dune buggies and hotVWs February 2019

I imagine many of you have heard or seen the news about the devastation in the town of Paradise, California due to the Camp Fire. The latter became the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in the state’s history. It caused at least 88 fatalities and 52,000 people were evacuated. About 19,000 homes and buildings were destroyed, including five schools, a shopping center and small businesses, along with many residential houses. There is not much left in the town anymore – almost all of it has burned. The smoke from the Camp Fire affected air pollution throughout the San Francisco and Central Valley areas, causing the closure of schools in the Bay and Sacramento areas as well. The Bay area’s air quality index has reached 200, which is the second highest…

Super Beetles Hi Jon, first I want to give a big “Thank you” to you and the editors of hotVWs for the Super Beetle articles in the August 2018 edition. I have been “wrenching” on Beetles for 50 years, driving, rebuilding, restoring and most of all enjoying them. I like all VWs and I like the Super Beetles as a car to drive and enjoy in today’s traffic and on today’s modern roads. One of the issues I had with the “former” hotVWs Magazine was the lack of Super Beetle articles. I enjoyed the article on the 220-horse Super and thoroughly enjoyed the Tech Alert 7, “Lowdown for Supers”. On ‘74 and later Supers, I have had good luck fitting the Sport Bug wheel, 15x5-1/2, ET 26 on the rear…

This probably won’t make much sense to those of you who already live in the warmer climates of our country. However, for those of us here in the Midwest, a less-than-desirable summer, a non-existent fall, and the never-ending months of cold, snowy, dreary winter days have left us feeling chilled to our VW bones. What would be really nice right now is to get away to someplace warm and sunny, even if only for one long, savory weekend. What with the great deals in airfares and hotels right now, and some equally impressive vintage Volkswagen shows, maybe it’s time to plan a Spring Break Escape to Florida! But when and where to go? If you leave right after the holidays and head to the Gulf Coast, you can join the…

First, clean all the parts you have taken off. Inspect axles, especially the spade ends. Scratches are not that big of a deal, but the spade end needs to be flat from one end to the other. Everything but a Bus usually doesn’t have any problems here. Clean your axle tube and remove the boots. Inspect all your bearings. Inspect your side gear for cracks. Take a close look at the fulcrum plates. Clean the bearing cap and install new seals in them. Lay things out, so this will be easier to put together and you’re not searching for parts. By now you should have gone to the parts store and picked up a trans gasket set, two axle seal kits, two reduction box gaskets for your year boxes (if…

VW Buses were ordered and optioned differently, depending on the climate and area which they were ordered. In the tropics, Safari windows were common. In the great white north, not so much. This month we will discuss some popular options and accessories for winter and cold weather climates. The stock heater does a fine job of defogging windshields, but in freezing temperatures, it doesn’t make the cabin very warm. If you actually want all 170 cubic-feet of the inside of your Bus to get comfortably warm, you can opt for a gas heater. The optional factory installed gas heater was made by Eberspacher in Germany. It is a neat looking torpedo-shaped unit. The first models showed up in the Barndoor era and had a cute little fuel tank just for…

Volkswagen recently announced that they are going to stop production of the Beetle. This of course is something we have heard and seen before, but each time in history that such an announcement has been made, it does carry with it a bit of sadness. As hardcore VW nuts, I think all readers of hotVWs will agree that the Beetle will never die, but still it does make you think for a bit when someone says the “end is near”. In the ’70s when VW announced that they were going to stop production of the Beetle in Germany, it sent some shockwaves across the automotive world and there were folks that scrambled to grab one of the final edition cars. The ’78 model Beetle sedans went away very quickly and…