Saturday, 17 March 2018

Slough Swapmeet 2017 (part 1 of 3)

This weeks blog review is the first of a 4 part review all about the Slough Swapmeet 2017, which last year was held on Sunday 5th November at the Montem Leisure Centre, Montem Lane in Slough in Buckinghamshire. SL1 2QG. This annual event is organised by Vince and Robin, and it's a great place to pick up some air-cooled bargains. The Slough Swapmeet is held inside the sports hall and is a table top sale / auto jumble that caters for primarily the air cooled Volkswagen's, although water cooled VW's are more than welcome as is anything German including old Porsche's. Being one of the last events of the season it's a great place to socialise with old friends, and even make new friends. The Slough Swapmeet has been going for at least 10 years and I have been attending this event for the past 6 years. The organisers present trophies for the 'King of the car park', which is for the best vehicles parked up in the leisure centre car park. The venue for the swapmeet is only 51 miles from my hometown so it was a great chance to get out in my early bay one last time as this is the last show / event of the VW calendar for the year. Even though the weather forecast was for dry sunny weather, don't let the photos fool you, it was still bitterly cold with the temperature hovering around freezing all day but then it was November in the U.K.! I had arranged to meet my good mate Matthew at Beaconsfield services just off the M40 for a short cruise down to Slough and the swapmeet where we had also arranged to meet and park up with the Wolfsburg Bus Crew.
To see all my other blog entries, go to ‘My Blog Archive’ to the left of this page. Simply click on an arrow for a particular year, then click on an arrow for a particular month, this will then give you a drop down menu for all the blog entries for that month.

As I had arranged to meet up with the Wolfsburg Bus Crew at the swapmeet, and as the WBC is such a big club, most of the vehicles in this weeks write up are members of the WBC.

Although I had arranged to meet Matthew at the
services, shortly after I arrived another mate of
mine, Joe arrived in his lovely 1971 microbus
that has a 3/4 steel sunroof. Joe had arranged
to meet his mate Nathan at the same services
at about the same time as Matthew and I.

Joe's bus has a 1776cc TP motor with Dellorto
DRLA 36 carbs. I do like the look of Joe's bus,
those yellow head lights against that lovely blue
colour looks fantastic.

Joe's '71 and my '69 just taking a breather at
the services in the morning sunshine. Although
the sun was shining, it was very cold.

Matthew arrived shortly after us in his white over
blue 1969 SO42 Westflalia. Another late arrival
was Nathan who had arranged to meet Joe at the
services... looks like we have us a convoy!

Our small group of vehicles just getting ready for
the short cruise down to Slough.

I followed Joe in his '71 and as we waited at some
traffic lights I took the opportunity to take a photo
of Joe's rear end.. your brake lights work mate!

Once we got to the swapmeet we were lucky to
have spaces reserved for us by the Wolfsburg
Bus Crew, as the car park does get packed out
very early in the day. Even so, parking was tight
and I was over seeing Matthew reverse into a
tight space, neither of us noticed the 'No Parking'
cone and Matthew simply run it over!

A bright crisp morning in Slough at the Swapmeet.
All the buses in this photo are members of the
Wolfsburg Bus Crew.

After parking up, I decided to start looking at all
the vehicles in the WBC line up. As I wandered
along this ultra cool oval window bug drove past
looking for somewhere to park. I only just got my
camera out in time to take this quick picture. 

The WBC line up starts here... James was at the
swapmeet in his gorgeous 1958 ex Swiss Army
split screen  bus. The Ducati bus has a 1776cc
motor.

This stunning bus has been repainted in the
Ducati red colour because all the ex Army radio
communication equipment that was originally in
the bus was made by Ducati.

This lovely 1972 Westfalia belongs to Rich, who
runs the Wolfsburg Bus Crew club. 'Margo' is a
1974 Westfalia, although she was built in 1972.
Margo has the original 1600cc engine and the
original Westy interior, but with a few modern
additions.

The lovely white over green late bay is owned
by Richard, who has owned 'Kermit' for about 6
years and uses the bus as much as possible.

'Lola' is a 1973 late bay owned by Steve, who
has owned Lola for a few years and uses the bus
as much as possible including for the weekly shop,
trips to the refuse dump and for festivals and of
all the VW shows.

James came to the swapmeet in his 1977 late
bay that he affectionately calls his 'Bay Shitty
Roller'. Steve says it's not pretty, fast or even cool
but its part of the family and the kids love it. I have
to disagree James, I think it is a cool bus.

Daniel's 1976 late bay looked great in the morning
sunshine. This really is a nice clean bus that Daniel
has owned for about 10 years. 6 of those years have
been spent restoring 'Doris'. Daniel recently had
a jaunt over to Italy that took in a few mountain
passes in Switzerland that Doris just took in her
stride.

Ricki was at the swapmeet in his ultra cool 1958
double door split screen panel van. This van was
put in primer around 17 years ago, and it never
got painted.. hence the cool RAT look. This van
started life in the U.S, but then got exported to
Denmark, before being shipped to the U.K.

It's a bit hard to see just how low Ricki's van sits,
but trust me it's low! It doesn't have air ride just
good old fashioned tubs and lowered suspension.
At present Ricki's '58 is running a 1600cc SP
engine but it will soon have a huge 2180cc motor.

This cool looking 1969 early bay belongs to Ross
who has only the bus for about a year or so. The
first trip Ross took his bus on was a camping trip
to the Isle of Wight and the bus ran like a dream.
Ross plans to repaint the bus in it's original green
colour sometime in the near future.

Mark's lovey Sage Green (L63H) 1978 late bay
looking good in the sunshine. Mark's bay has a
1641cc Vege engine and a Vanworks 'Westy'
reproduction interior.

This is Robin's 1965 walk through split screen
panel van. The van was imported from the U.S.
and is running a 1600cc twin port motor.

Andy has owned his 1971 bay window bus for
over 12 years which was bought as a running
project camper and he says he's had fun for the
last 6 years welding, replacing and spraying his
bus. It was well worth the time and effort Andy.

I think this is Jimmy's bright green 1975 Devon.
Jimmy has owned the bus for about 10 years
and has done all the work himself, with the help
of his dad and a few others at times. The bus is
running a 1915cc engine with twin carbs.

Paul came along in his lovely white over bright
orange 1974 late bay. I don't know much more
about this bus, except that it is one cool bus.

Nick brought the 'Slambulance' along to the swap
meet. The bus is a 1972 cross over bay that Nick
has made his own in the time he has owned it.
The Slambulance has a 1600cc twin port motor
and a narrowed front beam.

Susie brought along her lovely 1967 RHD white
over sea blue split screen, which is her daily
driver that she has named Lulu.

This amazing 1957 slammed split screen panel
van belongs to Dave. The van came from over
from California and used to be a 'shop' van for
a Porsche / Audi garage. The van is capable of
sitting so low thanks to a hydraulic suspension
system. The 1956cc engine pushes this old van
along at a decent pace.

You can see just how low Dave's bus sits when
the hydraulic suspension is fully lowered.

This gorgeous slammed 1991 twin slider T25
belongs to Davyd. This awesome bus has a
2.5 litre Subaru motor and has a fully remote
Rayvern hydraulic suspension that allows this
lovely bus to virtually sit on the floor when lowered.

You can just how low Dayvd's bus sits in this photo
next to Ian's slightly lowered T25 Doka.

A better look at this stunning 1989 1.9 T25 Doka
that belongs to Ian, it's so clean as you can see
from this photo. I do like these Doka's especially
when they are as immaculate as Ian's is.

This 1967 SO42 Westfalia is one of my favourite
vehicles as I think it is just about perfect. It's owned
by Paul who's owned the bus for about 4 years, 

and he likes to get out in the bus with his family 
most weekends.

Luke came along in his his super clean 1976
late bay. Luke's bus is pretty much stock apart
from the 1641cc engine and the Vintage Speed
exhaust.

"Derik" attended the meet in his lovely RAT look
1970 early bay. Derik's bus has a 2054cc motor
with CB044 heads, This is one really cool bus.

This 1984 T25 Devon belongs to WBC members
Neilroy and Laura, and they also run the super cool
VW clothing company, 'Flat Four'. The 1.9 water
cooled bus has been lowered and now has a shiny
new stainless exhaust system. Neilroy and Laura are
slowly making it look nice as this is their daily work-
horse for hauling all the quality clothing around. You
can check out the Flat Four clothing merchandise
by copying and pasting this link::
https://www.facebook.com/Flatfourco/

This gorgeous patina'd 1964 walk through split 
screen bus belongs to Scott. This lovely bus has 
has a full nut and bolt restoration by 'Absolute VW' 
from Nottingham, luckily they left the awesome 
paint alone. It has a 1600cc TP engine built by 
Dan Simpson, which he calls a super sports engine.
Bear Motorsports rebuilt the gearbox and reduction
boxes. Scott was lucky enough to find this bus for
sale last September after it was purchased by
someone else but it didn't work out for them,
which is lucky for Scott!

Matthew's 1969 SO42 white over blue Westy
parked alongside my '69 velvet green microbus.
Both our buses came over from the U.S. in the
same container and were both registered with
the D.V.L.A. at the same time.

Because they were both registered at the same
time,  the D.V.L.A. gave the buses sequential
number plates, cool eh?

This lovely 1985 T25 Karmann Gipsy wasn't part
of the WBC line up (as far as I know). These
Gipsy's are really cool and very sought after, only
about 750 were produced from 1980 - 1992.

This stunning white over deep red belongs to
WBC member Marcus. This gorgeous bus is a
1967 RHD bus that is used for camping, surfing
and weddings. It has a 1641cc engine with twin
34 Webber carbs and has had a subtle lowering
job. 

Mark came over from Belgium to attend the meet
in his lovely late bay. I don't know much about this
lovely bus, suffice to say it really is nice. Mark is
a WBC member.

Marcus's 1967 split and Mark's late bay parked
together made for a lovely photo. That was the
last of the WBC line up, although there were other
WBC members scattered around the leisure
centre car park.

This lovely early 1960's coral red (I think) beetle
looked great with its slammed stance and faded
paint, which is probably the original paint.

The lowered stance, the narrowed front beam
and the Fuchs style wheels all helped this old
bug stand out.

Another slammed vehicle with a narrow front beam
was this gorgeous RAT look 1969 deluxe early bay.

Although this bus had the RAT look with its faded
patina'd paint and rusty bumper it actually very
solid. The imported bus must have had an easy
life in a warmer climate than we have over here.

I spotted this awesome pinstripe design on the
rear hatch of the '69 deluxe bus, that looked great.

The car park for the swapmeet, is in the Montem
leisure centre and it is always crammed with old
air-cooled Volkswagens of all descriptions.

This gorgeous Lotus white (I think) 1967 deluxe
early bay was immaculate.  I loved how this bus
looked and the Cosmic wheels were the perfect
choice to compliment the clean smooth look.

You can see just how clean and straight this old
'67 really was from this photo. The colour coded
bumpers matched the roof and looked great.

That was the first of three instalments about this
great event. Many thanks to all the WBC members

who contributed to this weeks write up. Next week 
will be part two where you can see plenty more 
buses and bugs, a few cool Karmann's and Barbie 
tied up ! so be sure to come back next Saturday.

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