HAYBURNER DIGITAL - ISSUE 48

HAYBURNER PLUS INDEPENDENT CLASSIC VW & PORSCHE MAGAZINE ISSUE 48 - 2023

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ISSUE 48 106 KUBELWAGEN

I think it’s a very interesting piece of history, a real reminder of WWII and also the very beginning of Volkswagen

32 ARDENNEN RENNEN

I once stated that taking a Schwimmwagen out was the most fun you can have driving a VW. …

Scrub that, I was wrong. For me, the Ardenne Rennen has knocked the Schwimmwagen off the top.

HIS FIRST 18

Believe it or not it was a gift for him! He was only 14 years old, and he still describes it as the best gift he ever had. This makes the car we are looking at on these very pages not only Florian’s first ever Volkswagen, but also his first ever car!

56 356SC

Finally, after this impressive list, in 2019 after years of climbing the ladder he scored his dream car, the May 1964 Porsche 356SC you’re looking at now.

S U L P R LY E N R U HAYB D COPY ON re HAR scribe he Sub PROJECT ‘49 186

Instead of the regular editors letter (which I really don’t want to write anyway) this is a catch up on my own personal project.

48 MANX A friend told me about a Buggy that had been standing in a barn for years – you know, a barn find that was too good to be true.

104 HIGHS AND LOWS

My Aussie Speed build was starting to take shape and I could feel the old fire starting to burn again.

S U L P R LY E N R U HAYB D COPY ON re HAR scribe he Sub 104 CHEETIN’

Now the Cheetah is shipshape, the opportunity for travelling is back on … but just like any good VW nut, Mark couldn’t leave it there.

Copyright © 2023 by Hayburner Limited. All rights reserved. This magazine or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the editor, except for the use of brief quotations.

Operations Manager - Vic Faux Editor-In-Chief -& Founding Editor - Ned Faux

CONTENTS 120 STILL OUT THERE

If, like me, you spend a bordering on unhealthy amount of time on eBay and various other marketplaces, you will undoubtedly have seen those buzzwords on all the adverts. All trying to grab your attention … and nearly always not true.

TALE OF TWO OWNERS 90

RETRO 172

Steve said that when the vehicle arrived it was in need of a fair bit of work. The body looked incredible, the patina even better in real life than the photos had shown.

At this point, the couple could have decided to put the money towards getting another Bus, but over the years they had covered over 40,000 miles and made a lot of memories in the old girl, so the decision was made to go for a full restoration.

US L P R E N Y R L U N B O Y A H D COPY re HAR scribe he Sub RON TURNBULL 162

74 LINDOA

There were a number of Brazilianbuilt-only Volkswagens like the VW Brasilia, the TL, the SP2 and the Variant. There was plenty of everything, even retired Volkswagen race cars.

LESS/MORE 130

I’m on the phone with Ron Turnbull. Every time I speak with him, a new interesting anecdote can seemingly magic its way out of thin air.

S U L P R LY E N R U HAYB D COPY ON re HAR scribe he Sub

Think this is just another Outlaw 912? Then look again, as the KAMManufaktur 912C is an entirely different beast. It’s truly next-level stuff.

2X - DOUBLE PHOTOPAGES 62 - HAZET 84 - 99 PROBLEMS 42 - SHOW CALENDAR 122 - AIR-COOLED COLORING

Newsstand distribution – www.magazineheavendirect.com The editor or Hayburner LTD gives no warrantees, assurances or guarantees and makes no representations concerning any services or goods advertised or featured in this magazine. Hayburner Plus is Printed in the UK. We hope you enjoy Issue 48 of Hayburner Magazine.

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HIS FIRST WORDS BY CHARLES HARDING

18

PHOTOS BY KENNETH ANNO

To quote our previous CalLook article, “I think it was Issue 37 when I mentioned Ned being so insistent on a finding a CalLook feature for each magazine. I believe his words were, ‘If you say it in your write-up then I’ll have to find one for each issue!’ It made me laugh when he didn’t manage to get a suitable car for Issue 38 after promising CalLook action, but I guess you can’t win them all.” I believe he’s actually managed to miss a few out of the past few issues but I do

understand. He wants it to be the right car and that’s just what have here … the right car. We were stoked when our friend and photographer Kenneth Anno gave us the heads-up for this beauty.

I think you’ll agree that this one more than makes up for a slight lack of content for CalLook fans. The Beetle we are looking at here belongs to Florian Cnudde. He is

only 23 years old and lives in Rue Basse, Belgium. He spends his days working as a qualified mechanic and is currently working in a busy garage.

Florian’s VW obsession began when he was a kid. His father was already in the VW industry and a keen enthusiast, so he was introduced to the VW hobby community at a young age. He still describes his dad as his biggest influence, teaching him the ways of CalLook and giving him a deep-seated appreciation of the DKP Club USA. His dad was part of the DKG Club in Belgium in 2014, and Florian often hung out with Greg from the DKG. One day, when going out to eat in the evening, Greg had an old Beetle in a car trailer

20 20

outside. Believe it or not it was a gift for him! He was only 14 years old, and he still describes it as the best gift he ever had. This makes the car we are looking at on these very pages not only Florian’s first ever Volkswagen, but also his first ever car!

The car was a Standard 1971 Beetle with no history whatsoever. When he got the car home it had no wings, no windows, no front axle, no wiring loom, no interior. All that was left was the front bonnet, both doors, deck lid, beam and gearbox. Florian began working on the car in 2015 as he turned 15 years old. He completely sanded the car back to bare metal and started rust repairs, mostly around the pan

halves and the Napoleon’s hat section. He then took a break from working on the project because he was spending all his weekends on it and neglecting spending time with his friends. In 2019 he returned to the project feeling more motivated than ever. The inspiration was that his dad had just completed a magnificent blue CalLook car.

Florian was now 19 years old and had the added bonus that as soon as the car was finished he would be able to actually drive it! All the work was to be shared between himself and his dad. Seeing as his dad was no stranger to building CalLook cars, he could offer the best of help and advice on how to do

it properly. In November 2020 the complete chassis were sandblasted, welded, painted and reassembled; this took around a month. The chassis were built up with a ball joint front beam and dropped spindles.

He swapped the original drums to disc brakes with a period Hurst line-lock. At the back he is running a 8x35 gearbox with short axles to tuck the 5.5” deep offset rear wheels in. For a wheel choice he went with original 4-lug SprintStars redone 4.5” and 5.5” using Michelin XZX tyres front and Firestone Wide Oval at the back. Soon afterwards, the car’s shell was also stripped and prepped ready for paint. In February 2021 the search for a good paint colour had begun.

It had to be an original VW colour, and this VW

22

Orange seemed like the perfect choice.

Once the body and pan had been mated, it was time to build the engine. Florian opted for some extra power, so he had one built by Greg from DKG to this specification: 2332cc with Autolinea 94mm long stroke aluminium housing; additional cb performance crankcase; H-connecting rod chevy 5.5; 84mm CB performance crankshaft; camshaft 86c webcam; JPM push rods; Chromoly rocker rods; 94mm long stroke cylinder piston kit AA; 1.4 CB performance rocker arm ramp; CB performance 30mm full flow oil pump; heavily reworked CB performance wedge 42x37.5 cylinder heads; reworked Gene Berg pipe; 48 IDA carbs; Gene Berg linkage; Bosch 009 ignition; Kennedy stage 2 clutch; Gene Berg breathers; A1 exhaust with 4/1 manifold; all AN6 gasoline connection; additional oil radiator with fan with 80 degree trigger probe. This set-up is yet to go on the dyne so Florian doesn’t yet know what HP it’s currently putting out, but he says it goes extremely well.

The car was treated to a complete new loom, mostly carried out by his father. Florian insists that he has no need for a stereo because the sound of the 2332cc motor is just too good.

He has kept the factory interior but has had all the seat frames repaired, repainted and all reupholstered with black seat covers, headliner, carpets and door cards all from TMI. The interior was finished off with a few nice touches such as the Flat4 formula steering wheel, VDO oil temp and pressure gauges, Autometer 10,000 rpm rev counter with shift light, and Gene Berg shifter completely restored with a little touch of orange and with a Hurst line-lock

button. He described the TMI covers as the one thing he would change if he had the opportunity, not that there is anything wrong with the covers, but he would like to have something more custom and unique to the car.

To finish off the outside he fitted seals all round. The

25

bumpers were replaced with T-bars. Florian said that the most difficult parts to find were the aluminium engine case, the Gene Berg shifter and the Sprints in 4.5” and 5.5”.

The car was inspected in September 2021 and its first outing was to the Rumes event in 2022 where

it scored a Top 10, something that Florian is very proud of. He uses the car very often to go and see friends or to go out to a restaurant or just takes it out to enjoy it. The next step for the car will be a built gearbox, but he’s already got plans for a Standard model Oval project. … Watch this space.

Florian would like to thank his dad for all the knowledge he passed on and for all his time spent building the car, and also Greg from DKG for giving him this superb gift while he was still so young.

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ARDENNEN RENNEN WORDS BY NED FAUX

32

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CHRIS DE LA MARSCHE

I once stated that taking a Schwimmwagen out was the most fun you can have driving a VW. …

Scrub that, I was wrong. For me, the Ardenne Rennen has knocked the Schwimmwagen off the top.

For those of you that have never heard of the Ardenne Rennen, you may well have heard of European BugIn or Ninove? Well, Frederic Peeters (Fastfred) and Michaël Walravens (Mike) have been organising these automotive events since 1999. A few years ago they came up with the concept for an Ardennes Rally, driving from Liège to Bastogne and back to Liège, navigating and driving on the same roads that many racers have raced on in the past. The date was set for 30th September of this year, but there are criteria you need to hit in order to participate.

The event is exclusive, with only 50 vehicle places. It is only open for Vintage speed Volkswagens, Type1, Type2, Ghia, and Type3 up to 1965. Coachbuilt cars such as Hebmüller, Denzel up to 1967, Porsche 356, early 911 and 912 up to 1974. Original engines only.

VW CLASS 1: period vintage speed engines such as Okrasa, Denzel, Judson, Pepco, etc.

OKRASA OR OUTLAW VW CLASS 2: for example, a Porsche 356 engine in a Type1 Beetle – any engine swap from your original VW motor will put you in the Outlaw class. OUTLAW CLASS 3: for the Porsches they have two classes, Original and Outlaw. Fuel injection is forbidden with the exception of cars with it fitted from factory. Also turbos are not allowed. Petrol only, no nitrous or any other race fuel. Vehicles’ brakes can be original, Porsche or CSP. The tyres must be road legal and no racing slicks are allowed. All cars need to be road legal in their country of origin. No slammed cars, the reason being that you wouldn’t be able to use the Ardenne roads; they insist you need a minimum of 11cm of clearance and the use of only Volkswagen or Porsche wheels.

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Participants are chosen by the organisers after receiving an application, and there is of course an entry fee which includes hotel stay, meals, drinks, and all sorts of goodies.

So how on earth did I end up on this trip? I have my friend Myles Yarney to thank for that.

Earlier in the year he mentioned to me that he really wanted to participate in the event but with both of his Vintage speed cars; that’s right … he has a pair! Both are Okrasa-powered Beetles and both are black – one a ’57 Oval and the other a ’58. When Myles said he’d booked them and did I fancy driving/navigating, I didn’t have to think twice. I was well and truly in! Myles had also invited Darren Clagget to be his navigator and Steve Walker to share duties with me. I was over the moon with this line-up as I’ve always got on swimmingly with Darren and I’ve done a fair bit of travelling over the years with Steve, so had a good idea what to expect.

The months went by and it was time to go. I left out in my explanation of what this event entails that it’s also strictly period dress, so 40s/50s/60s Gentleman Racer attire. I hadn’t prepared, so rushed around and a bought a pair of plain black overalls and dusted off an old trilby I was only hanging on to so I don’t feel out of place at Goodwood. Steve had a similar lame effort for an outfit which consisted of a flat cap and a black roll-neck sweater. I have to say that later on that weekend when I saw what an effort others had gone to I did feel I could have tried harder when it came to my outfit.

The rally activities were due to begin on Saturday the 30th, so I drove our trusty ULEZ-compliant VW UP the 3+ hour journey down to Myles workshop in Folkestone.

To be fair, it’s worth a threehour drive just to see the cool shit at Myles’s place. His unit had amazing Volkswagens quite literally spilling out of the front doors. The Channel Tunnel is only a stone’s throw from his place, so we took the cars down and were on the train in just a few minutes.

We somehow got separated at the port and Steve and myself ended up having to wait on the French side of the crossing for an hour or so, where we were joined by a particularly awkward young Frenchman in a ’90s Peugeot 309 who seemed very interested to know everything there is to know about a classic Beetle. We were soon rescued by the others and

set off on our 3 hour drive to Aywaille, around 200 miles .

This drive was an absolute pleasure. The car was performing perfectly and Steve is always good company. By the time we reached our hotel my face was already starting to ache from laughing. It was well into the evening when we arrived, and with everyone tired from a long day we all scoffed a Chinese meal together and turned in relatively early. This is the point when I realised what I’d let myself in for. I remember sharing a hotel room with Steve in Germany maybe eight or nine years ago and don’t recall any issues; however, I was a big drinker at the time. I also recall sharing with Steve in Belgium last year, but I was too angry at Paul Medhurst’s snoring to pay any attention to Steve. I should probably mention that I am a notorious insomniac. I have been since I was a child. I’m also the lightest sleeper you’ll ever meet. I live in the middle of nowhere and the sound of a cat walking across the gravel will wake me. Well that night Steve snored and snored and I got zero hours sleep.

36

The next morning we all got up to a fantastic breakfast. Nothing rally-wise was to start until around two in the afternoon, so it gave us plenty of time to check on the cars, taking in the scenery and hanging out. It was a lovely morning and for late September the sun really was shining on us.

It was so cool watching the other participants come in. There were so many Beetles and Porsches it was like having a private car show before the event had even started. It was then time for them to hand us our goodie bags and race plaques and sit down for a briefing. They went into how the rally was set up. It was pretty much the standard time trial format. Racers set out along a planned course, setting off one after the other at regular intervals.

The clock starts for each car when they roll across the start line and stops for each of them at marked stops and when they cross the finish line. This is all laid out on a very detailed road map. There was then some technical control for the car, and also the chance to calibrate our tripmeters by driving a loop. I got the feeling that this part of the rally was more of a practice – a chance to learn how

to use the directions correctly and get a feel for the conditions. Myles and Darren had done the previous rally together, so were able to give us a few useful pointers.

The 73 mile drive was intense.

Although they clearly state “this is not a race” and that there’s no need to speed, once you make the slightest wrong turn you have to play catch-up and it definitely feels like a race. We never really discussed driver and navigator roles, but it didn’t take long to work out who was best suited to which. I’m sure Steve won’t mind me pointing out that he has a reputation for being an aggressive driver and had little interest in working the trip and reading maps. This was fine. I’ve done many road miles with him and even when he was overtaking a 911 on a winding forest hill I still didn’t feel out of control when I could see the speedo go past 90.

I don’t think for one moment that the “this is not a race” statement even slightly computed with Steve.

I have to say the navigation part is exhausting. You have some of the most beautiful scenery in Europe to take in, but I was too deep in concentration to truly take it in until we stopped. What an amazing place!

After returning from the first leg we all got told how we’d done, and we found out that we had actually done pretty well. I remember turning to Steve and saying, bloody hell, we might even be good at this. We got sorted and went to the main drivers’ meal. I instantly felt underdressed, with nearly everyone else looking the part whereas I was wearing my free t-shirt from the goodie bag I had been handed earlier that day. The food was amazing and I got double portions of some of it because it turns out that Myles is the fussiest eater on the planet. I caught up with people I’d not seen since before the pandemic/Brexit, and made new friends. It was such a friendly crowd. Being four years sober, I tend to notice a little more than I used to on a night out, and one thing I did notice was that Steve, who’s not a big drinker at all, seemed rather fond of the all-you-can-drink red wine. Well, if you’re a snorer anyway, just add a bit of alcohol and you’ve got yourself a freight train. I found various sounds on Spotify to

drown it out a little, but in the end it was another zero sleep night.

Steve was up at 7am and took pity on me. He was kind enough to do a fuel run which we’d forgotten the day before. This gave me 30 minutes of sleep I was very grateful for. It was then time to give the car a going over.

I seem to remember there being a problem with the front brakes which Steve and Darren were working on, most likely caused by the erratic driving from the day before. I didn’t get involved.

I wasn’t really awake yet, so I sat studying or at least pretending to study the route. Soon the cars started to leave, one by one. It was quite a spectacle. I think we were towards the last to go. Once on the road, we were having a great time and managed a fantastic undertaking manoeuvre. With 160 miles to go we were well on target and I felt we were doing particularly well. Now I don’t know if it was a combination of my tiredness, Steve’s hangover, Steve’s driving or my navigation, but we missed a turn, then took a wrong turn, then one of the carbs worked loose, then the exhaust tip snapped and fell off which we felt obliged to go back and look for.

Things went to shit for us pretty quickly and we weren’t the only ones. We’d already passed a 911 bellowing out smoke and a Split Beetle stuck on a hill smelling like a burnt clutch. Once we arrived at the lunch stop, it was apparent that we were well behind. We sat and ate with Bob from BBT whose wife had been feeling a little chilly in their 356 Speedster, so they had stopped for coffee to warm up and still had beaten us there.

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After letting the 30hp motor cool and doing a bit of fine tuning, we hit the road again. We knew there was no way we were going to get any sort of place, but still it would be nice to make up a bit of time if just to save face. The rest of the rally was absolutely brilliant. Steve somehow managed to catch up some of the other cars, and as we knew we’d already screwed up, the pressure was off. There was nothing more to do but drive and take in the scenery – two of my favourite things in the world. Being one of the last to cross the finish, I felt like I wanted to find a back entrance to drive in through. Steve had other ideas and finished the

event with a handbrake turn into the car park and straight across the finish line. The rest of the afternoon was spent on socialising and a classy presentation for the winners.

This was all promptly followed by a lovely meal out with new friends and one last night of no sleep.

Now I do realise that this isn’t an event that anyone can attend. You need a car that fits the criteria, to be willing to put your pride and joy through the paces (it was a 1038km journey), and with crossings and entry fees you need some cash in the bank. But what an event to strive for! Saving up to do this trip in a car I’ve built is definitely something going on my bucket list.

I’d like to take this opportunity to say a huge thank you to Myles for having me along on this journey. It genuinely has been a highlight of my career.

WINNERS ARDENNEN RENNEN 2023 GENERAL WINNER MAAS – BEUKERS ON PORSCHE 356 -1956 VW CLASS 1 (full original) VAN PERRE – VAN NUFFEL ON VW BEETLE RAGTOP 1952 VW CLASS 2 (Okrasa-Judson and correct period vintage speed) TIMMERMAN-VAN DOOREN ON VW BEETLE 1952 PORSCHE CLASS 1 (full original) MAAS – BEUKERS ON PORSCHE 356 -1956 PORSCHE CLASS 2 (outlaw) DEPERNE - DEPERNE ON PORSCHE 356 ENVEMO

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FIND UPCOMING VOLKSWAGEN SHOWS EUROPE-WIDE. If you would like us to promote your Volkswagen event, please enter for free on www.bUGbUs.nEt’s events page. Also on bUGbUs.nEt you will find the latest show entries from around Europe.

DECEMBER 17th | Beetle Battle

04th | Bug Run Picknick

29th | Classic Car Auction

05th | Stanford Hall

Jakarta | See bUGbUs.nEt

Gstaad | www.oldtimergalerie.ch

JANUARY 2024

LE17 6DH | www.stanfordhallvw.com

09th – 11th | Berghof-Bustreffen St. Urban | www.berghof-erlebnis.ch

06th – 07th | Kever Winterfest

24th – 27th | Run To The Sun

13th – 14th | Käfer- & Veteranenshow

26th | petrolbrothers air-watercooled

Rosmalen | www.keverwinterfestijn.nl

Herford | www.vw-kaefer-wintertreffen.de

FEBRURARY 04th | Midlands Air-Cooled Swap Meet CV35 0BJ | midlandsaircooledswapmeet.com

04th | Indoor swap meet (Aircooled VW) Lommel | dekempensekeverclub.com/Swapmeet

25th | Vee Dub Show

Stafford Showground | http://www.veedubshow.co.uk

MARCH

Newquay, Cornwall | rtts.co.uk

Wielsbeke | See Bugbus.net

30th – 02nd | Käfertreffen Wörth/Donau Wörth | www.kaeferfreunde-bayerwald.de

30th – 03rd | Int.Oberweserbullitreffen Weser | See bUGbUs.nEt

JUNE 01st – 02nd | Vintage VW in Flanders Fields Kemmel | www.vintagevwmeeting.be

06th – 09th | Alive & VDubbin IP14 3JY | www.aliveandvdubbin.co.uk

03rd | Suffolk Dubrs VW Autojumble

07th – 09th | bristol Volksfest

09th – 10th | UK Cruise to Ninove

07th – 09th | Big Bug Run Fun

10th | Freddy Files

13th – 14th | Garbojama

17th – 19th | Volksworld

16th | Classics at the Clubhouse (Aircooled)

IP3 8UH | www.trinityparkevents.co.uk

Ninove | www.facebook.com/ukcruisetoninove

Ninove | See Bugbus.net

Sandown Park | classicsworld.co.uk/volksworldshow

APRIL

BS48 3RN | www.bristolvolksfest.co.uk

Mantorp Park Raceway | www.bugrun.com

Kraków | www.garbojama.pl

RG26 5RT | www.classicsattheclubhouse.com

21st – 23rd | Raduno Internazionale Bari | www.apuliavolksclub.it

10th | Bassano Classic

21st – 23rd | Uralt-VW-Treffen Bad Camberg

14th | Aircooled en Fête

22nd – 23rd | Lechtaler Bullitreffen

19th – 21st | Alive & Kicking

28th – 30th | European Bug in

Vicenza | www.maggiolinibassanesi.it

Thirimont | www.moteurenfete-televie.be

IP143JY | www.aliveandvdubbin.co.uk

MAY

Bad Camberg | See Bugbus.net

Autohaus Schweiger | www.bullishow.com

Chimay | www.europeanbugin.com

JULY

01st | MaiKäfertreffen Hannover

05th – 07th | Aircooled Campout

03rd – 05th | Beetle at the Beach

11th – 14th | VW Boxer Team

Hannover | www.maikaefertreffen.de

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Gärdet in central Stockholm | www.bugrun.com

Veldhoven | See bUGbUs.nEt

Bidford-on-Avon | facebook.com/events/589544162788008

Iragna | www.vwboxerteam.ch

12th – 14th | Bus and Bugfest

30th – 01st | Field of Dreams Aircooled

12th – 14th | Volk Weald

30th – 01st | Int. Ionian VolksFest

Kilbeggan | www.classicvolks.com/busandbugfest.html

Tonbridge | www.volksweald.co.uk

19th – 31th | VW Bus und Oldtimer Treffen Dornstetten | See bUGbUs.nEt

AUGUST 02nd – 03rd | Bug Run Classic Malmby Fairgroun | www.bugrun.com

YO19 | www.classicvolks.com/vwfieldofdreams.html

Sami | See Bugbus.net

SEPTEMBER 07th | Old VAG Day

Grolley | www.facebook.com/old.vag.day/

07th – 08th | Camp’s VW

Camping les saules Chatres | See bUGbUs.nEt

02nd – 04th | Int. Käfertreffen Ostelsheim Ostesheim | www.kaeferclub-ostelsheim.de

09th – 11th | Inter. VW Bus Treffen Lenk | www.vwbusclub.ch

16th – 18th | Viva Skeg Vegas

Revesby Lincolnshire | www.vivaskegvegasvw.co.uk

More shows on www.bUGbUs.nEt

WE WANT YOUR SHOW If you would like us to feature your Volkswagen event, please register it at www.bUGbus.nEt now.

THE CLA SSIC CAR SPECIALIST

Modifications • Upgrades Valuations • Restoration Advice • Assessments Parts • Supplies MOT preparation Servicing • Repairs Lowering • Narrowed beams

Call Ian Kent: 07879 425677 Unit 11, Bullhousen Farm, Bisley Green, Surrey GU24 9EW Email: ian@esautos.co.uk Web: esautos.co.uk Twitter: @esautos Facebook: facebook.com/esautos.co.uk

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Circa 2013

s k o o b , s t r a fp o e g n a r w e n r u o t u o k c e Ch : e s i d n a h c r e and m

“I don’t know why we’re botherin g , who’s ever gonna buy a Hayburne r t-shirt?”

Ned Faux

MANX WORDS BY ROBERT VOS

120 48

PHOTOGRAPHY BY CINEMATOGRAFIE WATSON

After not owning an air-cooled VW for several years, a visit to the Volksworld Show in 2016 sparked that fire again. Only owning a Garagebox without electricity meant I couldn’t take on a big project. But at this show my interest in Buggies was sparked. A Beetle chassis and technology with a fibreglass body – how difficult can it be? The search was on.

Now there are many types of Buggies, but the Meyer Manx is by far my favourite. I soon discovered that a Meyers Manx was outside my budget. I reset my goals and went on a search for a nice Buggy.

A friend told me about a Buggy that had been standing in a barn for years – you know, a barn find that was too good to be true.

Based on some old photos I made an appointment to view the car, hoping to find a complete Buggy.

But as so often happens, photos don’t always tell the truth. Apart from the seats, the Buggy was mostly complete but didn’t look that good. The wiring harness was composed of cables for a home installation, the engine was loose, the brakes were stuck and the floorpan resembled a patchwork quilt. But the fact that it was

50

a shortened floorpan was the most important. After 2016 in the Netherlands it was no longer permissible to shorten a Beetle floorpan, so this barnfind wasn’t actually that bad a choice. After we agreed on a price, the Buggy could be dragged out of the barn and trailered home.

With the help of my buddy Corné, we had the engine running in half an hour. Then I could concentrate on getting the Buggy ready for its MOT. That meant fixing the complete brake system, repairing the wiring harness, and mounting some fresh tyres and a pair of seats. The MOT was no problem, and the Buggy was road legal

just in time for the 2017 meeting season.

fragile that it was not worth fixing.

What now?

But after all the hard work to get the Buggy ready, things got a little bit out of hand. The chassis was in a very bad state and actually needed a lot of work. The fibreglass body had more holes in it than a Swiss cheese and was so

At the end of the season the decision was made to take the Buggy completely apart. The chassis had to be made safe and needed to be professionally restored. I did all the preparations myself and had the chassis

sandblasted before I handed it over to the professionals. I had managed to save up enough money to make my dream Buggy.

The search for a Meyers Manx body took me to England and luckily my favourite colour was in stock. A down-payment was made and I planned a trip to get on a ferry with my trailer behind my T4.

After paying for the welding and buying the body I had to recover from the financial shock. If you have a project car, you will know what I mean. But the work on the chassis was outstanding and a brand-new shining body was waiting to be assembled.

Building a Buggy is not as straightforward as it seems. You have to start thinking about every detail.

Which headlights, taillights, licence plate lighting, turn signals, chairs, roll bar, and the list goes on and on.

It was my goal to build up the Buggy old-school as it would have been in the ’60s and give it a classic look.

With that in mind the search for parts began.

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With the help of a friend, we extended the roll bar so it runs on the side of the chassis to the front where a smaller roll bar goes under the dashboard. In this way the body is sandwiched between the chassis and the roll cage and forms a rigid structure. The front part also gives support to the steering column and dashboard.

By chance, a friend was offered an industrial 1200cc engine block with very low operating hours. He had no use for it and passed it on to me. All I had to do was give it a full service and have the sheet metal powder coated. On an internet auction site I found a practically new exhaust which I had ceramic coated.

With an original Beetle dashboard as an example, a friend made a CAD drawing for my unique Buggy dashboard.

You won’t believe it, but again thanks to a friend I found another part. An original Manx hardtop that completes the look of my Buggy. Because getting in and out of the Buggy with the hardtop on is a bit of a squeeze I wanted to make it easier. An American already had this figured out and was willing to sell me the hardware. Then another friend helped me with the shipping from the USA and this saved me a lot

of money.

At the end of the build I was dreading the construction of the wiring harness the most. I started from scratch with only a diagram and loose cables. But after finishing, it all worked perfectly the first time. This was very satisfying and I think this was the one job where no friends were involved.

But without hesitation I can say that the Buggy could not have been created without the help of all my VW friends. Thanks to their motivation, help, tips, support, contributions and skills I was able

to finish the build. I’m not going to mention names because I’m afraid I’ll forget someone. But I would like to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart who was involved in the construction of my Buggy.

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HAZET WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY LIND BJORNSEN

The spare tyre tool kit is probably the best known accessory for

stuff through the aftermarket. Also, Porsche dealers might not like

bonnet up and the tool kit proudly clipped into the spare tyre with the

style of round kit was available with either lid. The earliest kits have

vintage Volkswagens. How many times have you seen a Bug with its

lid open, showing all the nice matte silvery Hazet tools? Probably more times than you can count, because you see it at every single VW show of any size.

I got my first kit a few years after I started collecting VWs. I took

it over to show a friend, and he opened up his kit and there was a

different selection of tools between them. After a few years I started to compile a list of all the versions of the kits, and kept finding and

to sell VW branded stuff to the fancier cousins of our cars. Every

a full circle ring on the back to clip into the spare tyre. People refer to these as “sixteen inch kits” which makes little sense since the

hubcaps are the same size between 16” rims and 15” rims, and any kit clips into any wide five Beetle or bus rim. The lids usually had

decals which showed the layout of the tools, but they might show an earlier version of the tools.

All Hazet VW specialty kits were numbered 500 through 1955,

collecting new ones. It has been more than a decade since I saw a new

and 2500 after that. They had letter designations to differentiate

one hiding out there somewhere. I sure hope so.

spare tyre kits 500E/2500E; fabric tool rolls 2500P; large plastic

version, so I think I have found them all, but there still may be another

The kits first appeared to show up around 1950–1951. There are two

types of lids, which would continue throughout the production run into the early ’70s. There was the VW lid and the Hazet Tourist lid. Some people say that the VW kits were sold through the dealer network,

and the Tourist kits were sold through the aftermarket. That might be the general rule, but there is plenty of evidence of aftermarket parts being sold through thrifty dealerships that could get them cheaper

than from their VW distributor, and OEM parts suppliers selling their

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between the versions. There were four classes of kits: round metal round kits for Type 3s 2500E-2; and rectangular metal kits 2500K3. The production of the kits overlapped, with all four kits being

available at the end of production in the early ’70s. The round metal kit has a Beetle part number 111 012 025; the fabric roll has a bus

parts number 211 012 025. We know that the VW parts numbering system just represents where the part was first used, and with

accessories there was even more universal fitment, so almost any

kit will work with any model, and VW dealerships were more in the

business of selling things than making sure they were puritanically correct for the model or year that they were being sold to. The

kits were all back compatible. They had only 14mm wrenches until

VW started using 13mm hardware in 1961, at which point they put in both 13mm and 14mm wrenches. The large wrench was 36mm

only for the generator nut until they went to a 21mm nut; then it

1955 era, which has lots of tools. In the ’56–’60s era they had a dark

connection to the year of vehicle it was originally sold into. Of

metal kit, just not all of them, but also included feeler gauges and a

was 36mm x 21mm. The year the kit was made had only a loose

blue vinyl fabric, and the tools were mostly like the normal round

course these days people like to be period correct, so we will show

points file.

super accurate as there is limited information available for the exact

The round plastic kit for Type 3s had three versions, although the

which general years each type of kit was made. These years are not production cut-offs.

The round metal kit had three types of tool sets: the normal layout

first two are just different boxes for the same tool set. The third version has a slightly different tool set.

(with eight versions through the years ranging from 11 to 13 tools);

The rectangular tool kit has two versions. The first one came with

by far the most common kit. There are easily 20 or more normal

with the tools that came in the stock tool pouch that came with

the normal layout, and the valve layout, came with a bracket and

fairly uncommon.

clips. They also had a sticker showing how it could be mounted to

There were also reproduction round metal kits which were made in

it into early rims.

on the lid. After that licence expired, EMPI made another different

The fabric tool roll started with a brown canvas roll in the 1951–

quality tools.

01 - Full circle ring on the back of the first two versions of the round kit.

02 - Normal ring seen on most kits.

03 - HAZET TOURIST logo lid.

04 - VW lid.

the “brake” layout; and the “valve” layout. The normal layout is

one tray full of tools and one empty tray that was meant to be filled

layout kits for each one of the other styles. The latest versions of

each car. The second one came with two trays full of tools, and is

hardware to mount them to a 4-lug rim which does not have hubcap three different rims. They still had the ring that could be used to clip

the late ’90s, and licensed by Volkswagen to use the VW emblem

reproduction with their logo on the lid. Both of these kits have low

05 - ’50–’51 kit with only two screwdrivers.

06 - ’51–’52 kit with full circle ring and three screwdrivers.

07 - ’53–’55 kit with normal ring and 36mm big wrench.

08 - ’50s with different selection of tools “brake” kit.

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09 - ’56–’60 kit with 36 x 21 big wrench and 3 small wrenches.

10 - ’61 kit with 13 tools.

11 - ’62–’63 kit with 4 small wrenches and metal handle lug wrench.

12 - ’64–’65 kit with 4 small wrenches and plastic handle lug wrench.

13 - ’66–’69 kit with different selection of tools “valve” kit.

14 - ’66–’69 kit with normal selection of tools.

15 - ’61 –’65 1500 kit.

16 - ’66 –’69 Type 3 kit.

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17 - ’70s Type 3 kit.

18 - First reproduction kit tools.

19 - First reproduction kit lid.

30 - EMPI reproduction kit.

20 - EMPI reproduction kit lid.

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LINDOA WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHS BY BOB VAN HEYST

Arriving in Aguas de Lindoa feels as if you’ve travelled back in time. You enter a real traditional tourist city centred around hot springs. The setting is full of static

74

grand hotels, shops, bars and restaurants, making it the ideal destination for day trips. The city saw the potential of the area and created an artificial lake in a park in the down-town centre. This park is the ideal location for a car show.

Every year, there is generic classic

car show that takes place in April, but this year, editor of Volkswagen Klassik Magazine, Luiz Gonzales, decided that the first weekend in September would be the perfect time for Volkswagens to come out in force to create one of the finest VW shows on the planet.

The show grounds open on Friday

at noon, and the line to get in starts to fill up very early in the morning. As a non-Brazilian, it is always a pleasure to check out the more “unknown” models that Volkswagen Do Brazil produced which are uncommon in the rest of the world. I was also excited to see that a huge number of Split,

Oval and coach builds were also ready to enter. The gates opened at midday, and there is no better place to take pictures than near the entrance.

Cars were neatly parked in wellthought-out rows on the gently sloping hills, creating a perfect

environment to enjoy the vehicles on display. The music was good, but not too loud, and this park became a VW heaven for the weekend. The mood was set, friends were made, and the Brazilian version of “bom dia todos bem” (“how are you?”) was heard everywhere. Brazil is a country

of immigrants from all over the world, which gives you the chance to meet many interesting and friendly people. Nobody looks like a foreigner and there are plenty of people who speak English, or

76

you can just order a beer with hand signals – coffee is a café and you just point to the menu for a burger. People welcome foreign tourists, and sometimes they feel it’s an honour to check out a photo of your car or just show you some interest. I’d say “warm, pure, genuine” is the best way to

describe Brazil’s hospitality.

Even though the park was partly under construction and some areas were a bit muddy, no one seemed to mind. There were Split Beetles, Ovals and Late Beetles, low-mileage survivors, perfect show cars and first paint

beauties on display, and even two reproduction Hebmüllers. Andre Takeda showed off his incredible 1950 Panel Van. Claus Hoppe parked a gorgeous Split Sedan in the very top of the park. Atilio Pacini Jr. showed off five cars from his prized collection.

We also enjoyed the full range of Itamar Beetles. For those who don’t know, VW Do Brazil took over the production of the Fusca in 1986. By 1992 the country was coming out of a deep crisis and President De Smedt, along with newly elected President of the nation, Itamar Franco, decided to

give the people something they could believe in. They came up with a savings plan, and when you fulfilled it you could get your very own Beetle, appointed by the President. It worked. The people who believed and hoped for a better future stepped up big in the Itamar savings plan. By the

time the Itamar rolled out in 1993, however, the people soon realised that there were many other cars in the same price range. Sadly the Itamar stopped after only three

78

years of production. If you want to know more about this part of VW’s history, just google Itamar Beetle or Fusca Itamar and find out how Volkswagen brought retired workers back to the plant for knowledge, purchased old machines, or bought used Beetles for test cars. What an amazing

story about a redundant model coming back into production!

There were a number of Brazilianbuilt-only Volkswagens like the VW Brasilia, the TL, the SP2 and the Variant. There was plenty of everything, even retired Volkswagen race cars. We had lots

of time to chat with the owners, all of whom were as genuine and friendly as Brazilians get. We also saw some custom-built VW Kombis and Fuscas that blew us away. It’s hard to describe just how good it was there. The food court could make any shopping centre jealous! There was BBQ,

burgers, real meat, cheese, desserts and sweets. We didn’t even have to worry about long lines because there was plenty to go round. To finish, we had an ice cold “chop”, the Brazilian name for draught beer. Most of these food trucks were located around a large teepee. On the shopping street,

there was a long row of stalls selling VW parts or goods. It is worth mentioning that there were old VW parts, new VW parts and NOS parts, as well as accessories and goodies. We bought some really nice VW parts that were on sale.

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Unit 55 Leyland Trading Estate, NN8 1RS

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Direct to Film (DTF) printing allows for highresolution and vibrant prints with inctricate details and gradients, suitable for complex designs, photographs, and fine artwork. There are no colour limitations to DTF and no screen setup fees. DTF prints have a soft and flexible feel, similar to screen printing. There is no minimum order quantity and there is the ability to print white ink on dark fabrics.

Direct to Garment (DTG) prinitng has many of the same benefits as DTF when it comes to printing, as they are similar techniques. Deciding which process is for you will be down to personal prefernce. We are able to offer one-off sample prints of both techniques for a small fee for customers who require it. The only difference between the two techniques is DTG is printing directly onto the garment instead of onto film first.

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Our vinyl stickers are made from PVC material, which is sturdy and resistant to tearing, fading, and moisture. They're UV-resistant, which means they can withstand exposure to sunlight without fading easily. We can create custom shape stickers to your design and a wide range of vinyl to choose from, including clear, chrome, holographic, glow in the dark, and more.

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99 PROBLEMS BUT MY BUS AIN’T ONE WORDS BY CHEZ WILLIAMS

As I’m sure we all know, a lot can happen in just a few short months and the universe does like to throw a curve ball now and again. I have never been the greatest fan of this time of year, if I’m honest. I get an extra year on the clock and also the clocks change which makes me want to hibernate until spring comes.

I don’t like the cold and wet weather as I’m very much a sunshine person, but that’s the beauty of living in the UK. Our seasons are very different and warmer weather is always something I look forward to. This year, just as things started to turn and get cooler, I decided to book myself a holiday somewhere warm. I like Cyprus as it’s really friendly and not that far away. The weather is usually beautiful so it’s my kind of place.

After spending a few splendid nights in Paphos, I was clumsy enough to twist my ankle and land on it badly, breaking it in two places – not what I needed at all. I spent the rest of my holiday in hospital, where they fitted me with a large metal plate and seven screws to hold it all together. They let me out just in time to get my flight home, so I missed most of

84

the nice weather and came back to the cold and wet. The only positive side to this little tale was that in the cab on the way out to the airport I had spent £10 on travel insurance – probably the best £10 I have ever spent in my life, and had I not done so I would have been in a whole world of trouble. Lesson well and truly learnt.

As boredom overtook me whilst my ankle was healing I had plenty of time to think about things. Loz was in the workshop keeping things going as ever, and I was hobbling about on crutches trying not to damage my one good remaining ankle (I’m really not very safe on crutches). As I have mentioned before, I’m quite a hoarder and not very good at clearing things out or selling things I don’t really use. Well, it dawned on me that it was time for this to change. I could do with making some space and letting go of some things I never use any more, so I started making a list. I know I always feel lighter after having a sort out. It’s like a weight being taken off my shoulders, but I’m still always reluctant to do it. You never know when you might need something and if I get rid of things, sod’s law dictates that I will need it in the next few days.

Around 16 years ago, I went to the Volksworld Show and saw something I had never seen before. It was a 1967 VW Kemperink in Army Green.

It belonged to my friend Chewie and I knew he had it but I’d never seen it in the flesh. He drove off the road in the campsite onto the grass and straight away it got stuck and buried itself up to its axles in mud. I instantly fell in love with it and knew I wanted it in my life.

Chewie had brought it along in order to put it in the for sale area, but as it was marooned in a puddle of mud, that was not going to happen. I ended up spending most of the evening in the back of it, marvelling at its homemade interior and loving how much space there was in there. It’s a metre longer than a normal Split Bus and started life as a Single Cab with a big box on the back. These were generally made for the military and were either communications vehicles or ambulances. It was time to cut a deal and purchase this amazing bit of kit that I wanted so badly. After a long drunken discussion, we agreed a price and I was to go down to Cornwall to collect it in a month or so.

I flew down to Newquay and Chewie

picked me up from the airport. I was planning on having a few days camping in Cornwall and then heading off to the Glastonbury festival for the week. When we got to the Kemperink I could not help but notice that the engine was sat next to it with one of the heads removed. It had dropped a valve on the way back to Cornwall and needed a repair before it was going anywhere. We spent the day fitting a replacement head and installing the engine, which gave me a good opportunity to get acquainted with the subtle quirks of a Kemperink. It was long and heavy, and steering was a challenge as was braking on its original drums.

After a crash course in Kemperink ownership from Chewie, I headed off on my way. Even with its quirks I knew we were going to have a long and happy time together. I made it to Glastonbury and home again afterwards and never looked back on my random purchase.

The rest is history as they say. I took that bus everywhere I could. I loved going to Le Bug Show in Spa, Belgium, where one night we drove to the

restaurant in town and probably had 20 or more people in it. We stayed up all night listening to music until the sun came up. Driving around the track, I saw another Split Kemperink. We pulled up together at the next corner to say hi and check out each other’s rides. It belonged to a guy called Rik van Oort, who was as proud and enthusiastic about his Kemperink as I was about mine – a match made in heaven straight away. I had a fantastic adventure to Northern Ireland for a Halloween party where it snowed quite hard on the way home. I thought it was a handful in the wet, but in the snow it was another level altogether.

The bus came with an original Hella Blue police light on the roof. This attracted a lot of attention from people who found it funny and the police who did not. Three times I was pulled over and threatened with being nicked for impersonating a police car and made to cover it with a bag and duct tape. The thing I remember most about driving the Kemperink was seeing the expressions on people’s faces as they walked down the street, seeing it

come towards them. It just made people smile and wave. Driving through London was always great fun as no-one really knew what to make of it.

So this is a very fond farewell to a much loved and travelled-in bus. It was hard to make the decision to let it go, but times have changed and I’m slowly learning that I can’t keep everything. Sometimes selling things is not the worst thing in the world. There have been so many good nights with so many amazing people. Just writing this has brought back a stack of memories from many places and many faces. I’m lucky to have been a custodian of the Stinker for the time I have had it, but it’s now time for someone else to have an adventure in it. Seeing it leave the yard on a trailer, heading off to its new home, was tough and brought a lump to my throat, but it was time for it to move on and make some other people smile.

Writing this was probably more therapy for me than anything else, but I’m glad I did it and now for the first time I know what it feels like to sell a Split Bus.

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90

A TALE OF TWO OWNERS WORDS AND PHOTGRAPHY BY PJ GIBBONS

Let’s start this thing off with an introduction to the owner, a Mr Steve Parsons – a man of many talents (and names), a man with an exceptional eye for detail and with a slight resemblance to a certain TV presenter.

He has owned a vast number of air-cooled vehicles and has been around the scene since the early ’90s.

His fascination with air-cooled cars started with a motorway services newsagent, where a chance encounter with a well-known magazine got him hooked on all things air-cooled.

Steve is a graphic designer. He’s designed many of the best logos and branding you may see at events, on these very pages and all over the interweb. He’s got a style that incorporates traditional aesthetics, colours and designs but with a modern digital format.

To top it off, he’s even designed a Hot Wheels car.

He is also the director of a company known as AutoWares, who design and make high-quality, helpful products for air-cooled classic cars. For example, Auto-Wares are behind the excellent convex mirrors (which are fitted on my vehicle), the beautiful leather fuel cap holder (also on my vehicle), the leather latch locks (also on my vehicle), magnetic signs (also on my vehicle), vent covers (also on my vehicle) … the list goes on.

Continuing – Steve also goes by the name of “the Patina Blender”. Now if you haven’t seen Steve’s work before, then it is clear that he’s doing an excellent job. I can tell you now that his blending is also on the vehicle you see before you. That’s right, Steve took the skills honed from his fine art background and began hand-painting patina back into vehicles, for example, patinated vehicles which had required new metal welding in, such as a wheel arch or door bottoms, replicating texture, wear and age. He believes “less is more” and doesn’t “create” patina, more “restores” it, and fixes only what needs fixing.

Steve’s work is so good that it is genuinely a push to find it – even when you know where to look.

He is a long-time member of the RSVP family – a club with a penchant for low, patina vehicles with stacks of style. This is how I was first introduced to him many moons ago, through club displays, low cars and road trips. Now, RSVP as a club have been responsible for some of the UK’s coolest vehicles. I would even go as far as to say that collectively they have had a hand in influencing the style and stance of many air-cooled vehicles that we see at events today.

Oh yes, I almost forgot. He is the man behind the Midland Air-Cooled Swap Meets, too.

So what do you get when you mix a lifelong fascination with aircooled, a background in design and fine art, a close circle of friends with similar tastes, an eye for detail, a man with a vision and a truly stunning patina survivor?

The beautiful Type2 that you see before you is a combination of

92

both man and nature’s artistic efforts – a December 1960 (US spec) 11-Window Kombi, painted in L345 Light Grey. According to the vehicle’s M-plate, it was originally designated to Turin, Italy (the home of the Turin Shroud and Fiat), and owned by a naval serviceman stationed in Italy post-war. A man believed to be Mr Stan “Larry” Luckman.

During this period, Volkswagen had an incentive whereby military personnel could order vehicles for their time in Europe, and VW would later arrange for them to be shipped back home for you after your service was completed for a nominal fee. So after a couple of years, that is what happened.

The Kombi was shipped to the West Coast of the USA in around 1963 and it was around this point in time that the owner decided to upgrade the Kombi and it was fitted with a brand new, very early Caravelle interior.

Larry was a Naval machinist. He travelled the world and was involved in the building and maintenance of many ships, including

the USS Fox (built in 1963/64). Something that often “comes with the territory” in military personnel is hot-rodding, tinkering and modifying vehicles, something Larry enjoyed doing with his various motors in his spare time.

He was the gentleman responsible for the gauges in the front, a bigger, more powerful motor, an early Gene Berg shifter and bumper bars. He also owned multiple Bajas, Sand-Rails and Bugs.

Judging by the stickers on the bumper, for a number of years the Kombi remained “active” at the Mare Island Naval Base in the Bay Area. It was a little later that Larry moved out to Washington State, and it was around the 1980s when, sadly, these vehicles were

eventually laid up.

The Kombi was sat on the end of a small row of vehicles next to a lake, with one side facing south and being continuously exposed to the sun. Hence the incredibly strong patination to one side. The north west seems to give vehicles a dark, rich patina. The reds come through very deeply and blend in beautifully with the browns and darker shades. Nature did an exceptional job on this vehicle and it certainly has a unique patina all of its own.

It was not until 2013 that the Kombi was rediscovered. Grass was growing around it, moss on the roof, gutters and window

apertures. The wheels and tyres were slowly sinking into the damp soil and where there were once saplings, now there are trees.

The old Kombi was filled with “junk” and used as some form of storage shed. Time in the damp grass and the wet climate had taken its toll. The lower sections of the vehicle were eaten away, rotten and damaged. The interior had suffered greatly and was now in a very sad state. The heydays of cruising in Italy, basking in the California sun, touring and hot rodding were now just a distant memory.

Through the power of the internet, forums, email, digital photography, online banking and hard work, the Kombi made its way back to Europe, this time to Belgium. To Bob at the world-famous BBT. “Love at first sight” is a bit of a cliché, but from what Steve said it seems to fit the situation quite well. After seeing a single lone photo,

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he made contact with BBT and began to lay the foundations of a deal to acquire the Kombi. He needed to sell his beloved Ghia to facilitate the purchase, but BBT were patient and before long the vehicle was on its way to sunny Britain.

Steve said that when the vehicle arrived it was in need of a fair bit of work. The body looked incredible, the patina even better in real life than the photos had shown. It was clear this project was going to take some time and energy – but he was prepared and knew the juice would be worth the squeeze.

So without haste he got to work. Steve learned on the job. He learnt to weld, grind and cut. He learned painting, blending and restoring. With help from his friends in RSVP, he was well on his way. Steve replaced and repaired the sills on both sides, outriggers, floor sections and top hat sections, carefully blending in any removed patina.

“I’d never welded before I tackled the bodywork on this, but with a welder loaned from Colin Pace and many pointers from Phil Sutton from Creative Coachworks, it came together.”

30 years of being in the scene once again lent a hand. With the aid of his buddy Paul they fitted 2” tubs (from Deluxe Metal Works).

Good friend Brett gave the bus an extra-high steering box raise.

Steve and the RSVP boys like low cars, but low cars take time, energy and money to complete. Steve had used the majority of his budget in acquiring the vehicle and making it solid. However, with some help he was able to get the vehicle on the road and ready to go – albeit in the polar opposite aesthetic. Shasta style.

A notched chassis, shaved and strengthened gearbox support, dropped spindles, Airevalley 4” beam (Leeds Leeds Leeds), and adjustable rear spring-plates all went into getting the Kombi to sit as Steve had envisioned.

Steve enjoyed a slightly different vibe for a while, taking the Kombi off-road and along the not-so-beaten path. This was the best part of a decade ago now, long before every transit or transporter van had embraced a similar aesthetic.

And a worthwhile upgrade for both safety and performance – dual circuit disc conversion. Steve chose the popular Fellows Speedshop disc kit, which allows the use of multiple lug patterns, i.e. Porsche or Volkswagen. Steve says that they are the “best thing I ever bought for my bus”.

Some time later, when budget allowed, he was ready to join his peers in the “cat’s eye removal club”. His close friends from over

The next thing on the list would be the wheels. Steve needed something to complement the amount of tuck from that beam, a

wheel that suits the vibe and that works with the paint and tones.

Steve found just the right rims, a lovely set of SA Rostyle Sprints.

So nice he bought them twice. The first set were too “clean”, so he sold them and bought a set of slightly rougher, more original condition, SA Rostyle Sprints which suit the vehicle perfectly.

cabinets. The seat/bed is a Rusty Lee rock’n’roll version but with square corners. The bulkhead seat was made by me and converts into a small bed. All of the trimming was done by Austin at Waboo. The headlining is the cheap one off of eBay that I thought was great and fitted perfectly.”

Powering the Kombi is a trusty and reliable 1500cc single port motor, now uprated to 1600cc with larger pistons and barrels. This is mated to a 1300cc Bug swing axle gearbox and standard drums.

The interior is a perfect combination of tasteful, classic and practical elements. A “less is more” style – everything in it serves a purpose, contributing to a cosy and classy yet very usable home away from home.

Next it was time to tackle the interior. Sadly, the Caravelle camping interior was too far gone to be used, so a new plan was going to need formulating.

“It originally came with a very early Caravelle interior but it was shot.

I had my talented great friend Russell Birt make me Devon-esque

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Steve made his own door cards and panels, using simple MDF and painted to match the style of a Deluxe. They look excellent and until he showed me, I didn’t have a clue.

“The front bench seat is a custom one made by Phil Sutton at

Creative Coachworks and is one piece and hinges from the front. It’s been covered in vinyl by his mum, Chris.”

Steve even wired in heated seat pads for the bench for those extra-cold British mornings.

When you combine everything together – a fantastic base, years of knowledge, hard work, good friends and incredible attention to detail – the results speak for themselves. A vehicle that in almost a decade of current ownership has covered over 30,000 miles, seen Europe and been all over the UK. Been to countless events, including Hessisch Oldendorf, Barndoor Gathering, European Bug In, Spa and more.

A vehicle with such a unique and rich patina which simply cannot be replicated (unless you are Steve – who can do that –

call him). A history traceable back to Italy, across the West Coast of the USA and back to Europe, a warm and welcoming interior and a very killer stance. It’s just about perfect. Without it, perhaps Steve wouldn’t have learnt to blend patina or create all of his incredible and useful accessories, so in reality the world would be worse off without this bus, in more ways than one.

Steve would like to thank, Maz, Amelie, Paul Lippett, Phil Sutton, Russell Birt, Austin Watts, the RSVP boys and everyone else who has supported him along the way.

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e 1+ bl 10 ita 0 Su es g ra fo

Restoring aircooled VWs since 2001 Servicing, inspections and MOT’s Lowering and mechanical upgrades Modification and fabrication Auto electrics, split charge systems and 240 volt hook-ups For all air-cooled VW’s and transporter generations Vehicle valuations Call for FREE friendly advice

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KUBELWAGEN WORDS BY MAES KRISTOF

The first Kübelwagen feature in Hayburner! We have no idea why it’s taken us over 11 years to get a Kübel on these pages. They’re really not the easiest vehicle to come by and definitely not in this sort of condition.

We thought we’d give you a brief rundown of what a Kübelwagen “bucket car” actually is before we speak to owner Maes Kristof regarding the one you’re looking at here.

Although Ferdinand Porsche had been talking to Adolf Hitler about a lightweight military car as early as 1934, it wasn’t until 1938 that the Third Reich army formally asked Porsche to design a cheap vehicle that could be driven safely both on and off the road in even the harshest conditions. The Volkswagen Beetle was the obvious choice to be used as the starting point for the project. Porsche started work right away and had a prototype ready within a month.

However, during development they realised that they

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY KENNETH ANNO

would not be able to strengthen the chassis of the Volkswagen Beetle enough to withstand the stresses that a military vehicle would have to endure. In order for a 2WD vehicle with such a small motor to have sufficient off-road power, it would need to be light.

The army had set a load-carrying capacity of 950 kg (1090 lb), including four combat-dressed soldiers, which meant the vehicle itself would weigh no more than 550kg. Porsche therefore contracted Trutz, a well-regarded military coachbuilder, to help design the body.

The military’s development testing began after a November 1938 presentation of the prototype, which was designated Type62. Although it lacked4-wheel drive (a common feature of American military jeeps), the vehicle was able to manoeuvre over rough terrain with relative ease, even when compared directly to a modern standard German Army 4×4. The project was

approved for further development after the vehicle’s light weight combined with a self-locking differential eliminated the need for a 4×4.

The Type62 was further developed over the course of 1939, with a more boxy body. Early models were field tested during the invasion that began in September of that year. While the military were generally satisfied with the vehicle’s performance, they did ask for a few changes: the vehicle’s lowest speed was reduced from 8.0 to 4.5 miles per hour (0–60 km/h) to accommodate the pace of

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the marching troops, and it also needed to be improved in terms of off-road capabilities. Porsche responded to both of these requests by installing new axles, complete with gear reduction hubs, which gave the car more torque and ground clearance at the same time. The car was further improved with revised dampers and 41 cm (16 in) wheels, and a reduced slip differential. All of this was completed

with countless minor changes. The vehicle was later renamed Type82 to reflect these changes.

In February 1940, the first production Kübelwagens were produced on a full-scale basis. As soon as the Volkswagen factories became operational, production began. There were no major changes made before production ceased in 1945; only minor changes were made, mostly to remove

unnecessary parts and to reinforce some that had failed to meet the demands of the job. Early prototypes were built with 4-wheel drive (Type86) and various engines; however, none of these offered a significant improvement in performance or capabilities over the already existing Type82, and none of the designs were ever put into production. In March 1943, a revised dash was added to the car, and a larger 1131 cc engine was developed for the new Schwimmwagen, producing more power and torque than the previous 985 cc unit. When Volkswagen production came to an end at the war’s end, 55,000 Kübelwagens had been produced.

Q: Let’s start at the beginning.

What’s your name, how old are you and where are you from?

A: Hello! My name is Maes Kristof and I come from Menen, Belgium.

Q: What’s your day job and do you

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have any other hobbies?

A: My day job is as a contractor specialising in cladding. My hobbies, excluding classic Volkswagens, are collecting vintage enamel advertising signs and keeping Koi Carp.

Q: What’s your ultimate VW/ Porsche?

A: I think I already own my ultimate car. Really I’m most passionate

when it comes to early vintage Volkswagens. For me it’s the older the better, and if it’s an original Belgian-delivered car that’s a big plus! Originality is important for me – that and the vehicle’s history. My favourite in my own collection is an 1961 Deluxe Beetle. I’m the second owner. With low mileage and being originally from Menen, it’s a great car. I even have the original invoice and all

the info/photos from the man who purchased it. I’ve left it exactly as it was with all his stuff like his glasses and his patron saints. It’s all still there like he is still driving it – a real time-capsule. I also have a one-owner Jeans Beetle from the same region with full history.

But I’d have to say that my alltime favourite driver-car is in my collection and is my 1958 Lowlight Ghia convertible.

Q: Favourite VW event?

A: As we are part of the organisation, it’s got to be the Vintage VW meeting in Flanders Fields on 1st–2nd June in Kemmel, Belgium, www.vintagevwmeeting. be. Hessisch Oldendorf 22 and Lavenham 23 were also brilliant events.

Q: What got you into Volkswagens

and how many have you owned before this one? Can you list them?

A: I was actually born in a 1969 Beetle, Lotus White with a red interior. Currently in my collection are a Golf GTI 16v, 1974 Jeans Beetle in Red (Belgian car), 1956 Oval in Black (Swedish car), 1951 Split in Sandbeige (Swedish car), 1961 Beetle in Black (Belgian car),

1965 Type2 Westy in Yellow/White (Belgian car), 1966 Beetle in Sea Blue, 1944 Kübelwagen, 1961 Lotus White Vert (USA project), and a 1971 Porsche 911 Targa.

Q: Who, or what, would you say is your biggest influence in the worldwide VW community?

A: My biggest influence is the VW community as a whole. It is still so big and very alive.

Q: Best moment during classic VW/Porsche ownership?

A: My favourite moments are just visiting events with friends to enjoy a great long weekend. I love getting to know other VW enthusiasts.

Q: Worst moment during classic VW/Porsche

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ownership?

A: Either trying to acquire paperwork for a vehicle or when having a breakdown on the way to an event.

Q: So, what is it we’re looking at here (year, spec and model)?

A: This is a genuine 1944 Kübelwagen.

Q: What’s the story? How did you get hold of it?

A: I bought the car from Airborne Garage Bv in Holland.

Q: Did the car come with any history?

A: Yes, we were lucky enough that all the original paperwork from the owner just after WWII survived.

Q: Run us through the restoration/recommission.

Who did the work?

A: The car was fully restored to all original standards by the garage. They worked on it for about four years with mostly original parts.

Q: Paint colour (and code if you know it)?

A: The colour is Dunkelgelb “dark yellow”. It’s a standard military colour used on Panzer tanks and all types of military vehicles of the time.

Q: Suspension set-up?

A: Rebuilt using all original stock Kübel parts.

Q. Wheel and tyre type and sizes?

A. Original 16” Kübel wheels with off-road 5.25 period correct tyres.

Q: Engine and gearbox?

A: 4 cyl 1.1 l 18 kw 25hp engine with 4-speed crash gearbox.

Q: Have you replaced the electrical system?

A: It’s been fully replaced to the original specification.

Q: Were there any parts that you found it hard to get hold of?

A: Yes! Every single one.

Q: Accessories?

A: We have fitted genuine Notek lights front and back.

Q: Have you got a stereo fitted and if so, what are you currently listening to – either in the car or during those late nights in the workshop/garage?

A: Only marching music was allowed when this was built.

Q: What’s your favourite thing about it, e.g. wheels, paint, detail, trip it’s been on, memory with it, etc.?

A: I think it’s a very interesting piece of history, a real reminder of WWII and also the very beginning of Volkswagen.

Q: If you had to change one thing, what would it be and why?

A: I would maybe like to find some more fitting accessories for the car from 1944. I hope to find them in the future.

Q: What’s next for you and the car?

A: We go to an event in Kemmel and maybe before that we will do a few tours with our friends around the region.

Q: How often do you use the car?

A: It depends on the weather and the season. I’d like to take them all out at least once a week.

Q: What’s your next project going to be?

A: A 1961 white convertible with small tail lights.

Q: Who would you like to thank connected to the project?

A: I would like to thank Kenneth for the wonderful photos, and Sidney Masurelle, my mechanic and friend who does these restorations.

Check out our improved website for new parts and accessories *NEW AND IMPROVED* Bay Window fuel sender access hatch for Late Bays.

Hayburner Bay Window Fuel Sender Access Hatches

A simple solution for busses that have had (or are going to have) a hole cut in the rear parcel shelf to access the fuel sender and laser cut to the correct profile.

Easy to fit, but if you’re not experienced or confident in the procedure please seek professional advice before cutting above your fuel tank.

Watch this space for a split screen version

Bespoke, handmade and high quality windscreen covers and custom cab mats - all comes in a range of colours, edge trims.

Quick and very easy to fit these covers will be keeping that early morning sunshine well away from those camping lie in eyes! All our covers also come with a small Hayburner label and fully complete with storage bag.

VW Front and Rear Screen Covers & Custom Cab Mats.

All Hayburner cab mats are made to order and made with the best quality sisal and rubber material.

Available for all types of VWs! Custom orders are welcome, please email hayburnersales@hayburner.co.uk

Custom-made Gear Knobs

Bug-Tech made gear knobs, but not just for Bug-Techs.

We now have a whole section on the website dedicated to gear knobs. The new gear knobs are available for all models of VWs. They are drilled and tapped to fit the standard gear shifter from your car. We can make them for aircooled models and for Type 25’s even T4’s.

Have a look at our range or send us an email to see if we can make one for your car. Keep an eye out because we are constantly expanding the range too.

Dan@hayburner.co.uk

WWW.HAYBURNER.CO.UK Carburettor Kits and Accessories We’ve sourced one of the best suppliers in the UK for classic Volkswagen carburettor kits with some added punch!

Different sets of Weber and Dellorto’s whether for twin-port or single port, standalone or twins, Type 1, 3 or 4 engines - get your replacement carburettors for your Aircooled Volkswagen engine here on the Hayburner store.

We also have a range of linkages and air-filters for all your carby needs.

EVA Skid Plates & Fuel Filter Kits

023-07-04 at 14.05.09

*NEW* and improved EVA Restos Skid plate - Armour for your front beam that helps skip over bumps in the road. The latest design for our super popular T1 Skid Plate kit, designed to offer unrivalled protection for your framehead bottom plate/edge on your lowered beetles and Ghias.

Fuel Filter Kits - An elegant and safe solution to fit your inline filter. Fits to the side of a stock T1 gearbox using the original fixings and sits inline to join the stock chassis solid line to the engine bay solid line.

Mounts the previously vulnerable filter out of harms way, and it’s positioning makes for the most efficient filtration without being dangerously mounted within the engine bay itself.

Accessories range from AAC We’ve got an amazing selection of pieces from the guys over at Aircooled Accessories for the Hayburner Store.

Check out some of the amazing parts from Aircooled Accessories for you classic Aircooled Volkswagen.

WANT TO ADVERTISE HERE? PLEASE GET IN TOUCH AT advertising@hayburner.co.uk THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT.

Because you wouldn’t want a boring shifter?

Engineered in Germany / Assemebled in the UK / Customised by you.

Big John.

Bus Shifter.

Race Shifter.

Daily Driver & Shorty.

One for the custom guys.

When we say big, we aren’t just playing around.

This guy is a full foot taller than a standard Bug-Tech Bus shifter, measuring in at an impressive 800mm (31.5 inches) from top to bottom.

Bus gears are renowned for being a little all over the place at the best of times. With a Bug-Tech you can say goodbye to feeling like you’re in neutral in every gear. This is one of those upgrades that is maximum gain from minimal effort.

A favourite of racers on and off the drag strip. Go to any Drag strip where there is a classic VW class and you are almost certain to see one. The shifter is easy to fit, easy to maintain and easy to use.

Crafted from Aircraft grade billet aluminium, engineered in Germany, individually handbuilt in the U.K to order.

They come as standard on a Bus base, because more often than not they go in buses. But fear not you Bug people, we can put them on a Raceshifter base too.

The Bug-Tech’s easy installation can simply have this installed in two bolts.

The throw reduction on the Raceshifter comes in at 60%, cutting down on the time between changes. Our shifter is often copied but never matched, neither is our 25 year warranty.

The daily driver has a 40% throw reduction, make it a better shift and comfortable for daily use.

Also available as a shorty; 100mm shorter with a massive 70% throw reduction.

With easy installation the shifter bolts in with ease, transforming the feel of your car’s shifting in minutes.

Buy authentic shifters with a 25 year warranty only at

www.bug-tech.de The perfect gift.

Customising is kinda our thing...

Powdercoated.

Polished.

S Bend.

Gators.

One thing that sets BugTech apart from the rest of the market is you can change them. We like the custom takes, and we fully encourage you making your shifter your own.

From colours to custom bends, shorter or longer with custom lengths. We can take care of it. With powder coating we can really customise the look of your shifter from one colour sleekness to multiple colours. Where there’s a RAL number, we can probably do it.

We know that the raw look isn’t for everyone.

Some people don’t want powder coated either and want a bit more shine in their lives. We can have our shifters properly hand polished right out to a mirror shine. This isn’t a quick scrub with some metal polish, oh no. We are talking every individual component hand sanded and polished by hand, the old fashioned way prior to being assembled. No corners cut on this one.

You’ve seen the signature bend of our shifters, you’ve seen the straight ones too, but have you seen an S Bend? This started out as a popular option with our drag car clients but has since become popular because, simply, it looks ace. Part of our customising side is that we can change up our shifters however you like, there’s a whole gallery on our website for it.

Colours, lengths, thinner shaft, bends, no bends, two bends, it can all be changed.

We were asked over and over again to make gators, but if we were going to cover up the unique look of our shifters we wanted it to be with something good. The Classic Gators are handmade from upholstery grade basket weave material. This fabric not only looks great but is durable too. The are available in Black and Tan for all models.

But wait, customising is kind of our thing, so why stop at the shifters.

Our seamstresses reliably inform us that these can be made from pretty much any material and we can also custom embroider text and small logos too, make your shifter really a one-off.

THEY’RE STILL OUT THERE WORDS BY DAN MORRISSEY PHOTOS BY NED FAUX

If, like me, you spend a bordering on unhealthy amount of time on eBay and various other marketplaces, you will undoubtedly have seen those buzzwords on all the adverts. All trying to grab your attention … and nearly always not true.

110 120

But why do they grab us so hard?

Those two little words … barn find. I guess it’s because we’d all like to stumble across that grail car. That forgotten-about time capsule that’s sat covered in dust in the one single owner’s garage

who just couldn’t get rid of it 25 years ago. That would be the dream, right? Well, dear readers, yes, those buzzwords on the ads are 99% of the time not true. But occasionally, they are …

As was the case for our friend

Drummer Mat. He got wind of a “barn find” that might be up for sale. Now again, those two words set off the usual thoughts of “yeah of course it is”, but then there is always that little glimmer of hope that it might just be something.

So he said, ok, send me some

pictures and I might be interested.

He received the pictures and couldn’t believe what he saw. It was actually a bona fide barn find.

It was found, in a barn! But more than that, it was a cool car that was found in a barn.

What he was looking at was a 1958 Beetle covered in at least an inch of dust. The story behind this one was that it had been bought brand new by a gentleman in Essex. This gentleman was actually a technician for a VW dealership. And the reason that’s cool is because this man had access to all kinds of cool parts and factory accessories that came through the dealership.

Over the years dailying the Beetle and working at the dealership he saw and fitted hundreds of Beetle upgrades and, as you can see, a good number of them found their way onto his own ’58. Period spotlights, the fuel gauge, those awesome sun visors and that Petri steering wheel – just a few of the awesome accessories that found their way onto this car. You can see his upgrades for the indicators, his stonechip treatments, his stereo upgrade. Even down to the window stickers which give a glimpse into the first life this car would have had through the sixties. It even still had an L-plate dangling off it. Every time you look at this car you can see another step in its timeline. But more impressively, those parts were still there.

The story goes that when the original owner, the technician, took the car off the road for a more reliable daily, he tucked the car up in his barn for a rainy day. The thing was, he also used that barn and not wanting to damage the Beetle he actually built a stud wall to protect it, completely boxing it in. Which also helped him to completely forget about it.

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Fast forward a decade and that’s where the guy that Drummer got it from comes in. He knew about the car and had been asking the original owner for years to sell it to him, which was always received with the same answer: no chance, mate. So he gave up, at least for a while. Until one day he bumped into him again and decided, why not try it one last time. Only this time the owner said yes! He bought it without much of a plan other than that he wanted it, and so the ’58

moved from inside the walls of one barn and into another. The ’58 would then enjoy several more years of barn-based hibernation until Mat got those pictures by text.

Mat had been presented with an actual Capri? Blue ’58 barn find, perhaps even arguably a double barn find, with tonnes of cool period accessories on it. Now Mat would tell you that he didn’t need it, didn’t have room for it and didn’t really have the time for it with all of his other projects. So he did what so many of us would do in that same situation.

He said, “Yeah, I’ll be there tomorrow with a trailer.”

Mat had to literally drag it out of the barn and back into the daylight (two of the wheels not even wanting to spin), haul it back home and try to make some space for it. But it was never a question of need, or even want, really. He’d been presented with one of those unicorns, a proper barn find. And he couldn’t say no.

So what’s next for the ’58? Some of you who went to the Viva Skeg Vegas show back in August will likely have seen the ’58 out front of the Hayburner stall. You may even have seen some of those details I mentioned. Mat’s plan is to rebuild it with a classic speed style and to do the Ardennes Rally in it. But, simply, he said that he just wanted to save it.

Those buzzwords like “barn find” and “abandoned for twenty years” are nearly always not what you were hoping for. But sometimes, just sometimes, you may be surprised.

Last month we heard somebody say, “oh I know someone with a rusty old Beetle he wants to get rid of”. I was told that it had been in a garage since the late ’90s but was really far gone and not worth the effort. We went to check it out anyway, and it turned out to be a pretty good ’71 1200 in Marina Blue. A nice and original, unmolested car, tucked up and doing nothing in the garage.

Rusty, yes, but definitely worth saving. It’s now with our good friend JoPro who wants to recreate his first Beetle (another Marina Blue 1200) and is hoping to have it on the road in the summer. Another one saved.

So keep your minds and your eyes open. They are definitely still out there. Happy hunting, folks!

WANT TO ADVERTISE HERE? PLEASE GET IN TOUCH AT advertising@hayburner.co.uk THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT.

WANT TO ADVERTISE HERE? PLEASE GET IN TOUCH AT advertising@hayburner.co.uk THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT.

FIELD OF DREAMS AIRCOOLED VW SHOW 2024 30th AUG - 1st SEPT

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LESS IS DEFINITELY MORE WORDS BY JAMES PEENE

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PHOTOS BY JAMES RUDLAND

Think this is just another Outlaw 912? Then look again, as the KAMManufaktur 912C is an entirely different beast. It’s truly next-level stuff.

It’s a bit like that moment in This is Spinal Tap, where they’re talking about amplifiers. You know, “These go to 11. It’s one louder, isn’t it?”

Yeah, okay you could make 10 the loudest but 11 is one more, isn’t it? Where are we going with this?

Well, in this instance, you could make the argument that 912 adds up to being more than 911.

However, adding that extra digit to the badge on a 911 usually has the polar opposite effect amongst the Porsche cognoscente. “Oh, it’s just a four-cylinder” and “The 912 is the poor man’s Porsche”, etc. Luckily, one man who thought otherwise is Miklós Kázmér.

Miklós (or Miki) liked the 912’s underdog status and liked the idea of turning that on its head by going further with a 912 than anyone else we’ve encountered to date.

The fruit of many years of planning, sourcing parts and labour is this KAMManufaktur 912C.

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Miklós is a film producer from Hungary, but his father was an engineer so he grew up with a liking for odd cars and rallying. He says: “My first car was a Beetle, but then life took me in a different direction. About ten years ago I found myself in a position to buy another classic. I then got involved with the E35 Challenge. Which is when I realized I’m not a BMW guy; I’m a Porsche guy. I also discovered I’m not really a race guy; I really like

the build process. So, I sold my race car and started looking around for the next project …

“I got to thinking that nobody really dares to do anything with old Porsches. They’re too valuable these days, but a 912 is more affordable. I also like its underdog status and so I thought, ‘why don’t I do a 912?’.”

The original plan was to build a 911R replica, and a 912 was sourced as a donor vehicle so its body could be used as a mould for the replacement carbon fibre panels that would play such a huge part in this project.

The donor car was originally owned by a guy in the US military serving overseas. It eventually wound up with a lady in the UK, which is who Miki bought it from before shipping it to Budapest, where KAMM is based.

Miki reveals: “It was an MoT failure with bad paint, and whilst it had low oil pressure it was still drivable. Being a 912 it was a cheap car at one point so had been patched up and kept alive, but these old Porsches are hard to kill.”

The donor vehicle was stripped to a bare shell and repaired where necessary. However, all of the bolton panels like the bonnet, decklid, bumpers, doors and front wings are now KAMM’s own carbon fibre replacements.

The thought process here aligns with Lotus’s late, great Colin Chapman, who said that in order to increase speed and build great road and race cars you need to “Simplify and add lightness”. The upshot of this is a car that now weighs 750kg against a factory-spec 912’s curb weight of 965kg, and yet still retains the classic, slim-hipped looks of a first generation, pre-impact bumper 911 (and 912, of course).

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Should that not be enough, KAMM also offers a full carbon fibre bodyshell, where the roof and rear quarters are built out of the same material. And, to add further lightness (you know what we mean), the glass windows (bar the toughened front windscreen) have been replaced with Lexan.

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The interior contains nothing you don’t need, like rear seats, which are optional and, let’s be honest, pretty pointless in a regular 912.

Seatbelts here are four-point belt, but you could opt for a more user-friendly three-point automatic, or go the whole hog and spec an FIA six-point system, in which case an integrated roll-cage or FIA-approved

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race-spec cage are two further options.

collection.

An electric heater and air-con potentially offer more comfort (they’re extras), but Miki says: “The intention wasn’t to build a race car for the street, but a street car you can race. I wanted to retain the classic looks but provide a modern-day driving experience. Something people will enjoy driving rather than just having in their

“A huge amount of thought and development went into this car. We would create the idea and then create the part to make it a reality. Everything is bespoke. We make it ourselves or have someone build it specifically for us.”

Like the engine. A stock 912 rolled out of Stuttgart activate the TracTive Suspension. with 90hp. The Kamm 912C boasts 190bhp thanks to a 2-litre Flat-Four from Switzerland’s JPS Air-Cooled.

For anyone who’s never heard of TracTive Suspension, KAMM describe this set-up as a semiThe first iteration of this car saw it running carbs, active electronic system with a five (pre-set) position but as Kamm are constantly tuning and improving its switch in the cabin to choose between desired product, these made way for fuel injection and they settings. Again, like Spinal Tap, crank up the dial to created their own individual throttle-bodies and fly-by- increase the experience. All pre-set positions can be wire system linked to the “Drive Me Crazy” button on bespoke to the client’s needs. the dash. Playing with this switches between engine maps, to allow you to go from “daily” mode to “track”. In order to keep everything under control, there are The car will hold the revs for longer, open up the AP Racing, four-pot calipers up front and two-pot on valves in the bespoke stainless-steel exhaust, and the rear. Customers could go for Fuchs or steels, but

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in this instance we see 917-style five-bolt, threepiece aluminium (R15 J7) rims.

Everything about the KAMM 912c is tunable or customizable to meet with its owner’s needs and to demonstrate how well engineered it is. The first example has driven from its home in Budapest to the UK, Holland and many places in between this year, tackling hill climbs, show ‘n’ shines and even ice races. As Miki says: “We did everything we could to torture this car and put it to the test.”

This year’s build-slots are filled, and the plan is

to build five cars next year, with each one taking 12 months to complete. The starting price for a semicarbon 912c is 320,000 Euros and for a full carbonbody car it’s 360,000 Euros – not including the price of the donor car. That sounds rich – and it is – but compare that to similar restomod Porsches and you can see where the money goes. Heck, a Singer 911 starts at upwards of $750K and against that, this restomod 912 is still more affordable than the restomod 911.

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RETRO WORDS BY TOBY WALKER

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PHOTOS BY DAN DU CROS

I’m a massive fan of stripes on cars (maybe it’s because I was born in the 1970s?). I have always wanted to adorn one of my Buses with stripes, but never had the balls to commit, largely because in my eyes it’s one of the hardest personal customisations to get right.

When I first set eyes on Giles’ freshly completed Bay Window in August of this year, the first thing that hit me was the paint job. The colours of the stripes are perfect. Bright red and yellow with a midgrey breaking the two colours is somehow eye-catching but not too in-your-face, leaving you thinking it could well have been a factory

application à la the Champagne or Landmark editions of the late ’70s.

Once the stripes draw you in, the quality of the rest of the restoration and all the cool period details start to hit. Let’s leave it to Giles to tell the story of their super-cool ’71.

Giles and his wife Sarah had been thinking about getting an Early Bay Window after their first son Olly was born in 2011.

The dream became a reality thanks to Giles’ other VW – a

custom 1972 Beetle, which was his first car, purchased the day after he passed his driving test in 1990, and by the way, this car is also a bad-ass show car in its own right! The Beetle was in for some work at Retro Customs in Baldock around April 2012, at the same time as the Bay was languishing in the corner of Larry’s workshop. Larry was building a beautiful Mango Green Early Bay Westy on BBS Split

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rims for a guy named Graham Angus. It was Graham who had shipped Giles’ and Sarah’s Bus over from Washington State, basically for its 2110 engine and Porsche 5-speed gearbox. The pair were keen on a 1971 as this model retained all the Early Bay looks, but has the bonus of servoassisted disc brakes. Larry mentioned that the Bay might be for sale minus the engine and box. After a couple of months a deal was struck, and Giles now owned a ’71 Early Bay. During its life in the US, the Bus had been badly painted red up to the roof line and, looking back at it now, had a considerable amount of filler in it but was

solid enough underneath. It didn’t have an interior, but Giles manage to score a halfdecent Westfalia Campmobile interior with 3/4 bed off eBay. This was installed along with a ply roof liner to cover the dark blue and stars paint.

The first plan was just to get it running, MOT’d and usable. It didn’t take too long from when it was collected to get it to Chez at Rapid Rodent Racing who started work right away. With an engine rebuild and a second-hand gearbox fitted, there were some other areas that needed addressing, like new outer seals and the fridge vent

welding up. Once these smaller jobs were completed, it was decided that the best solution was to give it another coat of red paint. By November 2012 it was MOT’d and being used pretty much daily even through winter: “It wasn’t pretty but, we loved it.” The apparently good second-hand gearbox gave up the ghost after about 1000 miles, so a new Freeway Flyer was bought from VW Heritage and the Bus was used most days for the next seven years in all weathers. As you can imagine, by the end of 2019 it was looking a bit worse for wear and needed some significant money spending on it.

At this point, the couple could have decided to put the money towards getting another Bus, but over the years they had covered over 40,000 miles and made a lot of memories in the old girl, so the decision was made to go for a full restoration.

Throughout the crazy year that was 2020, Giles was spending a lot more time at home, and in between home schooling he was using the time to get his 1975 Mercedes 280 Coupe sorted (still working on that). However, Giles and Sarah were also making plans for getting the Bus done

so it could be used for holidays once the world finally opened up again.

Giles had known Steve Holmes and Nick Hill at Double H Restorations for a while and had spoken to Steve about the plans he and Sarah had for the Bus. The date was set to commence the restoration early in 2021.

Chez removed the engine in preparation for a bit of a spruce up. He also transported the Bus up to Steve and Nick for the restoration to begin. A full bare metal restoration wasn’t really the original

plan or in the budget, but after chatting more with Steve, the poor paint was full of micro blisters and considering the number of panels that were going to have to be replaced, they decided that bare metal was the only way to go with it.

If you have seen any of the cars built by Steve and Nick at Double H Restorations, you will know one thing you can be sure of is attention to detail. These boys have been producing prestigious and multi-award-winning cars for years.

During this restoration, the Bus had the following panels fitted: complete front panel, A-panels, front inner arches, all four arches, on the rear using Late Bay

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rear arches modified and fabricated to match the original ’71 model year only spec arches, cab floor sections, outer sills, outriggers, jacking points, new rear hatch, one rear corner and battery tray, B-posts, rear bumper and a rear valance. A good rust-free replacement sliding door was sourced, and some localised rust repairs were made on the cab door bottoms. All the welding was done by Nick Hill.

The chassis were pretty good, having been clear waxoyled to death in 2012, but the grim task of stripping all the old underseal off was undertaken by Stevo, with a new coat of Waxoyl applied to everything underneath. As we have already mentioned, this Bus used to be used all year round, and Giles and Sarah were not about to change this, so a detailed chassis was never going to be practical.

After all the welding was complete, the body was taken back to bare metal by hand with paint stripper. Giles helped Steve with this for a couple of days. After bare metaling the Bus it was sprayed in epoxy primer while Steve cracked on with a couple of other projects and Steve and Giles started to talk about a bodywork stripe and colour designs.

A big part of this Bus’s cool factor is the ride height and wheels. The original plan was to lower the Bus, and Giles had even bought a set of Cosmics for it in preparation for the slam job, but in the end it drove so nicely and was so easy to work on at stock height that they decided to keep it stock. According to Giles, “it makes changing clutch and accelerator cables in the rain much easier”. We will take that as

It was then on to those awesome wheels. As Giles says, it’s “quite possibly my favourite part of the Bus, and what we get asked about The rear shocks that came on the Bus were Koni heavy turns. Giles most”. We have to say it’s one of ours too. says it drove really well and handled great for a stock height Bus. They are Western Cyclone IIs 14” x 5.5” all round on Late Bus stud The shocks were looking very tired, but when Giles tried to buy pattern. They were originally fitted to the aforementioned Landmark replacements it became apparent that Koni no longer make them, so the original set were refurbished which cost more than a full set Converted Campers which were sold in the USA in the late 1970s and based on a Late Bay stud pattern. Giles scored them on eBay of four shocks would have cost. A new set of Koni Classics were after deciding to keep the Bus stock height. “There are not many added to the front to keep things even. aftermarket wheels that suit a stock height Bus on 5 x 112 pattern. words of experience.

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Slot mags definitely do and they were going to be the wheel of choice, until the Westerns popped up for a few hundred quid.” Giles has had them on the Bus since 2015, but had them blasted and the faces diamond cut. “I was going to leave them bare finish without lacquer, but Sarah has always been my voice of reason and sensibly pointed out that they are a pain in the arse to keep clean and that I won’t want to spend four hours cleaning my wheels every time I use it. She’s right, so I had them lacquered and now I just wipe them with a cloth.”

When it came to tyres, there aren’t many period tyre choices for a 14” wheel with the correct load rating. “I had white walls on before which looked great when it was still red, but Steve and I didn’t think they would look right on a white Bus so we got to thinking about all-terrain tyres,

remembering the time I got stuck on a campsite in Devon in the mud! The only ones I could find in the correct 185 R14 were Maxxis Worm Gear A/T, so that’s what we went for. I wasn’t overly sure about how they would drive, or how much road noise they would make, but they’ve been pretty good to be honest. Steering’s a bit heavy when trying to park, but apart from that it will happily sit at 60–65 all day without thrashing the living daylights out of it.”

The new white paint is absolutely flawless, and finished off with all the new bright work and rubbers, the refurbed Western wheels, etc. It’s a real thing of beauty that stands out in a crowd. While talking about standing out, let’s talk about those stripes.

They were painted on, lacquered, then colour sanded to lose the edges. Giles says, “they look amazing and everyone can’t help touching it to see if there’s an edge!” Stevo

put a lot of time and effort into the design.

Initially the stripes were going to follow the cab door lines then the wheel arch, but Stevo said the design would be similar to the vinyl stripe kits and suggested that we come up with an individual design comprising the three stripes Giles and Sarah wanted. So after many different hand-drawn design concepts with different colour ways, he came up with the design you see on the Bus now. As soon as the pair saw this option they knew that this was the one.

The Westfalia Campmobile interior was fitted and trimmed when the couple got the Bus back on the road in 2013. As we mentioned, this Bus originally left the factory as a Kombi, but Mad Matz trimmed the Westy interior in Cream and Tan. The cab headliner was trimmed by Elite Coach trimmers. The work was also carried out

in 2013. The majority of the interior is stock with the odd additional VDO gauge and the Securon seat belts. The engine was a 1641 “borrowed” from Giles’ Beetle. Chez from Rapid Rodent Racing rebuilt the engine as a stock 1600 with twin 34 ICT Dell’ortos The Bus was finally finished in June 2023. Giles told us: “This Bus was not built to win trophies, but we took it to Viva Skeg Vegas as a first outing and scooped Spike’s Choice which was amazing. We then took it to VW Action a couple of weeks later where it was awarded

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Coolest Camper, but they are the only two VW shows we’ve taken it to so far.”

We have a feeling that these won’t be the last of the trophies that Giles and Sarah see, but that’s clearly not why this Bus was built.

It was built as a vehicle for the family to have fun in. Here’s to another 40,000 miles, you guys.

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‘49 TIME WORDS BY NED FAUX

“Shit, Dan! Sorry if you’re busy, but we need to do some work on the ’49 or I’ll have nothing to write about in this issue.” For those of you that don’t know who Dan is, he’s the dude who comes into the office every day and tells me I need to do things like YouTube videos, competitions and various other projects slightly outside my comfort zone. All joking aside, over the past couple of years Dan has become something of a right-hand man at work, and when it comes to project

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motivation I wouldn’t be without him, even if it does mean having a camera pointed at me once in a while. After a few hours rushing around, a busted knuckle and a load of foul language, I felt like we’d completed enough to have something to publish. I went into the office and picked up the last issue (47) just to give myself a starting point, and realised we’d done bloody loads! And I have no idea why I was rushing at all.

write at the end of each magazine.

I hated writing that letter with a passion, but waffling on about a project and adding in a little bit of my own opinion feels far more natural to me. So if you couldn’t care less what I have to say and would rather just read about the mechanical side of things, this article probably isn’t for you.

Luckily there are plenty of articles to choose from in this issue to suit all tastes.

I’m just writing this article as I go. When I took on this project I used it as an excuse to do away with the editor’s letter I used to

It’s been a tough year for us at the mag. Although business has been excellent, we sure have had to work at it. Still, life has

thrown other hurdles our way.

With Vic having to undergo an operation with a long recovery period (she’s fine now), various government decisions which require our business to constantly diversify, and very recently losing our much-loved 15-year-old dog Ludo, motivation to get on with a detailed project isn’t easy when you feel a little beaten down. I see it a bit like doing exercise as you enter middle age: it’s the last thing you want to do when you finish work, but if you do manage to drag your arse off the sofa and keep active you always feel better for it afterwards. I remember many years ago trying to get my Bay Window ready for show season over the winter months on my driveway, welding and grinding in all weathers under a flapping tarpaulin. What I would give for that sort of enthusiasm now! I do have to occasionally kick myself.

I’m building my dream car and I’m too idle to go downstairs to my clean and dry workshop and do up a few nuts and bolts. I am getting better with it. I try my best to do a little bit every day and feel as if I’ve achieved something when I do.

The other two hurdles with this project are parts availability and unfortunately the expense. We are lucky to have companies actually making parts for pre-’49 cars, but they’re scattered around Europe, and when you’re on a “buy when you can afford” budget you do end up playing the waiting game with the car sitting untouched because the bolt you need is sitting at customs. Shall we touch on the subject of money? Well, as crass as it is, VW prices seem like the hot topic on social media groups right now. All I’m going to say on the matter is this: if I were to sell this car now or in the future I’m 100% certain I would shit out massively. The cost of restoring this vehicle has already been double what I was expecting.

It’s already cost me a Porsche, my savings and pretty much every decent part I’ve been holding, and there’s no doubt in my mind that it’s going to get worse. I’m now doing this project on a paywhen-I-can basis, hence it taking a little longer than normal. With this said, I’m totally cool with it. It’s a hobby and I think some people are beginning to forget that.

Buying a ratty project, slamming it, getting it running and selling

it for double what you paid is a new concept. Go back a couple of decades and nobody ever expected to make money or even get their money back when they built a car. Times are changing. To avoid disappointment, I approach building cars just like I do with my other interests, e.g. snowboarding.

I pay for my equipment, flights, stay, food, lift passes, etc., and when I go home I have made no money – in fact I have lost money but I’ve had a brilliant time. It’s the same with the ’49. I stand to lose a lot of money but I’ve ended up with the car of my dreams and had a great time doing it. The experience is priceless, plus I get

to keep it forever!

Anyway, I’ve been rambling.

Let’s talk about where we are with this project. At the end of the last issue I had the floor pan on trestles after giving it a coat of black, and prematurely pulling through a few cables just because I couldn’t wait. The next step was to make a start on the cable braking system. Now if you don’t know what cable-operated or mechanical brakes are, just imagine how the handbrake works on a rear Beetle drum. It’s pretty much exactly that, but the cables operate all four. All Type1 Beetles had cable brakes until early 1950

when VW added the hydraulic braking system to their new Deluxe model. It wasn’t that the mechanical braking system wasn’t effective, though. To prove this point, VW carried on fitting cable brakes on European Standard models until 1964! I did consider swapping to a hydraulic system as I had so much work in front of me anyway. What I knew about cable brakes was generally based on other people’s opinions, mostly off social media – and mostly that they’re shit. Now it’s been a long time since I’ve paid any attention to social media know-it-alls. Most are regurgitating something they’ve heard down the pub or a

quick google that they’re passing off as knowledge. With this one I went to the people that I know have first-hand experience with the system, and I quickly found out that people actually rate them highly. Adjusted up properly, they are very effective and failure is far less likely than you would have with a single circuit master cylinder. I’m glad I stuck with the mechanical system. It’s spurred me on to keep the car 100% factory spec, something I’ve never been able to stick with before.

Rebuilding this setup came with its own issues. I was lucky that 90% of the parts I needed were there. I had a brand new main cable from BBT in Belgium. I managed to find the return spring and washers from WW2VW in Poland, and the main brake rod and handbrake rod were still with the car when I bought it. Various parts and springs inside the drums had to be sourced and replaced.

The brake shoes were no longer available so I had to post them off to be relined. The pedal assembly and handbrake are original to the car and I had rebuilt them myself whilst the pan was at IRV’s. It’s difficult to explain exactly how this all works in words, but these photos should do the talking. I really enjoyed working it all out and finding all the bits, and it’s an added bonus that you can completely build up one drum at a time and test that it works without having to mess around bleeding brakes. It’s also cool that the handbrake locks up every wheel in the car. If you are interested in this old stuff, we are doing a bit of a video diary on YouTube, so make sure to subscribe to HayburnerTV. The next step was the front axle.

Although you can’t actually see it when the body’s on the pan, the beam is one of my favourite features, as VW were still using leftover WWII stock when this was built so it shares the axle with a Kübelwagen. Check out the inverted shock towers and tiny concertina shocks. I’d already stripped it down and found all the torsion bars were surprisingly intact. The upside-down shock towers are a terrible water trap and had rotted out many years ago and suffered poor repairs. I guess with the life of the average Kübel being only a few days before being abandoned or even

blown up, they weren’t all that worried about corrosion points. I took the beam along to my good friend Drummer Matt, where we spent the day scratch-fabricating new plates and he welded in new shock mounts. Sadly I didn’t manage to source the correct bolts to use for the mounts, so they don’t have the correct thread for the castle nut they should have. I ended up using a nylock nut which I don’t really think fits, so in the future I might try and source a thicker thread castle nut and drill them for a split pin (I must sound like such a nerd). Instead of bearings, the four tube ends contain Bakelite bushes. At least three of these had deteriorated to the point of crumbling, so had to be replaced. This was actually harder than I first expected because they require reaming out, and finding a reamer that size was proving a chore in itself. In the end I put them on the lathe and very slowly skimmed them until they were a friction fit to the arms. After knocking them in I was very happy with the fit.

After getting the arms in, we started to rebuild the

spindles. One side was so loose it rattled and the other was so tight you had to put it in the vice to move it. I had them blasted and then brought them down to Craig Petty’s workshop where he put ten tonnes of pressure, heat and freezing just to get the main king pin out of the tight arm. I’ll

put a few photos up here of the way Craig does them, but for a more detailed explanation I would suggest going to HayburnerTV again. It was a nice day. Kev Hancock dropped in just to heckle us and Craig did a fantastic job rebushing the 75-year-old spindles. I fitted and shimmed them up back

at the unit and they slid into place nicely.

I think I’ve just about got up to where I said, “Shit, Dan!” So we rushed down to fit the backing plates and build up the front brakes. This actually means the beam “drum to drum” is pretty

much complete. I have rebuilt the steering box myself and am just waiting on a couple of nuts I’m missing for the tie rods. Believe it or not, I’ve managed to salvage the original set. It’s mad when you consider that this complete front axle has taken all this time and parts from six different countries to finish.

I guess before I leave I should mention the car’s body. I did mention painting it with Stevo in the last issue, saying: “Anyway we’ve booked a rough date and

I’m going to muck in at his shop for a week so we can get it done together. I’m looking forward to it.” Well I think that date has long come and gone. Funny, as we went for bike ride together a couple of weeks ago and the ’49 wasn’t mentioned at all, not by either of us. I think I didn’t say anything because I’ve not got it ready and he didn’t because he’s not ready either. I’m cool with that. It happens when it happens.

As always, I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has

ever subscribed, advertised, supported, contributed, put a sticker on their car or represented us with a T-shirt. We are lucky to have you. As long as you enjoy reading, we will keep writing it.

Thank you all for being a part of it.

P.S. I’d like to dedicate this issue to the best friend I ever had. Ludo.

Ned

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