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posted on January 20th, 2013 at 11:17 AM
the one that got away
I couldn’t find a spot for this, so here’s a new thread.
Perhaps others can add to it, with their stories.
My ‘one that got away’ story is from approx 1985. I saw a splittie for sale in the front yard of some flats near my parents home at Fairfield. I
enquired and the guy said it had a seized engine, and he wanted $100 for it. ( for some perspective, $200 was approx my weeks wage after tax, and a
typical Queenslander house in Fairfield would have cost about $55000 ) At the time I was about 23 and had no vw experience. I bought it, and towed it
home. I borrowed the John Muir ‘idiot book’, and set to work pulling apart the motor. As it turned out, the engine did not have the correct air
flow tinware and was missing the rubber around the engine. Hence it had dropped a valve. I bought a new head, and a second hand piston. Manually
balanced the pistons and put it all back together with some new grommets, tinware etc. The rear lights were off an early fairlane i think. It had
some crazy coil spring overriders on the rear shockies, and was perhaps one of the first ‘ baja busses’ with those wide wheels and jacked up. I
took off the overriders, and generally tidied it up a bit. I kept it for a few months, even taking it on the freeway. ( south east freeway Brisbane,
which went as far as mount Gravatt at the time ) The splittie went great, but didn’t stop so well ! It had no major obvious rust, but as it was a
65 model ( i think ) it was only 20 years old. Anyway, another project took my fancy ( austin healey sprite ) so i sold the splittie for $600. I
remember being happy at the time, that I made a profit. At least now i have 2 pics to reminisce. Of course i wonder if this Splittie is lucky enough
to be still in existence?
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nosi
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posted on January 20th, 2013 at 11:21 AM
rear showing tail lights and jacked up wide wheels. hope this didnt post twice ?
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splitbus
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posted on January 20th, 2013 at 01:55 PM
I could be wrong but I am sure I have seen this splity with those tail lights on one of the forums or eBay
Cheers, Mike
------------------------------------
| o*/o | 55 split screen
I don't have a bucket list, I have a f^%k it list a mile long
tar76
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posted on January 20th, 2013 at 04:56 PM
Always goes back to that saying "if only I knew what I know now"! Arh those ones that we let get away...for me back in 98 i brought a 1 owner 58
beetle no rust typical only driven on a Sunday grandma style straight as, stock as a rock. Sold it for a hilux . My first bus another 1 owner that i found sitting under a tarp in a lean two in 2000. guy
brought it brand new in 76 came with purchase forms and even photos of him and his first day handshake with the sales man. I came across it at
Sandstone Point in 2000 and had been sitting for 5 years as he had moved up from Melbourne to retire. Couldn't drive the bus anymore so he brought it
up with the move and hid it away for years. those days Sandstone point was still alot of bush were i use to ride my moto and got a glance of it and
made the door knock. Og paint again not one bit of rust thing was straight as,and started with a new battery!
I kept him for along time...many a surf trip and the little grommies grew up in it, but as we do i sold it on (still kick myself) .To this day i still
see him around as a dude on Bribie owns it and he loves it to bits and will not sell it , as i have tried!
"Obey your Dreams"!
62 Std beetle.
65 11 wnd Split "The Cross".
6? coming very soon!!!!
haugmichael
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posted on February 18th, 2013 at 11:33 AM
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
. My first bus another 1 owner that i found sitting under a tarp in a lean two in 2000. guy
brought it brand new in 76 came with purchase forms and even photos of him and his first day handshake with the sales man. I came across it at
Sandstone Point in 2000 and had been sitting for 5 years as he had moved up from Melbourne to retire. Couldn't drive the bus anymore so he brought it
up with the move and hid it away for years. those days Sandstone point was still alot of bush were i use to ride my moto and got a glance of it and
made the door knock. Og paint again not one bit of rust thing was straight as,and started with a new battery! 
