Ice Ice Baby...

Now that Winter's setting in the time has come to give her some rest. Once a week the key makes a right turn so she can breathe some fresh air. Small maintenance jobs are a must so an oil change, spark plug verification, brake fluid check up are planned. Also a new indicator relay will replace the broken one. Now that the back seat has been removed again, I can take my time to think about a new way to fit my new set of carpets. With a bit of luck the front seats are given a whole new cover in simili and the frames sandblast and repainted in black. When she gets out next season she'll be shiny again.

Wedding

So after the last adventure, a new one was coming up. My cousin was going to get married and she asked me to get some bugs for a bridal procession with the bridesmaids, the groom and friends of them. Off course I agreed to do this so I asked a few of my friends if they wanted to help me out that day with their bug. But still a lot of work to do before I was sure that everybody could come... Mine had to be repaired and Dimi's bug needed a new gearbox ( the other one broke at Spa) So I bought a new fender and painted it. A new taillight was provided by Tim (nose cone). Meanwhile I went to help on Dimi's bug getting his gearbox out which Gaetan (Gasburner) fixed. Mounting the gearbox and engine at the same time,things where going smooth.
Mine was coming along fine and one week before the wedding all bugs were ready. The decoration had been brought in place by my hands and they were looking very nice. The day of the wedding everything went very well and a lot of eyes and heads where turned in our direction as we passed through the streets driving these beautiful cars... (modesty is a good thing haha)Thanx to Len, Tom, Tim, Dimi and Gaetan for driving there bugs and a very nice day!!! Thanx guy's!!!

Last meeting almost ended on the highway

The last meeting we did, was the second Radikal Bugz meeting. Due to a lot of valve noise I decided to solve this and lifted the bug at his rear end and removed the wheels to have better acces. It was necessary to do this because clearance on certain valves was over 0.75mm!! Ater a full check up I mounted the wheels and was ready for the meeting the next day. So the next day we left and had a nice day. The weather was great and a lot of cars present. This time watercooled vw's were alloud and they took part in the sprints which I also did. On our way back home I heard and felt something, but before I could react it was too late.. A cloud of white smoke and a bang followed eachother very quickely. Almost losing control of my bug I steered it towards the emerency-lane. At first a thought I had a blowout but when I got out of the car, the rear-left wheel was gone and the back of the car was resting on the drum brake! The fender was ripped of and the taillight broken. No sign of my wheel so I had to cross the highway to go get it. No visual damage here so that was good news. Only...it was impossible to mount it because the bolts were lost somewhere on the highway. So the spare tyre took it's place, the fender was beeing held by plastic fasteners. so NOT chock up your wheelbolts can have a nasty result!

action....

Here I'm at Spa waiting my turn with a few friends of mine; Gasburner ( green bug)and Dimi(bordeaux bug) just having fun "cruising" the 200m sprint. The olivegreen oval window belongs to Philip from the welknown vw-club "DAS". A lot of bugs where participating so waiting was the main occupation during the sprints but created the opportunity to watch the others fly by.

new sensation

The first time I went for a testdrive I was very anxious to see en feel the difference, but I didn't try full throttle which wasn't a bad thing because the first 1000km are crucial for the long life of the engine and so 90km-100km an hour was the ideal speed for testing the engine. After a few hundred km's I felt that it was time to take it for a real test.... Yeehaa a difference it was indeed! The upcomming bug-season I felt ready for some action and having a great time with my new toy. That season I participated on Spa... a new sensation in my o so short "bug-live". By the end of the season I sensed that the sensation was declining and I wanted more.... So the next Winter, out went the engine again and the search for new parts started. I ordered a pair of new 044 cylinderheads at Cb-Performance with 40x35.5 valves with dual valve springs. A Engle 120 cam would replace the 110-one and the Dell'Orto 36 were exchanged for a pair of Dell'Orto 40. The electronic ignition was provided by compu-fire. After putting everything back together I decided that a correct tune-up was in place , and so I dropped the engine at a motorshop where after only one week the job had been forfilled. So back at my garage I lifted the car and pushed the engine under. Another change was that the stereo was removed along with te back seat.Everything back in place and connected, the warning-light of the alternator kept burning. I checked the wiring but couldn't find anything suspicious. I called to several friends and asked a few pro's but nobody could give me an appropriate answer. After one week it was time to get my bug to a Bosch specialist so they could solve the problem, only the alternator isn't a Bosch but a Motorola. Anyway after a few days they solved the problem( the isolation between the +&- was gone and caused a short circuit.... )
The next drive was again a... new sensation!

The 1835cc

The season ended and so I could start with rebuilding my engine. I found an engine that was completely rebuild and hadn't run 1 km. An AS41 case with 90.5mm pistons an Engle 110 cam and slightly worked cylinderheads. I bought it without any hesitation and it felt good. The only thing that had to be done was putting it back together. A few hours every evening and at the end of the week we brought to two halves back to one piece. I chose to fit a pair of 36er Dell'Orto carbs. An additional oil sump was fitted, a breatherbox from custom speedparts was brought into place and all necessary changes were completed. Then we started to modify the wiring in the motorcompartment: all the wires for the gauges, electrical fuel pump and electronic ignition were brought into place and so we could refit the engine. The exhaust was recuperated from the 1600cc engine and all of the sheet metal repainted. We first tested the engine on a improvised( but very good ) bench and the carbs were sychronized and minor adjustments forfilled.

We could finally bring everything in it's place. The valvecovers were changed and connected to the breatherbox. The wires connected and fuelpump secured. The gauges were fitted underneath the dash, the battery connected and the key turned on... damn, what a sound!!!

meetings

So meeting season could begin. The first time I won a top 10 price I was so happy. I got to know a lot of new peple and it was the beginning of new friendships with some nice guys with nice rides and so almost every weekend we drove our little bugs to a meeting somewhere in the country. My first big meeting with my "new" bug was at the circuit of Spa-Francorchamps. I had a great time and wanted to participate in the drag races. Seeing the other cars with a whole of lot more horsepower than mine I chose to skip a year. After this meeting season of 2003 I decided that it was time for another change... A new engine

fun!?

So my story continues while I'm driving my bug every day to work and about anywhere I feel like during two years. The mix of colors, missing details and class was the beginning of a new way of thinking and so I went looking for someone who could restore my almost rusted bug. Not much later I found one ,and after all things said and done it was only a matter of weeks before I had to say bye-bye to my car for several weeks. Until one night in March I was confused for one second and BANG!!! I crashed my car against another one. The front was completely destroyed and now way I could drive her back home. The headlights were out, the bumper flatned and the fenders pressed against the tires, I called a towtruck for getting my sorry ass back home. At the garage the damage began to be visible: the spare tire ran flat and the wheel wasn't very round anymore. The body cracked at 3 places and the fenders, well you can imagine... So I fitted two new fenders a headlight and with a lot of power tape I refitted the hood. Then June came and it was time to say bye-bye and taking the bus and riding my rusty and dusty bike during the healing process of my bug. A new front was fitted, took his standard shock-height at the back, the side and back windows tinted, chrome removed, new set of BRM Flat 4 4spoke alloy wheels with at front 145x5.5x15 rubber and 205x15 at the back(which later on seemed to be a mistake)
the taillights were changed into darkened ones and a nice stereo was fitted. A tachometer from autometer got it's place near the steering wheel. A Geneberg shifter would shorten the time of changing gear and the interior got it's black color. The body was repainted in L10A Black. No more bumpers but T-bars and a A1 Dynomax muffler replaced the standard exhaust. Almost everything that I wanted was done, but the cash ran out and so I had to stop rebuilding for a while... But eventhough a nice result, no?

This is a picture of my 1600cc which has been sold several months ago

It in detail

So my bug was a white one with a yellow and blue line on the side. No bumper at front and a rusty one at the back. She looked ok from the outside.. The interior was less my kind of style with the dash totally covered with a stainless steel plate and a wooden home made radio support box in the center of the car. The carpets were supposed to be white and the seats worn...Anyway I was happy with my Bug and so I drove it like that for a few weeks. November 2000: The weather was changing quickly and the mornings a lot colder so I pulled the 2 levers and what happened... all the exhaust fumes came right into the car which wasn't a very nice experience. So after a short time I decided to start working at the heart of my bug. Because the guy from which I bought my bug wasn't the most honest one in the business and already costed me a lot of money and not knowing anybody else, the list of options became very short and so my best friend and I started building out the engine. Not having a whole lot of knowledge and tools to do such a job, I decided to look into some vw-magazines for help. I found a shop and called for some info. I realized that with all the parts that needed to be changed and doing it myself (so not being sure that the engine would run) the price wasn't that big of a difference and so I went to the bank and got the money for the first big change! While it was standing there without the engine I got rid of the carpets and wooden box. Also the stainless steel dash made room for the original kind. I took another look at my bug and decided to lower her at the front and rear and changing the drum brakes at front into discs. A few weeks later I went to pick up my bug ; lowered with discs and a brand new chromed 1600cc engine with a set of Kadron carburetors! I was sooooooo proud! Because it was my daily driver, I quickly sensed that some things weren't the way they should be. The engine didn't run smooth and losing power when warm so I went straight to the builder of my engine :BBT. There they said that the valve clearance wasn't right and so I had to pay for an engine in warranty!! I returned to the shop were they fitted the engine and seemed that the coil wasn't right and had nothing to do with the valve-clearance. 2 days later the problem was fixed. It took another 5 months before the engine runned like it was supposed to. Starting to get to know some people and other shops things started to go smoother and less expensive and finally I could enjoy my 70hp engine!

How the story begins

In the year 2000 I went on a trip with my best friend and his girl to a meeting in Switzerland , better known as the meeting in Chateau d'Oex . It was a whole new experience for me driving such a long distance with a standard 1972 sky-blue Bug. Arrived 12h later in Chateau d' Oex there wasn't much to see until several hours later the "Bugpeople" started to arrive at the scene. By the end of the weekend there were over 1000 Bugs and Busses and all of the other aircooled cars totally new for me. I had a great time admiring these cars that when we got back I decided to buy my own Bug. A few months later in October I found my bug... a 1300cc from 1974 in a reasonable condition (I thought) . But after only a few days the first troubleshoot occurred and that was only the beginning....