Aircooled VW South Africa

I do a lot of flyfishing, and in that fraternity there is the never ending debate about what is the "correct" way, is it flying your line in the air when casting, and only letting it settle when you have enough line out.........putting your fly on the water before your line, etc...etc... I am passionate about flyfishing, however, I fish with airgun pellets as weights, I use two flies....does this make me less of a flyfisherman ?? I'll tell you what, I catch more than the so-called purists !! I am as equally passionate about the project to restore my Early Bay Bus, the fact that I outsource the work to be done (ie. paintwork, electrics, etc) came under scrutiny from an unlikely source and made me wonder....where and when do you qualify to be a "Purist", if such a qualification exists ??
This is not meant to be controversial, just interested to hear what the other half have to say !!!

Purists annoy me.

generally older people in the hobby who don't like us younger people building cool, trending cars a la what the guys overseas are doing.

tend to get nasty and snarky with their comments, but if you dare say anything about their rides they take it personally.

At the end of the day, it's yous, you can do whatever you want to it

I think you being scrutinised for outsourcing the work is stupid. For myself, i will be doing the same thing because i do not have the required skills. Just because I have a spanner, doesn't make me a mechanic! Same as having Photoshop doesn't make you a designer. Know what I mean?

The 'purist' thing comes in when you do something against the norm, like your flyfishing example. You may not be doing the 'classic' method, but you are doing it, and you are getting more fish, which to me seems like you are 'turbo-charging' the fly-fishing.
The same argument can be used with 'customising' a car. Purists do not like customised cars. Everything has to be standard as it was when it was made. That kind of thing.
The flyfishing analogy would mean your bus is original, but not 100% original, might have different wheels, or a bigger motor or different paint colour etc.

I for one am okay with what-ever one does to a car, as long as it is reversible. I would do something to a car only if it can be returned to 'stock' later on. That is my philosophy.
So I am not a purist, but I know I might be someday.

Dunno if that is what you are looking for in a response.

If you want to enjoy your bus (as in actually driving it) in the near future, then outsource your work, whats the problem? Ask around, do your homework, check some of their past work.
If you want to do the whole restoration yourself which could take a few years, and you actually enjoy EVERY part of that journey, then that is also cool.
I don't have that much patience. Fix it asap, drive it, enjoy it, preserve it and pass it on one day - we don't live forever and they are'nt coming with us

Outsourcing keeps the wheels of this lifestyle turning. I was looking at a bus the other day, asked the owner if he was prepared to put back the stuff he took a part, for a little extra of course, and the chap said I couldn't buy it unless I was able to spanner it myself. Almost told him to get knotted and tell him that is folk like him that is killing this scene

I can do a lot of things on my vehicles, with a lot of vulgar language and thrown tools, but I can do it. Do I want to, not particularly, especially in these times when some many folk need an income or passive income and I have a bit of spare change in my pocket and not a lot of down time from work activities

The are many out there wanting to get involved in our lifestyle but are chased away by people with their own agenda and views. What if I was a newbie to the scene and that chap said the same - probably would have walked and bought another brand

Purists in a phase. I have a lowered beetle on some nice rims and a rack with a custom paint job. I also have a two owner bus with original paint and trim that I won't touch for any money. Different tastes and times

I'm not a purist, but I can see where they(the reasonable ones), are coming from. The "coolness" of some things that people do to cars is debatable... Don't be afraid to give your opinion, but at the same time don't put other people down or provoke them with inflammatory comments because they are giving theirs.

I am pretty comfortable with the route I am following. It is always interesting to gauge what a general opinion is on a vast and passionate forum such as this. It is really great to see that those most passionate are quite happy to voice their opinions, without retribution. As I said in my original post, it wasn't meant as a dig at those that choose to be purists, however, one always has the sense that the reverse doesn't always apply.

Well, you are really talking about two things, purist and outsourcing. But in both cases, moderation, as with all things, is healthy.

There is a lot to be said for doing reversible changes to a Splitty to get it out of the truck lane and cruising at 120. But I am not a fan of "eating the floor" as we saw earlier. Nice rims, a bit lower, sure, but until it can't be used anymore?

I am also one of those who currently has a bit of extra cash but little time at home, so I outsource the big, time consuming, high-skill jobs, but I am in the hobby because I enjoy working on my cars and not only driving them, so I outsource what I must, and do myself what I enjoy (and have the skills for). My level of outsourcing has varied from 0% to 100% as time and money has allowed, over the years.

I will be crucified for saying this but so be it. I put waterpumpers into all my aircooleds,but all of them are later models. Sure if I find a good condition split bus, oval or split beetle, I will try to keep it original. But then again, surely you don't use it as a daily driver? I agree with the term" It's your car, do what you like".

Then you are most definitely NOT a purist.

RICKY-R69 wrote: I agree with the term" It's your car, do what you like".

As long as you never intend to sell it

Nope not intending to sell. At least not to the purists on here. Aircooleds are like cockroaches, let one in and they just get more, and stay forever.

I’ve got a late bay (72) and a 61 Beetle – the bay came with some conversions, but everything I’ve done to it since I’ve bought it was taking it back to original (replaced electronic dizzy with a sebring – Thanks Jurgen) . The Beetle is still original in every aspect, (except for the 6v 12 v thing) and I intend to keep it that way. I love them the way they were intended to be!

I for one cannot stand the original look. I'm a hacker, not in the pc sense, but I like to change things to be the way I like it. I don't care how customization is done to the car, DIY or outsource if you've got the money. BUT, to get respect for what customization was done, there's the problem. If you paid someone else, you, personally are not going to get the respect for your customization skills

You can hardly claim you customized your car when you paid someone else to do it

I use one fly...