Aircooled VW South Africa

Beetlebuddies' story on his old Beetle sent me hunting for some pics of an SP that I built in 1985.

I dragged the car out of a chicken coup with the intention of just getting it running so I could get off the motorbike in the Eastern Transvaal Highveld winters.

Things got slightly out of hand though .....

This was early in the affair


When I started cleaning the car, I removed two wheelbarrows full of . This picture was taken on day two of the big clean


This is what happens when you don't concentrate when you "start fixing that scratch"


The final primer coat before painting. At this stage my neighbour came by and said:" that is such a nice clean colour, won't you please paint my Vespa the same colour?"


Just after the colour was sprayed. The colour was Toyota PT24 Monza Red


Finally asembled and ready to run


The wheels were 14" Smiths Californian chrome steel wheels with 185x70x14 up front and 205x70x14 at the rear

All this started because the original engine had a cracked head
This is the engine: 1641 cc, C35 cam, 36DCD7 Weber on a home built manifold, double valve springs, Cowley 4 into 1. It did pull 6300 rpm in top (a very religious experience especially with standard drum brakes)


I changed the dash a bit


At Bugfest 1986

Very nice......what happened to the "Bugfest"?..........................

absolutely awesome!!! big up to u!!! u were doin stuff that most of us can only dream of, BEFORE some ppl were even born.

very nice!!! what u got at the moment?(sorry if im not aware of yr present ride)

Thanks Matt

Currently drives a 69
This was taken on the way to KKK09

Did your speedo read correctly? I believe that the Golf speedo's drive is taken from the gearbox and not the wheel?

I like this picture the best


Keep these old pics coming, jmvv

Blitz, youre right the speedo was a mission to sort out.

Eventually I found a small reduction box at a speedometer place in JHB. It brought the speedo error to acceptable levels, but it was never accurate. At the time I thought the cluster was a cool idea though.

Wel done , thats a very neat 69 !!

Man its nice to see some of the golden oldies comming out of the wood work

And yo your next ride is also so swheeeeet

Hats off to you for doing that all yourself! Very nice. Who needs California look! We got Oos-Transvaal in die Winter look!

Maybe I am starting to get old, but man I love these older beetle pics. Your KMX looks great. I also had a KMX, off-white, totally original 67. Should never have sold it....

dubster's old man showed me a pic of a beetle he had back in the days...also very neat for its time.
i'll try c if i cant get the pic on here

matt you took the words out my mouth il get pics of dads acvws his had and open a thread for al these golden oldies.,see how big a collection we can make...