Aircooled VW South Africa

it might have been literally a reserve tank for something. A tank with enough juice to get you 1km up he road to the petrol station

Pine wrote:*snip*

Am I starting to sound like Merlin or Blitz with all the questions and 'I once read' comments....

Hey! There is no such thing like too many questions

You are 100% correct, Blitz

..and so was Johnny Cash

There are more questions than answers
Pictures in my mind that will not show
There are more questions than answers
And the more I find out the less I know
Yeah, the more I find out the less I know

Those words are very true. Something to think about

Johnny Nash, not Cash

I still think the tank is a good idea because it will eliminate the chance of any water getting in the breather and into the engine, be it by off road river crossings or puddles or rain.. as the engine will be exposed to a ceratin extent

This is my version. The rubber neck it flexible to allow the oil cap to be removed.

Some 2stroke lawn mowers had a tap with reserve and a shut down position

Update 14/12/2008- IRS, here we come!

Just returned from IMPI where we spent the weekend shortening the buggy chassis.

As I said before, I got this IRS rear part a year ago, which I planned to merge to the (shortened) standard chassis



The first cut is the deepest - IMPI cutting the full-length chassis for shortening



The inner cable guides of the chassis, carefully loosened so that they can be used again




With 381mm of the centre 'tunnel' removed, the back part is welded back onto the front part



The completed, shortened, IRS chassis - note the strong and neat welds




The rectangular tubing still needs to be welded along the outer part of the tunnel, in the shape of a chassis - then the entire chassis will be sand blasted and powder coated.

A HUGE thanks to IMPI for his help (once again ) this weekend

IMPI's workmanship is brilliant

Will you be going with a normal Beetle IRS gearbox? Or one from a Bus?

Got a 1302 IRS gearbox

I think that's going to drive like a dream . Nice work there . Surely this is a first - usually the standard beetle chassis is adapted and brackets added to take the IRS, am I right?

I believe Webster has done the same for his Ghia

Update 16/12/2008

Got two trailing arms for the IRS from IMPI, they are originally from an automatic Type 3 and were then used on an off-road Sandmaster racer, and have been lying in the parts stack for a number of years. Problem was that one of the stub axles still had the brake drum on, with the castle nut seized and rusted solid onto it.

I soaked the castle nut with Q10 penetrating oil yesterday, and spent some time on my back in bed last night thinking how I would get it off. Easy with the wheel on the car, and a large pipe with a 36mm socket for leverage - but off the car: almost impossible. In the early morning hours I got an idea...

Bolt a wheel (with a tyre) onto the drum, wrap a strap around it and around something solid - and give it a try.

So that was exactly what I did, but I had used an old safety belt for a strap. Wrapped it around the tyre, and around one of the pillars of the carport. The power bar on the socket is from a jack spanner (it has been helpful plenty of times in the past), and I have a length of water pipe that goes over the power bar. It worked perfectly, with the tyre having enough friction on the strap not to turn, and after some huffing and puffing (and more generous sprays from the Q10 can) the nut came loose!




This is what the inside of a Type 3 rear brake drum looks like. Hope I'll be able to save some of it..



The two Type 3 rear brake drums that I will try to hand in tomorrow at a brake shop for skimming and bonding of the brake shoes. (Hope I'll find a place willing to do it this time of the year.)



The two IRS torsion bar cover plates, compared to a normal Beetle plate at the bottom

Boer maak n plan !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!