Volksworld show 2013 (part 1)

This year's Volksworld show was held on the weekend of 23rd - 24th March, at Sandown Park Racecourse, Esher in Surrey and having read my post from last year the weather could not have been much different. Last year we basked in temperatures of 70 degrees with glorious sunshine, yet this year the temperature was 0 degrees, and with the chill factor it was nearer -5. The days running up to the show we also had a constant snow fall. What a difference a year makes..!

 

My friends Claude and Jean left for the show
on Saturday morning, and as Claude's photo
shows his view of the road on the journey
down was what can only be described as,
a whiteout!
You can follow Claude's VW blog at:
http://zibisplit.blogspot.co.uk/

I decided to go down on the Sunday morning,
but having opened my front door and looked at
my early bay still covered in snow, I decided
to take my 4x4 daily driver

08.30am on the Sunday morning, making my
way to Volksworld show... now I'm glad I
decided to take the 4x4 with heating.. much
more comfortable than a cold, draughty bay
for the 100 mile round trip.

Having got to the show, the snow was had
stopped but the wind was bitter.. I had 30
minutes before the doors opened so I decided
to have a walk about and take some photos.

Very clean and straight spilt window, finished
in silver, not your run of the mill colour, but
it did look good.

Outside the main entrance to the show, in the
'un-usual VW display' was this.. not sure what
it's called, but I liked it.!

Yes, very nice from every angle.

Another 2 vehicles in the un-usual display were
the formula racing car and what looks like
something based on a Ford model T.

Now this VW powered snow track vehicle was
quite apt, considering the weather we have had
recently. These were commonly used years
ago for work in the artic, because it had an
air-cooled engine, therefore there were no
dangers of any freezing. The only down side
this only had a top speed of about 7mph.

Opposite the main entrance I spotted Claude
and Jean's Kombi. They did sleep over on the
Saturday night, having attended the Volksworld
party. I caught up with them in the show and
they said they were not cold at all on Saturday
night.
 

Nice variety of vehicles, again these guy's have
been here all weekend.

This was parked up outside the main entrance,
now I'll be honest, I have no idea what it is, I
think it an NSU but I'm not sure so if you
know, please tell me.!!
 

This is great, I love it. So un-usual..

Yes, it's work in progress, but it has got so
much potential.

The interior, like the bodywork has still to be
addressed, but the more I look at it, the more
I love it.

Lovely early lowered split screen that still
looks good.

Another lowered, narrowed split screen in a
un-usual colour, but it suited the look
perfectly.

High top split looked lovely, as did the green
split screen next to it.

Nice photo of a trio of split screen's.

Parked up right outside the main entrance
was this lovely early bay with patina paint.

Patina paint over red bodywork, lowered and
with yellow headlights.. just about right.

Friends of mine from my hometown, David and
Angela had their usual parking place for their
'Red nose day' beetle.

Walking around the car park I spotted this
immaculate split screen.

Very nice very early splitty, love the colour
choice.

Bright orange square back was really clean.

Totally immaculate, loved the blinds in the
rear windows.

Nice oval beetle, again un-usual colour choice,
not sure if this is a stock colour, but doesn't
it look good.

It looked original to me, just the way it should
be.

Simply stunning from every angle.

This drove past me, looks like it's based on a
Model A pick up, but it definitely had a flat
four pushing it along.

Once inside the show, the first thing I saw was
this tribute to 'Herbie'. This is an original
Herbie as used in the film, not a look-a-like.

The show cars were as you would expect,
simply stunning. This early beetle with the
air conditioning unit, and narrowed front beam
was gorgeous.
 

The engine bay was just as immaculate as the
body.

Karmann Ghia convertible in sage green with
red interior, finished with whitewall tyres.

Again the engine bay on the Karmann was
finished to the same high standard.

Just as Volkswagen made it, a split screen
panel van, totally unmolested.

This panel van actually looked brand new, there
must have been a lot of work to achieve this.

This lovely red beetle had a race pedigree,
extra scoops on the rear quarters to keep the
engine cool, and a full roll cage.

Not sure of the capacity of this motor, but if it
goes as well as it looks, it's going to be fast!

Race theme carries on inside with bucket
seats, and alloy door panels.

Another race orientated beetle was this blue
bug, called 'the Lightning Bug'.

I couldn't find out much about this, but I do
know it won a 'Top 20' place at the show.

It's all about the detail if you have your vehicle
on display at Volksworld show, as this photo
clearly shows.
 

Attention to detail doesn't stop under the hood,
every little part has been polished or painted.



Very low, very straight split screen.



This brown oval beetle was awesome, so clean
and so much detail really made this stand out.
 

Hoosier slicks on a bug... it must be packing a
large motor.

I couldn't see just how big this motor was, but
I'm guessing.. BIG.

A lovely green and off white split screen with
a full length Paris roof, very nice.

Silver blue Karmann Ghia convertible, one
of my favourites.

In a perfect world, we'd all have one of these
and spend days at the beach.

It just needed safari screens at the front to
make it perfect.

Lovely oval beetle, again the standard of the
show vehicles was immense.

Narrowed front beam, and lowered just
compliment the look.

Lovely straight square back, apart from the
wheels, it looked all original.

Immaculate, inside and out.

Brown must be the 'in' colour this year, and this
early convertible, with fender skirts certainly
looked good for it.

How deep is that paint, under the hood was
just as clean.

Also under the hood, how about this for some
neat and tidy wiring. (wish mine looked half
as good as this!)

Lovely looking front end, the chrome work
really compliments the chocolate brown
paint work.

Outcast Club Meet

This month's Outcast Club meet was held on a chilly, damp and dark night, but even so the usual hard core club members still attended The Charter Pub, in Aylesbury.

 

 

The pub car park makes an ideal place for a
members vehicle line up

I like this photo... left to right, my bay, Stuarts
bay, Claude's Kombi, Andy's Split, Adrian's
Bug.

Claude and Andy are off to Ninove, in Belgium
tomorrow (Friday) and Claude has obviously
cleaned and polished his Kombi.

All shiny and ready for the European VW
Show.

Claude has altered his rear window sticker to
read 'Le Bus Low Life' quite apt seeing as
Claude is French!

Nice shot showing how narrow Claude's
front beam is, and his newly painted wheels.

Andy's panel van has just passed the MOT so
it's all systems go for the jaunt across the
English channel.

Andy showing off his freshly painted colour
coded rear bumper.

Not content with painting his bumper, he even
managed to recover the door cards and
steering wheel. I'm not going to say anything
about the 1970's fake fur on the door cards!



I don't think Andy will be too comfortable
sleeping in his bus tomorrow night will all the
spares and bits and pieces... good luck mate!

 

Andy leaving the meet early, probably to go
clear the back out!!

 

Adrian and his mate came over from
Oxfordshire in his trusty bug. Adrian has
started to work on his daily driver to get rid of
the bad bits.

Slightly fuzzy picture of Adrian's Bug.

Stuart was there as usual, he plans to take
the engine out to fix an oil leak, and make a
home grown turbo system for his '71 bay at
the same time. Can't wait to see his results,
should be worth a write up by it's self.

Jame's and Helen, also from Oxfordshire came
over in Helen's Yellow and white beetle. Nice to
see you both.

Helen's beetle parked up against the moody
night sky.

Nice looking car from every angle.

My bay, looking cold and damp.

My rear bumper is mellowing nicely...


So the March club meet wasn't as big as maybe it could have been, but the quality and variety of vehicles was still quite impressive. The clocks go forward an hour at the end of the month so hopefully with the lighter evenings it'll encourage more members to join us for next months meet. Claude had designed the logo for the club stickers, which hopefully will be ready for club members to purchase next month, nice work mate... hope you and Andy, and all the others I know have a great weekend in Ninove, and I hope to join you all next year!



Roof insulation...

 

 

Back in 2011 when I purchased my Microbus the headlining had a few splits in it, and as a goodwill gesture the House of Dub, the company where I purchased the bus from included a new headlining as part of the sale. I had intended to fit the headlining, but have since decided on fitting a birch ply headlining instead. Having spent a few nights away in my bus I can say that it wasn't that warm, and as I have already insulated the sides of the bus I decided to insulate the roof.

 

This picture was taken just a week after buying
my bus, and even here you can see some of
the splits in the headlining. Over the past few
years the splits have just got worse.

 

After removing the headlining and the bows
which hold the lining in shape, I found a very
thin layer of felt type material stuck to the roof.
This was pathetic,no good for insulation or
soundproofing. You can see the thin layer of
felt over the cab section of the roof.

Once all the felt was removed all I had to do
then was remove all the little bits left that
were still stuck to the roof, otherwise the new
insulation would not stick properly.



Roof all cleaned up and ready to start
measuring the insulation panels.

 

When the old felt was removed I discovered
5 rivets on each side  in the roof at the rear.
I have no idea why these are here, it looks
like something was bolted to the roof at some
time in it's past.

 

The rivets are the same pattern on both sides
so must have been something bolted to the
roof. Looking at the outside of the roof there
is no evidence of the rivets at all... strange!



Having looked around all the D.I.Y. stores, I
decided on this product from B&Q. It is a 5mm
thick 2 in 1 insulation with a polystyrene back
and a metallic layer on the front. It says it
has 'extremely high thermal insulation' which
should be ideal for what I require.

 

 

Only time will tell if I have purchased the
correct insulation or not. I bought 2 packs of
this insulation, at £18 per pack and I had to
open the second pack to finish the last half
of roof section. I will use the remainder to
insulate under the bed and floor area.

 

To fix the insulation to the roof I decided on
grab adhesive rather than glue. I also bought
some silver foil tape to seal all the joints and
edges of the insulation just to tidy it all up.

Tools I used were: a mastic gun, sharp knife,
scissors, pen, tape measure and a small paint
roller to ensure when the insulation was
offered up to the roof I could roll the whole panel
to ensure the grab adhesive spread out giving
more adhesion but without damaging the foil
insulation.

First section to be done was the middle part
of the roof, just because this was the easiest
to get to.

Half of the middle section done and it looks
better already, it has a great reflective finish.

Both halves of the middle roof section done
and the wire for the interior light taped up
using the foil tape.

I used the foil tape to seal the edges, and seal
any gaps.

This photo shows the reverse side of the
insulation panel with the grab adhesive put on.
I bought 2 tubes of adhesive, but in reality due
to the amount I had to use on each panel I
ended up using almost 3 tubes.

Middle section and cab section all done.

Again using the foil tape to seal edges and to
fill any gaps on the cross braces on the roof.

All 3 sections of the roof finished. The edges
have been taped, and any gaps filled with
cut offs of insulation and again taped.

Fitting the insulation around the 2 interior
lights was tricky, but I took my time and made
sure it would fit before applying the adhesive.

Finished, it's almost a shame to cover it up
with the birch ply headlining, but I will. As
I said, only time will tell how efficient this
insulation is, but I will let you all know.


So that was how I spent a lazy Sunday. It did take me most of the day, and about £60 for all the bits I needed but if it works it'll be worth it. I will be fitting the birch ply headlining in the coming months so keep checking out my blog to see how I get on.