Aircooled VW South Africa

I would like to introduce everyone to Daisy, my better half's 1977, 2000l Bay. She will be replacing the Mercedes as a daily driver for doing the school run etc.
Although we bought this bus earlier in the year already, work did not really allow me time to give attention to a few small issues.

Like most 34 year old cars, she is not perfect, but still a very good example of what a new bay must have been like. She has two small dents and two minor rust spots which are just on the surface at the moment, but that will receive treatment shortly. She has 164000km on the odo & I believe it to be the correct mileage, as the interior is in very good condition, as is the rest of the undercarriage and bodywork. She drives so nice compared to our other Bay whose suspension needs refurbishment. She really is a pleasure to drive.

Outside





Inside








Probably one of the first Netstar prototypes


Engine
(I still need to degrease and clean it properly)


I have done the following work so far:

1. Fitted new rear brake slave cylinders and shoes and cleaned up everything. Drained all the brake fluid and bled the whole system.
Before:


After:


2. Fixed butchered wiring from the hazard switch to the indicator stalk.
3. Fitted new correct flasher relay
4. Fixed earth problem on rear lights
5. FIxed faulty wiring in engine compartment. The oil pressure switch wasn't even connected and the fan blower was also connected incorrectly.
6. Changed plugs, points, condensor and oil and air filters.

Things I need to do:
1. Degrease and clean engine and gearbox.
2. Set the valves
3. Have carbs synchronised
4. Fit the missing cooling tin around the alternator as well as new cooling sponge seal around the engine.

5. Fix the two small rust spots.



6. Fix the lefthand side of the parcel tray


7. Refit sliding door inner panel, as well as a few of the cardboard heater pipes.
8. Replace the steering wheel as the original one's splines are stripped. Pity because the wheel is in perfect condition otherwise.

The boss has said that she wants to keep the bus as standard as possible, so I'm not allowed to tinker with anything. Having said that, I did manage to get permission to fit the set of Fuchs wheels that have been sitting in the garage.
Now I just need to get the finances to buy the tyres.

Nice looking bus Bernard!

Trip odo. Cool!

Nice Bus! I had a look at this at the beginning of the year when it was at the previous owner's place. I supplied some tinwear for it...

She looks in great condition. Can only imagine her with a set of Fuchs! NICE

Excuse my ignorance, is that fan hanging above the engine in the engine compartment a heater system fan?

Can't believe you haven't fitted a Porsche rev counter from your stash in the right pod yet

Thanks for the compliments. Of course pictures also hides a lot of flaws, but she is not bad.

The fan is indeed a heater blower and gets activated when the right hand of the red levers is slid down to the DEF position. I just need to refit the cardboard hoses after the engine is clean.

What part of original don't you understand? Do you want me to sleep in the doghouse?
I am looking at incorporating some gauges somewhere.

You guys must know what side your bread is buttered! BF knows!

Nice to see the bay will get some good use. Awesome bus !

the boss's bay looks great

Very nice. Great for daily use.

I think the original Krookloks looked something like this
, a long way from the current technology

LOL @ Coop. I think you may be right.

I did a swop on the steering tonight. I took the nice steering from Betty, the other bay and fitted the cracked one I got from Golfmad to Betty. The nice steering then went on to Daisy, but there is a gap of about 12mm between the steering and the top of the column where the switches sit. After measuring and comparing with the other bay, it seems that the whole housing on the column has to move up, as the steering cannot move any further down.
I checked in two manuals, but I'm still confused as to how I should do this.
Can anyone clarify it in language that I can understand?

This is how big the gap is.

If you sit in the drivers seat you will see a hole just to the left in the plastic housing. There is one bolt in there which grips the whole ignition unit to the steering column. Loosen it and you will be able to slide the unit up or down.

The bolt may possibly be one of those blank heads to prevent the ignition from being stripped by thieves. I used one of those reverse thread tools to remove the bolt after drilling a hole in it.

I think a bit of an update is in order.

Thanks Sean for the tip on moving the whole ignition housing up. Took me a while to realize that there is a tapered lock type thing preventing me doing this. Once I got that moved upwards, the rest of the housing moved easily to close the gap and now the hooter and indicator return works perfectly.

I have not worked a lot on the car during the last few weeks due to work keeping me busy, but I had some time last week and I tackled the engine compartment.
After a long search, I found the missing piece of plastic for the alternator on The Samba and fitted that and the missing metal tin.
I'm still missing the plastic cover for the adjustment hole, if anyone has a spare lying around.

Also cleaned the whole top part of the engine and the entire engine bay. Fitted new cooling sponge all round.
I need to attack the engine bay with some sanding paper and anti rust paint at some stage before the surface rust becomes serious.

The next thing I need to do is set the valves properly and then clean the carbs and set them again. Hopefully I'll get to that before the weekend.

nice to see you bus getting such good treatment, keep the pics coming

really good condition judging by the pics... are the Fuchs fitted yet?

MarshallGTi wrote:really good condition judging by the pics... are the Fuchs fitted yet?

Unfortunately not. I need to buy tyres for them. Too many projects eating up the money.
The tyres that she has on now are still very good, and there are too many other parts I need to buy for the other cars, before I can spend money on cosmetics.

Maybe later in the year.