Aircooled VW South Africa

Stütz wrote:

fig wrote:That VIN dates the bus to May 1964.

Thaaaaats a nice surprise!

The rear valence, indent below rear hatch, radio blank plate and switches also confirm it's not a 67. Generally, German panelvans would have had black switches and gearshift knob. But this is the second SA-assembled German panel I've seen with white switches and shift knob.

Nice "patina"

Count your blessings Richard, it has it's rear bumper and engine apron/valence

Fig is that colour "sealing wax red" ?

jolas wrote:Nice "patina"

Count your blessings Richard, it has it's rear bumper and engine apron/valence

Fig is that colour "sealing wax red" ?

This side shows nice patina:



That red is darker than sealing wax red.

jolas wrote:Nice "patina"

Count your blessings Richard, it has it's rear bumper and engine apron/valence

Fig is that colour "sealing wax red" ?

Hey Paul, that ain't patina buddy, that there is rustina.

Stütz wrote:

jolas wrote:Nice "patina"

Fig is that colour "sealing wax red" ?

Hey Paul, that ain't patina buddy, that there is rustina.

"Rustina" few places - GREAT bus and project = GREAT thread coming!
Good Luck

OK. It's a bit more rusty than I first thought from the first few pictures but still a good solid restoration project. There is a lot of work ahead there. Good Luck

fig wrote:..................... and another VIN plate on the RHS of the overhead air vent.

Do we not have m-plates on our ZA buses?

Stütz wrote:Do we not have m-plates on our ZA buses?

No.

fig wrote:

Stütz wrote:Do we not have m-plates on our ZA buses?

No.

What a pot of cr@p! Perhaps I can find the history of the car from VW in Deutschland? Zer by ze Vaterland ver ze Chermins are liffink. I em sure zey are heffink all zat informationz zer!

You can get a "birth certificate" from them for something like EUR35 if you send them the VIN. When I've done it for other SA-assembled buses all they could tell me was build date and the date the CKD kit left Hannover. Because SA buses were painted locally they don't know colours. They may also have the engine number on record, but apparently VWSA was not very diligent about keeping all the CKD kit parts together, so it was mix and match on the assembly line. The M-plate was likely shipped with the CKD kit; just not fitted by VWSA (or SAMAD, as it was when your bus was built). You already know more about your bus than VW in Germany can give you.

Was lead to believe by a guy at VW, that most of the info on old VW's, was lost in fire.
Had this not happened, they would still have it.
So the forums, will have more info, then VW.

I've never heard of a fire. Not saying it didn't happen, but ...

I once had a long chat with Dr Hans Heese, a historian, whose private hobby is researching the histories of German companies in SA. He told me that he approached VWSA and they allowed him to come and see their archive. When he got there he was shown to a store room that was filled from floor to celing with boxes of documents. He explained that this was useless to him and was told that was all they had. He then offered, at his own expense, to go through everything and classify it and store it all properly. VWSA declined. He then told me that when he approached them again some time later, he was told all the documents he had been shown had been destroyed.

That's flippen shocking. But also indicative of the mindset of that time.

That bus is a beaut! Lots of work, but like jolas said, most of the bits that's normally missing is there, count yourself lucky!

I also need cargo floors, front footwhells etc. Please let me know when you (I assume you'll order from Klassic Fab?) bring in goods, maybe we could place an order together to save costs?

I reckon when you finish it, you should leave this badge as is. Looks cool