Sorry this is a bit long winded but I thought I'd tell you where I'm coming from.
I was recommended to this site by my brother who has a 2.5 litre Subie powered J&S beach buggy.
My tastes are a little less extreme.
Over the years my VWs have always been air cooled and all of them were RHD buses as I live in Oz.
My first VW daily driver was a '76 Poptop (hence my username) and I've also had a '77 9-seat Microbus.
Currently my family's DD is a resto-custom '67 Panel rebuilt by Steve Muller of Kombi Rescue in Sydney.
It's running a '68 balljoint adjustable front beam, IRS rear suspension, an L-Bug single-sideplate box and late Bay 5x112mm discs & drums front & back with a Bay dual circuit master cylinder and booster.
It's been lowered 2" all round and runs Mercedes 15" steel wheels with Dunlop 195/60R15s up front and Nankang 225/60R15s on the rear.
The motor is a 1776cc dual port w/ twin 40mm Kadrons, Engle 110 cam, single heavy duty valvesprings, ported, deshrouded and semi-hemi'd heads port matched to the manifolds, 009 dizzy with Compufire ignition, extractors with a 4-into-1 collector and double Thunderbird mufflers.
We fitted '66 11-Window cargo doors with pop-outs so there was light for passengers in the back and it has a Bay triple middle seat, a "rock'n'roll" bed backseat with 3 child points on the rear shelf and safety belts throughout for all 9 seats with inertia reels for the driver and front passenger.
As well as the standard VDO MPH speedo and fuel gauge it also runs VDO oil pressure and temp gauges and a 5 1/2" Splitfire monstertach with shiftlight.
Here's a pic or 2:




BTW, the colour of the Panel is a Tamiya model paint colour called Desert Yellow which I chose because I was inspired by the DAK or Deutsche Afrika Korps vehicles in WW2.
The finish is 2 pack with a LOT of matting agent and if you look closely the front bumper has a little black steel plate with a palm tree over a red/white shield and a German script "2" under it.....my modification of the Afrika Korps symbol's swastika.
I like the original symbol but swastikas make you a lot of enemies and the wrong sort of friends.

My signwriting friend who did the pin striping and that plate also did this emblem on the rear hatch:

Trick, eh?

My most recent acquisition, however, is a '55 11-Window which I dragged out of paddock at a farm near my home town.
It has a ton of rust, including the gutters and has numerous dings including the roof, but it was made in March 1955 in Wolfsburg only 3 months after the change from Barndoors and before the move to Hannover.
It also has factory safaris......well, it still has ONE of the frames..... and the original suspension, tranny, wheels, popout frames and I think it's worth saving.
You can judge for yourselves.
Check out this YouTube vid for the lowdown on it's trip home and the shape it's in:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYDS20Jr4aI
The end goal is to get this running as standard as possible.
I've sourced a driver's door to replace the missing one and a replacement roof, if necessary, as well.
The rust has to be completely fixed to pass rego here in Oz so it will be fixed and my aim is to learn how to do that.
Once that is done the inside will be cleaned up, the house paint removed and it made comfortable and well insulate.
But the exterior will be left and hit with Anchor Wax to halt the surface rust.
I want to get some sort of single port motor and run a single carb setup.
I might build a low cost stroker on that but my aim is to balance the hell out of the bottom end and make it run well with help from a cam and/or ratio rockers.
Sort of an old speed motor.
I'm going to stick with the standard swing axle/redux box transmission and hope to use the original one so long as it's ok.
There are a few reasons I'm not going for a huge motor, IRS or straight axle and slammed suspension.
First, I'm trying to do this on a budget and all of those things blow out in no time flat, especially here in Oz.
Secondly, I want to learn how to do it myself and standard is easier to do than super modified.
There are plenty of workshop guides like the Idiot Book and others so with help from them and mates I should be able to get through.
Thirdly, the State Govt here just tightened up everything and made it especially difficult to modify cars.
It can be done but we need certification from authorised engineers which, again, costs money.
But, more than the other reasons, this Bus is going to be my toy.
I'll tool around town in it and, since the redux hubs give it good clearance and crawling power, it'll be good to drive in paddocks and through the hill country when I go hunting.
As such I'm going to fit it with the chunkiest set of 205/75R15s I can find, probably Firestone ASRs or General Grabber A/Ts.
Anyhow, I've joined STF to pick people's brains about building a decent old speed motor (as I've been told there's a couple of gurus here) and also to consult some of the offroad guys on how best to drive when using redux boxes off road.