Innholdsfortegnelse for June-16 i VWT Lifestyle

It was one of these nights when you can’t sleep and you try to make yourself tired by watching TV or surfing the web. Michael Herwig did the latter and checked the sales ads at bugnet. de, the biggest German air-cooled VW portal. Not that he was looking to buy a car – he had just finished restoring his Ghia, which we showcased at the 2007 VolksWorld Show in England. But then he stumbled over a 1968 Bay Window, located in his neighbourhood, the city of Leipzig. It looked a bit rough, but with a price tag of just €2,500, it seemed to be a good deal. The next day Michael arranged to go and see the Van. “At first glance you could tell it needed some work, but I…

SHOW INFO When: April 2-3 2016 Where: Sandown Park Racecourse, Esher, Surrey, KT10 9AJ Cost: Adult day ticket - £16.00 Adult weekend ticket - £18.00 Camping pass - £27.00 Children under 6 - free Great for: The best show cars, loads of VW traders, a fabulous swapmeet, music Next year’s dates: TBC…

VW Type 4 Fitted in later Bay Window Vans and on into the Type 25, the so-called Type 4 air-cooled motor is larger and heavier, but offers better performance than the earlier Type 1 motor. However, the cooling system is very different and common consensus reckons an upright cooling conversion, as shown on the Barndoor Bus above right, is the best way to go. On this Bus a Porsche 911 cooling fan with built-in alternator has been mounted using an aftermarket fan shroud conversion, but the original Type 1 system can be used, albeit with a replacement alternator stand. However, even with the later ‘doghouse’ fan shroud, this might not flow enough air to cool the motor in hard use. A fabricated engine hanger, or ‘moustache bar’ will also be…

VW Heretics meets Stuck at a loose end after work in the summertime? Then why not get yourselfe along to one of the regular monthly VW Heretics meets down at VW Heritage’s massive Shoreham-by-sea HQ? These gatherings take place on the third Thursday of every month and the next one by the time you read this takes place on May 19. As ever, there will be a resident DJ, a goodly number of cars to perv over and the equally scrumptious sausage shaped perfection from the trusty pork purveyors Camper Vanatics. The VW Heritage shop will be open until 9pm for any parts you may need – call ahead or use click and collect to beat the queues. Stay in the loop at vwheritage.com BAY FRONT BRAKE BUNDLE KIT 1973–1979…

Believe it or not, this 1966 13-window Deluxe started out as a frumpy 1303 from 1973 in Porsche Guards Red. Clearly, not in its physically form – we have some of the best fabricators in the world on our little island but even that would be an English wheel too far – but in the dreams of a young boy from Wilbarston, Northamptonshire. Now a “not-so-young boy” of 39, Dave Masson, along with his wildly-young wife, Claire, (a mere 38) have been fortunate enough to be able to bring the dream to life, foregoing all sorts of practicality and eschewing the original, faded paint along the way. The 1303 that started it all met an untimely end not long after Dave’s 17th birthday when he wrote it off on April…

I bought my Type 25 in February 2014 after getting divorced and quitting my job to go travelling. I’ve never been enthusiastic about any motor vehicles to be honest, happy on a push bike, so my experience of driving is ‘sheltered’, with the hardest drive being a school minibus with no power steering. However, doesn’t everyone want a VW Campervan if they could afford one? So, as part of my ‘travel’ plans that year, I decided I wanted to do a road trip around Europe, and I began the hunt for a Camper. Although I had a very small budget, I wanted to get something reliable, and ended up finding ‘Ruffy’ at VW Bullibarn, near Colchester. She wasn’t pretty, hadn’t been looked after, had no MoT, rust evident on the…

’72 Bay Window, Wayne Storer Ten years ago, Wayne Storer was out driving his car one day in Biddulph, Stoke on Trent, Staffs, became lost on a housing estate and, in the process, came across a 1972 Bay Window Camper for sale. Back then the Bay was painted in a deep purple colour, and Wayne decided to make a spontaneous purchase! However, when he got the Bay home and started poking around with a screwdriver, the bodywork wasn’t as good as he had hoped for, and in the end the entire lower 18 inches of the Bus needed replacing, along with much of the chassis. The remaining purple paint was removed and the Bus was repainted in VW Marina Blue and a white more commonly used on Minis. The interior…

“My wife, Sarah, and my two girls were pretty tolerant about losing me to the project for a few months” It’s funny how friends and work colleagues can be a bad influence. For Roger Taylor, working as a mechanic with a bunch of guys who were into VWs, re-ignited a lifelong dream. It was when one of these aforementioned friends saw this Type 25 parked up in a field, though, that things stepped up a gear. Roger: “I went to check out the Bus and, despite having some rust issues, it was all there, so I decided to make an offer.” This was in 2012 and, with Roger’s offer accepted, the Bus was moved to Roger’s place of work, Chew Valley Garage, where owner, Kevin, was good enough to let…

Let’s face it, we all love our air-cooled motor but, with the best will in the world, they can feel a bit lacking in the power department, especially if you’re used to driving more modern machinery. It is possible to achieve some impressive power figures from larger capacity air-cooled VW engines, but the pursuit of additional ponies via the medium of performance cams, carbs, heads and even turbo conversions does come at the expense of money, driveability and reliability. The majority of standard air-cooled VW Bus engines will be of the 1600cc variety (Splits and Early Bays), but 2.0-litre fuel injected units found their way into the later incarnation of Bay Windows. Even so, 40 or more years later, and even those are likely to be tired out and in…

For engine transplants going from air-cooled to water-cooled, clearly some form of water-cooling hardware needs to be added. For conversions on the Type 25, this is relatively straightforward – it was available with both air and water-cooled engines, so find the necessary hardware and chop it across. However, for Splits and Bays, things are a bit more complicated. The main issue is the lack of suitable room at the front of the Bus for a radiator. In an ideal world, you’d create some brackets, fit a radiator (with the size depending on what engine you’re running) and then route either flexible or rigid water pipes back to the engine. These could also be used to dissipate heat if the size of the radiator necessary couldn’t be accommodated. However, the only…