Danger and Delight: Searching for Splitties in Sao Paulo(Brazil)

[The Canadian]

Hey Everyone, a year or two ago I started a topic over on the Bay Window Bus forum about my experiences finding and building buses in Brazil,
Check it out here: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=703916

I have received a lot of questions about Brazilian Split Windows, so I decided to make a thread.

About me: I am a Canadian originally from Alberta, living here in Sao Paulo, Brazil for 3 years now. I was not too much into split buses when I used to live back in Canada, they were rare, rusty, and ridiculously expensive-or at least out of my budget for anything decent.

Now that I have been living down here for a while, going to car shows and seeing split buses on the regular, I have been bitten by the splitty bug! Earlier this year I bought my first split bus, it did not go smoothly, but I learned a lot on the way!

Before we get into that, here are a few facts for those of you not up to speed on the Brazil stuff:
1950: First year of Kombi sales in Brazil, the vans are built in Germany and imported. 1.1L engine with 25hp.
1953: Brazilian assembly line begins, using only German made parts. The Buses are put together by a company called Brasmotor which today is called Brastemp(nowadays they manufacture many appliances sold in Brazil)
1954: Motor upgraded to 1.2L 36hp
1956: Taillights Upgraded
1957: VW officially begins producing the Kombi in Brazil(it was the first vehicle ever produced in Brazil), motor and transmission are still imported from Germany
1961: The 6 door version is released, and later in the year the fully synchronized transmission makes it debut.
1967: The Brazilian Kombi gets an engine upgrade from 1200 to 1500 as well as a 12V system and a front stabilizer bar. This is also the first year for the Single Cab Pick Up in Brazil.
1976: Last year of Split Window production(there are VERY few model year 1976 Splits in Brazil!) Start of the Clipper(Baywindow) production.



I bought a 1974 Splitty, after looking at a heap of buses down here.
Here's how it looked on the day I bought it. I found it in a city called Itaquaquecetuba(try saything that 3 times fast!)

It was running and driving and had been “restored” but not really. There was hidden damage that I wish I knew about when I bought it, but I didn't put it on a lift to check it out(I did look underneath, but didn't catch everything).

The first step after I bought it and drove it around for a month(I REALLY enjoyed driving it, people down here love these buses, and a sense of pride comes over any Brazilian person when they see that a foreigner also appreciates them.) was to replace the front floor which had been poorly patched up. This also led to replacing the floor supports.
Cutting out the floor...

Prepping the new piece

Instalation

Painted

Textured

Next up was the side door, it was not quite latching properly, so a new catch was welded in.
The rear door was next, the support to hold the door open was a piece of bent re-bar and there were various issues with the door, so we re-worked the rear shelf, door support and ended up digging in the rear quarter panel(full of bondo) and re painting the whole passenger side of the Bus.

This dark blue paint is used to detect waves+imperfections

Blue paint going on

Beige going on

Also, when we pulled the motor, we saw that the head had 5 separate cracks in it. Here's one in between the valves:

But the real issues were yet to come…

After working out all the exterior body issues and engine issues, I moved on to the suspension. The rear was sitting on the bump stops, so I took it in to get set up properly, however after we set it proper I found that the sagging rear had hidden a damaged transmission cradle and rear frame.
The engine was pulled yet again, we cut out the trans cradle, straightened it up, spent a lot of time repairing the rear frame and taking care of various other shoddy repairs that the previous owner had completed, and then finally re-assemebled it all, and I was back on the road.

Bent transmission cradle:

After A Ton of work:

But not for long, soon after the clutch started to get very heavy and make some awful noises. I took it in again, we pulled the motor a 3rd time and replaced the clutch. Also fixed the frozen front right drum.

I forgot to mention that along the way we also installed all new DOT approved glass and Safari windows, along with a reverse light, and proper 3 point seat belts in the cab, as well as new belts for all passengers.

Once the bus was finally solid, it was a joy to drive! I spent a month ripping around Sao Paulo before it embarked for Canada.

Stay tuned for my next post where we prepare this bus to be sent to Canada, and talk about what it took to get it through an Out of Province Inspection.

[Don66bus]

That is a lot of work for a bus that, on the surface, looked pretty good. Looking forward to hearing about your encounter with importation bureaucracy.

[Dann Tellez]

Nice!

I have plans to import my bus from Mexico to Canada in a nearly future. Your info will be useful for my like you don´t have idea.

[jmmj]

I bought a Brazilian bus here in Brazil... I first inspected it at the end of an afternoon when the light was going. Knowing that another potential buyer was due the next morning, i shook hands on it (the region where i live hardly has any splits at all - unlike SP). And since international interest in Brazilian splits has gone through the roof, the prices have almost doubled in a 2-3 years. Everyone thinks their gold.

Unfortunately my bus has seen some terrible repairs. I dont mind rust, but losing the original references because someones butchered the thing just makes it more work. You know what it is?? The kombi is the work horse for the working class, these guys rarely used their income to keep vehicle licensing so finding a kombi to buy where its registered in the name of the seller is notoriously difficult. And when it comes to rust repairs, owners typically spent as little as possible. There are perfectly professional autobody shops here, but thats NOT where someone who doesnt have a lot of money takes their car. They take it to guys who typically fabricate garage doors and the likes. These guys use stick welders!! From what i've seen, they dont even cut out the rust, they just reinforce over it!! i'm hoping thats the case with my bus too.... Another thing, the previous owners of my kombi almost never fixed anything because that costs money!! Electrically my bus was a mess... it had to be hot wired to start and to turn it off you had to run to the back to yank the wire off the coil! the high beam switch failed, so the guy just cuts the wires off and connects them together!!


But for now i'm just going to get it on the road again.
_________________
New project!! Brazilian Split!!
63 Panel Van Project (Sold)
71 Bay window Devon Camper (Sold)
79 Brazilian Bug / Fusca

[jmmj]

[hopkin]