Welcome to the Official Website of "The TikiMobile"

Just like the car, the website is under construction. I will be adding pages from the old website, in the near future.

Stay Tuned, for more TikiMobile Information!

    The TikiMobile came about as a search for an aircooled VW drivetrain. You see, I was building an ol' skool Volksrod. By ol' skool, I mean a fibreglass Ford Model T body, on a VW floorpan.

     I started out building a Volksrod 30+ years ago. I had purchased a fibreglass model T  "C-Cab" , and actually had it mounted on a VW floorpan. But, we had a new baby, so the cab and VW floorpan were sold separately to pay bills. I was very sad to see the cab driving off down the the street when I sold it 30 + years ago.

        Fast forward to 2006. After a cruise with the T-Bird club, we stopped at an antique shop to see what they had. I walked around the corner of the building to see the exact same C-Cab that I had sold 28 years ago. I knew it was the same cab because when I cut the driveshaft tunnel opening (30 years ago), I had cut it crooked.

Over those 28 years the cab had travelled from Kelso (Washington) to Eatonville (Washington) .I had to have it back. It was for sale, I bought it, and it was in my garage the next weekend.Here are photos of the cab then and now. By the way, the little guy in the 1978 photo is my son, he is now 34 years old.

    I now had the c-cab back in my posession, I just needed a VW drivetrain to complete the project. I started checking Craig's list for an older bug (for the drivetrain) . I kept getting beat out on everything that was in my price range. There had been this plywood bodied dune buggy on Craig's list for a couple of months. No one was interested in this little car.  I thought about it, and realized that this little car would at least save me the trouble of getting rid of the bug body. If it ran OK.

I contacted the owner of the car, and set up an appointment to see it. The next few pictures, are the pictures I took that night.  It was originally built by a gentleman who was a retired Boeing Quality Control Manager. The car kind of looked like a  plywood version of a King Midget, or or VW Thing. Well, the person who built the plywood body on the car passed away, and his grandson then inherited the car. The car sat in a garage for the next 10 years as the grandson moved to Alaska. The person that I bought the car from (Brian) ,owns a King Midget, he originally bought it from the grandson as a companion car to his King Midget. He decided to cut down the amount of cars in his collection, so he put the little plywood car up for sale.

I took the car for a test drive. It was exhilarating, and terrifying to drive at the exact same time. The problem was too much air in the front tires, it drives fine now.

Well I bought it, took it home, and got ready to tear it apart. My wife, son, and friends all told me "Don't take that car apart, do something with it!" I now had to figure out what to do with the car. I photo-shopped a couple of different ideas, but gave up on both of them.

Well, the something that would forever change the little plywood car was surfboards. I spent 3 hours one night staring at the car, trying to figure what to do with the car, and came up with the idea-Surfboards! I need Surboards! I got on Craig's list, and bought a couple of used surfboards. Mike at Precision Shapes NW had a couple of used short boards listed on Craig's list. I laid the surfboards on the rear fenders of the car for a couple of months, to figure out how I was going to rebuild the plywood body. (I bought shortboards so the car would fit in the garage, with the surfboards attached.)

I also had a skull and crossbones that I put on front of the car. I eventually decided not to use it on the front. It needed tiki's, which were purchased on Ebay

My attention was turned to making the back of the car body. There was kind of a box that was the engine cover. I changed the back of the car to be one width, all the way back to the bumper. The surfoard mounts are actually bunk bed safety rails. The engine vents are wooden window shutters. The upper taillights in the back are '59 Caddy tailights, mounted in kichen sink drains.

The eyes and tongues of the tikis are turn signals.

The TikiMobile is currently stored in the Tiki Garage.

I am having a heck of a time finding parts for the 1957 drivetrain, I hope to have it running, and see you sometime in 2010!

Note: The TikiMobile will eventually be painted completely, with Dry-Erase paint, making all the white surfaces, a giant dry erase board!

Aloha! - steve@pagogo.com

Also- Be sure to check out my Pink 1956  DeSoto at www.pinkydesoto.com !

Which will soon be seen in the movie- Rat Rod Rockers!