In the last seven or eight weeks we’ve seen some substantial relaxing of the lockdown restrictions. Not before time either because – and I’m sure I won’t be alone here – I was starting to lose it a little. It’s meant that I’ve been able to get out and about a bit more and, as we’ve been given the green light to use the underground car park at work, I’ve been giving the bug a run into the office once a week for the last few weeks.

My punt of booking the campsites for August seems to have paid off too, as a couple of weeks later it was announced that they would be able to open from the 4th July. Fingers crossed all the Covid processes are nicely bedded in by the middle of August. And hopefully it’s stopped raining by then! Looking at the availability at Coniston Park Coppice now (or lack thereof) I think it’s likely to be busy up there!

Yeah, thanks Clarence

Less than a week after I brought Clarence back from having had his clutch cable replaced, I had decided on having a little lunchtime trundle over to Halfords in Guiseley to pick up a click and collect order. All was fine on the way over there, but on the way back the gear change got even more vague than normal. As in I couldn’t find second kind, and there’s so much travel I can’t get it into third because it’s hitting the dash kind of vague!

Fortunately I managed to nurse it home, but was worried that this might be seriously expensive to fix. After a reassuring chat with Johnnie at the Herbie Hospital, we figured it would most likely be a bushing that had gone. Whilst I was giving the coupling at the front of the bus a waggle, something fell on the floor towards the back end of the bus. It turned out that it was the rear coupling that had essentially disintegrated.

Think before ordering….

Seeing that it was the rear coupling, I just cracked on and ordered a very nicely engineered part from Limebug on their eBay store. Feeling pleased with myself I then gave Johnnie another quick call and he suggested that I could actually get away with just replacing the bushes rather than the whole coupling assembly and it should be pretty straightforward. Happy days!

Obviously it wasn’t that straightforward (but then, what job in history has been straightforward on an old VW?). When the new part arrived, it looked like a really nicely engineered piece and I couldn’t wait to get it on the bus. Bear in mind that I was going to be trying to do this job one handed (my left) whilst lying on my back, trying to squeeze under a lowered bus. Anyway, I think I probably spent about 15 minutes or so trying to get the new bushes into the old coupling.

They just didn’t fit though. Comparing them with the originals, they were quite a bit bigger and also more of a square shape. I did wonder if I could take a Stanley knife to them, or a bit of sandpaper, but figured it was probably just better to buy and original style part and use the bushes from that. So I ordered another, standard, coupling from Just Kampers and a few days later I was back under the bus completing the fix. And it actually works!!

In other Clarence news

I’ve also finally finished the polishing of the outside of the louvered windows and I’ve done most of the inside too. It did occur to me the other day when I was giving Clarence a bit of an internal clean that his curtains have seen better days. Dying them blue back in 2012 was only ever meant to be a temporary measure after my mum broke her wrist, so I recently successfully negotiated with her to make some new ones for me. There’s some reasonable looking fabric available at Ikea, and that should work out significantly cheaper than buying a ready made set. I think I can also persuade her to make on for the inside of the cab area, so can ditch the silver one I normally have on the outside of the windscreen.

The post Making History appeared first on 72bug.com.

In VW news, Clarence is back from having his clutch cable replaced at the Herbie Hospital. Naturally he wasn’t driveable with a buggered clutch so he had to tootle over there on the back of a recovery truck – something he’s not done for a good few years – and in a twist of irony he was collected on the same day that we had to be recovered on the A14 on the way down to Type 2 Detectives back in the mists of 2012!

It felt so good to be back behind the wheel after not having driven for a couple of months and it was great to have a bit of a catch up with Johnnie. Although I did have to laugh because firstly I had ordered the wrong clutch cable; no problem, I told him, there’s a spare under the rock n roll bed that came with the bus. Anyway, turns out that my feelings of reassurance of having that spare cable for the last 8 years were based in fiction, because that was also the wrong cable! So another order was placed with Just Kampers and the following day the correct replacement cable (J10571) landed with Johnnie (along with a suitable spare cable!).

Polishing and Procrastination

With having a bit of extra time on my hands I’ve also gotten around to painting the inside of the bug’s bumpers and giving them a real good polish. I’m very happy with how they have turned out too, in that it doesn’t look too obviously like a brushed on Hammerite job. That may have been a job I’ve been meaning to do since I bought the bug 10 years ago. Nothing like some good old fashioned procrastination!!

Talking of polishing and procrastination, I’ve made a start on polishing the jalousie windows on the bus. Super tedious job, but is getting there any they’re starting to look much better. I’ve also had the hubcaps off the bus and given them a polish. Don’t think they have had a proper buff since I bought Clarence!

The lockdown period has been something of a busy time from a brewing perspective. So far I’ve knocked out a Hereford pale ale (Lockdown HPA), a Mad Goose clone (Right in the Nutkins), a very nice golden ale(La Marmotte d’Or), some oatmeal stout (Break Stuff – ready next weekend) and I’ll be brewing the Bluebird clone (Mach 1.1) this weekend.

The post Everything’s Cancelled appeared first on 72bug.com.

There are loads of positives about having moved out of the city, not least that it’s a whole lot less stabby. I’d forgotten just how much of a faff moving house actually is and a month on I reckon I’m just about organised in the new place. It’s so good to have a garage – although I found out today that the bus is just that little bit too long to fit in there. Dear Santa, please could I have a Just Kampers Deluxe Breathable Cover for Christmas?

The new flat itself is actually a fair bit smaller than Concord St, but having a bunch of storage space means that that isn’t really an issue. The fact it’s not on the 5th floor also means that loading the bus should be a whole lot quicker and easier.  Being only a couple of miles outside Ilkley, this place is really going to come into its own in the spring and summer.  Especially with it being half an hour closer to the Lake District……

The spring seems like quite a way off at the moment, what with Christmas only being a couple of weeks away.  At least the gig calendar has picked up over the last couple of months and we’ll be finishing the year of with a Black Stone Cherry double header. We’ve not seen them for two years now and amazingly these next two gigs will see them drawing level with Depeche Mode as the band I’ve seen the most frequently. Super looking forward to that.

The post All Change Please appeared first on 72bug.com.

In addition to doing a couple of hundred trouble-free miles in the bug, I managed to find a paint supplier who could colour match the paint and sorted me out with a couple of rattle cans so that I can have a go at sorting some of the areas of surface rust. The fellas at Regional Paint in Leeds couldn’t have been more helpful and thanks to their great service I doubt it will be the last time I make a purchase from them.

Getting the filler flap off so that they could scan it was another of those “5 minute” jobs on a VW that took way longer in the end than it should have done and resulted in some rather salty language! Especially when it occurred to me that I could have just used the glovebox lid instead…… I think it’s pretty safe to say that Betty isn’t Kasan Red as she left the factory according to her birth certificate. In fact, she’s actually closer to a GM shade of red from their 1978 – 1979 range.

Saturday also saw Jim take Lucille in to see Ben at Robertson’s Restos down in Leighton Buzzard so that he can get a quote for the restoration. I’ll be intrigued to see what the quote comes in at!

Anyway, back to Stanford Hall and I’ll probably just let the photos do the talking. What I will say though, is that for me it has everything a good show should have. A fantastic variety of mainly aircooled cars in a great setting and all for only a tenner. I guess the wall to wall sunshine also helped! The one car I absolutely fell in love with was a dark silver oval on the Clique 53 display – those guys sure know a thing or two about stylish Volkswagens.

The post Stanford Hall 2018 appeared first on 72bug.com.

Due to the greater percentage of water cooled cars, previous visits have seen me question whether the show is really for me and I don’t think that view has really changed.  In my view,  unless (like us) you’ve bought a discounted ticket in advance, I don’t think the £12 you would pay on the door at Spring Dub represents great value for money – particularly when you compare it with a show like Stanford Hall for example.  It certainly seemed as though the overall number of cars on show was lower than in previous years and there also appeared to be fewer people visiting the show. That’s not a scientific observation in any way, just a gut feeling, and could be because we were there pretty early.

The advantage of there being fewer people meant that it was much more comfortable to take advantage of the merch opportunities and for once I did actually make a couple of purchases. I am so rock n roll these days that I picked a couple of tea towels (officially licensed by Volkswagen no less) and a pretty sweet tee shirt for a fiver that is certainly not officially licensed by anyone! I did also invest in a fridge magnet with the photo of the bug that was taken as we rolled into the show. Pricey, but worth it!

Oh Vienna!

Over the Easter weekend, Brad and I travelled to Vienna to see a little rock band called Metallica. That in itself is another story, but of course we’re always on the look out for old VWs. Sadly we didn’t get the chance to snap the rather lovely old Porsche 356 that we saw, but I did manage to get a couple of photos of an LT35 that was being used as a promo vehicle for some sort of religious organisation. Right up my straße!

In an echo of Harewood Hall a few years ago I forgot to put the memory card back in the camera following the Vienna trip. Fortunately the camera on my phone is a little better than it was on the old iPhone 4……..

The post Spring Dub 2018 appeared first on 72bug.com.

Closer to home, things have been pretty quiet as far as the bug and the bus are concerned, mainly due to it being winter. There was no Black Stone Cherry double header for my birthday this year (we may have seen them 5 times last year!!), but instead I made a pilgrimage to Masham to visit both the Black Sheep and Theakston breweries. There’s only one winner as far as I’m concerned – the OP at Theakston was absolutely out of this world. Can’t wait to get back up there for Matt’s birthday weekend in June!

Clarence had a good wash a couple of weeks back because it would have been embarrassing taking him to the garage for his MOT in the filthy state he was in. As I was washing him over at the folks’, some dude who was driving past actually stopped his car, parked up and came and had a chat with me about him. It turns out he had a 72 crossover back in the early 90s.

Having a bit of room and some daylight on the situation also gave me the opportunity to replace the window lifter on the passenger cab door which had decided to give up the ghost on the way back from France. Let’s hope there’s nothing too major when it comes to MOT time, although I have a sneaking suspicion that the steering box won’t get through this time……

It wasn’t a bad couple of days for Clarence, as he had a decent run out the day previously too. Just before Christmas my landlord notified me that at some stage this year they’ll be selling the flat. They did give me first refusal, but sadly we couldn’t reach a deal. I could afford to buy the place, but I can’t afford the 7 – 10k bill that would be landing on my doormat shortly afterwards to contribute towards the renovations of the communal areas. On the one hand I’m gutted because living in this flat makes certain aspects of life very easy, but I would also love to have a bit more room and some outdoor space. So a couple of weeks ago I was out and about in Clarence scoping other areas of Leeds where I’ve seen a few potential houses. One in particular looked positive – the next door neighbour was out washing his T5 and gave us a wave and a smile as we went past!

Last week saw us pay a visit to the lads at the Herbie Hospital in their new unit – which is directly behind the old one and is much, much bigger. Now obviously Clarence couldn’t have passed the MoT at the first attempt, but I’m super pleased to report that the list of issues was nice and short:

• Offside front Brake pipe inadequately supported (3.6.B.1)
• Nearside rear Brake pipe excessively corroded (3.6.B.2c)
• Offside rear Brake pipe excessively corroded (3.6.B.2c)
• Nearside front Front wheel bearing has excessive play (2.5.A.3c)
• Steering system has excessive free play detected at the steering wheel (steering box fitted) (2.2.A.1a)

The guys turned things nice and quickly and he was legal later the following day, all ready for our first visit in a couple of years to the Waterloo Inn.

In other, I guess more bug related, news I might have bought myself an XBox. And Forza 6 (amongst other things – how good is Steep?!?). So obviously the first car I bought was an orange bug. Admittedly it’s not the right year etc, but you can’t have everything! And you can race in the mountains…….

In reality, Betty is filty, although we did have a run out to Ilkley in the sun as I had the afternoon off the other day. The sun was making a rare appearance and I’d thought it could have been a good opportunity to have a play with the GoPro, but she’s embarrassingly dirty so I decided against it. She will be getting a wash this weekend!

The post A Rooster Says…… appeared first on 72bug.com.

I’ve had Joomla sites on and off for a good few years now – it’s now almost 5 years since the whole History Direct thing went pearshaped – but the problem was that migrating from 2.5 to 3 was proving more than my poor little melon could cope with. After the whole debacle of losing the site when I upgraded from 1.5 to 2.5 I just couldn’t be bothered with all that again.

WordPress as a platform had a number of really attractive things going for it, not least that it appears to be extremely easy to update from one version to the next. It’s certainly developed massively since we originally started the History Times back in 2010. If we’d stuck with WP back then rather than go over to Joomla I wouldn’t have had this entire debacle! Anyway, it all went pretty well, with minimal swearing, and the only real time I had to spend was sorting some of the images out, in particular the featured image at the beginning of each post. I’m not 100% convinced that the galleries are working quite the way I want them to at the minute but they work and do at least have touch functionality for mobile.

Talking of featured images, talk of the mythical German Job road trip has reared its head again recently and planning is afoot – albeit at a very early stage just now. Brad and I now have a shared Google map of all the places we fancy heading to as part of the route to / from Wolfsburg and it’s starting to fill up nicely – mainly with breweries and bunkers. What’s pretty cool is that the route is almost working itself out rather than us making conscious decisions on mileage etc. The timescale we’re working to is relatively vague (some time in the next 5 years), but he has small  humans to consider and I don’t have a hugely paying job so I think that works quite nicely. It gives us plenty of time for bunker / WWII submarine research, and to save up for the fuel and merch bills which isn’t going to be cheap. There will be much merch!

Now I just have to persuade Brad of the merits of continuing another 140 miles to Berlin……

The post Broadsword Calling Danny Boy appeared first on 72bug.com.

It seemed too good to be true therefore when I came across this totally stock orange ’72 on a classic car site and it turned out to be only a mile and a half away. Advertised as a ’71 (it was built and first registered in 1971, but was a 1972 model) that had undergone a thorough restoration, in a very similar colour to the Super Satsuma, it was always going to be tough forcing my head rule my heart. But anyway, after a brief email exchange, along I went to go and see the car armed with a torch and a plan to examine every area where I’d had problems on the previous car.

The chap selling the car was interesting to say the least. He had written an ebook (Air Cooled Memories) about how the bug had come into his possession and some of the work that had been done and although the photos etc form a part of the car’s history, it is fairly safe to say that this was one of those occasions where maybe the writer should have kept his book inside him! Anyway, after a promising root around underneath, it was time for the test drive. The seller had installed a duvet in the luggage area behind the back seat in an effort to soundproof the cabin, and I lost track of the number of times he referred to the gear change as being like a military vehicle. It only occurs to me now having reread Air Cooled Memories, that he even put that in there! She drove just fine, and everyting was working towards me buying the car – including the unique smell of the inside of a beetle which I’d completely forgotten.

But I’d decided that I wanted it checking over by a mechanic friend of mine who had told me that he knew about beetles (except how to change the clutch cable, but that’s another story!), so we agreed a time for the seller to take it over for him to have a look at up on the ramps. Having been given the thumbs up following the inspection, the deal was done. Did I pay too much? Looking back, maybe so, but that’s immaterial now!

The post The Beginning appeared first on 72bug.com.