Living in Brazil and Hunting Type 2s

[Globespotter]

I'm kind of liking those new front logos.
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1977 Westfalia - October 2015 - Current
1971 Super Beetle - May 2012 - Current
1979 Westfalia - 1986-1991
1971 Super Beetle - 1977-1980

1971 SB Survivor Story: https://globespotter.com/
Road Trip Thread: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=511800&highlight=
My 77 Westy Thread: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=647114&highlight=

http://vw-mplate.com/mcode.php?lang=EN&id=30990
https://vw-type2-id.xyz/mplate/72067382

[The Canadian]

I went to have a look at another bus, its a 1991 which had the same owner from 91 to 2016! All original with many things added by the newer owner(who was a friend of the previous owner).

It has been lowered, Porsche wheels, Upholstery done, and a flat white wrap job. This bus has the typical Brazilian pre-1998 setup of 1600 engine, dual carbs, 4 speed, and barn doors.

The bus drove great so I decided to pull the trigger and buy(after doing the appropriate research and having the owner send me many pictures of the vehicle before it was wrapped).

The previous owner of the bus runs a popular youtube channel down here where he covers various VW related events as well as his own projects. Check it out here:

https://www.youtube.com/user/tchelopoeta/featured

After I brought the van home I had a few electrical issues with it to sort out, I ended up putting a new set of headlights in as the old ones had an issue with the highbeams, I also replaced the headlight relay and fixed the drivers door handle. All this in order to be ready for the Vistoria(inspection) which did not go well(more on this in the next post)…

[mark d]

congrats on the bus. looks great. i worked in brazil for about 10 years. they sure got a lot of buses down there
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1972ish westfalia

"what good are tractors without violins ?" jose figueres

[visibleink]

Love seeing these Brazilian buses, do you have pics of the engine?

How does it feel and drive compared to old german bay windows?
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Been on the samba so long I remember petting that dog to see VWs, WYHI, and green bug girl.

<-- Helga, she slammed her dub in '53 and adjusted valves with her teeth

[78BusGA]

Oh the flat white panel is nice inside. I like the seamed detail on the front kick panels. I am assuming that was not standard for the bus. Still a nice detail to see. Makes me consider another idea for my Restomod options.
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Few will understand the passion and majesty, among the nuts and grease.

Tom H.

My '74 Super 1303 thread - https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=764902&start=60

My '78 Kombi Bus thread - https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=769385&highlight=

'72 Superbeetle (retired), '78 Bus Kombi 2.0FI, '74 1303 Superbeetle

[The Canadian]

[The Canadian]

After picking up my second Kombi, I had fixed a few minor problems and thought for sure I would pass the Vistoria(inspection) with flying colours. I headed out to the inspection shop where I had the other van inspected and met with the same official as the last time. He took one look at the bus and greeted me with a frown- “I won’t look at that” he said. “Whats the problem?” I asked. Apparently having lowered suspension is the problem. “You need to take your van to a shop and get them to put your stock suspension back in, then I will pass you” This was not an option, as I didn’t have stock suspension for the van, nor did I have any interest in swapping it out. “Is there no other way?” I responded Spoiler- there is ALWAYS another way.

In this instance, the other way involved:
-finding a despachante(a “fixer”) who would open a process for my van in the motor vehicle registry system asking for a modification to the document of my van
-once that process was open I could schedule a time to visit another inspection agency which would then measure the height of my van from the ground to determine if it is within legal restrictions
-next if I passed this inspection, I would take the documentation to the motor vehicle registry and ask them to modify the registry document of my Bus to include “lowered” on it.
-I would have to wait for a new document to be made, then return and pick it up at later date
-with this document in hand I could return to the Vistoria and complete the inspection.

Needless to say, I did not do this.

At this point I had already met with the company that will be handling the exporting of the vans. Instead of talking to more officials, I asked the exporter “how can I solve this?” Turns out the solution was to simply transfer the title to his company, and he fixed the document before export. It still cost me a pretty penny to fix the docs in this way, but it was cheaper than swapping out the suspension!

Here's a photo of my busses at the port, more on that in the next post!

[The Canadian]

Now that I had 2 Buses registered in my name, it was time to meet with the exporter and begin the next step of the process. I consulted with 4 different exporting companies in Sao Paulo, and ultimately chose to work with a company called Kombi4you, which is run by two guys called Thiago and Cadu. They gave me a full quote and spent time explaining each and every cost of the process. As of writing this post, my 2 buses have not yet arrived in Canada, and so I don’t consider this deal “done” yet. However up until now Thiago has been very good to work with.

Me giving a wave as we are stuck in traffic leaving Sao Paulo

Thiago recommend that I load both buses on a flatbed and send them out to his storage facility(which is about an hour outside of Sao Paulo in a small town called Atibaia) in order await the next ship. I decided that driving each one there would be more interesting(and cheaper) so that’s what I did. In order to get to Atibaia, I had to take a Highway known as Rodoviária Fernão Dias, which connects Belo Horizonte and Sao Paulo, two of the largest cities in Brazil. The 3 lane highway is very busy, with cars on the outside lane moving at 120-140km/h and trucks on the inside moving at 30-80km/h. As you can imagine, this difference in speeds creates some hair raising action as large trucks jockey for position up and down the mountain passes.


Dropping the van off at the storage yard

Lots of split windows sitting around

More over there

And more up the hill

Once I had dropped my buses off at the storage area, the exporter took care of removing Both vehicles from the Federal Brazilian Auto Registration system in order be exported. The buses then sat for about a month awaiting the next ship(I ended up missing the first ship because it was overbooked, and so the freight company paid the costs for my container to sit at the port). And as of now they are on the way to Canada!


Here are some pictures of the buses loaded up in the container, ready for their Caribbean cruise.

Thats a wrap for now!

[Manfred58sc]

Nice!! That replaces all the ones we lost to Europe...
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Fat chick owner/operator

[Sven F]

Must be one of the most interesting topics I've read. Thanks for sharing.
Would have loved to see if the diesel engine was a real thing, information on it is scarce.

[NASkeet]

[chrisradioman]

Great Thread, I'm riveted.
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http://www.vintagevwweddings.co.uk/contact.html

[The Canadian]

[The Canadian]

[NASkeet]

[NASkeet]

In Great Britain, there is also a forum for owners of imported Brazilian built, 1997~2005 "bay-window" air-cooled VW 1600 Type 2s and 2005~2015 "bay-window" water-cooled VW 1400 Type 2s.

http://brazilianvwbay.forumotion.com/

[The Canadian]

[NASkeet]

Brake-Fluid Reservoirs & Float-Switches

I finally found my spare RHD VW 1800 Type 2 brake-fluid reservoir (identical to that of my RHD 1973 VW “1600” Type 2 Westfalia Continental campervan), which bears the VW part No. 211 611 309 B accompanied by the letters GPO, surrounded by a circle.

Discounting the oval level-viewing window. The front surface of the reservoir would be convex. Looking at the reservoir, in plan-view (i.e. from above), orientated as it would be when installed in a 1973~79 VW Type 2 with the blister oval level-viewing window to the front, there are two fastening lugs with holes for self-tapping screws (sheet-metal screws, in USA parlance), located as follows:

· Attached to the right-hand side, in the front-most position
· Attached to the rear, in the left-most position

The reservoir’s dimensions are:

· 76 mm long (discounting the level-viewing window)
· 88½ mm long (including the level-viewing window)
· 51½ mm wide
· 60 mm high (discounting the filler-neck & screw cap)
· 84 mm high (including the filler-neck & screw cap)

How this compares with the brake-fluid reservoir (has wider filler-neck and screw-cap with integral float-switch) of the Brazilian built, 2005/06~2015 “bay-window” VW Type 2, remains to be seen!?!

Reservatorio Com Tampa Do Fluido De Freio Da Kombi 1997/2014 - R$154 •54

https://produto.mercadolivre.com.br/MLB-976404922-...972014-_JM

The moulded-in plastic mounting lugs appear to be in the same position, but at the moment, I cannot be sure about the dimensions.
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Regards.

Nigel A. Skeet

Independent tutor (semi-retired) of mathematics, physics, technology & engineering for secondary, tertiary, further & higher education.

Much modified, RHD 1973 VW "1600" Type 2 Westfalia Continental campervan, with the World's only decent, cross-over-arm, SWF pantograph rear-window wiper

Onetime member, plus former Technical Editor & Editor of Transporter Talk magazine
Volkswagen Type 2 Owners' Club (Great Britain)

http://www.vwt2oc.net

[The Canadian]

I have been having some major problems with my Buses at the Port of Vancouver(Fraser Surrey Docks) and so this project has hit a major delay. It has been a big learning experience for me.

On October 7th the Vessel carrying my container reached the Port of Vancouver and my container was unloaded from the ship. 3 days prior to this, the shipping company (Ocean Network Express) sent me an Arrival Notice/Invoice. The invoice was for about $500 USD, and it covers the unloading of the container and the filling of the paperwork with the Canadian Border Services Agency(CSBA). I Transferred this amount to Ocean Network Express immediately, as I know that any delays at the port can be costly(if your container is sitting on the dock for more than 5 days you begin to pay “Demurrage Fees” which can range from 50 to 150 dollars a day.

Here’s where the problems began..
October 11th
When my broker filed the paperwork in order to release the container, the shipment was rejected, and I was told that the Cargo Control Number(CCN) was invalid, or basically, it was not appearing in the computer system of the CSBA.

October 12th
My broker filed the paper work again, after confirming all details with Ocean Network Express, and it was rejected again. This time I was informed that the ship which my container was on had never made it to the Port of Vancouver. Yet the shipping company was saying that my container was sitting on the dock.

October 13-18th
I called my broker, the shipping company, and the CSBA, over and over to slowly work my back through the process to figure out what had gone wrong. Each party was giving me different answers or saying that it was the responsibility of the others. This was a very stressful time.

Finally I managed to figure out that the initial payment for my Arrival Notice had not been billed to the correct account, and so my paperwork was never released to the CSBA, and so it never existed in their system. Next I found out that my container had been transferred to a different ship in Columbia, yet the original ship that left Brazil was the vessel marked on my Bill of Landing, this had caused the confusion about whether or not the ship had been to the Port of Vancouver. Lastly, the computer system at Ocean Network Express was showing my documents as having been accepted by the CSBA, when in reality they had never been sent.

After I sorted all this out I thought the process would move forward, however my container was then flagged for a dockside inspection, in which the CSBA had to open the container and inspect its contents, this cost me another chunk of change and another day sitting on the dock(actually the whole weekend since they only work Monday to Friday)

October 22nd
My Container is cleared by customs, Finally! My Broker then contacted me and let me know that their Trucking company would be picking up the container on Oct. 23rd(today) and moving it to their warehouse for unloading.

My container sat on the dock for 15 days.

Also, I flew back to Canada in order to receive the Buses, and now I am sitting at the airport waiting to fly back to Brazil.

So, things have not gone as planned. But I have learned a lot.

[NASkeet]