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.

nice grandpa mobile :P

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

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.

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?

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

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.

11 is a good number for combined use, but you are a grandpa.....so realistically thats a 13+

Quote:

Originally posted by Boozo 11 is a good number for combined use, but you are a grandpa.....so realistically thats a 13+

Licence because gramps

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,

Nice one Nils

T3's are very underrated.

Even the one on our old van never fit well, seems a common thing

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

Oh, and I am looking for a good condition syncro radiator fan ( I am lead to believe they flow more air)

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

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

Nils, your never in a hurry.....on bitumen. Bringing this up for easter?

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.