Beautiful Geelong VW Bus

Super clean and shiny late bay window kombi spotted some weeks ago on the water front in Geelong, Australia. Someone has invested quite some time and money, but in a subtle way. The paint job may be new and could be Bahama Blue Metallic, VW color code L99F, which would date it to 1978 (see this Australian colors summary). Overall a very original look, but in detail refined with Fuchs wheels, front indicators colorless instead of yellow, non-stock exhaust system, and new sliding windows on all four side windows in the back. The windows come without the aluminum or chrome rim of the seventies originals, so are probably the new ones one can still get, produced for Volkswagen do Brasil. It has a Victorian Club permit registration (see also this older post). What a beautiful VW bus!

 

Penguins, Wallabies and Koalas

We spent three beautiful days on a trip to Phillip Island, south-east of Melbourne. We took the ferry from Queenscliff to Sorrento, shortcutting Port Phillip Bay from its western to its eastern end. Saved us from driving all around Port Phillip Bay and through Melbourne traffic and gave the kids the added adventure of a boat trip. Main target was the Penguin Parade where every evening at sunset several hundred penguins come back from their daily fishing business and run up the beach to their nesting places. Apparently there were around 2000 penguins that evening. Awesome spectacle! A visit to the Koala Conservation Centre across the road from our caravan park turned out to be fantastic, too. The sighting of a swamp wallaby (near the penguin beach) and a couple of red-necked wallabies (at the Churchill Island Heritage Farm farm) completed this Australian wild life adventure. The penguin beach, the koala center and the heritage farm belong to the Phillip Island Nature Park. The sighting of a late bay kombi at the ferry on the way back made the kombi nerd in the family extra-happy.

Father daughter bonding at the beach in Cowes, Phillip Island.

1975 Geelong Late Bay Kombi

Here is a 1975 Volkswagen microbus, spotted a few days ago in Geelong. Color is probably Flipper Blue (CLR529), one of the Australian-specific colors. Chrome trim line along the sides, front lights with after-market eye lids. Interesting that the front seats are with head rests but the back bench is without. Otherwise a no-frills minibus. The registration sticker says it comes with an AP engine (1.8L, 51 kW/68 HP). Blind front indicator glasses probably tell from a long life in the Australian sun. Keep on driving!

Back in Australia!

We are back in Australia! Thanks to the generous German parental leave laws we are spending three months in Geelong, visiting family and friends. Beautiful climate change, from the beginning autumn in Berlin into an Australian spring or early summer where temperatures have already been above 30°C in the last few days. And there are still so many more Volkswagen buses on the road here! I saw the green beauty below a few days after our arrival at a local supermarket. I talked to the owner: It is a 1978 Sunliner campervan with the 2L engine. Recently restored with a new paint job in the original color (may be Manilla Green, L63Y), with beautiful details. Sunliner stickers and lines reproduced by a sign writer to fully recreate the original appearance. Heavy Australian roo bars at front and back with spare wheel on the front. Pop-up roof and nice wooden interior with the full campervan kitchen set-up. What a beauty!

PS: Click to this older post for another beautiful Sunliner campervan and some more information on this Melbourne-based Australian campervan maker. Sunliner Motorhomes do not seem to convert Volkswagen buses anymore, but on the “Company/Our Story” site of their web page the founder of the company is portrayed in front of a blue bay window Sunliner kombi.

An original Silverfish?

I spotted this VW bus a few weeks ago in Berlin. At the end of the production of the late bay window T2b bus in 1979, Volkswagen produced a special edition called “Lord of Hannover”. It came with the full trim, including a large sunroof and a silver paint job which later triggered the nickname “Silberfisch” (German for Silverfish). This specimen seems to tick all the boxes, including the sun roof. The eyelids over the head lights are a bit nostalgic, but each for their own. The original silverfish was on the cover of my first kombi workshop book (Dieter Korp’s “Jetzt helfe ich mir selber”) which I bought in 1995 – see the cover photo at the end of this blog post. This one here is not a museum piece, but comes with all signs of everyday use, and the interior has been converted to a campervan. Very nice!
PS: Just saw that you can rent a silverfish directly from the classic car section of Volkswagen Commercial Vehicles, click here for some more nice photos and a lot of technical details. Interestingly they call it a replica. I assume they have recreated a silverfish based on a standard late bay window bus.

Bay Window Meeting

Nice encounter on an autobahn rest place last August close to Leipzig: Early Bay window bus pulling up next to Taiga Lily. It is actually one of the hybrid buses from the transition phase between early and late bay, so from about 1971/1972: front still from the first generation (indicators down and front bumper ending in door steps), but the back already with the air intakes of the late bay (would be more crescent shaped for the pure early bays). I saw the silver T5 on the left only now when I prepared the photos. Would have been nice to take that one into the photo as well. Sorry to all T5 owners for my ignorance!

Brazilian T2c Campervan spotted in Ireland

Here comes a Bay Window Volkswagen campervan spotted a few days ago by friends in the south of Ireland. It is one of the kombis produced in Brazil where production ended only at the end of 2013. Over the decades, Volkswagen Do Brasil produced late bay window buses which, from a European point of view, often looked like hybrids of the different generations of German Volkswagen buses. i.e. the rear of a late T1 split-window mixed with front of a T2 bay window bus, or late bay window buses (T2b, 1972 – 1979) mixed with elements of early bays (T2a, 1967-1972). Plus additional design changes unique to the Brazilian buses. This one here is a late (post 2005) Brazilian model (T2c) which comes already with a water-cooled engine, hence the very large radiator at the front of the car. The front indicators have already moved upwards as with late bay models, but the bumper bars are still round, similar to the early bays. Unique Brazilian features are the elevated roof line (raising above the driver’s cabin and then providing more head room in the back – here slightly masked by the installed pop-up roof in the back) and the lines at the lower edges of the front doors. I have never seen any of the Brazilian T2c buses on the road in Germany, but they are much more common in the UK where they could (and apparently still can) be ordered as new cars from Danbury Motor Caravans who also converted them into campervans. See also this older blog post.

Brazilian T2c bay window camper.

For comparison I have added some photos of Taiga Lily, our 1976 late bay bus and two photos of Early Bay Window buses (from Berlin and Geelong). Many thanks to kombi correspondent Bill for the snapshots from Ireland!

Taiga Lily, our late bay window bus (T2b) from 1976.

Beautiful early bay window (T2a) bus spotted 2014 in Geelong, Australian.

Early bay window (T2a) Westfalia camper from 1971 or 72, spotted 2012 in Berlin.

Awakening!

We had a couple of beautiful sunny spring days here in Berlin in the last three weeks, so the buses slowly get out of their winters sleep. My kombi mate Jan started with his beautifully restored 1991 T3/T25 Blue Star three weeks ago. A friend got his 1963 T1 Westfalia campervan out on the same day, and last weekend I opened the garage for Taiga Lily to come out and play. Very happy the engine started right away, all seems to be fine. Used the day to upholster and install a new driver’s seat, more on that soon. Welcome kombi season 2015!

Awesome 1969 Early Bay Westfalia Camper

Spotted this truly beautiful Early Bay Camper at last year’s Berlin Bus Festival. It is from 1969. The Westfalia badge quotes the “Year of Manufacturer” as 1970 which will then be the year of conversion. The color is probably light grey (I345). The van lived most of its life in California and was re-imported and then restored in Germany only recently. Speedo with “MPH” instead of “Km/h” and “Emergency” on the hazard light pull switch and yellow and red reflectors on the sides of the van as details for the US-American market. Beautiful original wooden campervan interior. Interesting exhaust pipe construction to funnel the exhaust fumes of the gas fridge out through the ceiling. 1600 ccm B5 engine with 47 horse power. Looks a bit unusual that the spare tire is in the rear and reduces the bed space. Would have expected it to be at the front of the car. But hey, might be original as well.
The bus is now the pride of a fleet of about 3 kombis of “Old Berlin Bulli”, a new VW bus rental company in Berlin. They offer kombis with chauffeur service for city tours, weddings and film sets. Some more technical details on this campervan (“Mr. Alvah”) here on their web site. The slightly bumpy company name probably stems from Volkswagen’s strategy to come after you if you use “Bulli” in your company name. In Germany “Bulli” is the well-known and very positive nick name for the VW kombi. Volkswagen purchased the rights to this name only in 2007 and since then enforces that only VW is allowed to use it. As I understand, you have to add something like “Old” or “Classic” to your Bulli-related company name to get the official approval of VW. This seems what these guys have done as there is a little “Officially licensed by Volkswagen” note on the footer of all their web sites. Anyway, nice to see some kombi/bulli lovers have found a way to make a living of the kombi. And cool that they keep this beautiful bus in good shape and on the road!

The Karmann Gipsy

Here is a campervan one sees relatively rarely on the road in Germany: The Karmann Gipsy, a T3/T25-based campervan conversion, built by the German car manufacturer Karmann. The Gipsy actually has its own world-wide fan club, the Karmann Coachbuilts Club, with lots of details e.g. on interior layouts and the chassis construction. And there is this brief summary on Wikipedia on the Karmann Coachbuilts. They come with more space than the normal Volkswagen microbus- or panelvan-based conversions and feature e.g. a shower and room to sleep for up to 4 people, two in the back and two more in the front, above the driver’s cabin. Learnt on the club site that only 741 of these conversions have ever been built. 214 are registered with the club as surviving, 5 as destroyed. If you own a Gipsy and are not yet in contact with this club, you would make the guys very happy by registering your vehicle! Karmann was established in 1901 in the German town Osnabrück and for more than 100 years manufactured cars for other larger car makers, such as the Beetle convertible and the beetle-based Karmann Ghia for Volkswagen or the Mercedes CLK and Chrysler Crossfire for at the time DaimlerChrysler. In 2009 the company went bankrupt and the factory in Osnabrueck was purchased by Volkswagen. VW currently manufactures the Golf VI convertible and the Porsche Caymann and Boxster on this production site (information taken from this newspaper site on the latest news on (Ex-)Karmann Osnabrueck). Greetings to Georg, proud owner of one of these unusual campervans!