Aircooled VW South Africa

Just had this unusual experience.

Opened the bonnet of a 412, and soon afterwards there was smoke. Coming from a piece of carpet.

At first i was confused, as the battery was disconnected at the time. Then saw the upside down chromed hub cap lying there. It was concentrating the hot sun rays onto the carpet, like a magnifying glass.

Seems the 412 hub cap has a near perfect parabolic dish shape. (Except for the part with the VW logo).

Cleaned inside of the hub cap and tried concentrating the sun's rays onto a piece of newspaper. Newspaper was burning within seconds. Wonder how many fires started this way, and people afterwards never realized what the cause was?

Fascinating!

Interesting thought, how many fires have been started in ways like this .......... and whats on the final official reports - electrical fault, arson, kids playing with matches, etc, etc. If that 412 had been completely gutted, you and the fire service would probably never guess the cause ....
So anyway, whose 412 is it and where are the pics

on the same topic ......

i have a frind that does Fire extinguisehers instalations.............. any1 need some fitted in their busses or cars let me know and we can hook it up !!!

By the way, tried again by late afternoon to start a fire using that hub cap. Was still possible, but more difficult this time and took longer. (Compared to previous effort at about 13h00, when temp was in the 30's, and fire started within seconds).

Will start a thread on "Projects" sometime. Have 2x 412 cars. One is a badly rusted automatic parts car, the other has manual shift and is in reasonable condition with no serious rust. Will start by rebuilding the front suspension, doing basic rust prevention, and sorting out registration. This will probably become my most used daily driver, along with the beetle.

Thanks Dawie, sounds great. I came across a 412 last week in Paarl, not running, looks like it's been off the road for a while. Looks like the same colour as your one in the photo ....... No one was home. Let me know if you are interested

Hi
I Used a lot of Ford cortina bushes and rubbers whilst rebuilding my 411
Armand