Today we spot Patrick Comfort’s 1960 VW Beetle at the Kiwanisland Car Show in Garden Grove, CA.
Patrick picked up this beauty at local hot rodder Jimmy Quast’s estate sale during the pandemic. Built some 30 years earlier by another local hot rodder Adam Stankus (GM at Cambra Speed Shop) when he was only 16.
Patrick built it back up keeping the original 30 year old paint, but replacing the turbo engine with a freshly built up naturally aspirated monster. The Sew-Fine interior and Italian Rossi Headlights are finishing touches to the rich red bug.
Now this is the part of the story where I get a bit personal. My first car was a 1970 Beetle. Many people of my generation a bug was their first car. They were all over the place. This is in 1978 and I loved that car. I have a very clear memory of taking out the rear seat bottom and laying in my big wooden box JVC speakers from the stereo I had in my room. I remember very clearly that “The Burner” Mary Turner was playing The Who, “Who Are You” on KMET. The progressive rock station of Southern California. Unlike the talent, Adam Stankus had, I wasn’t privy to the Select-A-Drop and dropped spindles to give it a great stance. Instead I loaded a bunch of cinder blocks in the trunk to bring the nose down. It wasn’t till a cop saw the blocks through the hole in my glove box where the Kraco stereo once sat, that I removed them. The bug met it’s demise when the engine blew, at the Laguna Hills Mall as I was picking up my Jr. Prom tux. But that’s for another story.
So of course, everytime I see a bitchen Cal-style bug, I gotta check it out.
Be sure to check out Patrick’s YouTube Channel
