Aircooled VW South Africa

Went shopping for "Firestone Wide Ovals". Settled for BF Goodrich, looking good on the rear

Removed the 65-ish beetle door handle, and early 70's window winder serving as door handle from the bus, and installed two split bus door handles on FFFF.

When removing the window winder, I looked for the usual circlip that holds the handle in place, nothing. Try this way and that, it does not want to budge, and for the life of me, I could not see how it is being held in place ?! Finally, out of pure frustration, I grab the handle and give it one hell of a pull, like the guys in the "clean and jerk" event in weightlifting at the Olympics. Thinking that if I break the mechanism, someone is bound to have a replacement. Suddenly the handle pops off, easy as you like Was only being held by a bit of good old coastal corrosion. Fitting the new one was easy enough

Also replaced the rubber pedal covers on the clutch and brake pedal with brand new VW items. Looks great (Rome wasn't built in a day and all that )

Stripped the alternator to find out why it stopped charging the car. Seems it might have had a short. The Fan side Bearing Race was loose in the casing so had to pull apart the spare alternator to get its casing. stuck it all together and ran out of time. Will go into the car later today...

Spent Saturday helping a friend fix his buggy. Made a T-peace to give more stability to the windshield frame and completed the wiring. That buggy now has a completely new loom, with brand new fuse box. To top it all off, we managed to get it started. That after the engine was standing for 8 months, most of that time out of the beach buggy.

Lady had a rough morning. I started her and when I got to the bottom of the street she started running very rough. She managed to get me to the station and back this afternoon. Where I promptly pulled her into the garage and started sorting her out. Turns out she had a dead plug. Changed them out and she's sorted out again

Removed the Camping interior from the Microbus



and returned it to this

Lady didn't want to start again. Put a fresh batery in the night before and the next morning... nothing.

So, today, pulled the wheel off, tested starting with another starter. Nothing!

That's not the problem so re-assembled everything.

Changed batteries out again and suddenly she started.

Turns out there is a power drain with the fuel sender some how. Killing my charged batteries over night, while I'm not looking.

Guess I'll be doing some electrical work over the weekend.

This should actually be under "What did your car do for you today"

She took us to the sea near Hermanus, 1492km from home, without missing a beat. Driving against a headwind that had me fighting to keep her going in a straight line. Karoo temperatures up to 38°C with the oil temp sitting on 120°C. Sometimes doing 60km/h to keep the oil from overheating, but she just kept on going. Consumption varied between 8.5 - 9.5km/l thanks to the 36 Weber IDFs I fitted the day before we left. The new motor hardly used a drop of oil. After the Karoo temps we endured I'm glad I changed the oil to Shell HX7 fully synthentic oil, otherwise I might have had a problem.

Here she is at the stop over near Three Sisters in the Karoo. This was Christmas day. Today she took us to Gansbaai and we ended up at the Danger Point Lighthouse. We spent a wonderful day in the area. After desperate pleas from the 2 woman in my life that I should make a plan for some music in the bus, I installed a LG system similar to the one in the DC. These LG systems with the head unit and speakers are real value for money and the sound is excellent! Unfortunately I did not take all the tools with on holiday, so I had to temporarily mount the head unit in the glove box until we get home.

On New Years day we will head home again, but we have one more stop to make to pick up something special for Betty on Friday. Details to follow shortly.

Viva Le Bay Window!

out with the stock, and in with a 4 into 1

Awesome BF!!

Brackenfell isn't that far.

Wish I was still there to meet up with you.

Chris wrote:Awesome BF!!

Brackenfell isn't that far.

Wish I was still there to meet up with you.

That is a pity! That would haved been great. kKKNK maybe?

Will have to see,maybe.

But I will be in George.

Very Cool Pics Beetlefanatic

Hope you enjoyed the fairest cape

Since I was in bed by 12:05 this morning, decided to wake up early and sort out this exhaust.

Thankfully the bolts all came off with little hassle. Took me a good 60 mins to remove the old exhaust and add the new one. One bolt snapped off, as expected, but we have a working bug now. Also stripped and cleaned all the bits, so the bay is clean. Timing was set, new points and condensor added, same goes for all leads and wires.

Tomorrow when Midas is open, I'm buying replacement fuel hoses and clamps and will replace every last bit of rubber I can see.

Good to be driving it again

1972 wrote:Due to the fact that not everyone feels they have to open a thread about their builds (no offence to those who dont want to post up their builds) and maybe we can keep dirk from dying of bordom while his car gets some attention at the paint shop........ go ahead and feel free to post what you did on your car today?

I got my bus back from the airbrush artist just having it stone chip under nearth