Aircooled VW South Africa

Progress so far:

I have been flatting it out and polishing, this is one tedious job!

I have been stripping all spares/components for cleaning and polishing and then fitting.

Rims are finished and I have had the tyres fitted. Polished up the original quality hubcaps I found and fitted.
So far I am quite pleased with the result.

WOW! The bus is looking sweet ! Good work.

SHeeew .... that's looking sweeeet! Nice work man.

getting there - very exciting considering what it used to look like

WOW what a transformation it dose not look like the same bus
Well done Sean

well done sean

thats my kinda bus, perfect colour

All the tin ware arrived back today after sandblasting and powder coating. They came out rather neat. The whole lot came to R220. What a bargain.

It seems the only parts I am missing are those J-plates than run underneath the motor. I haven’t been able to find a second hand set, so will most probably get a new set from Flat4 Racing.

This was the intake manifold that a purchased with those box of spares over the weekend. I realised that the carb flange on the manifold is smaller than my current one. Is this manifold perhaps from a 1300? What seemed strange is that it had the twin port manifolds attached. I suppose it has somehow been adapted. It’s a pity as the manifold preheat tubes were still in good condition were on my current one they have been cut off.

The manifold is from a 1300 twin port.

Ok. Thanks Rui. I was under the influence that you only got the 1600 in twin port. My bad.

Some more parts that I collected on Saturday. The Tie Rod and Drag link had the new ball joints welded in place. All came out really neat. I purchased a reconditioned alternator and pedestal with new pulley as the old one had tones of play. The generator that was previously on the motor also had the incorrect early fan, so had to add a late model fan to go with the alternator too.

The motor had a set of bougi cords when I purchased it but did not have those tin ware seals on the end. I couldn’t find those separately so had to purchase a new copper set with air seals attached.

The window seals had also arrived. This is hideously expensive! Luckily only the windows. The original Fleetline door seals are still in good condition. I just need to clean them up. I suppose one benefit of this originally very rusty fleetline is that it didn’t have much sun exposure, rather moisture and sea air that rotted it.



The motor is almost completely assembled. Only parts needed is still those J plates under the motor and the spark plug lead clips that attach to the fan shroud. I also still do not have a intake manifold with the manifold exhaust pre-heater pipes but this one will work for the time being till I have found another one.

Other work this weekend was installing all these windows. Tonia and myself spent most of the day cleaning and installing windows. I had welded in plates under the window frames in the restoration so obviously it was not precisely the same size as before but never the less after lots of struggling they are all tightly fitted.

The windows had some dreadful form of rainbow striped tinting which is absolutely hideous to try and get off.

Hell, that was a late post, almost 1AM !

Good work man, can't wait for this bus to get on the road, we must take a drive passed the previous owners houses

Also really nice when your partner is as enthusiastic as yourself - way to go Tonia

jolas wrote:Hell, that was a late post, almost 1AM !

Good work man, can't wait for this bus to get on the road, we must take a drive passed the previous owners houses

Also really nice when your partner is as enthusiastic as yourself - way to go Tonia

It's just too much fun working on the bus in this stage to go to bed!

Hopefully it's done soon and we can do a few trips in it.

I probably won’t say enthusiastic but seeing she’s been moaning about when we will actually ever drive this bus she doesn’t have much of choice but to help me with the job’s I can’t do alone.
Inserting those windows really is a test of patience with your partner.

sean wrote:
The motor is almost completely assembled. Only parts needed is still those J plates under the motor and the spark plug lead clips that attach to the fan shroud. I also still do not have a intake manifold with the manifold exhaust pre-heater pipes but this one will work for the time being till I have found another one.

Sean What type of exaust is it? how does it sound? did it have more power than with original exaust?