Hey Max, this is wild! You answered a long-standing question of mine... what ever happened to Steve? My friends and I, while in high school in the early 80s, used to bug him all the time about our aircooled questions, occasionally having him do some of work for us (as we could afford). We used to call him for tech support while in the middle of a job at home, pulling a trans or replacing a bearing. He was pretty cool about helping us out (I *think* he was cool about it... he never seemed to get too annoyed and he certainly didn't tell us to go away!).
One of those friends of mine actually ended up working for him for a couple of years. He turned out to be a good VW mechanic too, and I had him build me a cheap, rebuilt engine when I was in college. I still have that motor, sitting as a longblock in my shed since a head stud is pulling out of the case. Other than that, I'm sure it'll still fire right up.
After many years, I drove by Steve's old shop on Stone Ave in SJ and it's now part of a construction company's facility. Wow... wondered what prompted him to move to AZ.
Someone mentioned that he doesn't need to advertise due to word of mouth. That was true back in 1982 too.
BTW, Max, thanks for posting those pics of him/his shop. That confirmed that it was the same guy (and same name of his business, too!).
-Rob
Max Welt> Steve's V.W. Performance