We just listed all Empi’s HPMX and EPC Carburetor Kits
Around 5 years ago, Empi started producing their own version of the IDF Weber carburetor and call it the HPMX. At first the carbs struggled and had some problems with being able to adjust them. Now that Empi is on the 5th generation of their carbs and the bugs have been worked out, they have a quality product at what is a very reasonable price. These carbs are all designed to use the same replacement parts as the Webers and use all the same main, idle and air jets for tuning. So if you are in the market, take a gander at these beauties. The kits come in 40 and 44’s, 48 and 51’s, progressives, ICT and brossels.
Chirco.com is now on Twitter.
If you have followed Chirco.com for any length of time, you know we love all the new social media sites. We meet a ton of great folks on them. Our newest site is Twitters micro blogging site, if you are a member of Twitter please follow us.
Performance Air Cooled Engine Kits we stock.
Through out the day we get lots of calls on our Perfomance engine rebuild kits. This is very cool since it means so one wants to build there own engine. “We Love That” So to help answer some of the questions, we created this video.
It’s Dune Season again.
As soon as it starts feeling brisk outside and you start looking it the back of your closet for last years jacket. One thing is for sure, better start stocking up on paddle tires and headsocks because it’s dune season. The turkey has not even settled in our bellies and the phone here at Chirco starts ringing with the usual questions, do you have 13.00 paddles with 15×12’s instock. As dunning enthusiast we totally understand the rush of making the annual trek to Yuma. There is a process to follow that gets installed into the Brain and instinct takes over, coolers packed-Check, pallet for bon fires-Check and so-on. Then you start up the truck with the toy hauler in tow and you at the end of your street and $hit, the family, I forgot the wife and kids. For all of you going out to the dunes this year, have a great time and be safe.
We are refreshing the Chirco.com site.
Joe and I were browsing the chirco.com site to see if anything needed to be re-done or jazzed up. It’s not that we are not on it 10 hours a day or anything. I guess when you stare at the same thing for long enough you just get used to bad photos and text that doesn’t make sense. Anyway, I have my marching orders and you will start seeing a noticeable difference in the site.
Google is now hosting all of Lifes images
So of coarse lets search for Volkswagen’s.
To see the rest, follow this link
Some more I liked
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The Andy Ham LowlifeVW.com Show
Sunday November 9th was the Andy Ham Benefit show in Tempe. This was the most amazing event I have ever been to. Andy Ham is an air-cooled enthusiast from the UK and has been having medical problems that have been physically and financially been very difficult for him. Here is Andys post. We have all been to events where we try and raise money for charities and other organizations in need. This time the group was raising money for one of the nicest and most talented people I have ever met. Andy is a great person who at times seemed overwhelmed by the support he received, but was overly thankful. What touched my heart the most, was watching how hard people were working to ensure the success of the event. I personally was so proud of everyone there. Andy, you are in our prayers and know you will overcome your illness.
Here is a link to Lyles photo album of the show.
Message from Joe Chirco.
In January, I met with the staff and shared with them that it looks like 2008 was going to be a tough year for retail because of the housing slow down and the economy. I asked the staff what their thoughts were on how we should handle a potential slow down. Their suggestion was, we need to continue doing what made 2007 so great - providing personalized quality service to our customers.
Well, here we are in the middle of the 4th quarter of 2008 and we are continuing to grow and 2008 is now our best year we ever had.
I personally guarantee we are going to continue striving to improve our service.
Again, Thank you very much and I look forward to helping you in 2009.
Joe Chirco of Chirco.com
To say thanks, when you make a puchase on Chirco.com use coupon code
thanks-2008 and save 5%. This code will be good until November 16 2008
To learn how to use a coupon code, please watch this video.
Bug-toberfest 2008 come and gone, and the winners are,,,,
Sunday morning, 4:30 am I rolled into the parking lot of our store and found at least 30 folks waiting for me to help get everything set up for the show. First let me say that their would be no way to pull of this show with out that kind of support. We had a quick meeting and off to work. By 5:30 am we had 50 cars parked and by 9:00 am we shut down the registration table and we had parked 172 cars that we knew of. After doing a quick walk through we found cars that did not come through us, so the car count was higher.
The whole day seemed to go smooth with an exception of one gentleman that had to be escorted delicately off the property by the staff. (watch the video with the engine blow in it, you will see him.)
The 1600cc engine that was blown up lasted for a smidgen over 3 minutes after hitting RPM’s over 50 bajillion zillion.
It’s allways great seeing old friend and making new ones.
Looking forward to next year.
All our video’s will be on out Media Page. Thanks Lemorris
And the winners are,,,,,,,,,, (Click more)
Getting Ready For The Show
This year we all ready have over 150 registared cars a bunch of swapmeet sign ups and we still have a week to go. Everyday there are pallets of products coming in so the showroom and the shelve are full. DHP Joe got us the new posters Lemorris did. Great job again “L” as always. Shirts will be here tomorrow, trophies, dash plaques will be in Thursday. We are really looking forward to the show this year.
New way of providing information to our viewers
Chircoestore.com has been experiencing massive growth over the last couple of years. So Joe and I have been trying to figure out how to increase the value to our online audience. We have always tried to provide quality images for the products. With the newest version of the site, we are even able to have multiple photos of the products. Now we have figured out how to include Youtube videos of the products within the product page. We feel that the main benefit of this is for our viewers that are on the site during the hours we are closed and are unable to call us during the day. The main benefit for us, is the outtakes that make us burst out laughing while doing these videos. Here is a list of all the videos.
New World of Widgets
Having some fun here at Chirco.
We love this joke and Brian took it very well.
Chirco’s new media page
Our Buddy Lemorris has put together a new site that is going to have all of our photos and movies from all of our events and other fun times. He has really put a lot of effort in getting the Media page toether.
If you have not seen it yet, take a look.
Thanks Lemorris.
The Mango is going to Texas
This morning Jay from Texas came out to pick up his new Bus.
It’s always fun selling these to folks who,,
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Bugtoberfest #13 Sign up form. Oct 18th & 19th
http://www.chircoestore.com/catalog/bfest08/reg/bfestform2008.htm
Chirco continues it’s tradition by making the Bugtoberfest 100% FREE
2 Days, 3 events, tons of fun!
Registration is free! Swap meet is free! Multiple car entry is free!
The Day before Cruise and the”Night before BBQ are FREE as well.
The day before cruise does benefit the American Cancer Society and there will be a
donation spot for Andy Ham at the BBQ and the show.
As usual Chirco will also have every item in the store at 10% off the day of the show!
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This struck Joe and I as funny
Joe and I were reviewing our online presence, and I was sharing with him that I thought that it wasn’t just other Air Cooled sites that we compete with. I shared with him that some of the monster automotive sites carry the same parts we specialize in. Similar to most chain stores carry spark plugs and other basic parts for Bugs. I was showing him one of the largest sites that has 24 hour live chat, so we started do some searches for items that could never fit an Air Cooled car. We were laughing like kids at some of the parts they had listed. Don’t get me wrong, these guys are power houses of the business. It was just funny.
1960 Mango Walk Through Bus on eBay
1960 Mango Walk Through Bus
Chirco Performance & Restoration of Tucson Arizona is offering this
1960 Mango Walk Through Bus.
VIN Number 513996 first registered 11/1959 The exact milage is unknown.
This is one of the most incredible original paint 1960 mango Type 2 Bus’s
that I have come across in my 30 years being in this industry.
This Bus is ready to drive and enjoy.
See this bus on eBay
The Meaning of Labor Day
The Chirco staff will be off Sat 8-30 and will return Teus 9-2His effort bore fruit on Tuesday, 5 September 1882, when workers in New York City held a large parade and a festival sponsored by the Central Labor Union and the Knights of Labor. In 1884, the New Yorkers held a parade on the first Monday of September and designated that day as the annual Labor Day.The agitation in New York City was soon followed by labor unions in other states, which staged campaigns in their state legislatures for the establishment of Labor Day as a legal holiday. Their earliest victories were in Oregon and Colorado, where Labor Day was declared to be a state holiday in February and March 1887, respectively. The next year the American Federation of Labor passed a resolution for the adoption of a Labor Day at its St. Louis, Missouri, convention. Thirty states had followed the lead of Oregon and Colorado by the time the first Monday in September was made a national holiday by an act of Congress, with the bill signed into law by President Grover Cleveland on 28 June 1894. In the early twenty-first century, Labor Day parades, rallies, festivals, and speeches were still organized by labor unions across the country and often supported by political leaders. Because of the shrinking popular base of traditional labor unions, however, most Americans tended to regard the day merely as the finale of a long summer of fun in which hot dogs, barbecues, and picnics reigned.
Labor Day is observed annually in honor of working people on the first Monday in September in all the states and territories, including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. The day was originally conceived in 1882 by Peter J. McGuire, the radical founder and warrior of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of New York. On 8 May, McGuire proposed to the New York City Central Labor Union that the first Monday in September, because it fell midway between the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving Day, be set aside annually as a “labor day.” (more…)
Newest Wallpaper in the foum store
Of coarse this is my personal favorite and is whats on my desk top.
Here is a link to our forum store.
We put some vintage video’s in the Chirco forums
I thought these we very cool and wanted to share them.
Here is a link to part two.
Welcome Aboard Brian
A month ago I posted around the Air Cooled world that
I needed help in our receiving department.
Brian showed up the next morning and we hired him the same day.
Brian has been a customer of ours for around for years with two different beetles.
He is also a newer member of the Tucson chapter of D3 Daileydrivendubz.
Brian has quickly fit right into this nut house and is doing a great job.
Are you one of our friends on Myspace?
Chirco’s Myspace page
Our Myspace page has been up for a few years now and it has been very interesting communicating with other air cooled folks out there. The Myspace environment is extremely creative and we’re proud to be a part of it. If you have a Myspace page we encourage you to “Add” Chirco as a friend.
Have you seen the Chirco Forums recently?
Lemorris and I have been working in the Chirco.com Forums recently.
The stats for the forums have by far exceeded our expectations we had back in 1986 when we launched it. It now has over 2 million page views with over 18,000 posts by over 1500 members.
What we have tried to accomplish, is to make so our customer can find the articles to fix or upgrade their cars. Lemorris put together a banner campaign that links to the most popular threads that customers need. We have even found vintage video’s that show stock carburetor adjustments, valve adjustments and timing. If you have some free time, please surf around.
New Air Cooled Desktop Wallpaper in the Forum Store
Chirco’s Air Cooled Forum Store
Sixx took some great photo’s and turned them into wall paper for your computer.
Thanks for the pics.
We are branching out to main stream shopping sites.
This is a new market for us, but with so many new e-customers out there
we felt it was time to share our items on a more traditional site.
Chirco has been on eBay for over 5 years with great success.
We love having e-newbies and e-pros a like find us on what has to be the coolest place to find items.
It is never boring trying to find new customers.
AZ Fall triple Crown Poker Run
DHP Lemorris wrote this.
Ok folks this is it.DHP with the help of Chirco Performance and Restoration is holding a FREE 3 car show Poker Run.
The rules are pretty simple. I’ll break it down for you.
1. Anyone can participate. You do not have to be in the commemerative deck to play.
You do not have to be a Lowlife member or an Arizona car owner for that matter.
2. You recieve cards by attending the 3 shows of the poker run. Chirco (oct 21) Karls (Nov 4) and Yuma (Nov 10)
3. If you attend the Chirco show you will recieve 3 playing cards. You get to check your cards out and write them down.
Your cards will then be sealed in an envelope with your name on it and brought to the next show.
4. If you show up at Karls, you get 2 more cards. If you do not attend the Karls show and get your envelope then you can get 1 card drawn for you online.
5. If you show up at Yuma, you get 2 more cards. If you do not attend the Yuma show and get your envelope then you can get 1 card drawn for you online.
6. The best 5 card hand wins.
However if you attend all 3 shows you will have a total of 7 cards and can then discard 2 giving yourself a better chance at a good hand.
Prizes? The grand prize is a rather large gift certificate to best buy. There will also be some other prizes given for poker related activities.
What about the commemerative deck?
Every person who’s car is pictured will recieve a deck free. The other decks will be for sale at http://www.chirco.com
Lowlife VW.com
This thread will serve as Cyber Central Head Quarters. feel free to post your questions here.
I will also try to make some kind of status thing and place it here or online somewhere.This is our initial stab at this so thre may be some glitches and we are kinda flying by the seat of our pants but I can promise you a honest game that has the sincerest of roots in supporting the entire Arizona VW scene.so….who wants to play?
Bug-toberfest Art
Lemorris has done it again. Another great shirt for this years show.
The show is Oct 21st so stay tuned for the photo’s coming soon.
If you can make it to the show, it’s here at our store in Tucson.
Thanks
We have started reconiditioning our used parts
It is a fairly easy process for most parts.
Once the part is determined to be usable,
it gets put in the parts washing tank
so all of the old debris and grease comes off.
The the part is then dryed off with an
air gun and put into our new sand blaster.
Our new sandblaster is very powerful and really get the job done.
An average part take only a minute or two
to get any surface rust and old paint off.
When it comes out of the sand blaster it’s bare metal.
Once it comes out of the sand blaster it is inspected again for flaws.
Then depending on the part it is either painted black or primered.
The finished product is a nice looking used German original part.
Bug-Toberfest 07 is Oct 21st
Here is a link to the sign up form. Sign Up
Once again it’s time for Bug-toberfest #12
If you didn’t make it last year, you missed over 150 cars in our parking lot.
If you did come to the show, you know how much fun we had.
There will be a free pre-show BBQ the night before, so let Joe feed you.
Check out photo’s of prior years shows
http://www.chircoestore.com/catalog/pages.php?cID=1
There is no pre-registration cost for car show or swap meet participants.
First come, first served. We can park 150 cars so come early.
Swap meet booths will be located around the store and are also free,
GATES OPEN AT 7:00 A.M.
The day includes:
Swap Meet
Engine Blow!
Music
Jumping castle for the kids
Food & VW Vendor Booths
Peoples Choice VW Car Show (entries close at Noon)
Raffle for lots of good stuff!
Cost:
FREE to the public!
Free Judged car show entries
Free Swap Meet space
First 75 entries receive a dash plaque.
Trophies will be given to all first-through-third class winners
(NOTE: this is a people’s choice judged car show).
Lots of Classes:
DONATE A CAN OF FOOD FOR THE TUCSON COMMUNITY FOOD BANK!
SWAP MEET
The swap meet consists of VW-related items.
You do not have to pre-register to be in the swap meet,
but space may become limited.
We will do our best to accommodate you.
Email us: don@chirco.com or call 800-955-9795 for more information.
The New Chirco.com is up and Running!
Lots of the new Chirco.com is similar to the previous version.
But what we needed to give our customers was more bells and whistles.
The new Chirco.com has plenty of those. The biggest thing our customer wanted was a wish-list option. This allows a user to create a much larger list of items than they can either afford or currently need. Then they can chose when to take portions of there wish list and transfer it to their basket when they want and the remaining items stay recorded for future use.
The new site also shows what other customer have purchased while viewing a product. What a cool feature, so now portions of the site is being created by our customers. Our customers can also write short reviews on the products they have purchased to be helpful to others.
We have been told that the search features are easier to use and the articles are found faster. The whole project took about two months to complete, fortunately we had some help from some great people.
I hope you can take a look and also enjoy it.
We are needing to get our used parts orginized.
Last year I shared with everyone we bought three VW Salvage
yards last year. We created everything up and carted it all
back to Tucson. Combined that with what we already had
and it equals toal disorginization. We can’t find anything. With
just the core engines we have, we lost two bay’s in the
service department. So Joe heard “Build it and they will come”
We now are well into constrution of a 2400 sq ft building
that will be dediccated to used parts and their restoration.
Stay tuned.
Modern Online Technology in action.
When we built the new Chirco site, we added a forum so our
customers could ask questions about our parts and how to install them.
It really took off and now we have our customer sharing with other customers.
Searching the web, there are great forums to be found.
Here are just some of our favorites.
AZ Baja.com
Joe’s used to have black hair.
I was doing a Google seach for “Chirco” and ran across this photo.
This photo was taken a the Phoenix Bug O Rama 1999.
Chirco was in Vochomania Magizine from Mexico
One of our customers from south of the border brought
this issue of Vochomania.
Ok, We have a Myspace page,,,,,
If you also have one, please add us as you friend.
Chirco Myspace Page
Frank and Don went to the fair.
Frank and Don went to the fair and we were able to take a
Photo with two Sea Lions. They are behind us.
I think this is degrading to woman
OK Moms gone.
We should have more photos showing
Great looking girls with Great looking cars.
What is it about these cars,,,,,,
I just had to share this,,,,,,,,,,
This photo was submitted by on of our customers.
Tucson D3 Clubs rolls to the new In & Out Burger.
The new In & Out Burger opened up in Tucson,,,,
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A Piece of Tucson VW History
Here is our latest Barn find.
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Tech Tip - Checking your Floor Pans
Or you can use a jack and jack stands I guess.
The changes of a legend
Click here to view
Target Got Bum Rushed Today
The gentleman who runs our shipping department comes up to the sales counter with the coolest remote control Bug we have seen for a while. Knowing that Johny is a Toy collector we had know idea how much it cost. Someone finally get the nerve, “How much and where?” The Bug is $30.00 and they have Busses for $35.00 at Target. The next thing you see is Joe’s truck leaving the parking lot and 10 minutes later he walks in with one under each arm. Time for a second run, Johny and I take a collection from the rest of the staff and away we go. Now target shelves are empty. These are very cool and the Busses have an attachment to plug in an MP3 player and has a speaker on the roof.
Holiday Hours
I want to wish everyone a safe and happy new years!
Don’t even try calling the store here asking for a designated driver to take you to that cool party, we will be closed starting Saturday the 30th and re-opening on the 2nd. If you call here on Tuesday and we sound a little rough, please understand that we have been around the block a few times and it keeps getting harder and harder to recover.
See you next year.
Holiday Hours
Just an update, Chirco’s store will be closed from December 22nd and re-open on Tuesday the 26th. For New Years, we will be closed on the 30th and re-open on the 1st.
Have a fun and safe low carb holiday season what ever your holiday is.
Merry Christmas.
Happy Holidays from Chirco.com
Another holiday season has come to Tucson and you can tell since it is getting down to the low seventies during the day and everyone has there heavy jackets on. The nice little lady has been bye to paint the store window like she always has every year. All of us are fighting for the same days off to celebrate Christmas with our families and take some time off before starting another busy year. Joe is planning another fun Christmas party, I’m crunching numbers to see what my final year end P&L will look like. (Not much of a holiday guy). It used to slow down here at Chirco in December in years past, oh well the days go quicker when I’m busy. I do have a new sand association calendar to look forward to, but I will miss the cool buggy that is on December ‘06.
To our customers, I hope everyone has plenty of time to spend with and enjoy their loved ones.
Lets get those feet up on the recliners and admire the symbols of the holidays.
It is just me,
Or did VW not have the coolest advertising!
Web Giants at the Chirco Show
I was flipping the the photos from Bug-toberfest and saw this one. This is Scott AKA Espi who runs Lowlifevw and Lemorris who used to all of the Chirco art and video’s. You can guess who is who.
Another mans junk,,,,,,,,,
Everybody knows we have been on a mission to buy as much used parts as we can store. These items are getting harder and harder to find. We have customers that would rather buy a used fender and restore it than to buy a new remanufactured fender. The fun part about buying used junkyards is finding the treasures. If you look hard enough, there will be the set of original sprint stars or the OG Empi parts from the Joe Vitone days. It is fun to hear Joe yell out “Oh my god, an original Empi GTV steering wheel”. You can always bet that where there are used parts, you will find us digging around looking for that Judson supercharger for a 36 horse.
I got a phone call today
This gentleman called and wanted to know if we were a real store. He had been screwed by some e-bay merchants who sell parts out of there living rooms. I asked him to go to our site and that I wanted to show him a photo. “He said everyone has a web site”
I said, Yeah but not everyone has a 53 ragtop, a drag car and a buggy in their showroom. You can guess the rest of the conversation.
Another show come and gone
The total car count was 152, 22 more than last year. I’m not quite sure how we can top this years show next year. We will have to get sun tan lotion girls by the dozens or something for entertainment. To everybody who made it out to Bug-toberfest ‘06, Thanks you.
For those who missed it, shame on you. Peace out.
Just another day at the shop
With real German parts getting hard to find, we always have to be on the prowl for parts. Well we got lucky again, this time in Northern California. We sent half our staff on a tear down mission to get every re-useable part out of this fine collection of cars. The top photo shows a 53′ trailer that has just a portion of the tressures found. I’ll keep you updated.
