Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2022 i VWT Lifestyle

Gene Balyasny hails from Southern California and has been into old VWs most of his life; he had a 21-Window Split Bus at 17 – back in the late 1980s – and he’s an active member of the Bus Bros club – @bus_bros on Instagram, who are active in the SoCal VW scene. Owning this Bus and a ’59 early seamed gate Double Cab Pick Up, Gene loves to drive his VWs regularly; the favourable climate of Southern California makes this a possibility on a year-round basis. “It’s the first Bus I ever restored from A-Z; I got screwed out of thousands by a body shop, but now I have my people – the ones I use with every build and trust completely” It was back in 2010 when this…

The gentle sea breeze. A tang of salt in the air. Your 99 Flake just starting to drip in the sun as the air-cooled treats line up along Madeira Drive. For a great many enthusiasts, the annual splendour of Brighton Breeze is just the summery tonic we need to keep those good-time vibes flowing. And for those who live in Brighton and see all of this unfolding on their doorstep, the yearning and FOMO must be too much to bear. This was certainly the case for local resident James Prescott who, at the spring-chicken age of 52, decided to stop wishing and start acting, living out his long-held Samba dreams with gusto. He’s got a certain amount of form with the VeeDub brand, having owned a Golf GTI back in…

If you want to beat the crowds and be there to see the first snowdrop, then Spring can be a great time to get away for the weekend in your Bus. That said, you need to do some donkeywork beforehand to make it fun rather than cold and miserable. There’s nothing worse than feeling chilled before you’ve even got anywhere so ensure your Camper’s heating is putting out some warmth. On air-cooled Buses this might mean replacing holed heat exchangers, heater channels or missing pipework. It’s a case of getting underneath, making sure everything’s connected and doing up jubilee clips or buying new bits as necessary. On later, water-cooled Buses check for blocked heater matrixes, duff fan heater resistors, faulty fans and low coolant levels. Sealing the deal Old Buses…

What Buses have you owned, do you have one at the moment? We own Doris, a 1974 Westfalia RHD Bay that we have owned for 20 years. She has been our constant companion. We’ve never needed anything else – to be honest it would almost be like cheating on the old girl to have another air-cooled Bus! We’ve always owned/run other VWs – Beetles, other work vans, family cars, and I’m lucky enough to have a T6 as a daily with work. So what was your favourite? Did I mention the cheating? Doris is obviously the favourite – she definitely gets the most love. And, as a family, we’ve never known life without her. Where’s the weirdest place you’ve camped in your Van? That would probably be previous show weekends…

It’s happening. After a two-year gap, The VolksWorld Show is set to take place on 19-20 March 2022 at Sandown Park, Esher – and we can’t wait! The event team has been flat out selecting the best cars and Transporters from all over the country to display at what’s generally considered to be the most prestigious VW gathering on the show calendar, so don’t miss it! As well as the indoor displays, international swapmeet, children’s play area and the UK’s top trade stands in our Retail Village, of course, there will be all manner of attractions outside, including a display of Buses – old and new – club displays, a dedicated cars ‘for sale’ area and much, much more. Anyway, to get you in the mood – and as an…

“I had a T6 in rare Turmeric Yellow before, so had to get something that would stand out and become a signature build in the same way” When 35-year-old Dan Gillam went looking for a new company workhorse, this 2021 T6.1 nailed the brief perfectly. You see, Dan’s Technical Director at conversion specialists Vanworx on Portland so it would be ideal for chucking gear in the back or towing a trailer filled with stock while travelling between the firm’s different branches. That’s the ‘objective’ take on things. But as we all know, there’s an element of emotion involved with every vehicle purchase – even when choosing a work Van – and indeed it played a big part when it came to deciding the way Dan wanted his Bus to look,…

For some reason I had always been suspicious of VW T3 Kombis; perhaps it was the ‘brick’ shape or its puny 2.1 petrol engine. But despite this, we’ve enjoyed tackling Africa’s worst roads in one. Our introduction to the T3 came when some friends visited and we needed a vehicle that could take eight people, had four-wheel drive and a towbar. A South African friend told us to rent his T3 Syncro, which seemed to fit the bill perfectly so we took him up on his offer. It was powered by a 3.0 V6 Ford Essex engine and every time I revved it up it made me smile. Sitting in it for the first time amazed me even more and posed the mind-boggling question: Is it possible that a vehicle…

Many of us remember when T4 vans were new, so it often comes as a surprise when you find one with some serious rot in it. Although you’d think that corrosion resistance would have come a long way from the Split and Bay days, it’s clear nowadays that T4s can rust almost as badly. The rear arch area in particular is a common dirt trap and while, in hindsight, prevention is better than cure by keeping your arches clean, chances are they could be dust by now. If that’s indeed the case, here’s how to carry out a proper, lasting repair. 01 Prepare Before we can break out the grinder and welder, you’ll need to prepare for the job at hand. Sometimes it’s obvious that the rear arch needs some…

Having previously restored a Bus and two VW Bugs I had always dreamed of owning a VW Westfalia Camper that I could enjoy working on, cruising in and camping with. After attending numerous VW shows and keeping an eye on eBay and other sites online, I finally found one in Arizona. And while I couldn’t get to see it up close to verify its soundness, I did get a lot of pictures along with an assurance from the owner’s friend (an individual well respected in the Arizona club scene) that it was in great shape and ran extremely well. So, in March 2017, I bought it. It’s a 1970 Westfalia, ordered and brought over from the UK, and it was still with the original owner with just 140,000 original miles…

It is truly amazing how far VW enthusiasts will go to save Type 2s nowadays. The wildest examples include derelict – and we mean really derelict – 1951 and ’52 Barndoors being airlifted by helicopters from the remote Swedish countryside. Of course, having access to many new and accurate stamped panels makes restorations a lot easier. Floors, outriggers, cross members, inner rockers, cross braces, body pieces of all shapes… Today’s offerings have helped save a number of vehicles that would have been scrapped even a few years ago. Jim Cocores has chosen another route in his quest for saving VWs. Being a talented Volkswagen mechanic by trade, he went on a hunt for very crusty rides and revived them in his own way. He even found a name for them:…

Who are we? Andrea and René. Andrea is Czech, I am German. We live in the Czech Republic but both share a passion for Africa – and wedged-shaped VWs! We first travelled to Africa in 2008/9 in a Nissan Patrol, but switched to a T3 in 2015. What do we do? We both write articles for car and travel magazines, do slideshow presentations and we’ve written a book about our adventures. How we ended up with a T3? Well, in 2015 we saw one at our friends’ farm and we rented it from them. A nice Bus, with a 3-litre V6 Ford engine conversion. Grunty and powerful. This is where our addiction started. Unfortunately it got sold but we’ve bought another and this one’s got a 2.0-litre Golf engine conversion…

One of the things l love about air-cooled VWs is they’re decidedly old tech. After all, what else does a man or woman need on a dash than a fuel gauge, speedo, and some oil and generator warning lights? Modern-ish vehicles, like the T5 – which feels modern to me but is actually 19 years old – have all manner of sensors and gizmos to warn of impending disaster. But do they? Since buying my Caravelle I’ve ignored pretty much all of the warning lights or traced them back to a dodgy sensor, so they’re more of an annoyance than anything else. (Warning! This is just my school of thought, and you should be smarter and take my blasé approach with a pinch of salt!) I’ll admit to having kittens…