Alaska

Anyone have any idea if there any speedster members here in AK, or am I going to be the first?

Pat, meet Brian Puskas of the great white north- Brian, this is Pat. You are seperated by great distances, but you seem to have a lot in common already. Have either of you seen the sun in a while?

Seriously, I hve no idea if there are any other Alaskans here, but I tip my hat to you... and Brian of Yellowknife, Yukon (even the name of that place sounds mean). You are hardy individualists, in the best sense of the word.

Pat, welcome. where on earth is Chugiak? I couldn't find it on my state map, probably not detailed enough. I spent a year on St. Lawrence Island and that's pretty remote. Are you in the military and thinking about a car when you get back to the lower 48? Just curious.
John H

Hi John and Stan!
No it's not dark here for 24hrs. Right now the sun's up around 8:30 and down at 4:30. Yellow Knife is a good distance away; Chugiak is around 15 miles north of Anchorage. John, I'm retired military (AF 2002), now working in the civilian world. I'll be ordering a Beck the end of Feb for an April delivery hopefully? I'm currently looking for a shipper, any thoughts would be great. I've been reading the trials for the Knott's trip, sounds rather cool. I had originally thought of flying down to pick the car up and drive it to Seattle, and then ship, Luke at BCS said it probable would not be a good thing to drive it across country at a constant RPM during the break-in period. Oh well it was a thought. Maybe a trip to see it/recieve it, then on to Knott

Pat,

Welcome to the coolest site in cyberland! Another thought for you and getting the car back to AK. I drove up there in 2001 and really wasn't a bad drive at all. I am sure the Speedy would make it with no problems. Roads are basically paved except for some construction sites. A full bra would be recommended. I took the ferry back from Haines to Bellingham, Washington and it was the trip of my life. You could get a stateroom and put Speedy underneath on the vehicle deck. Vehicles under 15 feet get the cheapest rate, (that's Speedy). Ferry trip was abut 4 days. I didn't get a stateroom but just slept in the lounge chairs at night. A Sleeping bag would be a good idea. Good food and what a trip thru the inside passage, awesome. Get on the Alaska Marine Hwy web site and let your imagination soar! Looks like you have 3 methods, ship it, drive it, or ferry it. Ferrying it probably would be about the same cost as shipping and you would have it with you and able to keep an eye on it.

Keep us posted, Bruce

Pat, forgot to mention to make ferry reservations if you are traveling in the summer peak seasons, May should be pretty wide open, Bruce

Yeah, you have to remember that, basically, these things are old Volkswagens. REALLY COOL looking, but VW's none the less.

Gas mileage during break-in tends to run in the mid-to-low 20's, and once they're broken in (around 3000 miles or so) then it climbs up to around 30 MPG.

I recall a teacher-friend of my mother's who, many, many years ago took a one-year job teaching way up in Point Barrow (actually, I think the job was at Desolation Point, even farther North).

She liked the country there so much she's been there ever since - must be 20+ years now.

Gordon
One of the "Speedstah Guys from Beaufort, SC

Pat,

Driving your Speedster up to at least Bellingham would be a sweet deal if you took the coast hiway up. You wouldn't be running the car at a steady pace becuse of the hills and curves, traffic, and view points. When you get to Bellingham from LA, an oil change, trans change and valve adjustyment would be the ticket. Then nothing needed for awhile in Alaska. In fact you may want to do the oil change before that. I live in Southern Oregon and I can set you up with a good V W mechanic that can do all of the above, course you'd have to wait overnight probably so the valves are cold. In any case, starting on a long trek with a new Speedy is not a big seal if you vary your speed and watch the rev's. Sounds like we may talk you into doing the drive, at least part way!

Bruce, The Eagle point Guy!

Thanks guys for the info, I'll keep you posted on how things go with the build and trip info. I was calling around today looking for a VW mechanic and found one who's building a Beck spyder, he started to sounded like a kid in a candy factory when I told him I was bringing one up.

,Pat

Pat, get used to that feeling ;-)
John H

Pat,

I just sent Kirk my deposit on a 1915 red w/tan int.& top speedster; hope it arrives before June.

T. Gatts

Tony,
Have you looked into shipping yet? Mine has been delayed, and may not be shipped till mid/late May. Maybe we can get them together in Seattle and share the costs of a container. Send me an email if your interested and we can talk. It would be great to know others with the cars in our area, I was talking to another person in March from anchorage who was looking at ordering one, but I haven't heard from her since. Maybe do some drives this summer, I took the scout troop up the new paved road to Eklutna, man what a ride that'll be in the speedster! With the snow going on outside, no big hurry at the moment, huh. I ordered mine in Feb........

Pat

Pat,

Mine will ship in mid to late May also,,, but Kirk has made all the shipping arrangements so if I were you I would call him and tell him we have communicated and you wish to split the freight from Washington to Alaska with me,,, he will probably go for it unless he has a designated one car container ( he is shipping it in all enclosed containers)

Tony

I lived in Peters Creek for about 10 years and the place pulls at me 10 years later. You Alaskans will want to invest in the 3M transparent bras for your cars, because there are always rocks on the Glenn highway, and if they don't fall from the hills, they drop from the belly-dumps. Your paint jobs will be toast in a hurry, these cars are very close to the surface. Someone up there probably knows how to install it for you; there's a 356 pre-cut pattern available from Stonegard (google Stonegard.com, and you should get close enough). You've got some great roads to drive, especially if you get a good summer rather than slate grey. Good luck with the cars.

www.stongard.com/sgcontent/default.asp

thanks for the advice... I found the stongard site and will order a set....

Tony, did you find someone up here to install it? I ordered a bra from Vintage thinking the same thing as Scott, but if the stoneguard works then that might be the way to go. I've already picked up other small items, scripts etc. Now if we can get the cars up, that would help. Tony, are you planning on going down to take delivery? Scott I live in Peterscreek, when did you move? It probably hasn't changed much. Scott, thanks for the suggestion!

Pat

Yeah, there's not much (if any) difference between PC and Chugiak.
We moved to the lower 48 in 1990 or so. I had one of VS's bras when I had a VS. They work fine, BUT one of the nicest features of the car are its lines, especially it's nose. If you have a black car, and get the VS black bra, you can live with the bra line because it matches. Then, provided that you don't mind taking it on and off every time you wash the car, fine. You must handle the VS bra carefully, to make sure it doesn't get dirt between it and the paint or the bra will cause what it was meant to prevent. Eventually, I resigned myself to "shooting" the front end of the car every couple of years, and putting the bra in the garage.
When I bought a Roadster from IM, the first thing I did was order the 3M product. You have to have a clean and scratch free nose, so it won't do you much good to buy the thing after the dings are already in the car, unless you do a re-paint. Even if you get the Stongard, you should have someone install it who knows how to do so properly because the curves of the nose of the car make installation by beginners kind of tough. I hired a guy to do it for me, and he definitely had a system. I would check on the Stongard website for an installer, or call one of the dealers in Anchorage for a referral.
Most of the pickups get the bra, I'll bet. Good luck. Have a nice summer...Funny thing, the thing I miss the most about Alaska is the quality of the light--watching the pink sunsets over Sleeping Lady--and the borealis, too, of course...

Tony, take a look under the technical general forum, Gordon is working a deal with the stoneguard guys to get a discount rate for SOC. Hopefully you haven't ordered yet.

Pat

Thanks Pat, I was just about to place my order.... and no, I have'nt found anyone to install it... I guess I'll try to do the "easy driveway installation" myself

Hey Tony,
I was down on the end of the park strip today, and hear something that sounds deep throated rumbling by. It was a red speedster, black top (down). I was there with the Boy Scout troop and the "Scout-a-Roma", the place was mobbed. I saw it turn the corner into the neighborhood. Tried to see were it went, but lost it. Later after the event was over I took a ride around the neighborhood, couldn't find it, but we know now there will be at least three of us up here. I also dropped by the custom car show in Eagle River on the way home, didn't see any outside. I'll go tomorrow and look around.....

Pat

Pat we've got to find this guy.... There is a cream colored one here that I've seen from time to time also... could be genuine, I could'nt tell..


Tony

Tony,
Hey your car is looking real nice from the pictures. What is the latest on delivery date? Mine should be hitting the port in New Orleans fairly soon, then up to IL for assembly. The engine should be finished hopefully mid May. After IL the car is off to Denver to get the windows installed. Depending when the engine is finished, it'll either go to Denver or IL for installation. Then the trip up, I'm starting to think it may never get here. I was looking at the IM website, a month or two back, and he's quotes that he has cars in all 50 states. Maybe, I'll shoot him an email and find out who up here has one.

Pat

Thanks Pat,

Kirk sends me a pic every couple of days (I'm so anxious, I feel like a kid on christmas eve.) it seems to be about a week from being done; then about a week and a half or two before I acually get it...so I'd say mid May

P.S. does anyone have diagrams or pictures of the correct badging (interior and exterior) for a mid 57 speedster?)

Pat, got any pics of yours?

Tony

Pat,

Kirk called today and told me that he had a booking for shipping out of Washington for the 11th of May.... that means I'll get my speedster around the 18th~20th of this month... I can't wait....! They were doing the shake down drive this morning and tomorrow are installing the top and misc. (I asked for a cigarette lighter for my radar detector) etc...

Tony

Tony, great to hear that your getting your before I get mine....now do you really believe that, Ha! I sure would like to see it when it gets here. I'm heading out to go bear hunting the week of the 21-28th, I'll have to come visit when I get back. Man your car is looking good, won't see pictures of mine till it gets to IL, I'm guessing. Keep me posted, only a few more posts and we'll get to 25!

Pat

Tony:

If you're serious about getting a Stone Guard shield for the front end, the Stongard folks are in Seattle. It would be good to shuttle it over to them for 1/2 a day to get one installed before it ships out to Alaska - having them do it would be better in the long run and it should be about $400 installed. They cover the entire hood, too.

Call their phone number and ask for the sales Manager, Jeremy, and tell him you're part of the SOC and you've talked with me. He quoted me about $320 for the un-installed kit, so $400 installed should be about right.

Gordon

Pat,

I hope it will be here on time before your bear hunt... Kirk booked and paid for the shipment to Alaska on the 11th so if he misses the boat (so to speak) it's on his dollar.... I'll keep you posted the freight co. has a tracking system, so when it's on it's way I can monitor the progress...

Tony

Gordon,

since Kirk has made the arrangements for the shipment I don't think I can postpone the booking to Alaska (the ships sail on specific days) I wish I'd talked to you before the thing was done...


Tony

Kirk at Vintage Speedsters does'nt put the Porsche badges on his 57 replica; due to copyrite concerns.

does any one know the size color,(gold or chrome) and placement of the porsche front and rear emblems (he puts the 1600 super and speedster badges on) and the type and placement of the small emblems just behind the front wheel wells and the dash emblems, if any.

Mid America has all of these, and I want to order them and install them on my car

Tony

Tony; if you send the emblems to Kirk he'll drill the holes for you and pre-install the emblems (for example, the front script needs to be bent just right to fit the contour of the nose). Then he'll mail them back or pack them in the car for you to install when you receive the car. I had that done on mine.

Tony,
I ordered mine from Mid America, I ordered the porsche script (2)front and back in gold, and the speedster script across the dash is silver and gold. It was what I thought looked good on mine, take a look at other cars on the site, then make your decision. Look for the year when ordering your script, The script I ordered was 8.5 gold, for a 57'. They look to be good quality from what I can tell. If your car gets here and it takes a while to get your script up here, you can have mine and I'll take yours when they get here. Let me know. WOW, just looked at the pictures of your car, it looks great! Congratulations Tony!

Sorry to jump into the thread here, but the information on emblems caught my attention

My pleasure Bill; that's what we're here for; I'm glad my suggestion does you some good. Kirk is a very good guy too, always going out of his way to give the customer great service.

Tony, does your email work?

Pat

yes; it's gatts@gci.net.... P.S. my car shipped today...5/9/05 and will ship out of Tacoma on the 11th


Tony

Tony,
I sent you an email the other day... I just sent it again.

Pat

Hey!

The Weather Channel reported that the Sun finally rose in Point Barrow yesterday.

It now stays up (24X7) for the next three months, setting just before September.

If I remember my James Michner (Alaska) right, the Bay at Desolation Point (just West of Point Barrow) should be freezing over again about mid-September.

You guys better get those Speedies soon - Summer is just fleeting away!!!!

gn

Gordon,

Anchorage Alaska is farther from Point Barrow than Rhode Island is from Miami.... and the difference in climate is as dramatic.

Tony