71 Deluxe in the US

[blue72beetle]

I had a 71 Kombi a few years ago, but I lost interest in it. At the time I was more into motorcycles. I'm still into motorcycles, but last summer I decided I wanted another bus. I was going to save up money for one during my deployment (I'm deployed to the middle east right now), but I found one that was close to me and it was running and driving.



Took 2 hours to drive there on the interstate, but I didn't want to take the interstate home so it took nearly 4 hours to get home. Pedal to the floor on the hills! Even got passed by a semi.

It was missing engine tins, some bondo, some rust, but hey it ran and drove. Shifter was super sloppy. Engine leaked oil quite a bit. They threw in a bunch of extra parts, but I think most of it is the old engine, so who knows if any of it is any good.

My girlfriend followed me home









I fixed the shifter and all related bushings, pulled the engine and stripped it down to the longblock. Got it cleaned up and running well with the correct carb and distributor. Someone had the lower sled tins installed backwards!





Got it all put back together and took it for a drive!

 

[blue72beetle]

A week before I left for the middle east my VW club had their annual show I took the bus to. It didn't have a back seat when I bought it, and rather than trying to track down a nice early back seat or pay early back seat prices, I built an extended platform in the back, level with the rear shelf above the engine. This wasn't big enough to sleep on itself, so I had the idea of building a rear hatch tent, like I've seen on other buses here.

The shelf I made turned out great, but the material I used could be better. It's called herculite, and it's very thick and strong, almost plastic like. But it's heavy and doesn't fold very well. If I decide to make another I'm going to use regular lightweight tent material. But we camped in it, and it worked out great. Put over 200 miles on it that weekend.











How she sits now, waiting my return

 

[flynster]

nice work fella.....love the garage too :mrgreen:

 

[flynster]

nice work fella.....love the garage too :mrgreen:

 

[blue72beetle]

I returned from my deployment to find the bus wouldn't run, it didn't want to idle and ran very poorly. I thought some rust had settled in the tank over 6 months of sitting and got into the carb. I had to replace the front tin anyway, so I pulled the engine, replaced the tin and cleaned out the carb.
After I put it back together it still ran like crap. I thought the retard diaphragm was shot, when I would pinch the hose from the retard port on the carb it would run better. I pulled the dist. cap off and checked for movement while sucking on both ports, and that's when I discovered the advance plate was stuck. It freed up and now it's running fine. I guess a distributor rebuild is in my future.

Also got a stock muffler on, so I could install my crusty rear bumper. The freshly powdercoated rims and RA-08's look and ride great too.



Vintage Volkswagen and bicycle show tomorrow!