I am blown away by all this!

wallacehartley · Post by **wallacehartley** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 2:15 am

Hi all!

Yeh - I am the new guy from South Africa (check out roll-call or whatever it is called).

What I most wanted to say at this early stage is that I am totally blown away by the sheer inventiveness, ingenuity and dogged persistence I have seen displayed on these pages! I have read and read for the past two days, amazed at the clever things you guys are all doing to keep these fine cars on the road.

Type 4's were built in South Africa, and there are parts that I can still get from my local dealer and some that I cannot, like the bush for the idler arm. Over time, perhaps we can find parts here in South Africa that may be difficult for you to find in the US etc. Bear in mind that the locally made cars were all right hand drive, battery under the left seat, no Eberspacher heaters and no A/C.

One doesn't see many of them around anymore, and I only know of another one within 250 clicks from me, a brown 412 in good shape and well looked after.

I am soooooo glad I found this place.......................

Longbeach412 · Post by **Longbeach412** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 5:57 am

Wlcome to the fold! You sure will be adding a new dimention to this superb forum to which I am also new and eternally thankful. Give us a idea of some of the things that blew you

ubercrap · Post by **ubercrap** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 6:34 am

Hello and welcome! It's great to have another enthusiast on board.

Edit: I just read your intro post, and I know it might sound strange, but I really enjoyed your writing. On many other forums I belong to, people can barely string together a coherent idea sometimes, so your concise, informative, and humorous post was a delight to read. I hope you will stick around, hopefully we can provide some fellowship and spread enthusiasm for working on the type 4. My projects have been slow going do to trying to establish some semblance of a life, but I am gaining momentum, and I can't see myself giving up any time soon.

wildthings · Post by **wildthings** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 12:51 pm

I am sure that others can add to this list, but here are some of the parts which are very hard to comeby elsewhere in the world.

Front ball joints
Windshield gaskets
Windshield glass
Front strut parts
Boot for fuel filler neck
Snubbers for rear suspension
Various parts for manual transmissions

Keep an eye out for any of these items, a lot of people would appreciate it.

What years did they make Type 4's in South Africa? Did they have both 411's and 412's? How were they equipped? Engine size? FI or carbs? 4 speed manuals or automatics?

Single 60 · Post by **Single 60** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 3:13 pm

What is VW name for snubbers and what is part #.

Thank You Terry

MGVWfan · Post by **MGVWfan** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 4:36 pm

Welcome Wallace! I, too, am thrilled to find an eloquent elucidator on ye olde Forum.

If you haven't already, do a search in this forum for all posts by Ray Greenwood, your mind will be truly blown when you see the creative juices eminating from his posts

Now, who was it that posted that a toilet plunger rubber cup can sub for a fuel filler boot?

Yep, this is truly the place for innovative, inventive scroungers to gather and share the latest success at working around poor availability of some critical part for our T4's...

MGVWfan · Post by **MGVWfan** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 4:45 pm

Hey Wallace, take a look at this...

http://www.type4.org/pictures/1974/412_adriaansown/view

ubercrap · Post by **ubercrap** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 5:03 pm

I'm thinking Adriaan also has or did have a brown wagon too?

MGVWfan · Post by **MGVWfan** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 5:44 pm

This one, Herr Uber?

http://www.type4.org/pictures/1973/412_ ... n73_2/view

ubercrap · Post by **ubercrap** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 6:04 pm

Yeah, that's the one, I was too lazy to look for it.

Love the Porsche cookie cutters.

MGVWfan · Post by **MGVWfan** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 6:25 pm

You're just conserving fuel, as we all should

Keith put 10-spoke Champagne wheels on my 412 (he's the guy that last wrenched on the Nomad 10 years ago), I think they look nice (and the price is right

), but those cookie cutters are great, too.

I wonder if anyone makes Minilite replicas in the T4's bolt pattern...I think they'd look fantastic on a 412 Variant, too.

raygreenwood · Post by **raygreenwood** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 6:46 pm

Welcome! You know...those eight spokes don't look half bad on that car. I have always been snubbing my nose thinking about those wheels on a 412...because I thought the spokes looked too....rounded...for the square edges on the car. The rivieras have the right spokes for a 412...but that center section on them is butt-ugly.

Sorry for the delay on so many parts I am working on guys. Trying to get employment straightened out right now. MGVW....I am almost done with the centerlink. I should be fitting snap rings and epoxy painting it...then to be baked in my very own oven...next week.

A factory (printing) called me on Monday for some emergency consulting work. The money could not be turned down

/. Course they havn't paid me yet..but they offered me full time employment to I must have done something right. Also....its nice to think about working for companies who just

uilt a new 300,000 square foot building to move their old presses into....and just spent 5 million more for 2 new printing presses....and paid cash

. Its getting there. I also have an offer in Philadelphia to consider.....so my stuffs still in storage for the moment.

By the way...the stock idler arm bushing is the same as a late super. Ray

MGVWfan · Post by **MGVWfan** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 7:27 pm

Don't sweat it at all, Ray. The Nomad's still up on jackstands in the garage, anyway. My job got kinda goofy this week, too.

Well, you gotta do what you gotta do, but we'd miss you in Tejas if you moved to Philly.

ubercrap · Post by **ubercrap** » Fri Jan 28, 2005 8:54 pm

Ah, the classic wheel debate. The selection for the 4x130 bolt pattern is very limited. I think my favorite alloys that I have seen in that bolt pattern would be the ATS classic wheels as seen on Stein's car:

These wheels are often on ebay.de, but are hard to find here in the states. Stein's look like they might be 14's, but I know this wheel exists in a 15x5.5.

Converting to the 5x130 bolt pattern would open up a whole world of possibilities! I've started to collect another set of Porsche alloys that should be quite cool.

If you want a clue, you'll have to look through some old posts where I suggested some interesting possiblities...

I can't remember if there are Panasports in the right size/bolt pattern/ offset...nice wheels anyway, I used to have a set I got in a trade...too bad they were for a Lotus

IIRC (I sold them on ebay) The new Mini has some 17x7 wheels that have the "minilite" look in a 4x100 bolt pattern with a high offset, maybe high enough to work with adapters. Fender lip modifications would be in order, though...

wallacehartley · Post by **wallacehartley** » Mon Jan 31, 2005 12:36 am

WOW -and thanks for the welcome guys!

The time zone thing will be interesting - I am 6 hours ahead of EST, and also tend not to be on-line over weekends. I am online all day everyday in the week, however.

The 411 and 412 were produced here in 1.7litre twin-Solex or L-Jetronic (LE-designated) guise, from around '71 to about '78 when the Golfs arrived, all right hand drive, in two and four door sedan as well as Variant, which was the wagon. Both 4-speed manual and Automatic boxes were offered, though the Variant was only in manual, if I remember correctly.

My running car is a badly rusted 411 carb Variant, whose running gear I want to build into a not-too-rusted 412 Variant, which, if I can find all the bits I will fit as original L-Jetronic Injection. The wrecked 411 Variant was also an injection motor.

My immediate concern is to find the air seal between motor tin and bodywork, and then get an exhaust made. The leaks from the rocker covers I need to fix too. The VW-trained German mechanic who maintained this car for my mother must have been expelled from Germany:- a butcher of some note.

Everything is dirty, leaking oil or loose.....................weird, because he even had the korrekt-sounding combination of Karl's and umlaut's in his name...............go figure?

On the subject of exhausts - if I get something made up, are there options for greater efficiency? 4-into-2 ? What non-standard system works well? Or has experience shown that the standard setup is best?

More later. For now, here is a pic from VW South Africa's museum - click on the middle lower pic