Note: This is an event coverage story and photos that we got from BangShift.com forum member Fast Ed. If you attend a car show or race and have photos and info that you’d like to contribute for BangShift.com editorial content, please contact me at [email protected].–Brian Lohnes
Go here to see the photo gallery from Fast Ed’s VW adventure.
Here’s the story about the road-trip adventure on the way to the show:
Sunday, May 17, 2009 was the date this year for the twenty-second annual Michigan Vintage Volkswagen Festival, located this time in Plymouth, Michigan, at the Karmann USA facilities. In previous years the Michigan Vintage VW Club had hosted this event at an outdoor park in Ypsilanti, but Karmann came on as primary sponsor this time around.
We had a small convoy heading out Saturday afternoon from the west end of Toronto Ontario, in cool wet weather. Lanner in his 1957 split bus, with whom I was riding since the buyer of my 1973 Super had picked it up that morning, Andy and his son Steve and friend Sean in a 1963 Beetle, and Mariano in his 1955 Beetle. Pete was driving his TDI Golf because his 1952 split-window Beetle was in the middle of a tranny swap that didn’t go as planned. Heading west, we also picked up Bryan in his daily driver Audi A4; he had sold his customized 1971 Karmann Ghia the night before (this was a car that I had been considering purchasing).
Heading down the 401 highway toward Michigan, about 2 hours along, Mariano’s ‘55 started experiencing a loss of power at cruising speed. Let it sit for a few minutes, and it would start back up and accelerate through the gears, and then start cutting out again. Lanner drove the car for a bit to get a feel for the problem himself, while I drove his Bus.
We pulled into a carpool parking lot off the highway to try figure out the problem with Mariano’s car. Lanner and Bryan were of the opinion that it was fuel related. Mariano was taking some ribbing from the guys, because he had a similar issue a few years ago on the same trip. They got the car jacked up in the front and drained some fuel out of the tank in to a jerry can. When they found some rust chunks, they were pretty sure that they had located the source of the trouble. When a used tank had been put in the car, apparently it didn’t have the proper standoff and screen for the outlet installed, so the crap was clogging up the hole. One thing I’ll say about the local air-cooled VW gang, they are all very eager to help out when any problems crop up. They unbolted the tank, drained the rest of the fuel, and Bryan was able to fashion a makeshift standoff for the outlet fitting from a piece of neoprene fuel line that he whittled down to size. Everything was screwed back together, the tank refilled, and the ‘55 made the rest of the trip without a hiccup. But then it was Lanner’s turn to have a breakdown, in what was ostensibly the “support vehicle”.
About an hour down the road from the gas tank fix, the bus suddenly started smoking out of the engine bay, and through the heater vents inside! Lanner quickly shut the engine off and coasted over to the shoulder. We were still about 2-1/2 hours from our destination at this point. We had hoped to make it down for dinnertime. One of the bars in downtown Plymouth was hosting a kickoff event for the show that evening, but our chances for making it there in time were rapidly dimming. Upon inspection we found that one of the lines going to the remote oil filter had been damaged by the exhaust, despite the heat-wrap protection. Lanner decided the easiest way to fix that was to just bypass the filter, and rely on the original screen in the sump as built by VW. He used the remaining hose to make a loop between the fittings, and a piece of plastic sunglasses frame found on the roadside tie-wrapped on to support the line away from the exhaust. After about 30 minutes we were back on our way.
Sunday morning was bright, sunny, but cool with a stiff breeze. We ended up with almost 200 air-cooled V-Dubs in attendance. The Karmann Ghia and Beetle Cabriolet, which were built by Karmann, were the featured vehicles this year, owing to the sponsorship from Karmann USA. They offered a tour of the prototyping facility there, which also includes the restoration area for Karmann cabriolet tops. Karmann USA is the designer and manufacturer of the OEM convertible tops on the S197 Mustangs and Chrysler Sebrings, among others.
The guys wanted to cut out fairly early in the afternoon so that we wouldn’t get back home too late. About 1:30 we all saddled up, found a Wendy’s restaurant nearby on Pete’s GPS, and had a quick lunch before hitting the highway. The trip back seemed pretty uneventful, until we were about an hour out of Toronto. Lanner’s bus started popping out of the right-side carb, and was struggling on the grades. We pulled off for an inspection, and he tried partially disassembling the carb to make sure it had no crap in it. Blowing it out seemed to fix the issue, but it was only temporary. A few minutes farther along it was getting worse. After he screwed around with both carbs for 45 minutes or more, he finally realized that the problem was the ignition points were almost worn out. He did a quick clean and gap, and they were good enough to make it the balance of the way home.
Overall, it was a fun trip for all of us. We got to see some very nice V-Dubs at the show, and the guys picked up a few trinkets at the swap meet. Looking at the earlier Beetles compared to the ‘70s Supers that were in attendance confirmed my idea that I definitely wanted an earlier car than the ‘73 I had just sold. Lanner told me about a nice 6’7 for sale local to me that I ended up buying the following week. The first day and a half of ownership were good, then it went rapidly downhill. You can see the story of that on the general discussion area of the forums. Riding in the split bus was interesting, as it was my first time in one of those, a different sort of driving experience for sure. It has a fairly healthy 1776 cc engine that moves it along at a decent pace, better than the 50ish-horsepower original mill for sure. The Buses had never done a lot for me, but after riding in Lanner’s, I could see the charm in them for sure.
See the VW show gallery here.
