Aircooled VW South Africa

I've just got word from a supplier in the states who's going to ship me parts and if they don't rape me too much on shipping, then a few other items that I'm looking for may be ticked off my list.

Albert Mirrors for LHS & RHS - R686/ None in SA.
Gold Plated Speedster Emblems x 2 R686 / SA R1866 (carrera motors)
1600 Super badge for the back R272/ SA R1162 (carrera motors)
Body trim for the whole car 6 peices R320/ SA R1728 (carrera motors)
Speedster interior chrome steel mirror R320/ SA R500 for a plastic lookalike

Total cost for everything that I wanted is about R2500-00 excluding shipping. Carrera motors were R6500-00 just for the trim..........

See where I'm going with this? The best is carrera motors say that the parts that they sell are genuine. I've spoken to tonnes of people in the EU and the US and they say that porsche don't manufacture the parts anymore, so how the hell can they be genuine?????

Delivery time from the vintagespeedsters is 2-3 weeks, delivery time from carrera motors is 4 weeks.

lol

ahh ...yes....sounds so familiar!!

"Here you go, your free tube of lube in preperation to get &^%$&*@$!! "

Gary, i dropped you a mail!! Very keen on placing a joint order. Makes shipping charges feel less painful for the both of us, and we'll only be doubling up a couple of the parts you're ordering. Im getting tempted on the interior mirror too though. When you get back to me i'll fill you in if im going to take the mirror or not.

Kev

I just replied to your email. Go for the mirror, I sent you a quote as well.

We may have a 4th person in as well which will lower she shipping by about another few $$$.

Well I got my car back yesterday and man it runs smooth.

New axel boots, new gearbox oil, new engine oil, new plugs, new plug leads, new condensor, new points, carb cleaned and set, exhaust leak fixed, oil cooler seals replaced, pushrod tube seals replaced, new crank shaft oil seal, new tappet cover gaskets, had to use a bit of silicone on one as the cover was a bit bent. New air-filter as well. But she doens't leak.

I think you're covered pepi.

Dirk Muntingh who did the work, kakked me out for not offerering him the motor first....lol. oh well. It pulls nice and smooth now and sounds amazing.

The PO ( no names mentioned here) told me that the motor/ car had been serviced recently and was driven regulary.

All I can say is sure it was........the plugs were old and dodgy and I've probably done about 200kms on this car in 4 months. The points gap was way out, the timing was also way out, it leaked oil like a mofo, the WHOLE gearbox, underside was full of it, this engine had been leaking oil by the pushrods, oil cooler and the tappet covers for a LONG time......as for it being driven regulary?............sure it was, the forget me not plates were on the wrong way around so it creating a vacuum under the heads and the hot air was not moving out. If this motor was driving like this on a long distance trip....20 + kms plus then it would have over-heated....and probably seized.......

I revised my first post regarding the PO by the way.

Remember what I told you about the PO, was I wrong ????

calooker wrote:Remember what I told you about the PO, was I wrong ????

Nope, you were right. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt though.

Live and Learn I guess.

Cheers

Had my second shake down drive last night and it's ear-marked a few problems that will have to be addressed.

Steering is pretty loose - Steering box may need to be adjusted once again, link & king pins may need to be replaced, cause at speeds over 80km/h, the car sways a bit too much.

Brakes still pull - I knew this was going to be an issue and I've already started the quest for discs that will go on. I want the drums off.....

Besides that she runs nice, I had the roof down while driving to the meet on the other side of town and she was a hoot........coming back however I had the top up...........as it was chilly...........lol, I'm going to have to look into getting the side windows for this baby. The motor runs like a dream and never skipped a beat and since the last tune, runs 100% better. Float levels on the carb may need to be adjusted though.

Cars in the park next and then after that is the brake re-build and the engine build.

Stay tuned.

Yes Brian, the PO that I am referring to is indeed you........

Well here's a little update that I thought that I'd add.

I've been getting quotes for parts for the speedster and have been more than willing to pay the extra to get that look that I want. But wherever I can save a buck or two, I'll do it. Here is example #1. The beading that runs along the doors, front fender and rear quarter. I was quoted about $55-00/ +/- R400 without shipping and because of the length it has to be specially packed, so add another R150 to that. Another thing is that in South Africa, we used different handles than the US and the small beading behind the door handle will no doubt differ from the US one and you'd have to end up cutting it anyway.

So after looking at pictures (several hundred) I noticed something that was a bit of a fluke. The OEM Speedster trim is the same width as the later beetle trim.

So off I go to volkspares, buy a beetle trim kit for R150-00, add 40 odd clips to that and you hit a total of R185-00.

There are two mods that you'll have to do to get this lot to fit.

1) The one trick is that the beetle trim is slightly curved to form around the front and rear quarter panels, so you have to bend it into a straight line, (not that hard by the way as it's ali, but it;s also very easy to cock it up). I went a bit overboard with the trim clips as I didn't want problems around the rear quarters with the trim sticking out, so I used about 10 extra clips all in all.

2) The Door trim section has to be cut as the beetle trim goes above the handle as shown and the speedster trim goes right through the handle. This and the fact that the front trim is a bit longer than the beetle one, but this doens't phase me as on pretty much all speedster replicas the trim is different lengths as the handles differ.

I'll work on this a bit further down the line as I'd like it to be finished off with a smooth edge, that fits right upto the handle. I kept the small left over bit as this will go behind the door handle, (I need more clips)

The finish is pretty freaking good. The trim is the same width as the porsche reproduction trim. I had to first lay down tape down the side of the car to get the height right and get everything straight. But drilling through the fibreglass is easy as long as you use a sharp drill, I wasn't too phased about this if it didn't work out as I am re-spraying the car anyway, so if it didn't work, no worries. But I'm 100% happy with the outcome and I'll leave it as it is and just get the rest of the stuff that I'm missing.

The trim looks a bit off, but I can assure you that it's dead straight on both sides.





As you can see, there's not much difference, once I have the small peice on, I doubt you'd even know that it was a beetle one.



I'll post more pictures up when the car gets detailed properly this Saterday for Cars in the Park.

Cost: R185-00 (beetle trim, 40 clips, volkspares SA)
Time taken: 1 - 2 hours
Skill: A bit of patience and a lot of double, triple checking, basic tool skills needed.

IMPI..........I just sent you an e-mail, seems that we weren't the first to think of our idea......pics sent to your pm box.

seems that we weren't the first to think of our idea

The topless car wash idea was MINE first

Armand, just thought I'd give you a comment that was sent to me by Jake Raby on another forum that I chat on.

Jake Raby: " I am familiar with the South African made IMPI shroud and it certainly appears to have the right concept.......Gary, I wish you and IMPI the best of luck, I am sure he will come up with something that is going to make you happy. "

Straight from the horses mouth.

flatfourfan wrote:Armand, just thought I'd give you a comment that was sent to me by Jake Raby on another forum that I chat on.

Jake Raby: " I am familiar with the South African made IMPI shroud and it certainly appears to have the right concept.......Gary, I wish you and IMPI the best of luck, I am sure he will come up with something that is going to make you happy. "

Straight from the horses mouth.

Isn't it good when big players in the industry compliment South Africans who don't have the same resources as them?

^^ Yup.

A grade