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1967 VW Variant.

kadman

I am starting this thread about the 67 Variant that I was lucky enough to gain ownership from Alpha Beta.

And so that he can continue with the best thread on boards, his own one:), I will be posting up any relevant info of the variant here from now on.

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jmreire

kadman wrote: »

Type 4 were not at all popular here.

Even the type 3 Variants were given to VW dealers and used as a dealer car
to make them more popular to potential owners.

We had a 412 LE that was a class car, fuel injected engine it was great.

They were a bit ahead of their time back then...in the dealership I worked in for 6 years or so, I don't ever remember us selling one. The bread and butter sale's were the immortal beetle, ( not surprisisng in a rural area) with Variants largely going to commercial travellers, or Vets. But they were a really great car, and not too plentufull now either.

w124man

kadman wrote: »

fuel injected engine it was great.

I had a T25 with a Wasserboxer 2.1 DJ 110 bhp engine in it. Troublesome is the best word for it but when it was running good it was turbine smooth.

kadman

w124man wrote: »

I had a T25 with a Wasserboxer 2.1 DJ 110 bhp engine in it. Troublesome is the best word for it but when it was running good it was turbine smooth.

Wasserboxer you even love them or hate them.

My last camper that I sold recently had a 1.9 DG engine that I rebuilt 7 years ago. I planned on it being a quick fix to get me over a few months.

8 years later its running strong, but a bit smokey on startup for 5 minutes..
After that it would run at 65 mph all day long.

I was asked by the new owner recently, would I rebuild it again. I said no, as i am up to my ears with my own Type 3's.

He will get it extremely hard tp find a wasserboxer rebuilder. Normal vw classic mechanics dont like them and run like Forrest Gump.

Me, well I just love the oddballs:D

CoBo55

kadman wrote: »

Wasserboxer you even love them or hate them.

My last camper that I sold recently had a 1.9 DG engine that I rebuilt 7 years ago. I planned on it being a quick fix to get me over a few months.

8 years later its running strong, but a bit smokey on startup for 5 minutes..
After that it would run at 65 mph all day long.

I was asked by the new owner recently, would I rebuild it again. I said no, as i am up to my ears with my own Type 3's.

He will get it extremely hard tp find a wasserboxer rebuilder. Normal vw classic mechanics dont like them and run like Forrest Gump.

Me, well I just love the oddballs:D

I don't know what a wasserboxer is.. me and a few others I'd imagine.

ohnonotgmail

CoBo55 wrote: »

I don't know what a wasserboxer is.. me and a few others I'd imagine.

water (wasser) cooled boxer VW engine

Nekarsulm

Wasserboxer .... think of a Subaru boxer engine.
We had a high roof T25 with the 1.9 wasserboxer. Carburetor model.
On our's, the carb. was the only troublesome part.
Hard to get a nice steady idle.
Other than that, was fine, not particularly speedy.
The right hand lane on the Autobahn was its preferred habitat.
But for tooling around back roads in Germany, France and Luxembourg for a month in the summer it was perfectly fine.

kadman

I had considered the scooby swap, but I opted for a rebuild at the time.
Glad I did, conversion was too labour intensive on all fronts.

1.9 carbed with a Pierburg 2E3 unit.

I loved it after I rebuilt it with a new kit, and paid attention to the set up on the engine.

I never once had to look at it in the 4 years since its rebuild. It ran and idled beautifully, much better than
any other after market carb offered for it. I strongly favour them.

My 87 T 25 was more at home in the fast lane, and it still is according to the new owner.
I told him it drives best when you hammer the ****e out of it.......after 6 months now he believes me:D

Nekarsulm

Hi Kadman, I wasn't really thinking about advising a Suburu conversion, just a handy description of a wasserboxer for CoBo55.

w124man

This is the T25 that had the 2.1DJ Wasserboxer

Would go anywhere .....

Last seen in Canada

Beltby

I never knew there was a water cooled boxer vw engine. I've learned something knew over the last few posts. There's a couple of hours googling now during lock down. Carry on.:)

kadman

T25 sits high like a synchro, nice job.
Great colour

kadman

Beltby wrote: »

I never knew there was a water cooled boxer vw engine. I've learned something knew over the last few posts. There's a couple of hours googling now during lock down. Carry on.:)

The VW waterboxer was easy enough to work on too. Cylinder head studs could give trouble trying to free them, depending on whether the proper coolant at the proper interval changes was used.
It would be fun trying to remove a broken stud.

LOts of owners get a diesel conversion swap to improve mpg. The manufacture spec for petrol T 25 mpg was about 26mpg. My own camper was doing about 24+ so was not that bad. Diesel of course gives better mpg, but you sacrifice response times on acceleration.

Nekarsulm

kadman wrote: »

The VW waterboxer was easy enough to work on too. Cylinder head studs could give trouble trying to free them, depending on whether the proper coolant at the proper interval changes was used.
It would be fun trying to remove a broken stud.

LOts of owners get a diesel conversion swap to improve mpg. The manufacture spec for petrol T 25 mpg was about 26mpg. My own camper was doing about 24+ so was not that bad. Diesel of course gives better mpg, but you sacrifice response times on acceleration.

Had a Hillman Imp in the past, so there were no particular horrors associated with the wasserboxer engine.
Ours was a Westphalia Joker we bought off German eBay, and eventually rust in the body seams and gutters, plus a growing family, ment we moved on to a Ducato camper.

kadman

Only horror on the T25 was the lousy mpg.

Silent Running

kadman wrote: »

Only horror on the T25 was the lousy mpg.

Yeah, I had a high roof T25 camper with the air cooled 1600. Boy did she like a drink!.

spaceHopper

Silent Running wrote: »

Yeah, I had a high roof T25 camper with the air cooled 1600. Boy did she like a drink!.

How bad can it be I get 22 MPG best case from my hiace camper, 2.8D 4 speed auto box with 4WD gear and lots of extra weight. 55ltr tank gets me max on a good day 500km

Silent Running

spaceHopper wrote: »

How bad can it be I get 22 MPG best case from my hiace camper, 2.8D 4 speed auto box with 4WD gear and lots of extra weight. 55ltr tank gets me max on a good day 500km

The 1.6 was a petrol. It was very thirsty.

w124man

kadman wrote: »

T25 sits high like a synchro, nice job.
Great colour

It sits like that because it is a Syncro! I had three of them in all. The green one is in Canada, my red one is in Iceland and the last ever RHD one built is somewhere in Cavan.

kadman

How did you find getting spares for the synchro, any bother.

w124man

kadman wrote: »

How did you find getting spares for the synchro, any bother.

At the time I bought up as much NOS as I could usually from Germany via E Bay but I joined the early online clubs which helped source stuff. I went to Germany and bought up loads of stuff. Turned out to be a good plan. The red Syncro had a very rare spec and when new cost roughly the same as a Merc 230E!

kadman

w124man wrote: »

At the time I bought up as much NOS as I could usually from Germany via E Bay but I joined the early online clubs which helped source stuff. I went to Germany and bought up loads of stuff. Turned out to be a good plan. The red Syncro had a very rare spec and when new cost roughly the same as a Merc 230E!

Very smart thinking on your part. Was this before folk started to understand
that nos was a good investment .

w124man

kadman wrote: »

Very smart thinking on your part. Was this before folk started to understand
that nos was a good investment .

Probably. I have done the same with W124 and W126 Mercedes parts as well. Its part of the 'classic car experience' for me. Its all very well buying a car which looks good and polishes up well but if its like a sponge inside and drive like a boat, I don't see the point. All my cars get a suspension, steering and brake rebuild using as many NOS as I can get, that way the car feels as it should.

Buying NOS is better than money in the bank but you need to know what you are buying!

kadman

I gather vw nos when i can get it.

I managed to pick up 3 type3 nos exhausts a couple of years back.

And of course they weigh probably 3 times the weight of a modern repro one.

I always renew all steering, brake and suspension components on any classic vw.

Like you, i want to drive them when the mechanics were like new.

The variant is waiting to get up onto my scissor lift, ready for an engine out, and rebuild over the next

couple of months.

w124man

I still have a pair of bare, twin port heads for one of those

kadman

w124man wrote: »

I still have a pair of bare, twin port heads for one of those

Any good, are they nos??

w124man

kadman wrote: »

Any good, are they nos??

No they came off a burnt out Variant. I stripped them down and shotblasted them for my FVW but never used them. They don't have the crack between the valve seats

kadman

Now that the variant is heading for my scissor lift, one job had to be tackled first before I start
stripping any thing.

At some time in its short career, it got a nudge on the front right hand bumper. Dont they all.
Anyway, this pinched a bit on the bumper mount, causing a slight bulge on the right hand wing,
and at the door clearance from the wing. Ever so slight causing the door to rub on opening.

As all the parts are on the car, its the best opportunity to tackle it now. I dont have a small body dozer.
There was one on donedeal which I would have gone for in normal times, but covid restrictions say no,
and courier does to, due to the weight. No reply from shiply at the moment.

So i decided to make a small one to see if it does the job.

I already made a rotisserie for the white fasty, and now not needing it anymore, I am cannibalising it for my dozer

I originally made all the connections interchangeable in case I needed something new. The original creeper frame I made is just the job.

[IMG][/img]

Multiple angle on the wheel sections and quick knockdown connections

Few more additions to a bigger frame that I had, and we have

Round pipe on the long end to position against the frame head mounting of the front beam.

And hand operated winch at the busiiness end should do the job.

kadman

Good result today:)

Managed to put my home made dozer onto the variant. Applied some serious force, and managed to pull the bumper mount forward to where it should be.
This took the wing away from the door edge, and best of all it took the large bulge out of the wing. Bonnet now aligned better too.

It was the only way to pull the bulge on the wing, and it worked a treat.
Job was done, saved on the price of a dozer, and now own one to boot.

Its okay now to remove the wing, and do whatever tweeking i need to the bulkhead:)

kadman

I was amazed at the strength of the 53 year old german metal.

It got some serious force in the process. I was expecting it to tear, but it never gave at all.

Any serious folds in the metal are now fully straightened. You just cant beat the early metal
quality.

A modern day car would have had its front end pulled off with the force I used today.:eek:

I can take pics of the knockdown dozer for anyone that wants them:)

Beltby

kadman wrote: »

I was amazed at the strength of the 53 year old german metal.

It got some serious force in the process. I was expecting it to tear, but it never gave at all.

Any serious folds in the metal are now fully straightened. You just cant beat the early metal
quality.

A modern day car would have had its front end pulled off with the force I used today.:eek:

I can take pics of the knockdown dozer for anyone that wants them:)

As an aside, I knew a panel beater back in the 90's who worked for Annesley VW in Dublin. He reckoned the toughest machines he ever worked on for pulling were the original transporters, the rear engined ones. He hated seeing them come in the door! Almost impossible at times.