I had 2 split screen kombis & a dual cab, all of which I wish I still had in my procession.
The first was a 1967 ex RAAF double door Splitty. Like this one.
but in a much better condition but not as good as this one
I bought from a wrecker on the Hume Highway at Lansvale; near Liverpool in 1980 I also bought a 1964 kombi from the same wrecker as a donor vehicle. I paid $200 for both. The wrecker said the yellow double door wasn’t a goer and didn’t know why, but the white ’64 kombi had a good 1200 motor in it. The yellow double door kombi had a solid body and by the look of things someone had done some body repairs on it. The white ’64 had the usual rust from the bottom 6’. My father and I flat towed the kombis to my parent’s place, Had a look at the body of the double door kombi which I nick named double dork and found that the nose cone had been repaired out riggers were in excellent condition, and very little rust. Before I pulled out the motor I did try to start it but it was a no go. Motor would crank but not fire. Then did the check of the spark plugs, and found the distributor cap was cracked and the rotor button missing. Swapped over the one from the other kombi and tried to start her again. The engine fired up, but was running a bit rough. I tried to reset the timing but the engine died when it was at the correct setting. The decision was made to strip down the motor and replace whatever needed replacing. As this was a 1500 motor I didn’t want to use the 1200 motor from the other kombi just yet. Well my father and I were very surprised to find that the piston, bearings & rings look almost like new, so we started re-assembling the motor and it was then we found out that whoever worked on the motor last had somehow put the distributor was out in backwards. So instead when it should have sparked on the number 1 cylinder it was firing on number 4 cylinder.
Took it over the RTA pits and they knocked it back as the replaced driver’s side dog leg top needed some welding a 2 inch bead was missing, and the second cover plates that double door kombis have under the cargo floor had some small rust holes the size of a match head in them. Got a friend to finish the weld an instead of putting a new sheet of metal I got some thick liquid tar and painted the whole under side. The RTA inspector didn’t like me doing that as he said he could tell if I had replaced the sheeting or not. But as he couldn’t visually see any rust and he got another inspector to have a look it passed muster I took off the wide wheels that were on the ’64 kombi and had them put on double dork with a new set of rubbers. I had a fellow offer me $600 for the ’64 kombi as he needed a donor vehicle for a splitty he was restoring; off it went to a new home.
I had 3 years of trouble free running with double dork, and then noticed he was dropping fluid from the rubber boot on the axle next to the gearbox. I was now in my early twenties and girls were more on my mind and had emptied my wallet so had no money to spend on double dork. So I bought a replacement rubber boot that came in 2 halves packed it full of grease and sold double dork in 1984 for $2,000, and then went out and bought a panel van.
.In 1986 I bought an early ’60 kombi like this one with the round tail lights and blinkers.
I saw it parked in a backyard on the lower North Shore of Sydney (Clontarf I think it was) the bloke wanted $200. Again it was in very good nick just like the one below, similar in colour mine was dark brown top & cream bottom and everything stock standard.
There was no rust in her what so ever which surprised me as the kombi had been sitting where I got it from for more than 15 years. I hired a car trailer and brought it to where I was living. Gave it another once over and all it needed to pass blue slip inspection was the front bench seat to be replaced as did the all the brake cylinders. Gave the 6volt, 1200 motor a service as well and away we went. I had this van until 1989 when I fell on hard times and had to sell her to pay the rent. Would you know it 2 weeks after I sold the kombi I had another job. The kombi was still sitting at the car yard I sold it to un-moved from when I dropped it off, so I went in to ask if I could buy it back. The salesman said sure but he wanted $8,000 for it. They only offered me $2,800 but I wasn’t in a position to ask for more at the time. $8,000 was a bit steep for me so let it go.
In 1991 I came upon my third VW that I wish I hadn’t let go. I found 2 bay window dual cabs. A ’72 low light and a ’73 with the indicators up near the air vent (the one in my avatar). I paid $1,100 for both and drive them from the VW mechanic in Penhurst where I bought them to Rudy Menster. He was a VW mechanic that had his workshop on New Canterbury Rd Canterbury. Rudy serviced all the VWs I ever owned as I didn’t have all the tolls required or a garage. Rudy & I had a barter deal in place; I would find him old VWs and other things he was interested in & he would service my car or he would let use the workshop tools and I could scavenge parts from vehicle I brought into the place if I needed them.
I bought the 2 dual cabs, one to put back on the road & the other either put back on the road or use as a parts car. The ’72 dual cab had a fair bit of rust in the chassis, but the doors were good, and no rust in the pillars, mainly at the jacking points, out riggers, the usual places. It was too much for me to fix with no welding experience so that became a parts car if I needed anything for the ’73 dual cab. The items that were crap on the ’73 dual cab were the seats and rusted out tail gates, thankfully the ’72 dual cab had excellent tail gates and quite reasonable seats. The tyres on the ’72 dual cab were better as well so they were swapped. 6 months after the ’73 dual cab was registered, Rudy offered to install an 1800 cc motor from a German imported van that was converted from left hand drive to right hand drive, and paint my dual the left over paint he had around the workshop, if I let him have the motors from both dual cabs. I saw no problem with the deal I get a more powerful VW motor and a new paint job. Rudy left Australia around 1993 so I had to either service the dual cab myself or fine another VW mechanic. I tried the mechanic where I bought the dual cab from but don’t think he was as good as Rudy was, neither were the guys at Caringbah. You could drive down Rudy’s driveway to his workshop and by the time you parked up he told you what need to be done.
I moved to northern NSW in 1995 so I had to pretty much service the vehicle myself. In ’96 I needed to replace the 3 rubber grommets on the oil cooler and of course to get to it, you had to either scrape your knuckles or better still take out the motor put it on a stand and remove what need to be removed. The one who must be obeyed said no you’re not doing that here take it to the mechanic in town they can do it (mechanic is 30km away).I said to the one who must be obeyed, that by going by the amount of oil that has dropped on the dirt driveway that I don’t think the dual cab will make it that far without doing any damage. I was ordered to take the dual cab into town and got about 2 km down the road when the oil light came on and a loud bang was heard coming from the back (I topped up the oil before I left as well). Walked back home stormed into the kitchen and told the one who must be obeyed “are you satisfied now”, and she asks why what happened. She finally worked it out while I was on the phone organising a tow into town and a replacement engine, which she paid for. All I can say is I either got dud replacement motors or the mechanics just didn’t like VWs (the mechanics were the ones that supplied the motors and I think they were getting them from Grafton)..I went through 5 motors in 5 years. I finally had enough and bought an engine myself. The seller claimed that it was a Stan Pobjoy rebuild, with 40,000km since re-build. Paid $500 for it. Bench tested the motor before install and all was fine, but after install the engine would only crank but not fire up. Changed coils, leads, starter, spark plugs, the works, but nothing.
so I parked her up and as you can see in my avatar the paint work needed redoing, plus a small amount of rust work need to be done. The bottom of both dog legs and curved section of the outer sills on both sides, bubbles only no break in metal. The dual cab sold for only $1,500 and ended up going to Victoria.
My current vehicle is a 1990 Nissan Vanette. No flaming now, it hasn;t been a bad little beast. I paid $600 for it with 200,000lm on the clock in 2006, and we have just turned over 300,453km with out any problems
