Aircooled VW South Africa

Congrats Karma! many happy miles

I SAW IT! I SAW IT!!

Locked in the usual traffic jam on my way home yesterday afternoon, there I was gazing into the distant everlasting line of cars on William Nicol Drive, Bryanston West (right by the Bentley showroom). Lo and behold, on the other side of the road I caught a glimpse of what looked to me like a moerse tall split window bus tearing down the road. I thought it's impossible it's raised that high! Next minute, at great speed I saw it screaming past and only then saw it was perched proudly, (but holding on for dear life) on top of a delivery truck. The second I saw the colour I knew it was yours and I started yelling: That's RIAAN'S BUS, THAT'S RIAAN'S BUS!! The drivers around me thought I was NUTS!

It looks awesome and I am SO happy it's finally arrived! GREEEEEEEEEEN with envy!!

All the best with it and I'm dying to go for a spin in it when you have her purring. It'll be the first time I've ever sat in a split window bus!

Epic.

I was wondering if someone would see it in rush hour traffic, it's a bit too orange to miss.

Thanks Guys, hope to have her running soon!

Lucky guy you are to have a Type 1,2 and 3

I got an article on that race taxi in my magazine, it is something I would love to drive any day!

congrats on ur new arrival.
keep us posted

Blitzkrieg wrote:Lucky guy you are to have a Type 1,2 and 3

One guy can not be that lucky im shure its illegal


And neat bus just dont like the wheels

Mr9A wrote:
And neat bus just dont like the wheels

You really need to do some reading up on that bus.... It is a pure bred race car.
In short.... take a Porsche GT3. Remove suspension and engine. Modify the crap out of the engine. Then take a T25 and modify the chassis. Remove the body. Take a splitty bus, remove the body, cut the body in half and put it onto the T25 chassis. Insert all Porsche parts, put the body back together and build a roll cage.

and after you did all the above, go spank some porsches, audi's and mercs on "The Ring" and post if on youtube for the world to see!

Funny thing you mention this video, I was at a friend's place having a "BRAAI" early 2008, when beetlefanatic asks me if I am still a aircooled car nut, answer being yes, he says he has a video to show me, queue above mentioned video, which leads to me joining http://www.aircooledvwsa.co.za !

When the bus arrived here safe and sound, I connected the battery Chris got me, tried starting the bus, but nothing...

Took the battery out again, hooked it up to the charger, and let it charge overnight. Two hectic weeks of work and no time for ACVW ensued.

Then today, called on my acvw appy a.k.a. dad to come and help. Hooked the battery up, made sure all the connections are good and proper and tried starting with the black starter button as mentioned by Heiko. The engine turns over, but no joy, then I spot the little silver toggle switch on the dash. Flip it to the left, and hey presto, the idiot lights come on. Try the starter again and the bus starts almost instantly. What a beauty .

Changed the flat tyre with one of the 5 spares that came with the bus. Turns out there are two rostyles and two widened steelies in the bus. Of course I had to fit one of the widened steelies . 205/60/15, the tyre looks HUGE on the bus.
That also explains why the rear wheel arches on this bus were flared, (the black strips you see on the pics), as tyres that wide would definately rub otherwise.

So queue the cruise to the garage. Even got the seatcover to come with.Although ffff looks a little ratty, people still stare.. Fill up with LRP, one can of oil and (the brakes being very close to non-existant), almost a full bottle of brake fluid.
Petrol - R100
Can of the best - R25
Brakefluid - R15
Cruising around the neighborhood afterwards - priceless

The bus has no door cards, no rooflining, and no carpets, so it is heck of a noisy in there! The 1600 twinport sounds pretty sweet though. The driveway at the local sasol is quite steep, in the 58 beetle I have to stop and gear down to first gear to get up the hill. The bus cruises out the hill in 2nd gear no problem

We were driving around and I am sure the shocks need replacing, and probably the tyres too. The tyres dont look too bad, but who knows how old they are and how many times they have been repaired. I don't know what driving a bus should feel like, but it was quite - for lack of a better word, "bouncey". Sitting on top of the front wheels also feel a little weird if you aren't used to it. Loved the whole experience though.

Also fixed the front drivers side headlight, when loading/during transport someone must have pushed the glass into the housing. Nothing too serious though, just reassemble and pop it back in. On that note, a few of the little wire clips that hold the light and the glass together are missing. Anyone have a couple lying around?

Still looking for some replacement frames for the pop-out windows, at least three of the four needs serious work or replacement. Anyone have templates for the door cards ? Sure I can make these myself with a little forum help ?
Did Fleetlines even have a headliner?

The seat brackets holding down the rear bench seats are also half "mia",other half damaged, would need a couple of these, any help for any of the above would be appreciated. Now that the bus is running, it needs a full brake system check and bleed, good engine service, beetle seat removal , and a professional tyre and shocks check. Then its off to roadworthy and putting here in my name If there are any quiet days in the next couple of weeks, this will be done ASAP!

Just remembered, also need some seatbelts. Never realized I would feel so naked without a seat belt on!
Calooker, you have some for me?
The Fig - any advise on fitment?

Great news! Fantastic to hear all OK

Great news Karma! Once you have driven a bus you won't want the bug anymore.

Dutch and Beetlefanatic, does the bus feel more "bouncey" to drive than a beetle?
OR is there something wrong (shocks etc).

Feels like it could pull a train though!

Karma, is the bus not roadworthy? What I mean is , did'nt you get papers from Heiko.