Aircooled VW South Africa

Thank's Pierre,

Yes it did get here in Uitenhage on Wednesday, went to collect and had to do Detour back to PE to collect parts when going up a steep hill, the tow hitch broke off and the Panel van ran backwards in a nice circle and parked itself on the grass.

Lucky for me Jacques from Vintage Kombi was still at his shop, and offered to weld the hitch back on, had rust in the tube that worked its way through the wall. Thanks Jacques !!

Hitched it again, and at the 1st sharp turn, the "A" frame brace came off.

Towed it back to Jacques place and headed back to my shop to fix the frame. Thanks AGAIN Jacques !!!!

Did not understand why this bus was Impossible to "A" frame as I had already done 8 high speed trips in the past.???

Even in JHB it gave me sh!t, thats why I decided to send it down by truck.

Anyway I welded a substantial spreader bar under the beam hooks, and went back to get the Panel Van.

Connected the "A" frame and started off out the parking, and the Fugly could not drag the load, stopped to find the wheels did not follow the a-frame.

Thats when I found out that the steering on the Panel Van had so much play and the bus had POSITIVE toe-out, and not toe-in.
Anyway with out having to bore you all with the play by play issues, I had the wheels pumped up to 3.5 bar, made sure not to take sharp corners, and headed home at 70 KPH.

Got home with no other issues, and pulled the Panel Van into the Workshop.

Started stripping her as she looked like the Black Hole of Calcutta. Every thing was Black, Black and more Black.

Not sure what the bus was used for, but it had the strangest hidden compartments, a hidden spare fuel tank, an home built air conditioner, and 3 layers of black carpeting,

It must have enough extra wires to redo Eishkom, and little buttons and secret switched everywhere.

The total weight that has come out was approx. 500Kg. all 50mm solid wood and 5mm sheet steel.

Well thats all striped out now, so now we will start to have a look at the original wires and reroute them to where they were to go in the 1st place.

My 1st issue is to fix the front axle, then the brakes, then the gear box, and finally fitting the Fugly engine.

Till the next time, here's hoping I can get the body to George as a work in progress.

Herman

Well the wiring has turned out to be more then I thought, but have spent over 50 hours on it so far, and it would seem that I am getting somewhere.

Once the wiring is all working I will be replacing the front beam, as I still have the one I restored years ago.

Then the rest of the list.

Still hoping to make it in time for George, but if not, the Old Reliable FUGLY will have to do duty again. ( no rest for the rusted)

Herman

OK, so if you go to the top of this post, you will find the before photo's, and here are the follow up photo's as I have been striping the inside to start the make over.


















Well till next time.

Herman

Nice Herman, looks like we are inn the same boat. Lots of extra groceries & Tupperware to remove first to eventually get to the fun stuff.
Mine is looking much better already after spending many hours removing the Bostic from the panels.
Keep it up.

Well a lot has been done, but little to take photo's of.

Started by stripping out the unwanted.

Then I got stuck into the wiring, and cut out the "add-on's"

Managed to get all working, but will need original parts down the line to replace the temp. parts used to get her up and running.

Then I replaced the front beam, with one I reworked some years back......

If you need to see something funny, you need to see a 64 year old Toppy replace a beam by him self........

OK, so that went in, and sommer fitted new draglink at the same time.

Adjusted the steering box, and now the "Play" is gone.

Serviced and renewed the disk calipers, and had the disks skimmed.

Replaced the back wheel slave rubbers, and re-shod the brake linings.

Cut out the old Ford conversion re-rout of the clutch cable, and re-welded a new tube for the clutch in the old location.

Fitted brake booster and vacuum line with Non-return valve

Cleaned out the rust and dust from the light fittings and taped them with aluminum tape. for better reflection of the lights, front and back.

Made parts for the gear lever and fitted to 2lt box, set gear lever to get all gears.

Cleaned up the engine bay, fitted new rubbers, and transferred the Fugly 2lt motor into the Bay.

So officially as from now, the Fugly wil now become a donner car. and run no more on her own steam........... still a very sad day ........







So heres hoping that the Bay will make it to George and the KKK,

Will let you know......

Herman

Wow, Herman, that is an amazing amount of progress. Well done.

I did wonder about the effort in replacing the beam. Not bad for anyone of any age, let alone an old toppie

Herman you have done quite alot of small things to the bus and that are the stuff as you say dont really see the progress
so we can start organizing transport for fugly or is the bay towing the Fugly up to KKK for me ?

Nice going. No wonder you are so quiet.

Coming along at a good pace Herman !! My mechanics/support vehicle will be traveling to George with the convoy should anyone need assistance on the way....

Thanks guys,

Bit of a road block, bought the gearbox, as a 2lt box, for above going price to save time, but landed up with a 1600 bell housing, that jams the motor.

Now the back end has to be stripped again to remove the engine, to grind the bell housing to take the 2lt flywheel.

Now not sure WHAT the box is, will now have to find out if it is a 2lt box or just a 1600.

Anybody know what the 2lt box is stamped or what their serial numbers should be. PLEASE......

Nothing like being kicked in the teeth.

just hope it will not hold me up going to George.

Herman

not sure how much help this is, but the 2000 and 1600 input shafts are different in length

Three ribs around diff section is 1600 version. Five ribs, corners pyramid shaped, is from 1800. 2L has 6 ribs, rounded on the edges. As Tony said for type 4 use you must have the longer input shaft to properly locate into needle bearing.

It's not only 2000L's that had the longer shaft, 1800 also had them, but with the different bellhousing.

I can't comment on the grinding of the bellhousing because I havnt done such a thing, but I suspect you may run into other issues with starter motors as well, as a 2000l starter motor is also different to the rest.

I would either find a 2l bellhousing, with appropriate starter and input shaft, or find a 1800 flywheel with clutch assembly and install that on the 2l motor to fit your current gearbox. The 1800 setup will use the starter motor that's the same as a beetle.

Dawie wrote:Three ribs around diff section is 1600 version. Five ribs, corners pyramid shaped, is from 1800. 2L has 6 ribs, rounded on the edges. As Tony said for type 4 use you must have the longer input shaft to properly locate into needle bearing.

Thanks Dawie,

It would appear that it is a 5 rib, but not sure of the ratios inside.
as the 2lt motor was running in the Fugly, the needle bearing has been pulled forward for the shorter shaft.

Will try to find the serial number on the box, this should tell me the ratios inside.

Herman

sean wrote:It's not only 2000L's that had the longer shaft, 1800 also had them, but with the different bellhousing.

I can't comment on the grinding of the bellhousing because I havnt done such a thing, but I suspect you may run into other issues with starter motors as well, as a 2000l starter motor is also different to the rest.

I would either find a 2l bellhousing, with appropriate starter and input shaft, or find a 1800 flywheel with clutch assembly and install that on the 2l motor to fit your current gearbox. The 1800 setup will use the starter motor that's the same as a beetle.

Hi Sean,

Thanks for that, have been running type 4 motors in not only the Fugly, but also in the Fastback so very used to the mod.

The grinding of the bell housing is not to difficult, but more of a schlep to once again remove the motor (one old Toppy power), and grinding the magnesium, always lands up with skin flash burns which is not nice.

The starter is easy to sort.

You take a old starter and cut a 10mm slice off the front and use it as a spacer to push the starter back 10 mm.

Oh well, ...I should stop bitching about it and get stuck in and do the job, thats all...........

Till then

Herman