Innholdsfortegnelse for March-16 i VWT Lifestyle

The perfect spring break Longer days, rising temperatures, spring just around the corner, it must be The VolksWorld Show. Why not make it your first camping weekend away of the year? We have great facilities, beer and grub on tap from Friday evening until Sunday lunchtime, plus free entertainment on the Saturday night. Camping plots are limited, so buy now before we sell out Top quality show cars We have already had some great show vehicles apply for the 2016 show and are confident of having one of our best collections ever. Sourced from all over Europe, this mouthwatering line up will have something to please everyone BOOK YOUR CAMPING SPOT NOW! Limited plots still available Clubs – the backbone of the VW scene Clubs are at the very heart…

IN THE SUN Hello, I’ve just been reading the January 2016 issue and noticed the article about the Devon Sunlander. You stated there are only three known. Well, there is another. I have owned my '71 Devon Sunlander for nearly 20 years. The Bus was my daily driver for the first five years I owned it, then I took it off the road and restored it in 2001. It has been kept in a garage since, only venturing out for hoildays and trips to the beach. The interior is nearly all original, but needed some repairs. I built the unit to house a sink salvaged from a Moonraker (the Devon Camper, not Drax’s space shuttle), the tops of the cushions were re-covered and new curtains made, the woodwork was stripped…

’64 Split fire Bus, Sam Morgan and Scarlett Harvey When did you buy this Bus? “We bought it last year from a friend who was getting married, needed to raise some wedding funds and sold it on the proviso he could still use it once in a while!” What’s special about it? “It’s an ex-fire Bus that was imported from Austria 12 years ago. The bodywork is exceptionally sound and the paintwork is believed to be all original. You can still just about make out some of the original signwriting from its fire service days.” What’s next for it? ”Scarlett’s next job is to see if she can trace any of the Split’s early history. Mine is to fix a small leak we’ve recently noticed around one of the front…

Having once searched hard for a Neptune Blue ’68 Devon Camper, I can personally identify with Nick Kaye’s passion for the hue. When Split Screen production ended at the end of July ’67, Volkswagen decided to wave a tearful goodbye to L31 Dove Blue, which had been used for the entire 17 years of Split Screen production. With the radically updated Bay Window commencing production, the colour was revised slightly and given the designation L50K Neptune Blue. It was primarily a Commercial colour, but was also carried through (though rarely ordered) onto the Kombi and Microbus models. With a Neptune Blue Panel Van and Kombi already in Nick’s possession, and a business, Airteriors (www.airteriors.com), Nick realised he needed a daily workshop hack that he could fit 8 x 4ft sheets…

BETTER MAG Hello C&B staff, yes, it’s me yet again… I read your question asking “How can we make the magazine better?” Perhaps I can give an example as to what may be helpful to those who really work on VWs. At present, you have a section called 'How to', which is great. However, when I read about people’s Buses I see that a good percentage of owners do not know the basics on maintaining the vehicle. It’s just an in-crowd thing. This is sad because it basically means these vehicles will die in the end. Having said this, in the early ‘90s I read a magazine called VW Trends and they had a one-page section called 'Tech tips'. It was basic stuff – oil and valve adjustments, but very…

Although it pains us to mention the bank crisis and recession of a few years ago, it was one of the main reasons this 1978 Bay Window came to be commissioned. Gavin and Claire Robertson from Peckleton, Leicestershire started to get the jitters about their savings and, after giving the subject some thought, agreed it was better to invest their money in making memories than netting a paltry annual interest. They felt investing in a VW Camper would be a good thing for their family as their three children were in their teens and it wouldn’t be long before they were heading off to university. Claire had owned a VW Beetle for many years, a 1303 Karmann Convertible, so wasn’t new to air cooleds. But neither of them had owned…

We purchased ‘Foxy’ in August ’14, our first VW Camper. It’s a 1972 Crossover Devon Bay in bright orange. After using Foxy as a daily driver, attending VW shows and weekends away in the UK, we decided to embark on our first real road trip. Several friends from our VW club, Valley Vee Dubbers, helped in getting Foxy ready for the journey, including the addition of a leisure battery as we had not booked electric hook-up at most pitches. We purchased an airframe awning to accommodate our two teenage sons, Benedict and Dominic, and set off on our adventure. The route we planned was to Croyde in Devon, then Polzeath, Marazion, St. Ives, Perranporth, all in Cornwall, and finally a stop over in the New Forest to break up the…

’91 Type 25 Autohomes Kamper, Kevin Mclean This is my 1991 Autohomes Kamper that I have owned for 10 years now. I had a Syncro before but I was fed up sleeping in a tent so I went looking for a Camper and found ‘Biffa’. I’m the 10th owner. It has a 1915cc engine that I rebuilt after the left-hand cylinder head departed the engine whilst I was overtaking a truck on the A1! I don’t know who was more surprised at the sudden decelaration and clouds of steam and engine bits, me or the truck driver. The interior is the original Autohomes Kamper layout that’s finished in brown and tan, with a matching raising roof. About eight years ago I did a panel and paint restoration and it looks…

We’ve all been there. The heart screaming one thing and the head, drowning in a chorus of trumpets and angels, trying to make it clear that this move you’re about to make might not be such a good idea. The beautiful thing about being human, though, is that you have the choice to ignore regimented thought from time to time, and instead follow your pulsating, joyful heart as it leaps from your chest and bursts into a scene of blissful chaos. For John Wells, at the moment something similar happened to him in 2010, he also had the voice of a couple of well-rounded individuals with years of car-building experience under their collective belt also suggesting that the move he was about to make might not be the best. The…

It’s amazing what you can gain from being helpful. Despite the peace of mind that comes from helping others for no personal gain, occasionally karma will deal you a good hand. Here’s a perfect case in point. Keith Miller from Edinburgh owned a Type 25 Westy. He’d owned it for quite a while and was reasonably content with it, but there was one main bugbear. Keith: “The Westy had the factory-fitted 1600 diesel engine with no turbo, and it could be a real pain to drive.” For the uninitiated, imagine driving a Bay with a very tired 1600 petrol engine and you would come close to the sheer asthmatic gutlessness of a 1600 diesel Type 25. The four-speed gearbox too, means that a lofty 65mph may be achieved, with a…

SHOW INFO When: December 13 2015 Where: Meeting point – Brightside Park (Old Severn Bridge Services on the M48) and ending at OakTree Speedway Arena, Highbridge, Somerset Cost: £5 donation per vehicle for charity (this year £2,000 raised for Sensational Kids Somerset and Music Space Bristol Great for: Cruising with all types of VWs and doing a bit of good…