Aircooled VW South Africa

Hi all at AVWSA, Here is my first VW project which I know some of you know already from trips down to Fish Hoek. She's a 75 Fleetline and in really bad condition. I've always wanted a Splitscreen (sooooo cool ) but have never been able to aford one. This one was as they go quite cheap. The roof is practicaly hanging off, there is hardly any metal holding it on at all and the gutters are gone. All the bottoms of the windows are gone and the front peak is just rust. The cab and cargo floors are also totaly shot but the chassis is in very good condition. I can only guess that the sea air has worked its way down. Here are a couple of pics before I started work on the roof. I will keep you up to date with progress. David

Man you guys amaze me - to take on a project like this ......eish, eish eish !
There I am worried about a litle rust spot and how to fix it
Best of ACNW luck with the project - keep the photies comming !

You're a very brave man taking that on ...

Good luck with your project.

Your'e Da Man

Good luck with the build. I am glad that this poor bus is going to get some attention.

Do you plan on doing the work yourself?

Phew, I think that bus spent a looot of time soaking up the sun and sea air! Well Sbaholic will be bringing in panels from the UK so that's good news... Wouldn't it be fantastic to somehow keep that funky sign writing. Congrats Davidminigreen, I look forward to the day she rolls down the road fitted out the way you want her.

The restoration has started and my plan is to keep her looking just as she is (without the ventilation!). The chassis is in good condition with just surface rust so it's going to be a top down restoration. I don't want to re paint her as i will lose the look i'm after. The roof is by far the worst bit and the top peak is totaly shot. The gutters have disapeared and the tail gate is just siting there looking pretty and not actualy conneted to anything. I've now cut the peak off which includes the passenger side top door apeture. It din't take much to get it all off! I have apart peak which i plan to graft in. Its not the whole thing so i will need to make the corners and roof sections.

Sorry sean, yes i'm going to do the work myself. I've worked on mini's for a while so i'm ok with welding. Never taken on such a large project before but i'm determined to give it a go. Im not so good with the mechanical stuff but this bus isn't going to need much, I hope.

David, good on you man ........
Also consider having a chat with Jacques (splitbusaholic), he is hoping to import body panels soon, it might be worth considering this option ...........

That's a huge amount of work!!

davidminigreen wrote:Sorry sean, yes i'm going to do the work myself. I've worked on mini's for a while so i'm ok with welding. Never taken on such a large project before but i'm determined to give it a go. Im not so good with the mechanical stuff but this bus isn't going to need much, I hope.

i thought my mini's gutters were bad, but those.... what a minute, there R no gutters .

this body seems worse than the one that was on Blaauberg road.

Good luck Brave One, go forth and weld

I've been lucky enough to get hold of a part section of the front peak. Unfortunatley it dosen't have the front corners or sides so I will have to make these myself. The good bit is the ventilation panel but I plan to graft the whole thing in rather than try and get it out and damage it.
As you can probably guess the gutters have completley gone. In some areas there is nothing there at all. It is made up of a u section channel and a top-hat section sitting on top. It's to complicated to replicate so I plan on replacing the two sections with a single stronger (thicker) u section and dispense with the top-hat section. I need to finish the peak first though and then work back. Cleared up about 6kg of rust so far

Hi all, I thought I would show you this picture. Where do you start

it may even pay you to chop the roof..clean it up and put a donor roof on !
i will be getting panels from Gerson at classic fab if there is anything you need (like roof sections and gutter sections) let me know so i can add it in when i order.
there is a link to see photo's of the panels.
good luck !

http://www.vwsplitparts.com/nlshop.php

ignore the prices on this link its just to show you the panels.
alternatively you can look at klassicfab.com but i think the site is still under construction.

hI ya splitbusaholic, i'm planning on making everything myself so I won't be needing anything yet (also no money ) I've made a sample for the replacement gutters. It's much thicker steel and wont need the top-hat section. The slightly shallower side will be on the inside. What remains of the gutters I think has this too. I've started wekding in the roof peak, I'll get some pics on soon. The bottom of the screen is rotten but I plan to weld the peak center post to it until I can make the screen bottom. Hopefully it should keep it all straight.