The main reason I haven’t driven it is a leaky poptop. I had a huge problem with water leakage when she was in the shop for repairs. The front elevating piece of the roof and rear luggage rack just wouldn’t line up, and despite numerous attempts to overhaul the hinges, realign the luggage rack and adjust the front brackets, I couldn’t solve the problem. It appears that the previous owner hacked a couple of inches off the large roof piece, and in combination with a badly replaced wooden bow that is supposed to match the contour of the roof, I decided to search for a total replacement from a local donor vehicle.

Months went by and still no luck finding a replacement. Slowly but surely I became despondent and as winter kicked in, I kind of gave up even wanting to drive the Bus. Fast forward to the Spring and I’m keen to get things rolling again. I did manage to repaint the cargo floor over the winter and have purchased some cool 9″ vinyl tiles from Madmatz who are based in the UK. I’ve also made a decision to remove the laminate from the original Westy cabinets and stain/seal the resulting plywood. As for the roof, I’m going to go against all the purists advice and replace the poptop once and for all. I have a scheme in my mind to cover the opening with a shaped sheet of bronze plexiglass. It sounds a bit crude, but I have high hopes that it will do the job. Watch this space for more details as I get into the project.

Another urgent task is to replace the who-knows-how-old tires. I’ve ordered 5 of the top rated Hankook 185R14 tires from a local shop, who are willing to fit them without me having to drive the Bus to their location. One less thing to worry about anyway.

I hope to post more in the coming months as I push forward in the quest to get my Westy back on the road…

Trade in your boring old memory stick for a superior model!

These officially licensed dinky die cast cars cleverly conceal an impressive 256MB of flash drive memory. Each car also comes with a USB extender cable, so that your classic car can remain on your desk whilst still plugged in to your computer, for all to see.

As soon as you start transferring data the tiny headlights on the front of the unit will flash  indicating activity. Solve your data transportation needs in style and be the envy of the office!

Pity it doesn’t come in anything higher than 256MB, but it’s a pretty cool novelty item nonetheless….

December 2008
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Currently, no issues are available earlier than March 2008.

VolksWorld is the leading VW magazine from the United Kingdom. It covers the latest hot news, and shows off the very best feature cars around from the stock and modified classic air-cooled Volkswagen market VolksWorld highlights the very best VW Bugs, Buses, Karmann Ghias and all other air-cooled variants. Our world-wide coverage features the very best technical material, event coverage and product tests.

January 2009
December 2008
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January 2008

Usually I can pick up a copy in my local Barnes & Noble bookstore, but (a) they don’t always have them in stock and (b) it’s kind of expensive at $8.95 an issue.

Enter the One Year Digital Magazine Subscription from Zinio. Check out the savings compared to the regular cover price:

Cover price - $64.74
Online price - $23.27 ($20.94 if you’re a Barnes & Noble member)

I signed up last week and immediately received the January 2009 edition in my inbox (pdf format of course). Admittedly it’s nice to own the physical copy of the magazine, but this way I’m guaranteed to receive VolksWorld (actually the subscription is for 13 issues) and I don’t have to take a trip to Barnes & Noble several times each month. The $$$ saving is pretty nice too of course…..

About the magazine:

VolksWorld is the leading VW magazine from the United Kingdom. It covers the latest hot news, and shows off the very best feature cars around from the stock and modified classic air-cooled Volkswagen market VolksWorld highlights the very best VW Bugs, Buses, Karmann Ghias and all other air-cooled variants. Our world-wide coverage features the very best technical material, event coverage and product tests.

VolksWorld has just launched a mini web site for their sister magazine VW Camper & Bus. From their site you’ll be able to find out what’s in the next issue, when it’s due out, watch videos, looks at photos and catch up with their day to day routines on their blog. Definitely worth checking out and I’m sure I’ll be a frequent visitor in the coming months!

Great choice of music sets the tone for this great advert. Enjoy!

Article includes changing engine oil, checking tire pressure, cleaning spark plugs and all the things we should do on a routine basis….

Side note: I only see 18 steps to the guide

Adobe Photoshop CS4 features a cool new feature called “Content-aware Scaling” which senses dead areas in photos before resizing the image to avoid stretching every object.

Click here to watch a movie detailing the new feature.

Pretty cool…