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Mon Jun 27, 2005 7:28 am

Hey Volks

Many of you will know that VWSA assembled a run of Brazilian-built split
buses in the 1975 model year which were sold under the model name
Fleetline. These were probably the last split buses built anywhere, as split
production ended in Brazil in 1974 or 75. Fleetlines were produced in three
variants: 15-window Kombis, panelvans, and wide-bed single-cab pick-ups.

It has been fairly widely published on the web that there were only 789
Fleetlines built, while others say that the number may have been as many
as 2,000 Fleetlines. Anyone who used the 789 figure was quoting me. This
number is incorrect. I have now discovered a definitive source of
production figures for Fleetlines and it turns out that there were between
5,000 and 6,000 Fleetlines built between January 1975 and March 1976.
So Fleetlines are still rare, but not as rare as I had believed.

I recently located an old copy of the Commercial Vehicle Data Digest, a
local publication that gives technical and other specs on vehicles sold in SA.

According to the Commercial Vehicle Data Digest:

Fleetline introduced: January 1975
Total number sold in 1975: 4,957
Fleetline discontinued: March 1976

In April 76 the Fleetline was replaced by the fugly bay/split hybrid, which
had baywindow front bodywork grafted onto the split rear bodywork. The
bay/splits were known simply as "1600" or "Brasilia" (as I have seen it on
some aftermarket parts lists). These were sold until 1978. The
Commercial Vehicle Data Digest lists 1976 sales at 3,446. It is not clear if
that refers to both Fleetlines and bay/splits, so there may have been as
many as 6,000 Fleetlines sold in total.

Fleetlines:

Bay/split hybrid:

All thesamba.com Fleetline pics:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_search.php?search_keywords=fleetline&search_terms=all

Mon Jun 27, 2005 8:17 am

Very interesting! :-k

It is always kool 8) when some new-old information surfaces and especially about a rare item such as these Fleetlines! :P

Mon Jun 27, 2005 8:37 am

is it me or the fleetline has a non-pop up windows between each pop up window?

Mon Jun 27, 2005 10:42 am

enkiel wrote: is it me or the fleetline has a non-pop up windows between each pop up window?

Yes, there are four pop-outs on a Fleetline 15-window Kombi: the first and third window on each side. From pics I've seen in the gallery of other Brazilian buses, all the Braz 15-windows were like that.

Mon Jun 27, 2005 11:05 am

fig wrote: Bay/split hybrid:

Hey, I saw one of those in Amman, Jordan a couple weeks ago. I thought I was seeing things and about gave myself whiplash. It was a pretty clean white one. Wish I had a camera at the time.

Mon Jun 27, 2005 12:36 pm

lots of those bay /split hybrids still running around South America

Mon Jun 27, 2005 12:40 pm

[img]http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_upload.php?cat_id=666[/img]

Cusco Peru March 2005

Mon Jun 27, 2005 1:13 pm

velvetgreen wrote: [img]http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_upload.php?cat_id=666[/img]

Cusco Peru March 2005

Mon Jun 27, 2005 1:22 pm

Looks like the front emblem is stamped into the skin on the fatfleets(?) also as is the ones on the "fleets"!?! Is this correct? :?

Mon Jun 27, 2005 1:47 pm

pyrOman wrote: Looks like the front emblem is stamped into the skin on the fatfleets(?) also as is the ones on the "fleets"!?! Is this correct? :?

Yes, the emblem is pressed in to the front panel. It doesn't look quite as good as a nice chromed emblem, but at least no punk is going to rip it off!

Fatfleet. I like it. :D

Mon Jun 27, 2005 1:53 pm

fig wrote: Fatfleet. I like it. :D

It just came to mind in trying to reffer to this model vs the other one! :wink:

Maybe I'll get the credit for "coining" the term!?! 8-[

Mon Jun 27, 2005 5:53 pm

i was watching viva la bam on Mtv last night (there was nothing else on and i was bored) and they were chillin in brazil and thier reantal car was a baywindow with the 15 window body. was kinda wierd seein it at first.

Thu Jul 28, 2005 2:14 pm

I have a 15 window fleetline in the uk brought from a guy called gary
( top bloke)

I wonder how many are actually on the road I would guess that it is less than 2000 but who knows :D

Thu Jul 28, 2005 2:26 pm

Here's an ad where the 789 figure lives on... :lol:

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=202687

Tue Jul 10, 2007 2:04 pm

Hey, I've got one of the brazilian bays. She's a corker! I love her and am sad at selling her next month, but my 21 window needs money thrown at it.
She may be ugly to most, but she pulls in the crowds. Most people are lost for words when they see her. A bay with rear samba windows? What's that? As far as build quality, I've spent a shed load of cash on welding, but that's because it's been in the UK since '77 (it's a '76 bus) and never been looked after. So the usual thing happened, rust!
I believe that there is another 4 or 5 in the UK, but one of only 2 on the road.

Sun Aug 26, 2007 5:15 am

Some details of a 75.

The fried-egg is made out of two pieces , a plastic glas and a chrome ring.

Checkout the thickness of the steeringhub , i think this is thicker because they used a 70`s style indicatorswitch. The light switch is also 70`s style .

Strange motif in Head light glass

No heater knob , but a knob for the Choke system.

Sun Aug 26, 2007 7:18 am

VolksWoute® wrote: Some details of a 75.

The fried-egg is made out of two pieces , a plastic glas and a chrome ring.

No heater knob , but a knob for the Choke system.

Ah, I've seen those front turn signals with the separate bezels... wondered about that. now I see.

So, were they manual choke standard equipment?
I like those new manual choke carbs.
But, where's the heater knob? Don''t they have heat?

Sun Aug 26, 2007 7:32 am

Nope , Brazil and South Africa are warm countries so they didn`t installed a heater system.

Sun Aug 26, 2007 8:19 am

VolksWoute® wrote: Nope , Brazil and South Africa are warm countries so they didn`t installed a heater system.

South African Fleetlines have the normal heater and auto choke.

Sun Aug 26, 2007 8:29 am

Fig , like the German ones?

I`ve got more pictures of this bus , will post the VIN-plate , maybey this bus is a typical Brazilian bus.