My rides

[Blitzkrieg]

Oh that guy. Who caused havoc in the ACVWSA ranks with his Shwimmerwagenbuggything

[Matt]

hey nam...nice ride! tell me,arent you worried bout rust tho?
my old mans beach buggy picked up quite a bit of rust that way. we used to do quite a bit of fishing back in the days...when you were still
allowed to ride on the beach here. he ended up making a new pan out of stainless. but the suspension and backing plates on the brakes
bare the horrible scars.

anyway..nice ride, enjoy

[NAM_AirHeAd]

Hey Matt, thanks! No im not really picking up that much rust... i stay in Windhoek which is around 400km away from the sea so theres not much chance of getting rust here. I only use the bus for holidays so it stands ina dry area most of the time. When i return from holiday i always just give it a good wash underneath anyway just to be sure. Obviously there will be minor rust here and there, i mean the baywindow is a '69 model so i cant expect it to be completely rust free. If i had the funds i would definitely redo her again from scratch and make sure everybit of rust is cut away, but until that day comes, all i can do is try fight it as much as possible!

As for my '79 model... shes absolutely rust free, which is always the best place to start when buying an old bus or any old car for that matter.

[PesVis]

Don't know if I may have missed it, but how many kilometers have you done in that bus? Looks awesome!

[splitfan]

Hi Nam
Just a thought if you are planing a later type motor for your two door you hafta remember to cut off the driver side engine mount before you start on the body work and replace it with a later type mk1 mounting bracket .

[BARON]

Does anyone know if theres anybody else on this forum from Namibia?
BTW if you check the pic with the 3 guys sitting around the fire, im the one in the middle (the youngest of the 3 brothers)

Ill try keep the pics coming...

Hi NAM
Ja I can put my hand up here. Use to stay in Grootfontien way back--long before you were born.
We left there in 1963 with a ground braking 1957 split bus .It was the first bus in Grootfontiein and my father had to do a lot of convincing before some farmers bought busses and bakkies(it was V8 country then ).
In those days the only tar road was between Windhoek and Okohandja.
cheers
Baron

[NAM_AirHeAd]

Well well... its nice to hear from someone familiar with the area, even if it was before my time !

Yes Grootfontein and generally all the towns surrounding windhoek were classified as v8 country... still are today in many instances. Lots of people i know have picked them self up an old V8 that they have found on farms around that area... so your dad must have had quite a tough time! But then again i reckon there are more old vw's still alive in those parts than V8's, just goes to show how reliable they really are!
Baron, why the move if i may ask?

Cheers, Craig

[BARON]

NAM
I suppose the short answer to us moving was isolation,
As you know long distances means nothing in your country, we stayed 100 km from town and we had to open and close 52 gates on our way to town so we were well isolated from other people plus the fact that farms are massive and you cant just lean over the fence to have a chat with the neighbour .
All my brothers and sisters moved to the Transvaal when they left school and me being in boarding school meant that my mother was alone all day long.(dad working in the veld)
Then a cobra snake bit my sister and for months she was on the verge of dying –so that was the last straw---
Dad was under pressure to sell up and moved to “sivilisation”
My interest was engines and engineering and surely not farming things so I was not to unhappy with the move. ItI was only many years later that I had the urge to move back to the farm life.
But let me tell you this it was the hard life in boarding school and living amongst very tough people that made me strong and independent and helped me through tough times.
Must say Iv never been back to Namibia but maybe one day, although most of my family have moved away.
cheers
Baron.

[NAM_AirHeAd]

Nam trip in the pipelines anyone... send me a pm!

[Pine]

Nam trip in the pipelines anyone... send me a pm!

That is an excellent idea! Let's just get the George Challenge behind us (and see how many actually make it), then we can start planning on a Nam trip?

[NAM_AirHeAd]

How many k's is the George trip? A Nam trip would definitely be a tough challange... depending on the time of year, it gets HOT here!

[Chris]

I think we were talking about 1500km's from Jhb to George.

But for some it will be more like me that does a round trip from PE to Jhb to George to PE which will be more in the region of 3000km's.It will come nowhere close to a trip to Namibia.

From me just to Windhoek it is 1900km's.

[NAM_AirHeAd]

Don't know if I may have missed it, but how many kilometers have you done in that bus? Looks awesome!

Thanks for the compliment... the bus looks better in the pics than in real life... gotta remember that i started rebuilding it during my matric year by myself (was...sry, still am a laatie so the craftsmanship of the rebuild is not the best plus im not a rich man but im learning) and its still an on going process
Quite unsure bout the exact kilo's but its somewhere around 4 or 5 thousand k's since the engine overhaul. Had the engine overhauled during 2007 and basically only use the bus for hoilday trips like in the all the pics ive posted.

Craig

[NAM_AirHeAd]

Hi Nam
Just a thought if you are planing a later type motor for your two door you hafta remember to cut off the driver side engine mount before you start on the body work and replace it with a later type mk1 mounting bracket .

Thanx... yeah i know bout the engine mounting. Gota do several mods to the engine bay (expansion bottle bracket, radiator mountings etc.) before i send it in for the sprayjob. Its gona be my new years resolution to get the golf up 'n running!

[eben]

Craig
Do you know the Uri?


The designer is a family friend and they have a holiday home in Yzerfontein.

I miss Namibia.