A while back I bought a baywindow in the hope to relive some of my younger years 😂 I had a great time bashing around in mine in my 20's and think of how awesome it could be with more money and knowledge, Only one thing stood in my way......TIME......
After a year of pushing my baywindow around the yard to make sure it didn't kill the grass and the brakes didn't seize I didn't even get to make a start. I guess doing an engine and brake swap in my Baja did not help things along. I had saved plenty of money for this project and for awhile I did entertain the idea of having it built by someone else, but the thought of ten's of thousands of dollars on an old bus just for me to look at it and pick apart other peoples work. ( no offence to anyone, I'm just bad like that) I looked at a few ready built kombi's with huge price tags that where just not what I wanted.
I never really considered a T25, though I remember bouncing around in the back of my parents '82 as a kid. Until just by chance I saw one for sale on AVD looking great and pretty original and the best thing......You get sooo much more bus for your money, there is no way I could get my, or any baywindow to this condition for this price. So I took a look at this van that was in the same town as me and it was everything the ad said it was and after 2 weeks of thinking about it, I pulled the pin.
At first I thought it was maybe a little too original for what I had planned and that I was going to be a butcher, but after week of owning it, it's not totally unrestored original anyways. so chop, chop. The best thing about this purchase, is I still have easy $7000 for making it what I want. I started with some basic service stuff just to know where I stand, was a bit of a can of worms really. Though it ran well, at closer inspection it was only a matter of time till something stopped.
Starting with a spark plug instead of a sump plug, the wrong oil filter, the wrong temperature spark plugs, mass amounts of corrosion in the ignition leads, burnt rotor and cap. A few new parts, ALOT of cleaning and a bunch of parts ordered it was time for a drive, Girlfriend riding shot gun, dog in the back off to the hunter valley for a day of indulgence.
Quit calling rust patina
nice grandpa mobile :P
'59 or Kombi?....feeling confused
'59 bug
'68 bug
'82 import T3 BUS. aircooled
Congrats and welcome to the club
you are right - you get so much bus for your money
and they are a joy to drive.
I am onto my 3rd one now 👍👍
Futue te ipsum!!!
Boozo wrote:nice grandpa mobile :P
just wait till you see it man, you'll cry that yours will never be this new.
Quit calling rust patina
nils wrote:Boozo wrote:nice grandpa mobile :P
just wait till you see it man, you'll cry that yours will never be this new.
thanks for the words of confidence, hopefully dad throws some money at it soon......as soon as we kill the L300 it will happen, and seeing as trav has been driving it, that shouldn't be too long
'59 or Kombi?....feeling confused
'59 bug
'68 bug
'82 import T3 BUS. aircooled
👍
fractal geometry; the inner most limits of mind altering abuse
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nice bus, I had the sparkplug as a sump plug thing going on with mine when I bought her as well. As has been said they are great vehicles, I'm onto my 2nd one.
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Big thumbs up from me too.
You cant beat a T3 for being a classic VW yet such a pleasure to drive. I have a T3 syncro and a low-light bay and my wife refuses to drive the lowie becuase the T3 is soo nice and easy to drive. Just a bit of a climb to get in.
What are your plans for this sparkling bus?
88 Caravelle Syncro Camper
89 Caravelle GL microbus - 5 speed
69 Microbus
05 Mk5 Golf 1.9 TDi DSG
Scottkombi wrote:Big thumbs up from me too.
You cant beat a T3 for being a classic VW yet such a pleasure to drive. I have a T3 syncro and a low-light bay and my wife refuses to drive the lowie becuase the T3 is soo nice and easy to drive. Just a bit of a climb to get in.
What are your plans for this sparkling bus?
Hi Scott,
Exterior/interior will stay pretty much stock, with a few little add in's to make it more friendly for short camping trips or overnighters. Under the skin, plans are fully retrotech. remote central locking, power windows, dual zone aircon, fridge, coffee machine, EJ25 (or diesel if its viable) plus the matching 5MT (I dare say the VW 5 speed is doing my head in) All super, clean super functional.
Quit calling rust patina
So have been spending some time getting this thing to PURRRRRRRR. It wasn't that bad to start with agreed, but not factory spec anyways.
I had a growling coming from the rear passenger side - turned out to be a toast outer CV because the boot was broken, DONE
leads,rotor and cap where all corroded - changed then out for new which solved my slight surging at low RPM and has cleaned up the torque
Replaced a few cracked vaccum hoses
Changed the oil and filter, I originally used a 20-50w seeing as with 300k on the clock surely it would need it. As it turns out it just caused hydraulic lifter noise. Dumped that and went for the Penrite HPR15 15-50w which I have always had good results with and, bam quite again (fussy bitch kombi)😂
Went though the first whole tank of petrol, mixed highway/city traffic netted 11ltr/100km. I expect 10 or less on a highway only trip, so the subi conversion is lower down the list than the aircon.
Anybody have the engine aircon bracket for the 2.1?
Well.....off to the beach with the girl, the dog, some sundowners and a tub of ben and jerrys
Quit calling rust patina
Those aircon brackets were never available here - we only got after market extremely heavy duty steel rubbish which breaks the mounting points after a few years of use.
You need to get one from the States - try thesamba.com.
They come up every now and then.
88 Caravelle Syncro Camper
89 Caravelle GL microbus - 5 speed
69 Microbus
05 Mk5 Golf 1.9 TDi DSG
11 is a good number for combined use, but you are a grandpa.....so realistically thats a 13+ 😂
'59 or Kombi?....feeling confused
'59 bug
'68 bug
'82 import T3 BUS. aircooled
Boozo wrote:11 is a good number for combined use, but you are a grandpa.....so realistically thats a 13+ 😂
ah.........but grandpa with a licence
Quit calling rust patina
Licence because gramps 🤪
'59 or Kombi?....feeling confused
'59 bug
'68 bug
'82 import T3 BUS. aircooled
Not much going on this weekend, selling parts has taken the spotlight.
I did spend some time chasing my mystery rattle ( just on small short sharp bumps) Came up with maybe the fuel filter bumping against the chassis (its backwards BTW 😂 ) or the handbrake cables doing the same. Both got some foam and zip ties to find out whether they are indeed.
Otherwise I took the bumper off to add some new bumper ends as they are all cracked, Turns out a previous front end incident means that the front bumper has spent some time under the hammer. Meaning that its not quite the right shape to suit the ends anymore, guess that why they are cracked. So with a rubber hammer and a lump of timber they are better now, looks a million bucks,
Quit calling rust patina
Nice one Nils
T3's are very underrated.
Matt Berry Motorsports...air cooled advice, repairs and mods Ph 0408 704 662
OFF-ROAD,CIRCUIT,DRAG,STREET,ENDURANCE
Even the one on our old van never fit well, seems a common thing
'59 or Kombi?....feeling confused
'59 bug
'68 bug
'82 import T3 BUS. aircooled
matberry wrote:Nice one Nils
T3's are very underrated.
thanks Matt
Quit calling rust patina
Hi guys, just starting to get the parts together for the mother of all AC systems. I'm thinking of replacing the radiator while I am at it.
Anybody know if and where I can get a real BEHR unit in Australia or am I stuck importing?
Also more on a general question, where is the best place to get vanagon parts in OZ. Just Kampers have get service, but not everything that I need
Cheers
Quit calling rust patina
Oh, and I am looking for a good condition syncro radiator fan ( I am lead to believe they flow more air)
Quit calling rust patina
nils wrote:, where is the best place to get vanagon parts in OZ.
Luckyphil
Seems to have most stuff
😂Futue te ipsum!!!
nils wrote:Oh, and I am looking for a good condition syncro radiator fan ( I am lead to believe they flow more air)
Not only do you need the fan in good condition - you need the fan shroud.
My syncro fan is larger than the 2wd but the fan blades are the same size.
Syncro fan is noisy and its so heavy it fatigues the fan shroud to the point it cracks and fails.
I would recommend sticking with the 2wd version.
88 Caravelle Syncro Camper
89 Caravelle GL microbus - 5 speed
69 Microbus
05 Mk5 Golf 1.9 TDi DSG
Scottkombi wrote:nils wrote:Oh, and I am looking for a good condition syncro radiator fan ( I am lead to believe they flow more air)
Not only do you need the fan in good condition - you need the fan shroud.
My syncro fan is larger than the 2wd but the fan blades are the same size.
Syncro fan is noisy and its so heavy it fatigues the fan shroud to the point it cracks and fails.
I would recommend sticking with the 2wd version.
Thanks for the heads up Scott, I have rethought a few things on the aircon and found a work around for this situation.
On another note, I have been stripping all the purple tint off this thing window by window and replacing it with my favourite silver tint, best heat rejection is the goal of course. 35% front and 15% rear. It is a little hard to tell in this photo, but you can see the clarity difference between the front and rear window in the photo.
I replaced the front washer motor, but it does require the plug to be changed.
and I am slowly but surely cleaning the paint and body on this thing, although it does look good in photos the paint really has been badly mistreated in years gone by. you can see the difference between the clean left side and the dirty right side.
I have also become aware of the fact that kombi owners name there cars (seems vw owners generally) This has never been my style, it is a big hunk of metal after all. But as it turns out this one has a very long history of carrying a name. Looking over the rego papers of long gone it has for most of its life worn the number plates ''GRAZI'' as in thankyou in Italian I guess by the original owners names' heritage. Didn't mean too much to me as the plates are no longer on the van but as I continue to clean I have been finding this name on more and more parts of the car.
So I guess it has a name.
Now to question time, for any WBX experts. My valve train is still rather noisy when cold, Is replacing the lifters worthwhile? or should I just deal with it?
Quit calling rust patina
Looking sweet Nils.
Looks nice Nils but any advice on what I should be looking for with a T25 or T3, as I am currently looking to buy one. Thanks
68 Baja - It's a growing pain!
58 Baja ute - and the pain spreads!
85 T3 Kombi - still growing
89 T3 Kombi - parts car
Thanks Baghall, all i know is what i have learnt since I've owned this.
parts in oz are not quite as easy to find as i would have thought. I'm finding pretty much all the run of the mill things wrong with this one, you can pretty much jump on the samba and find anything that can and will go wrong.
air con parts are hard to get hold of.
the front window needs to come out and have the rubber and rust fixed
those chrome trims in the rubber are worth more than gold
and you don't realise how much every other road user is in a hurry till you own a stock kombi
Quit calling rust patina
nils wrote:and you don't realise how much every other road user is in a hurry till you own a stock kombi
Nice one Nils might have to use this one myself when I get one!
Thanks
68 Baja - It's a growing pain!
58 Baja ute - and the pain spreads!
85 T3 Kombi - still growing
89 T3 Kombi - parts car
Nils, your never in a hurry.....on bitumen. Bringing this up for easter?
'59 or Kombi?....feeling confused
'59 bug
'68 bug
'82 import T3 BUS. aircooled
Boozo wrote:Nils, your never in a hurry.....on bitumen. Bringing this up for easter?
yeah mate, be stealing those seat swivels for awhile. probably see you Saturday.
Quit calling rust patina
Hope everyone had a good easter!
I took the van up to queensland and I'm happy to say 2000km+ event free, very happy with my bus. Ironically enough I had some time free Tuesday afternoon and started measuring up for my aircon pump, I pushed one of the fuel lines out of the way and.....Crack, fuel leak (happy that didn't happen on the road) So I have work to do this weekend.
I tell a lie actually, during the road trip the drivers windscreen washer jet blocked up and didn't manage to unblock it. 😂 Really could have used them actually, I forgot how kombis attract bugs,
Before getting away last weekend I wanted to take the top half off the back seat, to make more space. (I remember doing this a hundred times in the old bus) turns out this is not a standard feature either! Jeez I've been lead astray. So I made some quick release brackets before the trip.
Quit calling rust patina
