Aircooled VW South Africa

It seems the projects have been a little quite on the forum lately.

Here is one I have been busy with.

Its one the last buses I collected from Mark in Barrydale. It was a unfinished project. It had been finished up until primer, but wasn't the most fantastic job. The interior was also missing. I made a start on this one first as a lot of the work was already done and in the rebuild process, so was the obvious choice before tackling a bus that was in an original driving state.

Here are a few pics from when it was taken away.









I had taken care of the sandblasting of the rusty areas and the metal work where needed. The bus has had a few bumps and scratches in its life, a few rusty spots in the usual places, but otherwise quite solid. I then handed it over to a panel beater to do the final preparation and top coat.

The colour is a standard 1970 SA bus colour called Java green.

Last weekend I started on the mechanical components. The gearbox I simply cleaned up on the outside. The motor is a freshly rebuild 1600 single port with generator.





Being on my own, I was lazy to remove that engine off the table, so I rather just put the engine and gearbox in the bus in one shot on the table and under the lift. It worked pretty well actually and I didnt have to pick up anything heavy.



More to follow later.

Love the colour Sean....would look killer with black or white interior

Very nice

You guys really give me inspiration to tackle more projects

Good going there Sean !
Did you just use a jet wash for the outside of the gearbox ?

Donovan D wrote: Mon Jan 22, 2018 10:30 am Good going there Sean !
Did you just use a jet wash for the outside of the gearbox ?

No, it was quite a hideous long process of using a wire brush on a pencil grinder to clean it up. I think it swallowed 3 of those brush wheels in the process.

Eugene wrote: Mon Jan 22, 2018 6:39 am Love the colour Sean....would look killer with black or white interior

The interior is going to be black. Black basket weave vinyl for the seats, off white perforated vinyl for the roof lining and I have some original door panels which were that light grey and dark grey combination.

Lyk goed Sean

Another awesome bus. Well done Sean! Very nice colour combination.

Agree, it is looking good.
It was discussed before but cannot remember, was the local Java green the same as the German colour?

Jdt1976 wrote: Mon Jan 22, 2018 8:10 pm Agree, it is looking good.
It was discussed before but cannot remember, was the local Java green the same as the German colour?

No, not the same. I had the paint mixed from a SA sample Java green. In 1969 it was called Java green and in 1970 the name changed to just Dark Green, but both look the same.

Looking good.
Where are you getting the upholstery from?
TMI?

AlanH wrote: Tue Jan 23, 2018 12:28 pm Looking good.
Where are you getting the upholstery from?
TMI?

I believe the upholsterer would be getting it from Kehls.

Very nice Sean the production line looks busy, are you on night shift hehe. Nice work.

Nice work Sean, looks like you will be giving Gerhard from Bloem a run for his money with regard to number of Aircooleds, ....or should I say VW Buses.

Herman