s-low-ly does it.

This weekend saw the kombi roof that I brought back from Mount Gambier go off to its new owner. Andrew, the guy that bought the roof, also had various kombi bits that I needed so he dropped them off at the same time. Andrew is a top bloke and was the person kind enough to loan me the trailer to pick the Kombi up on in the first place.

From Andrew I managed to source four correct offset wheels, some engine tin and a carby and manifold. Only a few more bits and the bus is well on the way towards hitting the road again. The elusive outstanding peice of engine tin - the firewall bulkhead tin, has also been found and is on it's way from Sydney. I will hopefully be picking it up from the airport tomorrow morning.

With the second roof removed I was able to finally raise the pop top and take a look. I've never owned this style of pop top before, the only bus I've had with pop top was a Westy which hinged at the rear. I was surprised at how easy the roof is to raise, I expected it to be more 'fiddly'. The canvas is in really good condition, with only the fly screens showing signs of age. I was lucky enough to get a replacement canvas for the top supplied with the bus, but for the time being I think I will leave it as it is. I will probably replace it when I repaint the bus, which isn't going to be for a while yet.

This week I also received some parts from CIP. I've bought a full braking system - apart from drums which were simply too heavy to ship. This includes new shoes, new slave cylinders all around and a new master cylinder. I will check the condition of the drums when I take them off. if they are not too bad I can give them a quick skim in the lathe (if they will fit).

I'm also waiting on a set of shocks, front door rubbers and rear light lenses from an AVD member as well as a new dirt cheap 009 and 200mm clutch. $200 shipped for the 009 dizzy, pressure plate, friction plate AND a throw out bearing - cant get better then that!!

With a few new parts I managed to find a little time this weekend to make some progress. I decied to fit the rear engine hatch back on the bus. One hinge was missing, which was easily remedied with the new hinge from CIP. Unfortunately the mounting bolts had been drilled as they were obviously seized when the engine lid was removed so I had to drill them out and re-tap the holes. With the holes re-tapped the engine lid was bolted up.

On the front of the bus I decided to buy a mesh insert for the grille. I'm not sure if they were fitted to low lights originally , but at something like $16 from CIP it was a no-brainer. When I went to fit it I noticed that it did not fit great at the sides, but this was easily fixed by cutting away part of the lip to allow the mesh to site behind the moutings. All in all about a 5 minute job and one that will hopefully keep the damn flies out. :D

After taking check of everything last week, I decided to go through the engine. Checking the VIN I found that the engine is in fact a late 1300cc twin port. A rare beast by all accounts. I confirmed this by measuring the barrels. With 48hp, it might be a little underpowered for propelling the bus on the long haul so I've decided to swap out the barrels and pistons with the spare 1600 that I have laying about from the fasty that I had. The 1600cc barrels are a straight swap for the 1300cc units as the case and heads are common to both models.

The fasty engine was running when I bought it, and from memory was not smokey. i will run a compression test on it and check the condition of everything when I tear the heads off. Once stripped I will give the barrels a hone and check the ring condition / gaps before fitting them to the other engine. At this stage I want to avoid a full engine build and am prepared to take a bit of a gamble with the condition of the engine, although - that said - the engine looks to be pretty good.

The only remaining part to the puzzle is the exhaust. Again the fasty has has come to the rescue by donating the heater boxes. The silencer is also very good but on first look looks like it will be too long. I will have a measure up when the time gets nearer. If it doesnt fit I will buy another vintage speed system as I was wrapped with the one I bought for the splitty.

Fingers crossed I will get some time to work on the engine next weekend.