Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2018 i VWT Lifestyle

1960 Split Screen, Den Kirby Den Kirby’s Split started life in California as a nine seater Microbus. A good many years later it was exported to Holland, where it was bought for £8,700, by an enthusiast from London, in around 2000. By now the Bus was in need of some serious restoration work and it was initially stored in a garage. However, the restoration never got underway and the Split was advertised in 2010 and subsequently purchased by Den for £5,500. Soon after, he started the restoration work and had to replace plenty of rotten metal, various panels and fit new floors. “I also discovered that someone had fitted a second skin over the original roof,” explains Den. “Then I found a nice tongue and grooved wooden headlining behind a…

Brazilian Bays are the Marmite of the VW Camper scene. Those with a taste for them love them to bits, and those who don’t, well they make their feelings known in no uncertain terms. General ignorance is partly to blame, and for that we have to hold our hands up as well. In the 11 years since Camper&Bus went monthly we’ve only featured a handful. We don’t have any bias against them, but a lot of people who (if they admit it) have never driven one, seem to. We know why a great many people dislike them. There’s no air-cooled engine in a Brazilian Bay of this era - it’s got a 1.4 water-cooled unit, which resulted in the distinctive radiator adorning the nose panel. They also have a reputation…

There’s not many shows on the calendar that deliberately choose a city centre as their venue, but Plum Jam did just that. No drag strip, stately home, or race circuit here, just a vibrant market town with as many air cooled Volkswagens as they could muster, parked up and on display for all to see. The historic town of Horsham in West Sussex was the host for this occasion. A mix of antique architecture, cobbled streets and vintage pubs, juxtaposed with a modern shopping precinct, contemporary eateries and the usual retail suspects. Now in its 3rd year, a Saturday night camp out kicks off proceedings, before an early meet at Heritage Parts Centre for the 40 minute convoy. Vehicles converge on the town centre around 10.30, leaving owners free to…

When it comes to buying an old VW your head usually wages war with your heart. It takes a superhuman amount of will power to listen to common sense when your brain is saying no, no, no but your heart is saying, yes, yes, yes. Deciding what model / year / style of vehicle to buy is the easy part. Where it gets tricky is deciding if the vehicle you’ve gone to look at is the right one for you. The deciding factors should be a set number of criteria. Namely, do you have the time, the money, skill, space and staying power to see it through through to completion if you buy it? For one reason or another, a great many people don’t, which is why there are so…

7 - 9 September – Busfest Three Counties Showground, Malvern www. www.busfest.org 9 September – Rad Sunday The Old Garrison Pub, Southend www.radsunday.com 16 September – The Grill ’n’ Chill CycloPark, Gravesend, Kent www. grill-n-chill.co.uk 14 – 16 September – Vdubs in the Valley Bewdley, Shropshire www.vdubsinthevalley.co.uk 21 – 23 September Doncaster VW Show Parklands Sports Club, Doncaster www.doncastervwfestival.com 21 – 23 September Dubs Collective – Party in the Park Himley Hall, Dudley www. dubscollective.com 21 – 23 September Dubs of Anarchy Bus & Bike Show Ashdown Farm, Worcestershire www.dubsofanarchy.co.uk 21-23 September First and Last VW Show Penzance, Cornwall www.fnlvw.co.uk 21-23 September Retro Dub Suffolk VW Festival Trinity Park, Ipswich www.retrodub-suffolk.co.uk 5 – 6 October Brighton Breeze London / Brighton www.brightonbreeze.co.uk 5 – 7 October Oktoberfest River Dart Country Park,…

Both Cat Stephens (and P. P. Arnold) famously declared how the first cut is the deepest. They were singing about lost loves, but in this instance we’re using it in reference to an original 1978 RHD UK Bus that’s had, well, let’s just say one or two deep cuts of its own. Fortunately, both its joint owners Lloyd Power and Leandro Chessell were spared any similar pain, as they were not the ones wielding the grinder. We chatted first with Lloyd, who certainly left more than a drop or two of his own blood, sweat and tears in the build. The tears were mostly shed when exiting the doors of Heritage Parts Centre with yet another bundle of parts in tow, and receipts showing where an ever-diminishing stock of pound…

When one of our goto photographers, a certain Mr Underwood shot this Bus, it was at Irv’s Restorations, so naturally enough, when the time came to write the feature, we gave Irv a call to get the low down on this lovely Double Door Split. What was Irv’s opening gambit? “There’s nothing I can tell you, because I’ve done naff all to it and it’s nothing at all to do with me!” That’s not the sort of thing you want to hear when you have seven pages to fill, we can tell you… It’s also not entirely true, because there is a really good story behind this ’65 Split, as anyone who’s ever perused the ‘TENT MADNESS’ thread on the Split Screen Van Club forum will attest. High life Added…

Ah, British summertime. A flash in the pan of mid twenties temps, Pimms and lemonade, and an ignominious early exit from The World Cup. Wait, what? Somebody got our script mixed up with Brazil. It’s been baking hot for weeks, and it didn’t drop below 30C for the duration of this years Festival of Speed. England made the semi finals. The Pimms? Free flowing as ever. We couldn’t have asked for a better weekend to absorb ourselves in what must surely be the worlds greatest festival of all things automotive. It’s a tough job, but we do it for you guys. And whilst these pages may lack the usual level of splitty-porn, if you like cars – and you’re reading this, so we’ll assume you do – there’s something here…

Rotary cut off tool How are you planning to cut out all that rusty metal? An air-powered Rotary Cut-Off Tool is a versatile tool, suitable for cutting car panel thickness material. This one is fitted with metal safety guard and a throttle safety device to prevent accidental operation / cutting off anything you’ll miss… Cutting disc not included. Available online from as little as £23. MIG welder If you want to replace rusty metal with new, you’ll need a means of fusing it all together. A MIG welder is the home restorers weapon of choice and Sealey’s MIGHTYMIG range is a great place to start. It comes ready to go in gasless mode but can be switched to gas with one of their conversion kits and by changing the polarity.…

Having owned a whopping 25 air-cooled VWs prior to this one - and all in the space of just 23 years - you might be surprised to hear this is the first full on resurrection Paul Pace has accomplished pretty much single handily from start to finish himself. We’re not saying he hasn’t worked his socks off on other vehicles, just with this one he went the extra mile, donned a welding mask, fired up the gas and got stuck into doing all the metal work required to make this Palm Green Sand Green beast roadworthy once again. That’s a first for old Mole Eyes as he’s known to all. The Bus that took Paul’s welding virginity was found on thesamba.com back in 2015 and for him it was the…

WHO IS HANS? Our man Hans is the expert’s expert. He was at Hanover in the glory years. Think of him as a German Uncle Albert, albeit one you want to listen to when he starts talking VWs Many people will have heard the name of Ralph Nader even if they’re not that sure what he’s famed for. Some might know that there’s a connection with motoring, and a few might associate him with the Chevrolet Corvair - the American car from General Motors built to bust the Beetle by copying much of its formula. But very few will probably realise that this controversial love-him-or-hate-him character has a Volkswagen link, thanks to a 1972 book that could easily have finished off Volkswagen in America. Born in Connecticut to Lebanese parents…