Innholdsfortegnelse for November 2018 i VWT Lifestyle

RIGHT ON THE MONEY Dear James, I look forward to each and every issue of Camper&Bus and particularly your sharp pen and the wit behind it. Well done!   I live in Paso Robles, located on the Central Coast of California in the heart of Wine Country. It’s an ideal location to take excursions up and down the coast in our 1969 Bay Window, Berta. You should note that Berta is not just a weekend ride as she takes me to work every day and is often pressed into duty fetching lumber, horse feed, furniture and of course, grocery shopping. Riding shotgun is our Airedale Terrier, Chase who sits in the front passenger seat when it’s not occupied by my wife, Ellen.  This brings me to why I wrote - your column in…

Lee Morris has owned a string of feature-worthy VWs in recent years, ranging from stock restos through to slammed late-lookers and even a neat faux’tina Oval Beetle. However, this is his first Bay Window Bus. He says: “I’d owned a T4 for a while, but I really wanted an Early Bay that I could use to take the family camping, hence I moved a few cars around to free up some cash and went looking for the right Bus.” A short while later he stumbled across a bone-stock Bay that had been imported into the UK by David Millar some years ago before being sold on as a project requiring light resto. Lee explained, “When I found it, the Bay had already received a new cab floor and the battery…

If you have the urge to travel through time, then the Dub Odyssey at Hooton Lodge in Rotherham is just the ticket - it’s like taking a step back in time and is jam packed with Volkswagen’s finest, from Beetles, to Split Screens, Bay Windows and Transporters of every generation; with a huge number camping for the full three day experience. There are plenty of stalls catering for everyone, with everything from hot drinks to cakes and alcoholic beverages, which will no doubt have helped the nights of music and entertainment taking place in the main tent each night. The music itself ranges from live bands to belly dancers and everything in between. There’s also face painting for the kids, kites and knick-knacks for mementos of your visit and apparel…

There’s nothing that lets a nice car down like dirty windows and scabby wheels. The original Cosmic Mk2 alloy wheels here were actually purchased from Kinky Micks (www.kinkymicks.com) for another project – a Mk1 Polo – but as the process for refurbishing them is the same as it would be for any set of original wheels that would suit a Bus, we thought we’d show what’s involved in bringing them back to as-good-as-new condition. Follow this guide and you’ll be able to buy the next original set of wheels you find with the knowledge you’ll be able to do bring them back to life. 01 Prep Before you start any job like this, it will be helpful if you read this feature in full and order any materials you’ll need…

5 – 6 October Brighton Breeze London / Brighton www.brightonbreeze.co.uk 5 – 7 October Oktoberfest River Dart Country Park, Devon www.oktoberfestuk.com 1 November December 2018 issue of C&B on sale! 4 November Slough Swapmeet Bracknell Leisure Centre, Bracknell www.sloughswapmeet.co.uk 2 December Santa Cruise Heritage Parts Centre to The Childrens Trust in Tadworth www.vwheritage.com You tell us! If you’re organising a show we don’t know about, let us know and we’ll help spread the word…

1977 Bay Window, Melanie Cooke “I’ve wanted to own a Bay Window Camper for ages and my husband Martin and I, had looked at loads and loads of them, with quite a few were simply falling apart,” explains Melanie. “One of them which was for sale at £5,000, you could have put your foot through the floorpan. Then we came across this 1977 example on Ebay in May 2018, which was rather more than I really wanted to pay, but the price reflected its overall very good condition. It was located really close to where I live and the young guy who had it before me, owned the Bay for three years, but a house purchase beckoned, hence he had to sell it. The owners before him, had it for…

If you’ve already had a peep at my column this month, you’ll have read how this Bus disappeared of the face of the planet, only to reappear many, many years later at the Type 2 Detectives stable - and let’s be totally honest, come back even better than ever. Naturally, we weren’t going to miss the opportunity to feature it this time round. Built in ’66 this 11-window first came to our attention on the internet. Actually, it was a series of superb pictures taken by its then owner, photographer Jon Mold. One of those pics can be found on this month’s contents page and we liked them enough to ask Jon if he wanted to snap a few Buses for us. Jon shot a number of cool features for…

Over the last three issues of Camper&Bus, I’ve written about how a trip of a lifetime came about earlier this year when John Jones of Kustom Coach Werks in Colorado offered to fly me out there during the research for my forthcoming book Patina Volkswagens. Parts one and two covered us arriving in Colorado, getting the full KCW experience, then road tripping with John and wife Gretchen through the Colorado mountains, while part three found us exploring the National Parks around Moab. We last left you on the Friday morning of the car show weekend, when we headed into Moab to catch up with the outside world at Moab Coffee Co. and to find out where to meet John, Gretchen and all the KCW guys for the campout at Lin…

Since the first Split Screen Panel Vans rolled off the production line in February 1950, there have been few better ways to transport goods or advertise your business. The advertising material of the day proclaimed: “Painted in your firm’s colours and shining in its handsome finish, the Volkswagen delivery Van is excellent publicity for your firm. Its trim modern lines and the slick way it slips through traffic attract the eye of the public. The name of your firm is shown to full advantage on the large flat panels.” That was over half a century ago, and even today, in an era of pop-up shops and mobile eateries there are few better ways to attract Joe Public than with a shining example of VW’s finest. After all, when you’re at…

It’s easy to look at Buses for sale online and assume they’re all equal to one another, especially when looking at ‘Rust Free’ imports. It’s only when you’ve owned a few and know what it actually takes to iron out all the bugs and build a good quality one, that you come to realise there are a lot of similarly priced Buses out there, but only a small percentage have been built with attention to the finer details. Dean Bradley AKA Deano or Gadget to those who know him, is someone who’s been around the block more than a few times, especially when it comes to building Bay Windows. His name may be familiar to regular readers, because as well as his long-term ’68 ‘Gadget Bus’ – a heavily accessorised…

Okay, I have a rather embarrassing confession to make. I have never been to this show before! I know! How ridiculous is that? Having broken my Skeg cherry I now realise how much I’ve been missing out on. I’ve known two of the main dudes behind this show - Sal and Toby Walker - for years and they’ve always said I should pop along, but the stars were never in alignment until now. Having cruised over mid-Saturday morning I was given a friendly greeting on the gate and directed to a parking spot by a Boy Scout. No hi-viz here - which must be a Lincolnshire thing... From the way the show is laid out I could tell there were a lot of cool cars in attendance, but I deferred…