First topic message reminder :

Latest addition to my pool of Aircooled VWs:

Matching Numbers All Around;
Current Missionary School Van;
November 1968 (Model year: 1969) Early RHD T2 Bay Window Walkthrough Microbus with Sliding Door on Left.
1600cc M-240 (Low Compression) 44BHP Matching Motor

Needs a ground up restoration but worth every penny its bought for.

Bought it for a Polish friend's Tour of Pakistan! The Polish friend named it as "Missionare" (German: means Messenger) for its life long service to humanity.



This is tell tale of Missionare's acquisition, 700KM journey back home and the restoration. Stay tuned as we embark on an exciting ride deep into the Early Bay world to explore what it is like to restore a half living auto-marvel from the past. 

DISCLAIMER: The thread would be creepy slow as I have two other projects running in parallel to this (a 65 Bug & a 79 Safari), so plz be patient but be assured that it would be another restoration cookbook, though this time on the subject of Early Bays.

Update on History of Missionare - July 16, 2013

*04 Documented Previous Owners
*1st Registration Date: March 04, 1969
*2nd Registration Date: January 01, 1975

1st Owner - Unknown as of yet (Owned from: March 04, 1969 To: December 31, 1974)
2nd Owner - Syed Rahat Ali Kirmani (Owned from: January 01, 1975 To: April 13, 2004)
3rd Owner - Syed Mohammad Zakaria (Owned from: April 13, 2004 To: April 13, 2010)
4th Owner - Amjad Yousaf (Owned from: April 13, 2010 To: June 16, 2013)
5th Owner - Yours Truly (Owned Since: June 16, 2013 To: Date)

Won on eBay

Missionare has been grounded ever since it arrived at my place due to the fact that I wanted to do the major mechanicals such as draining all fluids, CV refresh, greasing and lubrication etc. and electrical chores such as the restoration of the stock wiring looms, installation of stock ignition/turn signal stalk etc.

Had to stop the wiring loom restoration due to the fact that neither I had the correct fuse box, nor the doom light switch, nor the correct ignition switch to complete the wiring. Even though I had bought all the immediately required electrical bits as soon as it had arrived but it took over a month for those bits to get delivered to me so had to wait.

Now since these bits had arrived, I could go ahead with the electrical chores. Here are some that I completed over the last night:

Installed front turn signal lenses with re-assembly of front fresh air control flaps/grill


Installed the doom light switch, correct fuse box and replaced the ignition+housing


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Further aborted parts


Now all the dash switches are made available and are hooked up (except that I am still missing the headlight switch insert)


installed the doom light and hooked it up


Soon Missionare would be all done with wiring and it would be time again to fire it up after a couple of months!

Stay tuned for more

The one at the bottom of the pic is the NOS German Muffler


Again, splash pans at the bottom of the pic, early bay type

Picked these up from the same seller as the NOS muffler/Splash Pans


Seals on them are good, so are the knobs so are ready to mount.

Probably the biggest pain while putting together any Aircooled VW in Pakistan is to have collected all the bits and bobs which are almost always missing on each and every aircooled VW that strolls Pakistan roads. I have face this when it was Patina, and again when it was ELK's turn and when I bought Missionare, it was nothing different. Almost everything was missing when it came to these small interior bits and bobs. Ideally I wanted a buyer who could help me with all these bits and bobs as a package deal but one is not always that lucky but this once I did get lucky with someone who was stripping a RHD 1971 EB.

I sent him a mail writing that whatever interior bits & bobs are on the bus should be considered sold ab initio.

Here are the pictures he sent today; First and foremost is the front EB VW Emblem


All five opening quarter vent windows






Tailgate VW Script


Rear Under the Seat Heater Ducts


All three Cargo Area Armrests




All three Passenger Grab Handles


Both Cargo Area Ashtrays (Bulkhead/Middle Seat)



Bulkhead Grab Handles


Sunvisors


Middle/Rear Seat Hold Down Hardware (only rear seat pictured here)


Other than these parts pictured here, there are more parts which I am waiting pictures of from the same seller. Will be going for a job lot deal on all these parts. More to come, stay tuned.

Two cheap 14s Steelies found for Missionare; Three more to be hunted to complete the 14s year correct set. Thanks Mark

Fitted the NOS Turn Signal Switch to Missionare; Enough with the waiting on the Wiring Restoration. Time to finish the job and roll the oldie!

Also pictured is the newly installed Year Correct "L" Code Keyed Ignition/Housing.

Eventually, the wait is over and the walkthrough bulkheads pair has arrived with other bits. Missionare is soon going to be welded with it to restore the original walkthrough status.

Repair sill,
OEM sill under sliding door,
Early lower front valance,
Early left cab floor,
2x out riggers,
Early right rear corner,
Right front tub repair,
Rear closing panel

Missionare, among everything else, came with the jatka installation on the front headlights. There were no adjustable buckets installed and the SB45 rings were replaced by local version of sealed beams trim to hold the sealed beams inside the headlight rims.





As the headlight buckets and the trim rings have arrived from Jeff/USA, so it was time that while at Wiring DIY, I had put it all on to correctly do away the headlight beams in order to be adjustable.



These buckets came with the single hole Hella Plastic Rims too, which you can see here, fitted temporarily to test the overall fit.



These rims are not yet installed because after wiring Missionare up, I would be adjusting the beams which is only possible with the rims out of the way.

reezvaan wrote:

Two cheap 14s Steelies found for Missionare; Three more to be hunted to complete the 14s year correct set. Thanks Mark

Had to forgo these two in order to pick the following 5 in the same price as of above two!

Got them from the same seller from whom the NOS German Muffler was bought.

Lowering bits for Missionare just started to trickle in with this Pair of horseshoe plates. Pakistan is going to get its first lowered Bay Window bus soon, Cheers!

reezvaan wrote:

Lowering bits for Missionare just started to trickle in with this Pair of horseshoe plates. Pakistan is going to get its first lowered Bay Window bus soon, Cheers!

Late Splitty Adjustable RHD Beam with Trailing Arms for Lowering Missionare. With this buy, the basics for lowering Missionare are all laid down. Dropped K/L spindles and missionare goes down low, as low as few inches from the ground instead of stock 11" height.



I had two routes from here to choose from here. I could choose to use only the adjustable beam/horseshoe plates and lower the bus by 4"s or add 3.5" dropped spindles to this mix and go as low as 3.5" from the ground. For now, I have chosen to go 4"s lower and will add up the dropped spindles later.

Finally, Pakistan gets the lowered T2a which it awaited for 66 odd years! Cheers

Cant believe I didn't post on here for quite some time. Anyway, lets start with the 15" BRM Speedwells that I picked up for cheap with a view of mounting these on Missionare when its lowered:

Spent Sunday on wiring DIY to start Missionare up after all the hack jobs on the wirings have now been eliminated with addition of Stock Year Correct "L" Code Ignition Switch, NOS SWF Turn Signal Switch as well as Stock Year Correct 10 place fusebox. Eventually Missionare was revved up later in the evening and is now all set to be brought back to road after almost 2 months!

Sorry got no pics to share from the exercise since have been too busy sorting the wiring.

Also, a good news is that the container with the Missionare bits is now shipped and soon Missionare would be in for a treat which would almost bring this oldie to a "complete" status. "Almost" because there are still a few things that still remain to be shipped as those are being collected with my contact for shipping in as a single lot, the next lot

To roll or not to roll, before those bits arrive and are mounted on Missionare, is the question

Here they come:


Pakistan to get its first lowered T2 soon!

Missionare's tail gate striker is all worn out. Not the metal tab but the rubber buffer, which is missing altogether. I have this NOS WITTE striker plate in my stash which needs now to go on and replace the worn out striker to hold the tail gate in place without leaving a chance for it to rattle.

Cheap Brazilian fill ups as spares for rainy days, thanks @saad

Thanks to Mouqeem Autos, found this NOS 14v Bosch Voltage Regulator locally, for externally regulated alternator. Both Missionare and Elk have externally regulated alternators installed. Elk had already been fitted with a used Bosch unit that was brought in from USA but Missionare had an aftermarket Jap voltage regulator installed which needed replacement. So here it is.

VW Part # 0 190 601 006 Made in Spain

More NOS bits have arrived for Missionare. Sourced locally. Complete NOS set of Brake Lining, Front & Rear with NOS Vent Window Knob (Passenger Side) and NOS Heater Cables.

Spent sometime servicing the driver's door internals, including window winding mechanism and the door locks on Sunday. Forgot to update the thread. Here are a couple of pics;

Before:


After:


Yes, you guessed it correctly if you thought it was Lotus White (L 282) at the inside the doors because thats that OG color of Missionare which is pretty much un-touched behind the door cards.

Sourced locally, Brand New Set of 03 Passenger Arm Rests for Missionare which came without any.

Missionare's throttle pedal is saggy and unresponsive to a value of over 40%. I hate driving cars with unresponsive throttles. The main reason behind a saggy/sluggish/unresponsive throttle is the worn out throttle kit on Missionare.

The only solution was to replace the pivots with either OG ones or with the quality repro ones. And since OG ones are available no where so a repro kit was the route to take. And its known that probably the only known quality reproduction of the throttle kit is offered by Butty Bits in the Bay Window/Splitscreen world. Here is what Simon's Throttle Kit looks like:


Its pricey as hell at 13K for a kit delivered but its worth every penny. But before Ordering the throttle kit, I wanted to disassemble the kit on Missionare and try and fix it and see if there was a difference made by the repairs. So thats exactly what I did. Throttle showed clear signs of wear as can be seen in these close ups;






Now its all disassembled and awaiting at the repair shop for its turn to be repaired. I will share pics of the repaired kit once its done.

Meanwhile, here is the illustration for the Throttle Linkages on different Bays. Early Bay one is on the top left corner of the illustration: