"Rantanplan", the savannah beige 5/1968 Westfalia SO62

[SO62]

Hi guys, now I found some time to introduce me and mainly my earlybay to you.
Me, my family and our Westy "Rantanplan" (also known as "Rin Tin Can" and "Bushwack" in "Lucky Luke") live in Bavaria.
Rantanplan is a L620 savannah beige 5/1968 Westfalia SO62, which I found 1996 in my hometown Regenburg at a car dealer. The price for the Westy was 2800 DM, that is appr. 1400 EURO or 1200 pound! That were lucky days to buy busses!
But at this time I did not even have that money to buy it. So the bus stood more than a half year at the dealer. I saved every cent (and that is not so easy if you are young and thirsty!) and in december 1996 I bought Rantanplan!
Nobody wanted the have "such an old stinky bus that takes so much petrol", as the cardealer told me.
This is how Rantanplan looked like when i bought it:

I drove the Westy in this "interesting" colour and with the flower-curtains until spring 2003. "NO, I am NOT a Hippy" was the answer i gave sooooo many times during this years!
Then we were sandblasting some watergates and buoys in my job, and I suddenly knew what to do. The bad points of the bus have been sandblasted and primered.

Then it was time to put the original L620 savannah beige on it. No show and shine painting, but ok for driving and using the Westy as campmobile (what it is!).

This is how Rantanplan looked like when he was new painted and put together in autumn 2003.

The next years Rantanplan was used as a daily driver and to travel. I changed some little things, for excemple the rearlights and the blinker, bought an original earlybay Westfalia tent for 100 EURO and so on...

2005 I installed some vintage oldspeed parts like 2 solex carburetors, manifolds ans aircleaners from TDE. Theo Decker from Essen was the "god of speed" in the 60ies here in germany.

In 2006 Rantanplan got new TMI seat and door covers and a Isabella tent. I also moved from Regensburg to Marktbreit near Wuerzburg, and of course I used the SO62 and my 1958 Westfalia trailer for moving!

At the moment we are building a new "oldspeed" engine with some more original TDE parts, but that is an other story. The Mooneyes instruments are already waiting...

I know, many pictures and a long story (btw sorry for my bad english), but all this happend in more than 13 years!
If you want to see more pictures from my cars, trailer etc. visit my homepage (sorry, only german language!) and meet the Oldvolks Racing Team. (http://www.oldvolks.de" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false

Prost (cheers) from Bavaria!
Stefan

 

[mattd1984]

Welcome, nice bus and some nice looking work

 

[easy]

great bus dooder! hello and welcome 8)

 

[ThomasH]

Hi Stefan,
nice pics! Hope it´ll be on the road soon!

Thomas

 

[SebastianT2a]

Hi Stefan! Welcome ;-)
Rantanplan looks pretty good, lookin´forward to see him live!!!
Cherio!

Greets from Regensburg,
Sebastian

 

[Guest]

very nice bus and story, good to see more of our German cousins on the EB.

 

[SO62]

so, the new engine is sitting behind the bus again. why? it leaks oil. so it has to be opened again.
my little daughter Finja helped me pulling the engine out and strip it to the block. the engine is stored in a barn, so we closed all openings to preclude the mice of storing nuts in it.
before closing, Finja shouted in the carburetors, that "all the mice are out"! :lol:

 

[fahrvergnuegen]

Very very nice!!!

 

[surfbus]

Nice bus!
Like the savanbeige color and the oldspeed engine!
I just can't find many bays with oldspeed engine anywere on the internet...

 

[gninnam]

Welcome

Nice bus and loved the story and the pictures (your English is very good, compared to my German anyway!!)

 

[scott wilson]

wow..really love the bus and great work.Love the interior more..can we have more pics of the inside please.

 

[SO62]

surfbus, you are right, bays with oldspeed engines are really rare! i have not seen many busses with for example riechert or TDE, engines. i phoned with my "god of speed" Theo Decker (TDE) some times ago because i had a question about his special oil cooler, and as he heard, that it is for a bus, he asked me: "are you crazy? you make funny things, busses are to heavy for racing!" :lol:
Theo is a very cool old man!

scott, here are some more interior pics:

 

[MikeyC]

snap! :mrgreen:

 

[SO62]

MikeyC, you have a good taste! :lol:

i cannot believe that someone else has put the same gauges on the same place! :shock:

are your cups chromed? i had chromed cups, but now they are matt powder-coated in black. i hate polishing chrom! :msn4:

 

[MikeyC]

8)

yeah the cups are chrome...tacho one is a MOON one but couldnt they didnt have one for the oil temp guage so thats just a universal one. I ditched the strap for the tacho and made two new brackets so they would match!

Had the tacho a while and has been in a couple of cars...

 

[surfbus]

Any updates? How's the engine?

 

[SO62]

Any updates? How's the engine?

it has been a long while, but here is the update!

After the new engine had been sealed again, the leaking is over. I found a new place for the oilcooler a put the engine back to the place where it should be:

The rims and bunpers had been resprayed white, the caps are now savannah beige and the inside had been cleaned for the test-drives.

At the test-drives i noticed that the clutch was sliding a little bit! So I took the engine out once more. Of course it was winter again, and in the barn it was cold again. I changed the standard clutch to a kennedy-stage 1, the carburators have been overhault and I changed some parts of the ingniton-system.

In April 2011 it was time to instal the engine once again.

In May 2011 I made some test-drives (again) and everything ran great! The engine now goes like hell! :evil:

Now it was time to make a little trip. I met some friends on a camping site near Bad Camberg to visit the famous "VW-Veteranen-Treffen". Here are some "camping impressions"...

The bus and the new engine did a great job on the trip. It took "a little time" and "some work" to have Rantanplan back on the road, but it was worth it...

 

[surfbus]

Good work! You run a 1776? What size are the carbs, 34?

Why not change the oilfilter to an oldskool one?

 

[aogrady]

[/quote

Lovely looking bus, very nice indeed! Always like that style layout.

Interesting picture of the Westy window - I see there are plates screwed or riveted on the edges of the window panes - is this a new addition, I have not seen these before, certainly not on my US Spec 70 Campmobile, as yours is a Euro model, maybe thats why? I like them though, might have to look out for those, may stop a draft coming in through the panes.

Cheers,

Alistair

 

[SO62]

Good work! You run a 1776? What size are the carbs, 34?
Why not change the oilfilter to an oldskool one?

Yes, it is a 1776 with 34 Soley carbs. Change the oilfilter to an oldskool one? Hmmm, I will think about that!

Interesting picture of the Westy window - I see there are plates screwed or riveted on the edges of the window panes - is this a new addition, I have not seen these before, certainly not on my US Spec 70 Campmobile, as yours is a Euro model, maybe thats why? I like them though, might have to look out for those, may stop a draft coming in through the panes.

Hi Alistair,
the only thing I know, is that this window is not from 68 like the bus. I bought it 10 years ago anywhere I cannot remember. When I am at the barn where the bus waits for the next trip, I make some detail-photos.