The “ Berlin Buick “ 1956 Volkswagen VW Beetle Custom on My Car Story with Lou Costabile

I am blue with another episode of my car story and today we're at the world of wheels Milwaukee and with that I met Rob Rob nice to see you nice to see you and I would say let me jump in for a second I would what's your last name Gary Gary and you're the caretaker for this car yes and who's the owner Rob Freeman from Watertown New York Rob Freeman now Rob has this may be one of the unique cars at this show what what do we have here we have a 1956 Volkswagen original car with a slightly modified motor being a 215 Buick v8 where the backseat used to be slightly modified you call this something no what do you call this car the name of the car is the berlin buick berlin buick what a creative idea first of all your display looks fantastic thank you let's let's start with the obvious the back end so come on alongside me the microphones right there what's going on back here well you see the the top has been chopped about four and a half inches against the yellow silhouette the the bumpers are all handmade with insect taillights get closer to those [Music] what's new lates are these Senate Buick taillight I believe they are and you still kept all this people you all the VW is here now this girl work through here yes has been all modified on the insight to let air through flow through does it get hot in this car it can get hot if yeah yeah if you're sitting and idling it can get quite warm all right let's take this in from the side now we're going to show you a book with some of the details of what happened in but you're seeing the end result how long did this take and how many people Browns metal mods at a port laid in New York built the car it's a shot before guys it took them two years Wow now the owner again is Rob yes now this is his idea yes it was a kind of an idea of his since high school or sometime in his youth to put a v8 motor in a Volkswagen and not just hang it off the back end he wanted something different tell me what's going on with this pipes the exhaust pipes there right under the quarter window our straight pipes coming off the motor four on each side straight pipes straight pipes no mufflers the size for a second we've already set it on I can't start this one yes I know you want to hear it but if you couldn't hear it I at least want to show it to you so go ahead I want to level some expectation because people will be like woo you didn't start it believe me I wanted to hear it go ahead yeah I'll tell you if they'll see it run okay there's a lot of video out there some of the other features on it as far as the exhaust by the Berlin Buick name is Berlin is obviously Volkswagen Buick is a lot of the components other than the motor the motor is a 61 to 63 215 all aluminum Buick v8 which keeps the weight down about 300 horsepower the side the abuse that keeps the weight down because it's an all aluminum motor so it's not a steel motor okay the exhaust comes through on 1914 usually only 300 horsepower yeah I don't think more than that no it's a 215 when you begin okay come on with me while we're talking cuz I want to keep showing this sure go ahead so if you tell him if we're gonna talk about the motor let's let's show sure there's Omaha this door opens yo suicide doors might also add the trim here is 1957 Buick what if you do with your foot there's a remote button on the bottom of the car okay now here's a neat design this trim has been inset into the body to help flush fit it and it's a lot more streamlined again with the burek these pork hole openings are 1953 Buick they be on the side of the hood as air vents on this car they run the exhaust and the last component is is a 1949 Buick - so let me just before we get to the - I mean the pedals everything on this look at the stick shift yeah the the shift knob is actually the Wolfsburg Volkswagen logo rust actually made in 3d and then it has a crown on it is this car an actual driver as anybody's resinous around the street he has driven this about a hundred miles it's only was finished in the middle of summer but actually at the good guys Columbus show this ran the autocross track it wasn't the fastest but it ran very respectable times and look at the look at the ventilation yes the radiators there's twin radiators on each side and the answer there's no glass I can grab engine if I feel like it so yeah right there oh look at even the interior rough this is this is right there as far as the most creative vehicles I've ever seen and then how this is done let me let me let me show back there I'm not gonna rush this hmm because there's way too much the transaxle is based on a mendiola aftermarket for off-road race all the rear suspension is all hand-built narrowed the tires are 12 inch wide some people some of your viewers the tires the tires are approximately 12 inches wide people here Sara Lee white time you show this you're wider than you'd expect and you just do me a favor put your leg right next to the tire I want to show like what a leg looks like okay yeah now some of this car is on air right some of your viewers will notice the the strange angles for the half straps holding up to the wheel this is on air right so this car will come up at right height that's all level all the geometry works this car was built to be driven and even get the creativity okay it's a mind-blower all right so let's let's go back to the interior for a moment because we're not done there sure I can move that stuff sure do you edit this out no we're just going and having fun may I sit in it yeah so let me just show you what I'm seeing Rob do you want to share with me what we're looking at here because everything here is so customs the dash is 49 Buick the Volkswagen steering wheel was modified to work with the Buick horn ring that's great some of the extra features of this this dash was built as this wraps around go ahead it has a door extension this is all scratch built this was not a Buick thing back in 49 the dash would have just rounded and ended right here can we shut that just so I could show people how it rolls even the exhaust wrapping matches yes a 49 Buick - the level of creativity I mean what what Awards does this car win most creative design most well it seems everybody knows that what a Volkswagen looks like exactly and people actually can probably remember what an old Buick looks like yes and the combination of these two is like I don't know peanut butter mustard I mean it's just totally crazy so outside of your mind that's a good comparison one of the awards were quite proud of is Hot August Nights last August is a huge show in Reno Nevada a lot of high-end cars this car took fourth place which is quite an honor for a car that was you know this was really not built as a show car it was built as a droid there's a driver let's take a look under the the I won't call it the the hood man usually the trunk and I want to show that book that kind of shows how this all put together look at the headlights I need to show you that fender so what's going on here we have a gas tank I guess we have the gas tank up here yes I have a special composite or no that's just a aftermarket aluminum feel time okay what is this this cover right here this was actually a handmade cover okay what this does is this covers all the air right assembly though pressors the air tanks master cylinders slave cylinders for the clutch and the brakes fuse panel there's a lot going on under there and is this the batter this is the battery as an Optima battery in it all of this has all been smoothed out just one battery for this whole car yeah that's all things so alright alright let's take a look at that book so we could show people because it would just sit right here for singing and let me just show people there's two one I'm right here yeah it's got the standard front beam it's actually been narrowed six inches so we could use more of a normal offset wheel instead of a traditional Volkswagen it looks like a drag car alright so here we are this is what the car started out as when it showed up at the shop I like a horse one looks like a folks for sure and then just a lot of all of the details how it was chopped there's a lot of work when this top comes down the rear window and rear deck opening all stay the same and just kind of slide between the fenders these guys are magicians yeah is a he's a fantastic builder probably one of the best builders in New York look at the chrome pieces nothing missing on this this is what are these bumpers are these Buick bumpers these are all hand-built bumpers bits and pieces I couldn't tell ya the this section here is Volkswagen I couldn't really tell you whether you like Bullitt and it sunk it's a bullet off of something yeah all right starting to come together here yes I mean obviously we've seen the end result but for those people who like all the engineering I didn't want you to miss this either yeah here's some of the fabrication detail when they built the doors and how that all wraps around all the door corners have been around - - which is kind of a kind of an old-school custom card the running boards have been deleted yeah running boards are removed and the bottoms of the rockers have been rolled under the car a lot of detail in here as how as far as all of the construction on the suspension system how the exhaust pipes all fit yeah a lot of things that's kind of hard to see once it's all fit together and this was the total build was did you say three years - two years years for guys for a four-man crew all they were doing they were doing a few other jobs but there was always one or two guys I think that were real knee-deep in in this program the the intake right here is a nice picture of the motor the the intake is actually an old Hilborn mechanical fuel injection unit that they found in somewhere in Tennessee or Georgia it was new old stock it came off of a shelf that had never been installed they took it they did some modification and turn to modified it into electronic fuel injection its artwork so yeah it has the old-school look but it fires right up it runs good it's kind of self tuning as far as the electronics it's just it's a really fantastic grinning car here's some detail as far as how they built all the hubs for the rear suspension all of that narrowed suspension all the hubs are just all handmade there they're multi-piece they're absolutely bulletproof the way that's all built was all engineered and built at Browns metal mods this actually does have the original pan that has been modified a lot of guys think that we went through and built a whole separate chassis no this uses the original pan that's just been strengthened and you know he doesn't doesn't have any weird flex it seems to handle right corners well I'm surprised it corners well with big fatties at the back of both someone saying yeah you know you get a little bit of body roll obviously it doesn't it's not a road course card right but but no it does it does you're away on the big fat ones in the back it probably sticks to the ground really it does they're very they're a very sticky tire so always to put this today all right amazing our saying it ate and that must have been fantastic when I went to pace yeah just guys it's it's always a fun day when you see color and shiny painting on a project isn't it here's some of the fuel-injection how all that was all configured and here's where we start fitting the body and chassis and all that back together and and there we are at the other end of the story now if we come over here yeah sure show me come over here here's a here's a video playing this actually shows the car I know we can't start it up being in the display okay what about over here sound no it's this is all the music soundtrack right now we have turned out yeah don't turn it up because it'll say that's right it's kind of at the end of our tape loop it's about a three minute video but coming up here in the next 20 seconds or so they'll show it running you'll show it running I'll show it you'll show smokey tires smoke the tires of small simulators if I can't start it smokey tires are good yeah by the way wonderful display thank you there comes a little here yes that's later there it goes Wow if I couldn't see it start this is good wonderful natural colors right look we out of that natural yeah they shot this last fall this was up in upstate New York so well there's no question that that would shut the door I want to show the car again there's no question that you'll want to get the full memory of what that looks like there's no question that you won't forget that Rob there it goes again we had a good time thanks for taking a look at the car no problem if people liked this subscribe hit the bell such a treat to meet you and thank you for sharing the car I know we couldn't started late than the carpet was a thanks for being on my car store hey not a problem we appreciate

Channel: Lou Costabile

Views: 1,300,089

Rating: 4.6022353 out of 5

Keywords: 1956 VW Beetle, 56 VW Beetle, 1956 Volkswagen Beetle, 56 Volkswagen Beetle, Berlin Beetle, Berlin Buick, 1956 VW Beetle Berlin Buick, Video, Review, Custom VW Beetle, Greatest Custom VW Beetle, Custom Volkswagen Beetle, Amazing Car Design, Unique VW Beetle, Amazing VW Beetle, Craziest VW Beetle, Craziest Volkswagen Beetle, Amazing Volkswagen Beetle, Crazy VW Beetle, VW Bug, Volkswagen Bug, Best YouTube Car Channel, Best Car Channel

Id: MwoIRnAPsGQ

Length: 19min 10sec (1150 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 22 2018