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

[mcdonaldneal]

A few days since the trip now but the Kombi was needing a wash. She is coming to a beach barbecue to celebrate my early retirement at the weekend! One of my lovely colleagues has made a great poster and it should be a fantastic day, although some social distancing is still required. I’ve overlooked the technical error on the poster, as she has definitely got the cat right!...
I have recently got a pressure washer and it seems everyone is raving about snow foam as a pre-wash treatment so I thought I’d give it a go. It certainly great fun to use and I got the feeling it really removed the bulk up of the grime from the road trip so that it was ready for hand washing. The great thing is that it’s so easy to do the wheel arches, underbody and the wheels. I’ll work on fine tuning the sequence of treatments, but I think I’m sold!

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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!

[Abscate]

Happy retirement Phil, if you ever want to come Stateside for a bit we’ve got a T4 we can lend for the Mountains Hills

I’m winding down but still about 5 years from self-retirement, we did make a big change to a seaside residence this year though
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.ssS!

[mcdonaldneal]

[mcdonaldneal]

We took a day trip out to historic St Andrews today. The forecast was gorgeous sunshine, the reality was East coast sea fog ‘Haar’ which hung just off the coast but kept the temperatures way down even when the sun shone. You can see the bank of fog in the first two pics. They were taken next to a disused airfield which is now a racetrack, you can see the control tower!
Next was the East Neuk (corner) village of Crail, then a stop above St Andrews town and beach. The evening run home came through the pretty harbours and beaches of Pittenweem and Elie. Great day!

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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!

[mcdonaldneal]

I’m low key preparing the Kombi in case there is an opportunity to drive to Croatia again later in the summer. At the moment it’s not possible to travel from the UK to the Netherlands or Germany except for emergency reasons, but who knows what might happen?!
The Kombi has two small bunks up top. Too small for us, and we never use them. They protrude into the roof opening and I wondered if removing them might make a bit of living space. More importantly, they are quite heavy, and removing the dead weight (top heavy weight too!) would be good.
Each bunk is attached to the roof opening frame with two bolts at either end. One also had a rivet, which I drilled out. Pretty simple to remove. There is also a grey, heavyweight vinyl cover that wraps around. This is sandwiched under a trim strip which came off and got a clean!
You can see that without the left hand bunk, the roof canvas sags down into the cabin, so I reinstalled the grey cover and I will make that into a ‘hammock’ for the roof canvas.
It’s all easily reversible, so I’ll see how I feel about it after the summer, they can always go back in!

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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!

[DocNexil]

It's nice to see some better angles of the inside of a Dormobile top! I recently re-installed my canvas (taken off by a PO, but still original) and it is rather difficult to find some nice pictures of a complete inside. I actually emailed Dormobile and they were very kind and sent me some instructions with step by step pictures for free.

What's really interesting is I decided to remove one of the top bunks a few days ago, so it was weird to see someone else doing the same just a few days later. The metal frame that the bunks bolt into is missing some screws on the side I took off, so it has bent a little bit, making the mechanism scrape when opening. Working on fixing that currently.

I'll be removing the other bunk soon here as well because I ordered some new cot material from Dormobile. My current cot fabric (not original) wasn't made properly and ripped. Best part was that it was 2x cheaper than the quote from my local upholstery shop, and will be a guaranteed fit.

Also, when I took my bunk off, it felt to me like there was a sizable amount of room freed up. So if you don't use them, I think you will be happy with the extra bit of space!
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1971 Dormobile "Juliett"
1970 beetle "Rudie"

[mcdonaldneal]

[mcdonaldneal]

We’re having lots of local day trips this summer. Today we headed out to meet friends for a walk at the Falls of Clyde, a couple of hours away. Poured with rain half the day, but good fun had by all!

I also had to send some pictures to the insurance company for the valuation, so I thought I would post them here!

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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!

[mcdonaldneal]

Also for the insurance, I had to have a record of the annual mileage. I dredged through garage bills and Samba posts and although it is of zero interest to anyone I’m going to post the figures here so that I can find them again next time I need them!

Figures all in kilometres, as the Kombi is Australian:
May 2012, 6951km
Aug 2013, 9158
May 2015, 15103
March 2017, 20000
Apr 2019, 24000
May 2019, 24429
March 2020, 25018
18th Mar 2020, 25327
July 2020, 26135
Sept 2020, 27982
June 2021, 30000

That means, roughly speaking, the annual mileage was (in km):
2012 and 13, 2207 (1100pa)
2014, 5945 (trip to Croatia, see this thread!)
2015 and 16, 4897 (2500pa)
2017 and 18 4000 (2000pa)
2019 1018km
2020 2964km
2021 to June 2018km
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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!

[DocNexil]

Beautiful bus as ever you have there! I meant to respond a while back haha. I noticed the rivet holes but mine had screws in them. I'm assuming they had rivets originally. I'm still not done affixing my top back together because my local hardware store still hasn't restocked the screws I need. Is it difficult for you to open your roof? Mine is pretty tight and only locks easily if it's warm outside. I'm thinking mine shrunk a bit in storage.

Anyway, my new cots have been shipped and they should be here on/before Monday! I'm also going to take your offer of pictures, thank you. Could I get some of how your curtains attach to the top? I'm working towards making curtains for the whole bus.

Also, good job keeping track of all those numbers!

Thanks again!
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1971 Dormobile "Juliett"
1970 beetle "Rudie"

[mcdonaldneal]

[mcdonaldneal]

We had to cancel a camping trip this week, so I’ve been getting some minor jobs underway.
The sliding door panel covering material is sagging, dirty and needs something doing. First step is to take it off. Filthiness confirmed.
It’s attached with staples to fairly thin plywood. We’ll probably try cleaning it in situ, but will probably end up removing it, varnishing the plywood and washing and/or replacing the fabric with upholstery material.
While the panel is off, I removed the sliding door release mechanism, which had been getting very stiff. It’s soaking in some paraffin before it gets cleaned and relubricated. It was easier to remove than I thought, thanks to Colin’s (Amskeptic) instructions.
Also cleaned up a Type 4 (85-90eg) and a type 1 (65-70deg) thermostat bellows which will serve as spares.

Sliding door latch refresh

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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!

[mcdonaldneal]

The sliding door latch is able to disassemble a little, by removing springs and circlips, which makes it a bit easier to clean thoroughly. Lubricated with steering box oil (very thick) and bearing grease.
That means I can move onto the locking mechanism. Easily enough removed.

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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!

[mcdonaldneal]

I got the sliding door locks and latches reinstalled and I’m pleased to say that the outside handle is now nice and tight with no slop and the door release works beautifully! I had meant to refresh the slider hinges and rollers too but there wasn’t time before a planned weekend away. I oiled the bottom roller instead which will do for now. Shona has done a great job cleaning the fabric of the door panel but that also has to wait, as we ran out of time!
Friday we drove up to meet friends at Loch Leven in Fife. On the way I realised that the large steering wheel nut was slightly loose and, although I didn’t have the large socket, I managed to tighten it with an adjustable spanner and ‘amazingly’ it has solved the steering ‘clunk’ that I had erroneously pinpointed to the link pin and was waiting to dismantle. Happy days!

Next came a long drive through Glasgow to the West coast seaside town of Largs to catch up with another set of old friends. Just at Glasgow airport, a police car behind us fired up the lights and sirens and pulled us over… I ran through the potential reasons, but it turned out that his number plate recognition computer had flagged us up as not having a valid MOT (roadworthy) certificate. Fortunately, a historic vehicle over 40yrs old no longer requires an mot so he apologised and let us go!

The campsite was busy, but picturesque. We arrived late (8:15pm) but the sun didn’t set until after 9pm so we had time to heat up a curry and enjoy it in the evening sun.

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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!

[mcdonaldneal]

The next day looked absolutely gorgeous, and it turned out to be Scotland’s hottest day of the year! The sea breeze cooled things a bit for us but the campsite had no shade whatsoever. The Kombi usually doesn’t get too hot for the cat, as it is a big internal space, the curtains provide shade and we have a cooling fan that runs off the leisure battery. We also direct the fan over tubs of water to give a bit of evaporative cooling. Even so, I cut my walk short to stay with Medo and the bus and I am able to report that it actually felt cool inside and the inside temperature was 26deg (79F) in the midday sun. The pic shows Medo looking chilled.

My main concern is the jaunty angle of the camp spot. I really must get some levelling ramps!

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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!

[mcdonaldneal]

Normality has resumed today, overcast and a bit of rain overnight. We have driven to a campsite at Yetts o’Muckhart and Shona has gone to a local Japanese garden with a walking group. I’ve just tootled around stopping to see local pubs and churches.

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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!

[mcdonaldneal]

We started our journey home, but I had said I would help a friend with rebuilding the engine bay of his beetle. Thread below:

1974 Gold beetle ‘barn find’

After we left the job partly completed, I dropped Shona at home and went to pick up a vintage compression tester I had seen for sale. Stopped a couple of times for pictures on the way home!

Then stopped by a couple of old fashioned cast iron signposts not far from home…

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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!

[mcdonaldneal]

Then, last of all, I stopped on one of the many golf courses a mile or so away from home.

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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!

[RalphWiggam]

Keep posting pics and stories. This is awesome.

[mcdonaldneal]

I finally got started on a restoration job I have been putting off for a while. The door locks have been a bit stiff and I knew I would have to take the door cards off to fix that and at the same time inspect the vapour barrier sheet and I was worried about the state of the inner doors.
After a fiddle trying to work out how to get off the inner door release (the finger plate levers off from the front edge!) I popped off the door card. A couple of the clips were broken and all of the grommets will need replacing but I was most horrified to see that there was NO vapour barrier whatsoever (just the remains of plastic around a couple of the grommets). Amazingly, considering the Kombi’s 20+ years in rainy Scotland, the door card had no water damage at all and so I will ‘just’ install a fresh barrier as well as cleaning and lubricating everything inside the door and maybe installing some sound deadening.

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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!