TheSamba.com :: View topic - Restoration of a former '65 firetruck (21F)

Sun Dec 05, 2021 8:52 am

mdege wrote:
In front of the former summer home of friends of mine

Hi Michael,

that‘s up here in the north!

I have contact to one of the POs of my bus in Bavaria. I will have to visit him next year. He himself is an oldtimer and has no access to the internet…
Looking forward to this re-unification and I hope to retrieve some images of the eighties, too. He was the guy who saved the bus from the scrapyard in first instance…

Sun Dec 05, 2021 9:26 am

Hi Tizian,

No, the picture was taken here:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Lippenhalde+2,+8...10.4665531

But, you are right the car was registered in Plön, where I grew up. At the time I was in Lich (Hessen) doing my alternate service (Zivildienst). We were four friends from school in Preetz on an extended weekend trip.

I am still hoping to get pictures from the PO of mine, the fire department in Niedernstöcken (Neustadt am Rübenberge). I am still planning on visiting them someday.

Michael

Mon Dec 06, 2021 5:28 am

mdege wrote: Hi Tizian,

No, the picture was taken here:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Lippenhalde+2,+8...10.4665531

But, you are right the car was registered in Plön, where I grew up. At the time I was in Lich (Hessen) doing my alternate service (Zivildienst). We were four friends from school in Preetz on an extended weekend trip.

I am still hoping to get pictures from the PO of mine, the fire department in Niedernstöcken (Neustadt am Rübenberge). I am still planning on visiting them someday.

Michael

Nice spot - The Allgäu is definitely worth a visit!

Fri Dec 10, 2021 8:15 am

I just read through this entire thread. You fab skills are impressive and I liked how you saved some of the original pressings. I'll have to admit I was a little disappointed that you did not restore some original fire equipment to add to this bus.

The spindle rebuild tools you made are simple and effective. Thanks for posting.

Sat Dec 11, 2021 1:06 pm

Thank you for your kind words.

Quote: I'll have to admit I was a little disappointed that you did not restore some original fire equipment to add to this bus.

Well, most of it has long gone. The bus was my daily driver for 9 years and you really don't want to lug around a metric ton of stuff you are never going to use. It is and was much more useful to me as a camper than it would be as an original firetruck. But luckily there are still a few originals around.

I have thought about putting the blue beacon light back on but I would have to come up with some kind of quick mount. Otherwise I could not get into any of our garages. I am not allowed to mount the siren at all (not even disconnected) and the beacon light would have to be covered while I drive in traffic.

Sat Dec 11, 2021 3:20 pm

totally second that Michael. Coming from someone driving an ex fire truck 1964 Fk1250 as a daily for 17 years now.

The survival rate of former fire engines is very high and luckily a lot have been saved for exhibition, private collections or museums in their original form.

But they also make great drivers, for their low milage and usually good maintenance standards. My 64 has just over 50k kilometers. I still have some of the original equipment, but don't carry it in the bus.

Mon Dec 13, 2021 12:22 am

mdege wrote: ... and the beacon light would have to be covered while I drive in traffic.

This reminds me of a nice cover for the beacon light, seen on a Mercedes L319 fire truck.

Mon Dec 13, 2021 10:46 am

mdege wrote:

I have thought about putting the blue beacon light back on but I would have to come up with some kind of quick mount. Otherwise I could not get into any of our garages. I am not allowed to mount the siren at all (not even disconnected) and the beacon light would have to be covered while I drive in traffic.

It would be cool if you could put the beacon and siren on a magnetic mount so you could put it on when it's parked at a show. Just don't forget to take it back off before you leave!

Wed Dec 15, 2021 9:38 am

Hi Michael,

Just found this topic and read through it, very nice work you have don creating your own tools and saving the bus! Very nice to see you also using brantho 8)

Thu Dec 16, 2021 12:11 am

Thank you Andy.

I hope to see your 66 Square someday, maybe in Spa?

Thu Dec 16, 2021 2:35 pm

Yes! Let’s grab a drink then 8)

Wed Nov 23, 2022 12:59 pm

This years travels took me and my bus to Sweden and France

I spent my summer vacation n Sweden with some VW friends and met a bunch of Swedish VW enthusiasts.

I drove up through northern Germany, Denmark and the by Ferry to Sweden.

A fire engine museum

Drove hundreds of mile on dirt roads

Beautiful camp spots

Met other VW

Early October I drove all the way to Lapalisse in France for this years edition of the recreation of the historic traffic jam. Up until the highway was built in the mid 60ies a gigantic traffic jam would build up when the Parisians took off on vacation towards the Mediterranean. This traffic jam is recreate every two years with historic vehicles. Lots of people get all dressed up in period clothing and drive around town with anything that moves.

Wed Nov 23, 2022 1:57 pm

Great pictures, thanks for posting.

Wed Nov 23, 2022 5:22 pm

Great trip and pictures! Thanks for sharing!! 8)

Thu Oct 19, 2023 2:21 am

Just when though all the pics, amazing resto mate, did you ever get the diagram for the sirens and lights? I have the big black box for my ambulance but have no idea how to wire them up.
Nick.

Thu Oct 19, 2023 10:12 pm

Hi Nick,

I think I figured most of it out, but I couldn't try it out because I had converted my bus to 12V and the black box and the horns are 6V.

I am working on restoring a 63 Type3 that will keep the 6V. Once I get a battery for that I can test the system.

But, I can see if I can find my notes and then post them here.

Mon Nov 27, 2023 11:27 am

I have an update on this thread.

I had to reseal the transmission and replace the fuel sender. The new Brazilian VDO sender is crap and the needle of the instrument was showing only intermittently what the fuel level was.

I upgraded to this nice and shiny Kienzle-VDO unit which is meant for use in boats. It has the same mounting and a slightly different ohm range (90 - 4 ohms) and the original had something like (75 - 4 ohms). I am using a 430ohm resistor in parallel to make up for the difference.

The new sender can be found here: https://vdo-webshop.nl/nl/54mm-brandstof-buis-sens...26321.html

Pulling the tranny and resealing it:

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Mon Nov 27, 2023 12:30 pm

Do you have any other pics of the jack adapter that hokds the axle tubes up?

Mon Nov 27, 2023 12:45 pm

Yes, I do. In fact I posted them on the first page of this thread.

This was one of the tools I built in preparation for this build. I used the drawing from the Special Service Tools - Local Manufacture of Tools section on TheSamba. https://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/info/local_manufacture.php

I took the freedom to adapt the design to my technical capabilities and made it fit to my floor jack.

You can see the other tools I made on page one of this build thread.

Mon Nov 27, 2023 3:49 pm

Clever idea for the trans adaptor. Is the angle for the axle tube supports based on how the axle tubes sit installed in the bus?

Or what is the angle relative to horizontal?

Thanks!