DDK - Die Deutschen Klassiker

Hello. It's been sometime since I finished my targa (2014 to be exact....where does the time go?) And I found I absolutely loved the project (after the fact - it had its traumas during....). So I had a hankering for another.

We've had a couple of great holidays as a family in T2s and so we thought it would be a good idea to buy one. After several months' searching, it became apparent that there was nothing 'quite right' for us - and honestly, there was a lot of tat out there and 'renovations' that really didn't have much in the way of documentation, but plenty of 'shiny paint' on top and who knew what underneath.

So we decided to build our own.

Here it its story.....

Firstly I wanted a Lowlight. Always liked them. A bit more advanced than a splitty (which look fab, but are really quite basic)

Secondly it needed to be as rust free as I could find - a LOT of money can be spent on the metalwork bit

Thirdly I knew that I was pretty much going to get rid of most things inside and out and the plan was to build a bus to last long enough for the kids to have some adventures of their own when they get old enough. Oh, and to make it as drive-able and livable as possible.

In the meantime, I had a look around for some inspiration to get an eye on the style I wanted. (cue gratuitous bus shots...)

Good stuff. Having seen some recent progress pics this is a thread everyone will really enjoy

Thanks Bootsy Hopefully it will do the job. I'm enjoying the project a lot

We also wanted it to sleep four (so needed a poptop), to go up hills (so needed a decent engine), be lower than factory (so needed new suspension etc), to stop when required (so needed disc brakes) and be able to manage bacon & sausage butties 'off grid' (so needed cooker, sink etc)

Other things that I wanted to make sure we had was a gearbox that allowed you to get gears when needed, solar power, so we didn't always have to hook up at rest and a funky sound system that would link to our phones so we can stream spotify and have DAB for those cricket and football commentaries while you're cooking up a storm on the BBQ (yeah, need one of those too)

I also wanted a few things like difficult to find spotlights and cool wheels and stuff that would just be good to look at.

So that was the rough plan. Oh yes, and I'm in Singapore and was planning to have the bus in the UK, so I needed trusted partners for this one. And yes, this is a full-on cheque-book job and I make no apologies for it. I'd love to have done this myself, but it just wasn't possible. So needed to gather the following:

1) Bus
2) Engine-builder
3) Gearbox man
4) Main partner for bodywork, paint, mechanical stuff etc
5) Interior cabinetry / trimmer blokes
6) Internet. For research. Cos I knew nowt about T2s really....

So first up was the bus... obvs. And again, doing this from a distance, so it was loads of internet searching and trying to get leads and generally having to take a bit of a punt.

Anyway. Eventually I came across a sort of barn-find. As in it was in a barn and was being stored there. It had come over from California about 3 years before hand and was from the high desert - so sounded like it could be good from a rust point of view. And it was a lowlight and left-hooker - which I like for some reason. And it was a Westy, so had spent it's time as a proper camper.

Here it is as found....



Looked OK underneath - some surface rust and a hole around the battery tray, but pretty good overall









Up top, some rust on the cab floor but really looking quite good on the inside too

Inside was of the retch-inducing skankiness type.... really makes me feel queasy, big pussy that I am....















Especially the fridge *shudders*



But the engine bay looked OK...

And on the basis of that set of photos (and nothing else, no visits, no inspections.....) I bought it.

I figured that all I was really going to keep was the shell, and the front cab seats, steering wheel etc and that all looked OK. So I took the plunge....

Loving it already! Thanks for posting.
R

Great base you bought

Good start Rich......looking forward to this one..

Spent a fair time under an early Bay last year, original UK RHD, failed its MoT.....
You have a great start right there!
Looking forward to the suspension bit.

I've been waiting for this

....looks like it's going to be one very special bus

Thanks for sharing.

I thank you all kindly

OK, so bus bought, I needed an engine-builder and a main tear-down, metalwork, paint, mechanicals build-up crew. Where to start?

Sage of the Lakes, of course, who has an illustrious past with VWs as well as Porsches - and he recommended Stateside Tuning - run by James Calvert. This is where I suddenly realised that I was going on a bit of a retro trip as well. I'd had a '67 6v 1200 Beetle as my first car and I went to Bug Jam 2 & 3. The 'scene' at the time had a few people who were always turning up in VolksWorld (thank you uncle Keith - it was the window to an exciting world before the internet)

James was one of those people and also ran down the strip - a few of you might remember his car, 'Bitchin' ?



Anyway, James has built loads of great stuff over the years, recently an Okrasa Engine that went into a giant-killing Mille Miglia Beetle which you can read about here in Octane http://www.classicandperformancecar.com ... lle-miglia. He also regularly rallies his own beetle and is a generally all-round good bloke. Top reco from Mike!

Trouble is because he's good, and cares, he's also really busy. First call to him and it became clear that it was going to take some time to get an engine from him, but that was OK, because I wasn't in a hurry and wanted a great one.... good things come to those who wait and all that.

So we had a chat about what I wanted. This is the bit I like - dreaming. And it also really started the thinking on how the bus would turn out. Because I needed to make a load of decisions that would also influence the rest of the bus.

So the engine my bus came with is a single port 1600cc beast. Makes about 47 HP on a good day. Hmm. Not a huge amount - and I was going to be adding weight to the bus no doubt, so this wouldn't be enough. One of the things I hate about T2s is the lack of acceleration when you're getting onto a motorway or dual-carriage way. It's just dangerous tbh. Fine if you're a good and experienced driver - but I'm expecting the kids to get a hold of this fairly early in their driving careers, so I told my wife that from a safety aspect, we HAD to have a bigger engine. Probably something that put out about 3 times the power.

Health and Safety = Big Engine

Ahh. But what sort of engine? I'd toyed with a 911 engine, it sounded like it would be fun. But a lot of hassle, so ditched that. Even thought about electric - there's a lot going on in that scene at the moment and much as I love an IC engine, electric is the future. Trouble is, at the moment the range is likely 150-200 miles and I like to be able to get further than that if needed. Maybe I'll do a conversion in the future when drive-trains and batteries are in better shape. But for now? No.

Scooby? Sound great, put out loads of power, decent non-visible cooling systems out there. But chuffing expensive (like £12k+ expensive) and I really wanted an air-cooled.

So - VW it was. But then Type 1 or Type 4?

The Type 4 was a later evolution of the air-cooled engine and was originally designed to go in the type 4 launched in 1968.... (only lasted til 1974)



But the engine was used in the late-bay '72 - '79 and came in 1.7, 1.8 & 2.0L variants (an updated version also powered the Vanagon). It is of course also used in the 914 - so it had good heritage and would have made a good alternative power plant for my bus. And it started with bigger displacement, had better torque, cooling and longevity. Looked like a good option.



The Type 1 engine went in beetles & pre-72 buses (as everyone knows...) - some people call them a type 2 engine, but really it's the same as went in the beetle. So it's a type 1 in a type 2. And looks like this of course (although this is a baby 1200 - like the one in my beetle. Which had as much pulling power as me)



And this is where I made my first big decision. I wanted the engine-bay to look like it was original. And no matter how I looked at it, I couldn't see a type 4 in there. I wanted a Type 1. But one with lots of power. And reliability. And fuel economy (alright, had to ditch the last one...they're never going to get much past 25mpg....)

So looking around, I thought that a good compromise for the bus would be a 2110cc that was tuned for torque, not top-end, and specced to get around 150-160 HP. I did look at electronic injection, but that's really complex and I'm a simpleton, so it'll be on carbs. So over to James to come up with the plan....

And what a plan it was. Now I know this sounds indulgent. Because it is. But I do want this to last, so this is the spec we went for:

82 x 90.5, 2110 cc engine
Aluminium case, 6 shuffle pins & 3.5mm raised deck so we could get the angles on the rods right
82mm forged DPR, dowelled crankshaft
90.5 mm Mahle barrels
5500 forged H-beam conrods w/ ARP 2000 bolts
Web heat treated billet camshaft grind # 119
200mm std weight forged steel 8 dowelled flywheel - std weight as gives better torque....
Shadek oil pump special new full flow type
Bigger sump
Secondary external oil-cooler (from Concept Racing)
40 x 35.5 cylinder heads with 12mm relocated spark plugs bored 90.5mmm
Weber 48 IDAs (I think, need to confirm that though) *Edit - it will be Weber 44 IDFs*
Big bore heat exchangers
CSP Python exhaust

Full dynamic engine balance etc etc, high zinc break-in oil and other tricks that James knows.

Lucky me.....

And I still hadn't even seen the bus yet.