Indholdsfortegnelse for April 2017 i VolksWorld

“There’s nothing like having a deadline to get a project finished” I’ve just been helping sort through some of The VolksWorld Show entries. It looks like there’s going to be a fantastic selection of cars to drool over at Sandown Park on 25-26 March, and that’s not including the massive display of equally spectacular vehicles outside. You can get an idea of precisely what’s in store on pages 15-18 of this issue. As usual, we’ve witnessed the inevitable last minute push to get show cars completed in time. As I write this there are projects at the top trimmers, paint shops and engine specialists across the UK and the rest of Europe, with a team of panicked people burning the midnight oil in order to get cars finished. While this…

Their extraordinary Beetle roadtrip began on 20 September, 2009, and in the next four years on the road the intrepid pair from Austria took in 80 countries, spanning six continents (including all 48 lower United States of America) and crossed 115 international borders. In that time, their ’63 Herbie lookalike covered – wait for it – an astonishing 123,000 miles. Starting in Vienna they headed east, leaving Europe and crossing the Middle East and Asia. In India they shipped the car and caravan from Chennai to Melbourne, Australia. On board a boat again, they made the trip from Brisbane to the port of Los Angeles, California, USA which enabled them to cover all 48 continental united states in 2010 by driving from coast to coast a couple of times. In…

“His masterstroke was to look outside the VW scene when it came to the rolling gear” “Fabrice must have wanted to run these wheels real bad” You only have to take a look at this Resto Custom Oval to know the owner marches to the beat of a different drummer. But then the man in question is Fabrice Goepfert from Distoff in Lorraine, France and, being a Frenchman, has that all-important Gallic flair. It’s instantly obvious from the photos that Fabrice is style conscious, from his long beard and flat cap to his checked shirt. It’s equally apparent he has used his vehicle as, well, a vehicle to portray his panache. To customise anything means to modify it to your individual taste, preferences and specifications. When it comes to…

“One day, my dad told me to take the old Beetle to the scrapyard, and said I could keep the money I got for it” “It had some amazingly bad areas where Beetles don’t normally corrode” As the 2017 show season is almost upon us, our thoughts turn towards the freshly completed projects we’re all dying to see. Some of these may have taken a winter from start to finish, others may have taken much longer, but one thing we never tire of is talking to owners and finding the story behind their own particular VW. When we met Jon Bateman at last year’s VolksWorld Show, we were surprised to hear that the main reason he’d chosen to undertake the restoration of his ’73 GT Beetle was because the…

JOB INFO TOOLS NEEDED 22mm Lambda sensor extraction socket; bench grinder (optional); die grinder or electric drill; drill bits 0.5-0.75mm; file; hammer; pillar drill; screwdrivers; spanners 6-13mm; Vernier calipers MATERIALS USED Clean cloths; disposable gloves; emery paper; M6-8 bolt; paper towel; sanding band; wet and dry paper TIME TAKEN 1-2 hours COST DIY £5+ The single Solex carburettor on many air-cooled engines can be mildly modified to help improve performance at low rpm (e.g. when setting off) and provide a smoother delivery of power. Don’t expect a neck-breaking transformation in acceleration, but for the cost of some DIY machining, another 3-4bhp can be found, which is a reasonable improvement on a 40-50bhp air-cooled engine. We visited Bogg Brothers of North Yorkshire to see what they can do with a standard…

March Spring Dub Date:5 March 2017 Location:The Great Harrogate Showground Contact: www.springdub.co.uk Bulli Ausstellung Date:10-18 March 2017 Location:Seedamm Center Pfäffikon, Switzerland Contact: vwbüssli-mieten.ch Freddy Files Date:12 March 2017 Location:Ninove, Belgium Contact:freddyfiles2016.skynetblogs.be Ultimate Dubs Date: 12 March 2017 Location: Telford International Centre Contact: www.ultimate-dubs.co.uk Lincoln VW Camper Day Date: 26 March 2017 Location: Brayford Wharf, Lincoln Contact: www.lincolncamperday.co.uk Dubs at the Mill Date: 31 March/2 April 2017 Location: Haselbury Mill, Crewkerne, Somerset Contact: www.scrumpydubbers.co.uk April Dorset Swapmeet Date: 2 April 2017 Location: Spetisbury, Dorset Contact: www.dorsetswapmeet.co.uk Schwarzwälder VW-Bus Treffen Date: 7-9 April 2017 Location: Kirchzarten, Germany Contact: www.vwbus-team-baden.de Vee Dub Family Birthday Weekender Date: 7-9 April 2017 Location: The Oak Tree Arena, Highbridge, Somerset Contact: weekender@veedubfamily.org Elemental VW Show Date: 8 April 2017 Location: Crouch…

International swapmeet The indoor swapmeet on the first floor is always one of the highlights of the show, with 100 tables selling thousands of hard-to find parts from all round Europe. Pick up that final piece in your restoration jigsaw. Built not bought This year we have a special display of home built heroes. These cars have been restored at home, on the drive or in the owner’s garage on a limited budget but with loads of skill and enthusiasm. They are worthy show cars and many will be in line for a Top 20 award. Take a look and be inspired to start (or finish off) your own car. Kids’ Zone We pride ourselves at The VolksWorldShow on keeping your little ones entertained, as well as you, and the…

1. Air we go After getting stuck for weeks in Cabinda, the exclave of Angola, waiting for a ferry or cargo ship to take us to the mainland, we eventually found an alternative way of getting there. The Angolan Air Force took us – including Herbie and the camper – to Luanda, the capital of Angola, by plane. Despite taking three hours to get us loaded, it was such a terrific experience to travel by a military plane and to later camp overnight right on the international airstrip of Luanda. See: www.herbiesworldtour.com/2013/02/0//fasten-your-seat-belts/ 2. Rivers of mud We faced the most awful roads on our trip around the world and as luck would have it, we ended up travelling through the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) during the rainy season.…

“it’s still a working vehicle. In fact, I drive the wheels off it” We’re headed to Craig Kemp’s workshop but we haven’t got a house number, or a postcode, just a vague description of the area. But we know we’re at the right place when we spot his mate’s slammed and stickered Passat estate sitting outside. As various garage doors are unlocked for us, car-wise it looks like Craig’s into a bit of everything for, as well as the VWs, there are a couple of customised American cars in the barn opposite. “It’s funny how everyone seems to go through a similar story when they’re into older cars,” says Craig. “People who are into cars tend to start with Volkswagens, or Minis, or maybe old Fords. You modify them, then…

“Dr. Porsche travelled to America and met Henry Ford, and witnessed first hand the phenomenon of the assembly line” The idea for the Beetle was copied from a similar concept dreamed up by Henry Ford – an affordable, reliable car that would motorise the masses. While the idea itself may not have been new, the brilliance of Ford was to introduce the production line, where hundreds of identical cars could be built at the same time. Previously, all cars were hand built in small batches. When Ford started production of its Model T in Detroit in 1908, people the world over wanted to be a part of the process and it wasn’t long before further lines were opened up at 13 factories across the USA, and in 12 different countries,…

VolksWorld race car back on track Great to hear news of the VolksWorldrace car this month from current custodians VW Heritage. The late model Bug has spent the best part of a year at the hands of Andy Kelly and his students Glen Kelly, Kieran Long and James Hansard at North Herts College, who have been honing their restoration skills on this, and other old school projects. The Beetle’s A pillars and door hinges have all seen action, both front quarter panels have been replaced for fresh metal, and the repro long bonnet has been on the end of the fettling stick as they start shaping the car into an early looker. Next stop is a healthy coating of RAPTOR to keep their hard work suitably protected. If all goes…

“The EA266 took its inspiration from the 1961 Porsche 695 prototype” How do you eclipse an icon? Well, for Volkswagen, it proved pretty difficult superseding the Beetle. There was the relatively successful Type 3 1500/1600, the ungainly 411/412 and the pioneering but ultimately dead end K70. Over in Brazil they had the Brasilia and the Gol, of course. But none actually ousted the air-cooled legend. It wasn’t until the Golf came along in 1974, spawning a whole load of desirable front-wheel drive, water-cooled siblings, that VW could finally breathe a sigh of relief, knowing its future was secure. Well, secure so long as nobody tinkered with emissions testing several decades in the future of course… Rearward thinking However, one potential Beetle successor dating from the late 1960s never made it…

1. Believe in your dream – and live it! So many friends have told us that they would love to travel the world. Most of them have never done it, because they find excuses or are too afraid. We decided to live our dream to travel the world and can now say it was one of the best decisions we have made in our lives. There were a lot of people who told us before we set off that it wasn’t a good idea but we believed in our dream, made the seemingly impossible possible and learned so much along the road. The most important thing is to believe in yourself, and not in what others tell you about how to live your life. 2. Prepare – but not too…

“The reality can be every bit as good as the fiction” The phrase ‘one lady owner’ often comes up when people are selling cars. It’s used to imply a car has had an easy life at the hands of some old dear who only used it for trips to the local shop to buy tins of dog food and picking up Jean and Margaret on bingo night. But does anyone really believe this? We live in the modern world, where both sexes are equal, so to suggest women go any easier on their cars than blokes is complete nonsense. I’m not channelling my inner Donald Trump, but women can be every bit as terrible as men when it comes to driving. I genuinely know a girl who hates turning right…

“the pressure to make the most of every hour in every day increases with each tick of the clock” Tick-tock, the clock never stops. At the time of writing this, there are just 33 days, or 792 hours, or 47,520 minutes, until we need to have the Split Bug in place at The VolksWorld Show. As such, the pressure to make the most of every hour in every day increases with each tick of the clock. In an ideal world, we’d like to have this build finished a week before the show in order that we can test drive it but, as most people who have ever built a show car with a deadline for a particular show will know, it always goes to the wire. Last year, to…

First drive Imagine owning this 1972 Beetle as your first ever car. And the scenario is even sweeter when you helped make it look this good Don’t miss it! Power to the people Follow our step-by-step guide to giving your VW the extra boost it needs courtesy of a bolt-on alternator conversion Ascort TSV 1300GT The story behind this rare Australian beauty which intended to bridge the gap between the Karmann Ghia and Porsche 356 Playing chicken From US poultry farm to show field, removing chicken poo wasn’t the only job for Kevin Burns when restoring this ’66 11-window Bus…