The Ratback
Posted: Mon Feb 01, 2010 1:04 pm
As we all know, in the Aircooled world, you often find a car when you're not really looking for one or least expecting to find one.
Then you end up purchasing it and end up with another toy to play with
So after getting back to work in the first week of January and having a crazy time, the second week was much quieter and so I had the chance to catch up on my forum, blog and online classifieds readings. When I started searching Junkmail for "Variants", I saw an ad offering two "1968 Vw Variant TL Fastbacks, one running one for spares." In Centurion. Not too far from me. Dialed the number, made an arrangement to see the cars and it turns out that the cars are just around the corner from me, in Valhalla.
Went there a few weekends back on a Sunday, saw the car and the parts car, took it for a drive, went back to the Oom's place and then he tells me, "I've owned this car since 1969, I bought the car as a 'demo' from Volkswagen when it was about a year old."
Then he started telling me the stories about the car, it was driven all over ZA, including the then Mugabe-free Rhodesia, Zambia, Lourenco Marques and numerous other places. It never once gave any trouble in all the time that he owned it!!! The car is only on its second motor
Needless to say, after hearing all of this, I was very very interested. But before I got too excited, I asked him how much he's looking at. I got the standard make me an offer answer
He then asked me what do you think it's worth? LUCKILY, I held my tongue and didn't say anything, as I was about to offer far more than the figure he told me that he was looking for
I immediately told him, I will most likely take it, let me just ask the folks and will get back to him. No problem.
So in my very excited state, I promptly raced out of Valhalla (Almost wacked a cyclist down - I've learnt some new words after he unleashed his fury upon me, I just used the classis f-off philosophy
), wondering how was I going to justify buying ANOTHER (running) project car, which needs quite a bit of work. When I calmed down, I said, nope, tempting as it is, I will not buy it and rather use the money for the blitzmobile (metallic blue Type 4 powered, lowered, Porschified Type 3 
)
Head back home, tell the folks and my younger brother about it and he promptly pipes up, if you're not buying it and if you think that it's a good buy, I will take it.
I was very surprised because he isn't much of an aircooled head
So we went back on Monday, showed it to my folks and brother and they were rather impressed, "hey look! It's a running fastback - Not like those two at home!" (me:------->
)
Took him for a ride around the block and the one drive got him hooked.
After a hurried 5 minute discussion with the folks, we confirmed that we will be taking the car and said that we would come and pick it up the next day. Tuesday comes and I had to work late and couldn't go and fetch it. I got two hours of sleep on Tuesday night because I was so psyched about the car - And it isn't even mine!!!!!!!!
Went to go and fetch the car on Wednesday - When you're all high and caffeinated up on Redbull and Chocolate, not a good idea to drive a Fastback at 80 KM/H on a wet road with a slight curve because with worn tyres the results are a bit interesting
Got it home safely....
And here it is
Radio still works
It does need a bit of bodywork, but there is no serious rust - most surface
The original colour was Regatta Blue with a Light Sand interior (Thanks to Variant for the info). It was repainted in a lighter shade of blue at some point, probably after the rear left hand side fender was hit. The interior is still quite nice...
The motor needs a bit of work, the timing is out and the carbs need to be synchronised. It's also running a bit hot.
Right now, it's spitting back through the carbs and is running very unevenly at the bottom of the rev range
Decided to fit the Rostyles from my Fasty this weekend so that we could take it to the Drive In event. We managed to do the 40 some-odd round trip with no problems, except for the car not being able to go over 80 KM/H and sucked something like 13 litres of fuel in the process...
The general consensus is that we should keep the car Rat, but will see what happens in the future. It's not my car so the rightful owner has to decide what he wants to do with it
Future plans include sorting out the rust and priming affected areas, getting a set of Rostyles for the car, lowering the front,rolling the rear arches so that the wheels clear, changing the exhaust as the present one is leaking and is a hackjob with Beetle heater boxes etc, fitting modern seatbelts, fitting an SP Beetle steering wheel and some things that need fixing such as the window regulators etc...
This is what the parts car looks like
Has a solid pan, nice OG black interior and most of the panels are still nice, so if we do break the car for spares, I will use the interior for my car
Then you end up purchasing it and end up with another toy to play with
So after getting back to work in the first week of January and having a crazy time, the second week was much quieter and so I had the chance to catch up on my forum, blog and online classifieds readings. When I started searching Junkmail for "Variants", I saw an ad offering two "1968 Vw Variant TL Fastbacks, one running one for spares." In Centurion. Not too far from me. Dialed the number, made an arrangement to see the cars and it turns out that the cars are just around the corner from me, in Valhalla.
Went there a few weekends back on a Sunday, saw the car and the parts car, took it for a drive, went back to the Oom's place and then he tells me, "I've owned this car since 1969, I bought the car as a 'demo' from Volkswagen when it was about a year old."
Then he started telling me the stories about the car, it was driven all over ZA, including the then Mugabe-free Rhodesia, Zambia, Lourenco Marques and numerous other places. It never once gave any trouble in all the time that he owned it!!! The car is only on its second motor
Needless to say, after hearing all of this, I was very very interested. But before I got too excited, I asked him how much he's looking at. I got the standard make me an offer answer
He then asked me what do you think it's worth? LUCKILY, I held my tongue and didn't say anything, as I was about to offer far more than the figure he told me that he was looking for
I immediately told him, I will most likely take it, let me just ask the folks and will get back to him. No problem.
So in my very excited state, I promptly raced out of Valhalla (Almost wacked a cyclist down - I've learnt some new words after he unleashed his fury upon me, I just used the classis f-off philosophy
), wondering how was I going to justify buying ANOTHER (running) project car, which needs quite a bit of work. When I calmed down, I said, nope, tempting as it is, I will not buy it and rather use the money for the blitzmobile (metallic blue Type 4 powered, lowered, Porschified Type 3 ) Head back home, tell the folks and my younger brother about it and he promptly pipes up, if you're not buying it and if you think that it's a good buy, I will take it.
I was very surprised because he isn't much of an aircooled head
So we went back on Monday, showed it to my folks and brother and they were rather impressed, "hey look! It's a running fastback - Not like those two at home!" (me:------->
) Took him for a ride around the block and the one drive got him hooked.
After a hurried 5 minute discussion with the folks, we confirmed that we will be taking the car and said that we would come and pick it up the next day. Tuesday comes and I had to work late and couldn't go and fetch it. I got two hours of sleep on Tuesday night because I was so psyched about the car - And it isn't even mine!!!!!!!!
Went to go and fetch the car on Wednesday - When you're all high and caffeinated up on Redbull and Chocolate, not a good idea to drive a Fastback at 80 KM/H on a wet road with a slight curve because with worn tyres the results are a bit interesting
Got it home safely....
And here it is
Radio still works
It does need a bit of bodywork, but there is no serious rust - most surface
The original colour was Regatta Blue with a Light Sand interior (Thanks to Variant for the info). It was repainted in a lighter shade of blue at some point, probably after the rear left hand side fender was hit. The interior is still quite nice...
The motor needs a bit of work, the timing is out and the carbs need to be synchronised. It's also running a bit hot.
Right now, it's spitting back through the carbs and is running very unevenly at the bottom of the rev range
Decided to fit the Rostyles from my Fasty this weekend so that we could take it to the Drive In event. We managed to do the 40 some-odd round trip with no problems, except for the car not being able to go over 80 KM/H and sucked something like 13 litres of fuel in the process...
The general consensus is that we should keep the car Rat, but will see what happens in the future. It's not my car so the rightful owner has to decide what he wants to do with it
Future plans include sorting out the rust and priming affected areas, getting a set of Rostyles for the car, lowering the front,rolling the rear arches so that the wheels clear, changing the exhaust as the present one is leaking and is a hackjob with Beetle heater boxes etc, fitting modern seatbelts, fitting an SP Beetle steering wheel and some things that need fixing such as the window regulators etc...
This is what the parts car looks like
Has a solid pan, nice OG black interior and most of the panels are still nice, so if we do break the car for spares, I will use the interior for my car
