the biggest engine
possible and I don't want to do any machine work. Uh, so I haphazardly got that engine together.
And it ran. So that was the first top end I've did. Um, and then from there, just over the years,
uh, starting at J bugs, working on my own cars. Um, and I've, you know, been side by side,
whether it be with my race team, uh, how I met my wife, actually, uh, some of the guys there
working with Gary, uh, Hogley at BNR buggy, um, Doug Platt, uh, who's since passed as well at
Oceanside for an auto repair, uh, hanging out there in the shop with those guys and just kind of
learning the ropes, watching them as they go through build engines, kind of getting some tips,
tricks, and of course just reading the magazines, uh, throughout the years, all the magazines and
manuals I could get my hands on. I'm definitely one of those guys where if I watch somebody do it,
chances are I can do it. And so obviously YouTube has made that so much easier nowadays. Um,
but it's just, I've never been afraid to fail and I failed plenty. I've failed plenty. Yeah. So
with, with this now, segueing into the MP engine build off. So this year, the 2026 MP engine build
off world cup edition. Um, you had a chance last time. Talk about your experience last time doing
it and what, maybe some things you walked away from learning. Uh, never take your eyes off your engine.
Yeah. Um, so that was, uh, that was unfortunate. So that engine, that 2234, that was the fourth
engine I've ever built. Oh, really? And that was the only the fourth engine I've ever built.
And other than the fact that it somehow ingested a nut down the number one cylinder.
Yeah. That was, that was very, very disheartening to say the least. But again,
I'm not going to let something like that stop me. And I obviously went through,
got the engine put back together. And then, uh, I want to say it was Terry was running the dyno,
um, in 2024 and still getting their angle on it. And we over rev the engine that exploded the fan.
And I've got a counterbalance. I'm sorry. I've got a welding balance fan this time. So that
shouldn't be an issue. Right. And before that thing starts on the dyno, I am going to disconnect
the ignition, make sure we can crank the engine over, give it full throttle. Anything happens to
drop in, we're going to pull the engine off the dyno and then pull it apart just in case anything
happens to have found its way into the intake track. But this time I, uh, I went from running the
engine to putting it in a crate to it's now at empty because it's inbox, it's sealed. There
should be nothing in that engine at this point. So just praying that that's the case this time, but
lessons learned from last time. Yeah, it's, there's, there's a few. Now, what are the parameters?
What they've changed some, they've changed some of the parameters for this year. They're going
for torque and horsepower. What's the, what, what is the detail on what they're, the outlay is for
this year? I want to say it's essentially the same as it was in 2024. However, they do have
more requirements as far as less modifications to ex, to existing products. So you have to use
an empty exhaust and I want to say it has to be 75% must remain. Uh, some of the guys had
empty flanges welded onto their exhausts and then had stepped that out to, uh, other manufacturers
exhaust systems. So they were using an empty exhaust part of it anyway, and then they went
off to their own exhaust. Uh, custom cam grinds were allowed this year. You have to use an, uh,
an MPG TV series cam. So it's just, I think it's just limited as far as what products we can use.
There are open possibilities. We can use whatever rocker assemblies we want to use.
Things of that nature, but it's just, I think we have a narrower corridor of,
A, the amount of modifications we can do to products and B, the products that we have to
use out. We have to use the MP, the new fan shrouds, the new, uh, super shrouds that have the
velocity ring. So we have to use those across the board, uh, the MPG TV cam, a couple other pieces.
But yeah, so it's still the same, uh, horsepower plus tour divided by displacement or whatever
their formula was. I think it's still going to be that same format, uh, as far as determining the
winner. Do I think I'm going to be at the top of the leaderboard? No. Well, I probably be down at
the bottom again. Most likely again, I'm not an engine builder. This is now the fifth engine I've
built, but I love it. What, what is the, uh, what is your, um, what were your numbers last year? Do
you recall what your numbers were last year? Uh, I was 150 point something over 149. So 150 over
150, which is that's pretty good. I mean, for a street motor, and that's the thing is my intent
was to build an engine that I could then take off the dyno and put in a car and drive it,
maybe not daily, but regularly enough. Yeah. And so, you know, it's interesting to be able to put the,
put engine philosophies to the test on a dyno and see real world results. So the motor you're,
yeah, this year is different than the motor you bought last year. You've done a few different
modifications based on your experience last time. Yes. So I do have the welding balance fan.
But other than that, I changed out the FK8 cam for the GTV7 cam, which is essentially
MP's version of the angle FK8. So kind of the same cam, but the geometry turned out to be a
little bit different. I did have to reach him. My, my rocker assembly is a little bit differently.
So that's all worked out. Uh, I've got a JC full flow oil pump on there,
but I've met that whole bottom end is the same as it was two years ago on the top end. I had D7000
heads on that engine with, uh, with thick wall 92s. This year I've got stage three GTV heads
along with, uh, 94, uh, mallet pistons and cylinders. So it's a 2332 this year as opposed
to a 2234. So nice. Well, you know, I wish, I wish you the best of luck on that. And, uh, and
of course I'll see you down there because we're going to be, uh,
let's talk. Dubs is going to be live streaming the event. So, and then we'll get nice. You and I'll
get to sit down as people listen to this podcast, the weekend of you and I'll get to sit down and
talk about your experience on that and, and the feedback with that. So that's an exciting thing.
You know, and I'm, and I'm glad to see a guy like yourself that's that started out as an enthusiast
has moved his way to the top of this organization. It's one of the, which is probably one of the
most premier retailers in the Volkswagen industry, right? Um, but you're still an enthusiast. You
still go to the shows. You still go to the car shows. You still hang out. You still do that
kind of stuff, even though you're not in the day to day and all that kind of stuff. But you know,
it's good to be able to see you do that. And it's, it was awesome to see you and your son,
you know, you had your son out there, uh, working on that Baja with you and, uh, you guys are,
I saw that that was the Baja you guys had at the, um, what was the VW event you guys had over there
at, um, uh, desert dub show, the desert dub show. That was it. Yeah. I've got the, the trooper, the,
the thank you things right over here. Yeah. So that was the, yeah, there we go. That's it, man. I
you know, onto your kids and be able to create and build something with them. You know, I think
for a lot of us in the VW hobby, us being able to actually work on an engine ourselves
enabled us to be able to realize that we can do things, that we can accomplish things, which is,
which is, you know, a lot of, a lot of kids struggle with today. You know, so that's, uh,
you know, I commend you for staying involved that level and especially being a good dad and
involved, you know, with, with bringing, you know, I, I, I'm involved with my kids quite a bit
and, um, you know, I'm, I'm involved because I saw that you do some, you, uh, iron
sharpen iron stuff that you do on your, uh, personal basis. Now tell me a little bit about that.
Iron sharpens iron is just a men's group I go to. And the, the biggest thing for that is for us
men, especially, we have to kind of hold things close to our vest. We don't really have a space
where we can open up and share our struggles, our feelings. We're always called to that, that
higher standard, um, whether it be as a husband, as a father, uh, as an employee in a lot of places,
we're really called up to, uh, to, you know, a high standard of living, um, me being a man of
faith, giving everything I have to God. It's trying to live up to that standard. How do we
share our struggles? And so ISI has just been a huge thing for me. I spend, uh, a lot of weekends,
a Saturday mornings, I get up extra early, I go there and I serve and then I help out in, uh,
our small groups there, what we talk through it. And like even tonight, uh, after I get off
of work tonight, I'm going to go through, uh, grab my study worksheets and stuff. And I lead a Bible
study, uh, for about anywhere from 15 to 25 guys, uh, every Tuesday night. So that's just one thing
I'd be able to, to go through and help guys and just help carry that load and share that load
across, uh, across our brotherhood. Well, you know, it's, it's good because, you know, I, I, I,
to a man of faith, I'm involved in my church. I'm a Latter-day Saint and I'm every Tuesday
night. I have a youth group that I'm a part of and awesome. You know, I grew up with none of that
in my life. And yeah. And what I mean by that is I didn't have any adults that would take time to
mentor me. You know what I mean? And I think it's so important as men in this world that we're able
to take what we know and impart it to younger people. And it's, it's so interesting. The dynamic
of youth today is so different with, you know, when we were young, you and I, you know, I'm a,
I'm a couple of years, I'm about four years older than you. You say you turned 50.
So you turn, or you turn 49 tomorrow. Yeah. My birthday was Friday or Saturday. And I just
turned happy birthday. Thank you. And I just turned 54. And it's like, you know, so we're
right in the same age group, right? A high school generation apart, right? Yeah. But you know,
we grew up in the time where it's like, if you showed up late, you were told, let me just get
out of here. We don't need you. And you didn't go home and sob about it and all this kind of stuff.
You know, you just kind of went home and said, yeah, there was two people in this world, right?
You either showed up early the next day or you never came back. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know,
it's interesting that you talk about, you know, that, that iron sharpens iron because,
you know, I've had people tell me, you know, you're kind of tough on your kids. I said,
I'm nowhere near as tough as the world's going to be on them. And my job is to prepare them to be
able to withstand the stuff that they deal with absolutely. And it's, and I find it incredibly
rewarding to, especially to volunteer my time to work and give of my free time to something
that's more meaningful, something that's more long lasting, whether it's, you know, I used to take
kids to church dances and I'd go pick them up in my bus. And then we'd cruise the strip,
blast and music on the way to a church dance somewhere. And that would get these kids a little
bit pushing them a little bit closer to being car people are really enjoying. Yeah. Yeah. What
they do because you look at the youth today and like when we were young, we couldn't wait to get
our driver's license just to take off and go there. Yeah. Yeah. The challenge is now kids,
their poor hold to the world is through a digital device and it's like, you know, push these kids
out there, get them in the garage, get them working on stuff. And you know, I remember my kids,
we went to the sand dunes one time and I pulled up and I looked at my boy who's probably 15. I
said, pull the sand car out and switch the back tires and let's get the paddles on and blah,
blah, I'm gonna set up whatever. And his friends looking at him like,
how did you learn to do this? I can amaze me. He's like, I have this is what I got to do when we
come out here and my kid likes working with the impact and stuff like that. But it was like, yeah,
you know, there's, there's so much to be learned from just doing a little bit of hard work and
seeing projects to the end and, and having a goal and working at something that's a little bit
large and think you can tackle and just chipping away at piece by piece by piece, you know, so
yeah, no, it's, I think it's awesome that you do that. I saw it was just so fantastic that you
had your son with you because I've got, I've got three boys and a daughter and my boys have,
they've, they've against their will, they were commanded out to the garage like, come give me
a hand. And, you know, after a while, you know, it was something they didn't like to wear now
they're mechanically capable to figure things out. Yeah. You know, the quote from dad that they
dealt with all the time was, does it come with instructions? Well, then you should be able to
figure it out if it doesn't, you know what I mean? It should be that simple. But yeah, it's a, and
Volkswagen's are a huge part of that. You know, Volkswagen's are something that it's a real live
car, but it looks, it seems like something that you can take it and, and you can do a little
modification or a little this and so much of that hobby has empowered so many people to be,
to become self-reliant, you know, to be able to have a challenge in their life,
you know, cause some, for some people, you know, they get their car breaks down and next thing
you know, they don't have the money to take it to a mechanic or that kind of stuff. And then with
resources on YouTube and all that stuff, it's like, compared to where we were when we were young,
they're living in the golden age of being able to Google search it, find the problem and get it
resolved by themselves. But it's definitely something that's, that's incredibly personal
rewarding. And it's also something that it helps people grow, you know, this, this silly thing
that we do with Volkswagen's, it's really got a lot of us, it's created careers for people. And,
you know, you look at the countless numbers of automotive shops, I think the majority of people
out there, they do their own businesses or have businesses started at the bottom rung in the VW
world. And they've just, yeah, perseverance to continue to work their way up, including yourself,
you know, with what you've done. So, you know, I love the hobby for just for that, what it does
for personal individuals with getting that self-reliance because it's something, it's something
that a lot of people struggle with today, you know, so yeah, yeah, I think it's awesome. And I think
it's awesome to be able to, I almost, I almost feel bad people that don't volunteer some of their
time because it's some of the most rewarding stuff that you can do is take some of your personal
time and talent and help other people do some things, man. So, I just wanted to, you know,
recognize that about you and commend you for it, you know, because that's awesome, you know.
Thank you. Thank you. It's an absolute blessing, absolutely, absolutely. Whether it be in the
garage with my son, you know, he got that Baja Bugget 12. He's, when we come back,
back from California and he's slated to go along with me, so you should, you'll be able to meet him.
I actually think he met him out at the Dubs show, but yeah, so he'll be there. When we get back,
the day after we get back, he gets his permit, so he will actually be able to legally drive on the
street as opposed to teaching him how to drive out in the desert and letting him drive in the
driveway and park cars, etc. So he'll be able to do that. He still has the Baja? We still have the
Baja? We're going to actually take the Baja with us out to, I'll be a Prado on the 14th,
and then I'll have the Baja Bug at Amp during the engine battle, and I'll have it there for the
open house. I think we're going to be putting it in the Amp's Baja Bug Corral, so we'll be there
with that, but yeah, so Nathan will be there, yeah. That's a perfect segue into this year's
one crazy weekend. I don't know if you came to our event yet, but I'm telling you, if you're
going to go, this year we're featuring the Baja as the feature vehicle. So this year,
and it's out in Vegas, right? Yeah, first week in October, and so what we're going to do Saturday
morning, there's actually three Baja's being built, three or four Baja's being built. Well,
I just saw a fifth, and there may be a six Baja being built, and some of them were kind of throw
back patinas, some of them are all complete rebuilds, some of them are just old vintage ones
revived, but we're featuring the Baja as the feature vehicle, because it's kind of the most
overlooked in the VW hobby, in my opinion, and I think it's so cool, and what we're doing Friday
morning, because the event is Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and then Sunday's like a pool day,
and stuff like that, the pool party, and Friday morning, we're all leaving the hotel as many
Baja's we can gather, we're going to leave the hotel, we're going to go out to Blue Diamond Road,
and there's a power line road that runs all the way from that Blue Diamond Road all the way out to
Good Springs, Nevada, where's this old, it's an old saloon from the 1800s out there, we'll stop
out there, grab lunch, and then head back, go back for the bowling tournament at two o'clock, so
I'm excited to see, I've got a few things I may be, I may or may not be working on with that,
but there's definitely going to be a Baja challenge happening this year at one crazy weekend,
so it's going to be a good time. Oh, that'll be a blast, I don't like Vegas,
just because of the whole theme of Vegas, so to speak, but I do love Volkswagen's,
and I don't know that much will be friendly for us, well that'll be October, so he'll still be a
15-year-old kid out there in Vegas, I don't know that it's going to be the best for him, but
we'll see what we can do. You know, the good thing is that we have it on an off-strip hotel,
which is west of the Strip, and on property they've got, so our event, we do a poker tournament on
Thursday night, where I think this year, VW Transit sponsored that with Rancho transmissions,
and they're doing a gift certificate for the transmissions giveaway for the
first place prize, and it's really funny to watch a bunch of guys have never played poker,
and it's just the VW Knuckleheads playing it, so it's really funny to watch the dealer
tell everybody what they need to do, and then that's Thursday evening, Friday morning is going to be
the Baja trip, and then come back, and then there's a bowling tournament on property that's going
to happen after two o'clock, there's a pool area inside, there's arcade, there's a movie theater,
there's all kinds of stuff there, and then Saturday's the show, and then Saturday evening is the
poker run where you drive around and get poker cards at different locations and come back,
and you get your chance to win a couple thousand bucks, so it's definitely a fun time,
it's, you know, it's definitely something we'd love to see you guys out there, if you can make it
out there, if you can make it work, that would be cool, but I was seeing the Baja, and I thought,
oh man, this is the year of the Baja out there, one crazy weekend, so.
Yeah, no, if it's family friendly, and I can get the approval from my boss, then
you might see us out there, you might see us out there.
No, it's a pretty good event, you know, it's probably one of the most well-behaved events that,
you know, the Orleans is happy to have us back, because everybody seems to be pretty
in line with everything, you know, and all that, you know, there's, again, it's our people,
right, it's the VW, we're not the, we're not the Rockabilly crowd, or the other guys,
yeah, not, and then, and honestly, there's probably 20 to 30 people from all over the
world that come out, last year we, last year we had to fly out from Australia for the weekend.
Oh wow, yeah, it's definitely a great time, and it'd be cool to see that Baja on a trail with about
another 20 or 30 Baja's, so. Yes, we'll see, we'll see. Did I not have any, I didn't give you
any pictures of the Baja bug finish, did I? No, if you got, you got, I got the one in the driveway
with the sand rail, the orange car, and the yellow car. Oh yeah, let me take a look at that. Yeah.
Let's see here, I didn't see, I think I sent that to you. Let me pull that, but yeah, it's,
you know, and you've got the original, the wheels are on there are, those are the aluminum,
those are Jackman replicas. Okay, because Jackman just got started back in business again, right?
So, yes, and, or maybe not, I'm not certain, that's the thing, is they were hot and heavy for a
second. I actually talked to the guy and got to work with him on developing, or just sourcing
some products that he needed for them. Yeah. They're actually, those wheels on that car are made
by the same place that was making the, they're the Jackman aluminum wheels with the Jackman,
the Jackman J and everything else. Yeah. They're made in the same facility that that,
that 20 spoke wheel behind me is. So, whether or not Jackman's actually
got to be going public or just start selling again, I'm not certain.
Yeah, I've seen them advertise. They kind of dropped off a little bit. Yeah. I've seen them
advertising, but I think a lot of people get wrapped up in some nostalgia and they don't realize
that they're, I mean, everybody, I think sometimes thinks that they have that one super
thing that's just going to go over like, like just a rocket ship, and they don't realize the
dynamics of coming back into a market in today's day and age, right? Between. Yeah, it takes a lot.
Cost competitiveness, right? And then being able to produce and manufacture and get things out,
unless you're selling something that's handmade and super intricate, then it's kind of a,
it's kind of a tough deal to kind of, not everybody's making Apple computers. You know what I mean?
Yeah. No, absolutely not. Yeah. Or iPhones or Samsung's or whatever the heck. Yeah. It's there.
It takes a lot of, a lot of effort, technology, money to get into the market.
And I'm not certain if Jackman's still coming out or not. There's their website's still up. So,
you know, hopefully for their case, they, they, they can bring it back to life.
Yeah. Well, listen, Sam, it's been great having you on. I look forward to sitting down with you
during the Dino sessions that people will be hearing the weekend that this comes out.
And let's wish best of luck, God willing, that you'll be able to make everybody proud for what
you've done. And you know, I appreciate your intestinal fortitude to be able to take your
fifth engine you've ever built and go to a Dino challenge because it's just definitely something
that's, that's the true spirit of the VW enthusiasts, you know, never give up and just keep pushing
through. So I think that's awesome. I'm always trying to learn. Absolutely. Absolutely. Well,
that's perfect. Now, well, thanks for coming on the podcast and listen, next time you guys are
coming out with something new or I'd love to get an exclusive on anything you guys got that you're,
that you're going to be coming to market with and we could do maybe, you know, 15 minutes on
something you got coming up in the future because I'd love to be able to bring that,
you know, to the people that listen and help get that news out there because I appreciate what
you guys are doing. You know, a lot of people are really critical about everybody that has a
business is subject to a massive amount of inspection by everybody else and not everybody
understand details. And you know, I focus on the bigger picture that it's because of places like
you that the hobby is able to continue to grow versus dwindle because when resources dry up and
what we lost are one of our local people here in Nevada off-road buggy been in business since the
late 70s and, you know, they're gone, you know, and it's like, it's tough. It's tough to,
it's a tough market to stay on top of and it requires diligence and perseverance and some
people, you know, don't understand all those factors, but I appreciate it. Appreciate what
Jay Brugs brings to the table and for sure we'll have you on. We'll have you on again. This won't
be the last time, you know. Absolutely. Sounds good. I actually have a couple things that might
go right up your alley that we have on the pipelines right now. So we'll definitely be
attached there. Well, perfect, man. Well, thanks again for coming on. Take some time with us.
They'll take care. God bless and we'll see you here in a couple of days. Absolutely. God bless,
brother. All right. Take care. Bye. If you like this podcast and I hope you did, make sure you
share with all your VW enthusiast friends. If you want to support the podcast, go to letstalkdubs.com
and pick up some merch the end of this week before I head to the UK. I'm going to be posting
some shirts, America 250 Volkswagen shirts. So go check them out. Super dope, red, white, and blue.
And it says VWs as American as apple pie. So go check them out at letstalkdubs.com to support
the podcast. And also don't forget one crazy weekend, October 1st of the 4th. Don't miss it.
400 spaces limited. We're about two thirds of the way sold out. So until next week, guys, later.
About this episode
Sam Mebane of JBugs.com joins Lets Talk Dubs Classic to talk about how he got into classic Volkswagens—starting with a 1974 Beetle and a long run at Jbugs—and how the company evolved from mail-order roots into early online sales. They cover JBugs’ history, shipping/operations, and why SEO and shifting Google/YouTube algorithms matter. The conversation also ranges from DIY restoration and parts manufacturing (rubber seals, wiring harnesses, car covers) to dyno/build-off rules and upcoming Baja-focused VW event plans.
If you've spent any time watching the popular how-to videos from JBugs, you've probably seen Sam Mebane and his son Nathan working side-by-side, sharing their passion for air-cooled Volkswagens while helping enthusiasts keep their classic VWs on the road. From restoration projects and maintenance tutorials to building Nathan's own Volkswagen, the father-and-son team has become a familiar and trusted source of knowledge for the VW community.
In this episode of Let's Talk Dubs, Sam shares a deeply personal story that goes far beyond Volkswagens. From a childhood spent in foster care to discovering purpose, building a successful career, and creating a life on his own terms, Sam's journey is one of perseverance, determination, and faith. His story is a powerful reminder that where you start in life doesn't have to determine where you finish.
We also get into the history of JBugs, exploring how the company grew from a small mail-order Volkswagen parts business into one of the most recognized and influential names in the air-cooled VW industry. Sam discusses the evolution of the hobby, the challenges of serving a passionate customer base, and how JBugs has adapted through decades of change while continuing to support Volkswagen enthusiasts around the world.
Whether you're a longtime air-cooled Volkswagen owner, a fan of JBugs' instructional videos, or simply enjoy hearing inspiring stories of overcoming adversity and building something meaningful, this is an episode you won't want to miss.
Topics Covered
Sam Mebane's journey from foster care to entrepreneurship
Finding purpose and defining success on your own terms
