'Let's Go! Scotland-Croatia and onwards in our Kombi!'

mcdonaldneal · Posted: Sun Jul 27, 2014 10:35 pm Post subject:

Thanks Dasdachshund, you wouldn't believe our village of less than 4000 people has 7 golf courses, AND a children's golf course, within 2 miles! It was mad during the Open last year, and we've just heard Gulland golf club is hosting the Scottish Open in 2015. You should visit Scotland, but I'm sure you know, the weather is liable to be pretty unpredictable at any time of year! I'll keep my eyes open for a Scotland sticker, I'll PM you if I get one, I can slip it in the post.
Shona and I had a talk about the trip over the weekend, and I think we're going to go for it, the Kombi seems as good as she's going to get, and life is for living. One concern is that is does mean a lot more hours in a vehicle, compared to going in the car at Autobahn speeds, but I think we can do it in four days of less than 300miles per day.
Just have to confirm Insurance cover, breakdown recovery cover, extend the annual mileage on the insurance, ask the ferry company if we can take the longer vehicle, and probably book the first couple of campsites, Europe is busy at this time of year! How does Luxembourg and the Romantic Road in Bavaria sound for the first two stops after the ferry?
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1978 marino yellow Bay Dormobile camper
1969 signal orange Karmann Ghia convertible
1976 martini olive Bay Dormobile camper

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mcdonaldneal · Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2014 2:18 pm Post subject:

Tried out a great accessory for the kombi at the weekend, it'll be great for the trip! Espressgo travel espresso maker, takes the same Lavazza capsues that the machine at home does, plugs into the leisure battery supplied 12v outlet.

Image may have been reduced in size. Click image to view fullscreen.

Fill with water, plug into the outlet...

It pressurises and heats (probably using huge amounts of juice!) Once its ready, it peeps and you turn it upsidedown and go!!

Pretty good espresso, the coffeemate is for the milk lover!
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1978 marino yellow Bay Dormobile camper
1969 signal orange Karmann Ghia convertible
1976 martini olive Bay Dormobile camper

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Big Papi · Posted: Mon Jul 28, 2014 3:44 pm Post subject:

Go Timbers! Very Happy

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1978 ASI Riviera
TypeIV FI

mcdonaldneal · Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 12:10 am Post subject:

Ok, big decision made here! We had a long chat at the weekend about whether to go for it and take the Kombi on the trip. My concern was to make sure it was mechanically ready, and Shona was worried that it would add an awful lot of driving hours, compared with an 85mph shoot down in the modern car. I think we're both psychologically scarred from 10 long days driving in the Karmann Ghia, which is definitely not designed for long distance comfort!
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=7258965&highlight=#7258965
We've got a plan for four days driving after arriving on the ferry near Amsterdam. No day is more than 300 miles, and the Kombi is a pretty comfy driving position (especially with the sheepskin seat covers!) so we decided to give the trip the green light! Might need to change the title of the thread?
I've rung the insurers to increase the Annual mileage we're allowed, and negotiated international breakdown recovery, in case there's a major mechanical, and we need to let the ferry know we're taking a bigger vehicle. There's some question over whether they charge extra for a camper, but we might book it as a car and see how we go.

Also I took it back to the garage yesterday, to have the wheels re-powder coated, and while its in I thought they should fix the broken left side cooling flap that the engine expert had diagnosed. I knew the engine would need to be dropped, but I thought it was worth it for the long hard journey ahead. I'd scored a rusty replacement set on fleabay to use as spare parts and I asked them to do some other maintenance jobs to make the engine drop worthwhile. Torque convertor seals x2, oil cooler seals, pushrods tubes and seals, paint the battery tray etc.
long story short... The cooling flap was fine and working! It doesn't make a sound moving up and down but all seems to be there, embarrassing but I feel a lot happier. Just waiting for a new thermostat from Awsomepowdercoat to finish the job. Shame about the garage bill, I couldn't see any way to check the flaps without dropping the engine!
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1978 marino yellow Bay Dormobile camper
1969 signal orange Karmann Ghia convertible
1976 martini olive Bay Dormobile camper

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rsbadura · Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 4:56 am Post subject:

Hi,

quite a lot of excitement for such a "small" trip inside civilized Europe Wink

I wish you a good trip and nice adventures... enjoy the ride

If you need help, take a look to these websites: http://aircooledrescue.com/ or http://www.airmapp.com/

regards, fond of traveling with Kamann-Ghia and T2

http://www.vw-t2-bulli.de/index.php?de-travel-2012 - Austria, Poland, Italy, France (& Korsika), Spain, Marokko - hopefully next year Turkey & Iran
http://www.vw-karmann-ghia.de/badura/index.php?de-travels - Austria, Switzerland, Italy (& Elba), France, Spain (& Mallorca)
_________________
Rolf-Stephan Badura
1970 VW Karmann-Ghia Coupe
1979 VW Bus L to camper conversion
1982 Eriba Pan travel trailer
2017 VW CrossPolo
HAZET classic tools

mcdonaldneal · Posted: Thu Jul 31, 2014 9:12 am Post subject:

[quote="rsbadura"]Hi,

quite a lot of excitement for such a "small" trip inside civilized Europe Wink

I wish you a good trip and nice adventures... enjoy the ride

If you need help, take a look to these websites: http://aircooledrescue.com/ or http://www.airmapp.com/

Hi Rolf-Stephan,
Between you and me, I know it's a lot of fuss about nothing very much, but I know there's enough people on the Samba who'll read a rambling thread about the trip, and we all know the anticipation is half the fun Wink

Thanks for the links, I've noted them, and hopefully won't have need to use them.
I'm envious of your trips and plans, we've done a few longer trips, and we tried to get unpaid leave from work to do a 'proper' circular European tour; Scandinavia, Baltic States, (Berlin, of course! I used to live there 1978- 81, so fond memories!), Eastern Europe, Greece, Italy, France,Spain, but work eventually said we couldn't go. One day!
I love your orange Karmann Ghia/ Bay window combination, different colours to ours, but quite a coincidence!
Phil

I went to see the Kombi today during its unnecessary engine drop, all looks good, and there's a few exhaust gaskets, grommets and seals that can usefully be done while its out, as well as proper soldered repairs of some inaccessible wiring splices and a clean up of the oil cooler and Engine fins. I've decided against the pushrods tubes and seals as they look fine, and I guess the piston rings or cylinders will need to be done sooner or later anyway. Nothing serious though, and hopefully we'll be back on the road after the weekend.
_________________
1978 marino yellow Bay Dormobile camper
1969 signal orange Karmann Ghia convertible
1976 martini olive Bay Dormobile camper

Stop dead photo links! Post photos to The Samba Gallery!

MadMax78 · Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2014 2:45 pm Post subject:

We've got a few road trips under our belt by now and I wouldn't worry about the trip you planned at all. Like rsbadura mentioned, you're in Europe, help is always at hand in case anything would happen. These busses are fine long distance cruisers, only downside is that they can be a bit slow. Maybe want to leave the highways every now and then and do some sightseeing. Make your trip part of the destination. Just make sure you're bus is in good condition, so you'll be telling stories about the trip instead of about the bus when you come back Wink

Have a good trip!
_________________
1978 T2b ASI Riviera Plan I // Camper Special with MegaSquirt Injection & Ignition // 091 with 5.14 R/P and Peloquins LSD
Powered by Just Kampers, German Supply , Busted Bus, Aircooled Technology & DIYAutoTune
2008: Amsterdam - Beijing - Olympics -- 17.500km
2010: Amsterdam - Cape Town - FIFA World Cup -- 26.000km
2014: New York - Rio de Janeiro - FIFA World Cup -- 27.000km
http://www.oranjetrophy.nl
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Camper Special Club Member

mcdonaldneal · Posted: Sat Aug 02, 2014 11:05 pm Post subject:

mcdonaldneal · Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 3:01 am Post subject:

Update on the powdercoating of the wheels. They did them again, but there's still the problem of bits of media stuck in the crease. They have said they can reblast them and give them back to me to sort out, or to redo them with a line of sealant in the crease to smooth out the angle. Neither is really great, but I'm going for the second option, so at least they will be done for when we go away!

When we get back though, I've got my eye on these!
http://www.ravus.de/
http://www.ravus.de/Produkte_cat_66.html

So, apart from the wheels we're just waiting for torque convertor seals to arrive. Then I get the Kombi back! Yay!
_________________
1978 marino yellow Bay Dormobile camper
1969 signal orange Karmann Ghia convertible
1976 martini olive Bay Dormobile camper

Stop dead photo links! Post photos to The Samba Gallery!

Sven F · Posted: Tue Aug 05, 2014 8:39 am Post subject:

And we were planning on going in the opposite direction, to Scotland, though we probably won't make it that far this year, just to Holland and France, still we might cross paths.

I am home till August 15th, if you happen to have any mechanical trouble around croatia's capital, or in Croatia in general for that matter, my number is (00 385 91 8988818) and i'll at the least try to find someone close to you.

I'm sure you'll be fine though.
As I keep saying, you have to be a certain type of masohist to drive old cars on long trips, you have to like the suspense. we are the weirdos and perverts of travel. Very Happy

After all it wouldn't be called an adventure if it didn't involve any risks. Wink

mcdonaldneal · Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 11:24 pm Post subject:

mcdonaldneal · Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2014 6:40 am Post subject:

Was sent a picture of the powder coated wheel, with a line of sealant put in the seam before the powdercoat. By no means perfect, but I'm going to take them. Partly so we can travel (!) and also to see what they look like in situ, maybe with the hubcaps on they won't be too bad?

_________________
1978 marino yellow Bay Dormobile camper
1969 signal orange Karmann Ghia convertible
1976 martini olive Bay Dormobile camper

Stop dead photo links! Post photos to The Samba Gallery!

dasdachshund · Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2014 8:23 am Post subject:

Looking good. Keep at it. Cool

-dasdachshund

Sven F · Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2014 12:54 pm Post subject:

I am Croatian, lived here all my life, but English is my first language, croatian second.

I can't think of any square holes in any engine tin except the ones for the little pieces that cover the intake preheat pipes, but if they are square, the thread inserts are missing. Otherwise, all tinware uses 6mm threads.

Opatija is ok, but Rijeka is a dirty, busy port city.

Sretan put Neal

mcdonaldneal · Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2014 1:05 pm Post subject:

Hvala, Sven. Apologies, I jumped to the conclusion that you were Scandinavian!
I should have taken a picture of the mystery bolt hole, pretty sure nothing important was attached to it, so I'll not worry too much!
Fingers crossed the van is ready to pick up tomorrow for a fun weekend away!
_________________
1978 marino yellow Bay Dormobile camper
1969 signal orange Karmann Ghia convertible
1976 martini olive Bay Dormobile camper

Stop dead photo links! Post photos to The Samba Gallery!

wcfvw69 · Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2014 1:36 pm Post subject:

mcdonaldneal · Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2014 11:05 am Post subject:

Picked up the Kombi today. Unfortunately I had decided to cycle the 20miles to the garage and I got caught in a thunderstorm. In the middle of it I realised I had a puncture! Fixed it, got warmed up again and then, 2 miles from the garage, got another one. It must be all the grit and glass on the road gets lifted by the rain!
Haven't had the chance to look at the Kombi in detail. They have put the powdercoated wheels on so that we can travel, but neither the garage nor I are happy with them. It's as though they've put a fresh coat over the previous one. We'll sort it out when we get back from our holiday.
They had struggled to get the carbs properly sorted (instructions over the phone didn't help) but the CO reading is down to 4.5% which will do us for now and I can set them up from scratch sometime soon.
They have done a fair bit of work, filing down leaking exhaust gaskets, replacing broken and missing bolts, seals and wiring, retorquing the cylinder head bolts and various other bits. Labour costs here are high, so the overall bill was eyewatering, don't think I'm being 'done over' though.

Have arrived home now. Thank goodness for the heating system I fixed over the winter, kept me from shivering in my soaking wet cycling gear.
Plan is to head for the West coast to Shonas mums tomorrow morning in the Kombi, so hopefully I can get you some pictures Smile

_________________
1978 marino yellow Bay Dormobile camper
1969 signal orange Karmann Ghia convertible
1976 martini olive Bay Dormobile camper

Stop dead photo links! Post photos to The Samba Gallery!

dasdachshund · Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2014 11:31 am Post subject:

Keep at it. Applause

I'm gunna love your weather when I come over. Been 90F here for two weeks.

You're still on the wrong side of the road. Razz

-dasdachshund

mcdonaldneal · Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2014 12:02 pm Post subject:

mcdonaldneal · Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2014 8:21 am Post subject:

I had the chance to look at the newly coated wheels today...

Extremely UN awesome powdercoating.
Needless to say, I am far from impressed. As soon as we get back I'll look into having someone else do them. I'll be a lot more specific about what I want, and the the original guy isn't getting paid.
Looks like they just added another layer on, which has failed to bond with the first!

On another note, my 'Save my bus' dipstick had got bent and the temp contact wasnt moving around. I was going to take it out and put the original back, but it easily bent back straight and the cantact moves freely. Easy fix!

We drove a couple of hours on the motorway to Dundonald on the West coast. All seems well, the Automatic transmission is so much smoother since the fluids and seals replaced. Stopped for fuel, 16.7 mpg since the last fill up, but that includes some very rich running, 65-70 mph on the motorway, engine removal and possible fuel loss, and carb tuning (now to a CO of 4.5%). We'll see how it is from now on.
The good news is that after 90 min on the motorway, into a headwind, the engine felt cool, not only can I hold the dipstick but I can lay my palm on the engine top and keep it there! Oil temp gauge reading 110 deg C (230F)
_________________
1978 marino yellow Bay Dormobile camper
1969 signal orange Karmann Ghia convertible
1976 martini olive Bay Dormobile camper

Stop dead photo links! Post photos to The Samba Gallery!


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