Innholdsfortegnelse for December 2018 i VWT Lifestyle

’70 Bay Split, Jeremy Roe Jeremy Roe’s Bay has been modified to look like a Split, courtesy of a GRP front panel. The panels were originally made by a company in Wales called Bay-Split, who also produced the side windows as well. Jeremy converted his Bay (which was bought for £500!) around 18 years ago, completing all the work himself. It needed a lot of resto work, which included fitting new floors, quarter panels, door bottoms, plus lots more besides due to the body being so rusty. The body was also treated to front and rear Split Screen bumpers. “It could do with a little more work now,” he grins! “The rust seems to have returned. “My Bay has also been fitted with a Creative Engineering front beam, Ferrari 360…

It must be a horrible job restoring old VWs for other people. I mean, come on, think about it for a minute. If you do anything long enough, and rely on it to pay the bills, people’s wages and put your kid’s through school, it will be become a means to an end. Not only that, you have deal with dodgy parts, things not turning up when you need them and the odd (literally and figuratively) customer. You also don’t get to build what you want, but what the customer wants and can afford. “It wasn’t until we started digging into it that we discovered quite how bad it was” That being said, I know full-well that the chaps at Wymeswold’s finest VW specialists, Johnson Autoworks (www.johnsonautoworks.com)wouldn’t have it any…

Let’s not beat around the bush shall we? When it comes to VW meetings, Le Bug Show is pretty much the crème de la crème of the European scene. In fact, I’d even go so far as to say that I think Spa gives any global event a good run for its money! We’re sure you know already, but this is the event held at the legendary Spa F1 track in Belgium that is 100% ‘air-cooled only’ within the heart of the event (i.e. inside the track itself). That doesn’t mean that water-cooled VWs aren’t welcome – in fact there were more than 600 water-pumpers registered this year – however, they are only permitted in the outer / camping area. One reason for this is that the number of air-cooled…

It feels like I haven’t written about my Bus in the project pages for quite some time, but two questions I’ve been asked a number of times lately have been, “What have you polished your Bus with?” And, “What’s going on with your interior?” Allow me to explain. As much as I hate how much time it takes to clean a Bus, I actually enjoy spending time doing it. What I don’t like is discovering a product is unsuited to the task at hand. To be fair, there aren’t many companies who think about protecting wafer thin paint and surface rust. Why would they? It’s safe to assume that most normal people want a shiny, glossy and pristine vehicle… When it comes to products for protecting patina I’ve found it’s…

VOLKSWORLD SPARES DAY If you’re anything like us, one of the best things about owning an old VW, and visiting shows, is trawling through the swap meet areas for treasure. So, how cool is it that our sister mag has decided to launch a new swap meet-themed gathering of its own? The VolksWorld Spares Day will be held on 27 January at the South of England Event Centre. Head over to the website now if you want more info or fancy trading yourself. We’ll see you there. www.volksworldshows.com Type 25 Exhaust Elbow, £50 If you’re lucky enough to own a Type 25 but unlucky enough to have exhaust woes, this new product from Just Kampers will have you interested. Part number J42731 is a stainless steel (cast) exhaust elbow that…

When Wheal Rodney Holiday Park had an offer for half priced pitches for local people it was too good an offer for us to turn down – a weekend camping, just down the road at our favourite place, Marazion. What was not to like? We packed up the Bus and headed just 15 minutes along the A30 from Hayle to Marazion. Wheal Rodney is a small family run holiday park situated in a rural part of Marazion, on the South Coast of Cornwnall. The site has a small field with marked pitches for both Campers and tents. The facilities on site are excellent with a modern toilet/shower block and a heated indoor swimming pool, which was a real hit with our two daughters. There is a little shop too on…

Le Bug Show always has the best show cars in Europe and the judging runs as follows: Best of Show, five ‘Good ideas’ awards and 20 ‘Eye-catcher’ trophies, plus a couple of special awards (Best Type 3 Display etc). Here’s a collection of winners and rides that really made the cut this year!…

Being Hans Klapp, my mind often tends to operate using Volkswagen terminology. The Curse of Klapp, I used to call it, until somebody pointed out that could be completely misconstrued as something else. So if somebody mentions, for example, L20B, L69N, L10A, L96E or L13A to me - and, trust me, such bizarre conversations happen far more often than you might expect - then I don’t have to check a book to know that they represent Bright Orange, Viper Green Metallic, Rally Yellow, Gemini Metallic and Dakota Beige paint shades. Dakota Beige is an eminently sensible hue of which I completely approve, of course, but the others were among some of the most flamboyant VW hues ever, dreamt up during the 1970s when good taste was taking a nap. Although…

(CAMPER) LOVE AND MARRIAGE Hi James, We met a few years ago at Eastnor Castle (the old Camper&Bus Show), where you admired our 1974 Riviera, which was our first entry into this wonderful world of VW. You subsequently wrote a lovely article and six page spread about Enola. Since then we have met a fantastic amount of people who have similar interests to us and decided to retire to the West Country three and a half years ago so that we could spend some weekends away in our lovely Bus down here. On one of my walks around our town of Somerton, somebody commented on our Bus and asked if we did weddings. Well that is when our life changed as now, after doing some research, we have three Campervans…

In a world seemingly full of modified Vans and self-converted Campers, it’s quite refreshing to stumble across a totally stock and unmolested Type 25 California. We actually stumbled across this particular example while discussing classic air-cooled Buses with our old friend, Andreas Berger who hails from Wuerselen in Germany. 49-year old Andreas and his wife, Josi, are VW show regulars, however this 1990 1.6TD Westfalia is a little more modern than his other VWs (an unrestored Split Window Fire truck and a lovely, stock Oval window Beetle being the latest in a long line of classics). In fact, we only stumbled across the Cali as it was parked alongside the Fire truck we had been looking forward to seeing (i.e. there’s no room to sleep inside the Split, hence Andreas…

I’ve been lucky enough over the years, to visit several junkyards in California, Nevada and Utah and buy some Buses out of other junkyards in New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma. Although I have a lot of pictures from what I now consider to be the glory years of VW junkyards, most of these are too low resolution to print here. The pictures you see in this feature were all taken earlier this year in Colorado and Utah. They show that there are still projects out there to be found, even if Buses are in much shorter supply these days. If Bay Windows float your boat, then can you still get lucky and find solid ones in many junkyards and back yards, all over dry-state USA. What’s more, with the entire…

When it comes to weekend automotive events, I think it’s safe to say the VW Festival at Harewood House in Leeds, should be absolutely at the top of any to-do list for fans of the German automotive scene. The show is host to multiple food and drinks venues, as well as a number of acts that range from automotive graffiti artists to live bands and acrobatics displays, plus mountain bike stunts. The selection of trade stands is always impressive, providing the chance to buy plenty of parts / accessories for whatever VW you drive. Besides the massive show ’n’ shine that spans every generation of VW, the festival is known for its incredibly laid-back family-friendly atmosphere and offers an excellent camping weekend for the entire family. Four-legged members are welcome,…

No two Buses ever rust in exactly the same way, which is something we still find puzzling. Take the California import Bus in the pics, for example; upon arrival in the UK it only needed a tickle with the welder in the battery tray area and everything else was how the factory intended. So it came as a bit of a surprise upon removing the windows when we discovered several holes in the lower windscreen surround. At this point, we could have cut the whole thing out and replaced it with a new panel, but the more you cut now, the more you’ll have to cut out next time the area needs to be repaired, so we chose to cut out the heavily rusted areas only and butt weld fresh…