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.
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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.
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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! |
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Our small group of vehicles just getting ready for the short cruise down to Slough. |
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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! |
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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! |
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A bright crisp morning in Slough at the Swapmeet. All the buses in this photo are members of the Wolfsburg Bus Crew. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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'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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Susie brought along her lovely 1967 RHD white over sea blue split screen, which is her daily driver that she has named Lulu. |
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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. |
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You can see just how low Dave's bus sits when the hydraulic suspension is fully lowered. |
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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. |
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You can just how low Dayvd's bus sits in this photo next to Ian's slightly lowered T25 Doka. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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"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. |
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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/ |
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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! |
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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. |
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Because they were both registered at the same time, the D.V.L.A. gave the buses sequential number plates, cool eh? |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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The lowered stance, the narrowed front beam and the Fuchs style wheels all helped this old bug stand out. |
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Another slammed vehicle with a narrow front beam was this gorgeous RAT look 1969 deluxe early bay. |
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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. |
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I spotted this awesome pinstripe design on the rear hatch of the '69 deluxe bus, that looked great. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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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