New post every Friday…scroll down The Volkswagen Type 2 Owners Club is a UK national club for owners and enthusiasts of the classic Volkswagen transporter van. There are also some most welcome members from outside the UK.
The Club aims to help its members maintain their vehicles both as preserved historic vans and as restored, or otherwise reclaimed, going concerns keeping a family travelling and camping happily.
Our members are spread right across the UK and some overseas members too, and the Club tries to provide activities and events that everyone can attend and enjoy. We have a strong presence at some of the UK’s biggest VW events as well as running our own camps and meeting up at smaller events.
Already a member and want to check your details? Just click here Need to renew your membership? Just click here
The nations favourite seaside resort at good old Skeggy. Club camping organised by the Fantastic Helen. Here is a fun packed weekend, incorporating a brilliant show spent with your favourite club. What could be better.
This event takes place in the stunning grounds of Holly House Farm and is a must for Classic Car enthusiasts as usually there are over 200 cars on show. Your club has organised a dedicated mown field for members close to the amenities and Portaloos.
This is a fantastic chilled out weekend one we are sure, you will all enjoy. Please book via the Property owner, details found on the web site and in our Magazine.
The 1935 Citroen Traction AvantAnn “Noddy” EatonA mixture of classics
Spend since last report: £231. Total hours labour since last report: 16.75
Winter is cold and we all feel like hibernating. Or maybe it is just me. The damp garage can stay damp, the cold garage can stay cold, I’m staying indoors in the warm and the dry. The front seats are mostly done although I did find that one of the zigzag metal serpentines has snapped meaning I need to remove the fabric, the horsehair and weld that up but it is not the end of the world.
Following a post-Christmas period of inactivity, I got my Eric head on and started on the door cards for the front doors. Since the front doors have water designed to run down the outside of the winding window and some goes past the door rubber, the door can get a little water inside. There are channels at the bottom of the door to let the water out, although these block over time causing water to sit at the bottom and rot the door frame. Oh boy does Eric have rot there. Since the inside therefore could be somewhat damp, I elected to varnish the front door cards with an exterior grade clear varnish to help keep the MDF from soaking up the moisture which should reduce the chances of it warping. Two thin coats to each side and the same with the kick panel cards that go in front of the front seats.
The door cards that are normal height are to be 2 tone reflecting the original brown leatherette supplied in the panel van (as it was) in 1973. I chose a slightly darker brown than original as the other option was a mocha which was too pale and insipid. In the middle of that is to be the ivory of the seats that were completed at the back end of last year with their dark brown piping and once finished, it should look quite smart.
The piping foot of Sally sewing machine has been very useful and I am getting much more confident now. Create a dark brown striped of fabric about 7 inches tall with piping along one long edge. Another about ten inches tall. The ivory middle has no piping but has pleats / seams every 2 inches / 5 centimetres vertically to match the ones on the seats. This matches a lot of bay windows that I have seen but our other camper van Poppy has the original door cards from 1972 which have horizontal stripes. Both have their merits, and I like both.
Once the 3 pieces have been completed along with the ivory having 3-millimetre foam sewn behind it, it is assembly time. Sew along the existing sewing line next to the piping to join the dark brown to the ivory top and bottom, looking to ensure that the gap between the two sewing lines is 36 centimetres all of the way along. This is done with a high-tech pencil line along the ivory fabric.
Then I sprayed some glue on the door card and carefully glued the piping section to the door card along another pencil line. With that fairly straight, I glued the rest of the ivory then glued foam to go behind the dark brown sections before folding the entire fabric around the edges of the board and spray glueing the fabric to the back with about an inch of fabric on the back.
The contact adhesive spray needs to wait a minute or so to become tacky at which point you can almost press the fabric on, and it is finished. However, for completeness I clip the fabric down for 5 minutes at each section I am working on.
The end result is not completely straight as I am not a professional, but it is straight enough and looks great. I cut a hole for the door opening catch and glued the back of that but have yet to cut holes for the window winder or the closing strap. With the driver’s side finished, I repeated the process for the passenger side and then trimmed both kick panels in plain brown as they sit low. Trimming those is a simple case of glueing the 3-millimetre foam to the board then glueing the brown fabric around the rear and trimming as you go. The cutouts are for the warm air and the filler point for the windscreen washer fluid. Downstream, I may cut a further hole for some speakers that are in the loft in readiness.
With both front door cards and both kick panel board complete, I did the straightforward panels in the boot, one at each side and the one for the boot lid. Again, all plan brown reducing time as there is no piping required.
The sliding door follows the same idea as the front doors, a central stripe of ivory with vertical pleats and dark brown top and bottom. I did not notice the piping was wonky on the top creating a slight arc which meant that either the piping can be sewn to the ivory in a straight line leaving a rucked top or the top can be flat, but the piping is curved. It was not huge, but you see the sliding door panel quite a lot and I knew that it would irk me. Unpicking piping takes forever!
With straight piping, once again I joined the dark brown top and bottom sections to the central ivory and glued it all to the board. I am pleased with the result.
There is a panel on each side of the main sofa that need making with piping and multi fabric, then it is just 2 plain brown panels, one behind each front seat and the door cards are complete.
On the purchasing front, I jumped in and purchased a new 39mm Solex carburettor to replace the original 34mm Solex carb that needs a rebuild. I have the rebuild kit but the extra capacity will help with engine power plus it matches the one purchased last year for Poppy and with the same engine, same air filter and almost everything else, having two of everything may come in handy.
With the weather starting to warm up and the sun peeking through the incessant cloud of the last few months, perhaps I might get some progress that is not sitting at the dining table!
The next edition of the club magazine has been finished by our Editors and looks fantastic. It should be arriving through your door soon! If you are enjoying the club magazine and have a story about a trip, an upgrade, a restoration or just a tip, send a contribution to our Editor at editor@vwt2oc.co.uk.
Held annually at Weston Park Shropshire, this is a not to be missed Festival. If you are into your cars and banging tunes this is for you. The event also celebrates the whole Volkswagen scene. The club has a dedicated camping area but spaces are strictly limited so book early to avoid missing out. BTW the street food vendors are second to none. Added bonus you can take your own booze into the arena.
TRAVELS WITH DENNIS THE DORMOBILE by Linda Shuttleworth
Years ago, we had a trip to Picardy in northern France with our two boys; our first venture with Dennis overseas, and we thought at the time that was probably about as far as we could reasonably expect to go with the van. However, last year we ventured into northern Spain and Portugal for most of the month of May, covering around 1500 miles without any major problem (until we broke down near Rugby on the way home, and missed the Embsay T2 rally!). That gave us the taste for continental travel with Dennis (as well as Mateus Rose!)
This year, the inspiration was Hanseatic ports. The Hanseatic League was a powerful medieval trading network which began tentatively in the 12th century, and continued until the mid-19th century. Many of the Hanseatic port cities have retained some of the architecture and townscape built in their prosperous glory days. Nijmegen in the Netherlands, and Bremen and Lubeck in northwest Germany suggested themselves. Lubeck is so close to the Danish border, that it would have been rude not to take the opportunity…we planned to visit first the southern Danish island of Lolland, then Copenhagen, and Odense on Funen. With the return journey back by Leer in German Friesland, and a couple of nights near Rotterdam, that took care of August!
To relieve ourselves of unnecessary driving miles, we took the overnight ferry from Hull to Rotterdam. This comes with small and comfortable ensuite cabins, two restaurants, bars and entertainment, a good start.
From Rotterdam Europort, we drove to Nijmegen, and camped south of the city at Heumens Bos for the first four nights. This was about an hour’s cycle from the city, no chore in cycle-friendly Netherlands. It was actually lovely to be in an area of woods, smallholding farms and waterways. We had two days in Nijmegen itself, and a day around the villages and fens. There are memorials everywhere to the post D-Day Allied efforts to take the bridges and liberate Europe, which was an additional interest for us, as Stewart’s Dad had been in Nijmegen in 1944 with the Royal Artillery. The campsite was green and peaceful, broken up into smaller areas with trees and hedges, a small shop, bar and café, swimming pool – and an outdoor gym!
Then to the Hanse campsite by a lake in a massive park in the outskirts of the majestic city of Bremen, good facilities again including a lakeside restaurant, a shorter cycle into the old heart of the city. We also enjoyed exploring the river and the harbour area.
It was a short drive to our friendly Campingplatz on the edge of Lubeck, and near open countryside. Lubeck was stunning for its towers and spires, city walls and other buildings, a medieval cityscape on steroids! It was the cradle and most important city of the Hanseatic League. The historic old town, densely built on an island in the river, is Germany’s most extensive UNESCO World Heritage site.
It felt dramatic to cross to Denmark by ferry, something that will soon be a thing of the past, as a massive tunnel on the seabed is being constructed right now, section by section. We visited the exhibition centre about the tunnel, which was fascinating. We had a lovely campsite by woods and a lake, within a short walk of the small town of Maribo. We had the best spot by the edge of the trees, with the bonus of the first night of ‘My Fair Lady’ belting out from the outdoor theatre behind us! We were also lucky to be there at the time of the two-yearly international gathering of vintage vehicles with souped-up engines (hot rods), which paraded themselves in and out every day.
Tunnels and bridges between the islands (we hadn’t realised how many islands there are in Denmark) took us to Copenhagen, and the unique campsite tucked within the star shaped ramparts of the 19th century fort at Charlottenlund, complete with 1912 Howitzer guns still pointing at the sky. On the seaward side, the Baltic is fringed by a popular sandy beach, good for swimming. Even Linda got in and swam in the Baltic! The campsite information had mentioned the Morning Sing, slightly to our bemusement. And at 9 am, sure enough, there was a communal singing of Danish folksongs! We were impressed at how easy it was to cycle in and around this, the capital city of Denmark. We found being in the cycling rush hour at the end of the afternoon quite exhilarating. Of course, we had to go and find the Mermaid on the first day (she’s stunning, even with all the attention around her).
Odense was an unexpected joy, the third city of Denmark, and the centre is almost entirely traffic-free and green. Bikes and trams are the order of the day, both in the old quarters, and the twentieth century precincts. Hans Christian Andersen is perhaps the most celebrated son of the city. To drive there from Copenhagen takes you over a very familiar (to viewers of Scandi noir) and enormous Bridge in two distinct parts, 18km in total length. It was awe-inspiring, especially to be travelling over it in our old friend Dennis.
It was a relatively long drive from there to Leer, in German Friesland, which we had picked as a convenient break of the journey back to Rotterdam. The campsite is a little out of town, by a former marina (which is turning back into a wildlife wetland) on the river Ems. Leer turned out to be delightful, a historic town and harbour with equally historic boats, and the surrounding countryside blends into that of the Netherlands, with waterways, dykes and polders.
Finally, we crossed the border back into the Netherlands, and to the rather alarming outskirts of Rotterdam, at one point driving in the midst of two parallel motorways, twelve lanes of traffic and muttering ‘thought this was a cycling country!’ Having said that, it was well signed, and with one of us keeping an eye on navigation, we were fine. Suddenly we were driving along quiet narrow roads on top of dykes and through villages to our campsite southeast of the city, by the huge Oude Maas River. This site did have a functioning marina, and to our delight, some pitches on the banks of the river, very windy but with the most incredible amount of commercial traffic. Riverboats and barges were passing every few minutes, to Stewart’s unspeakable delight!
Rotterdam is a big city to take in on a day, and after walking our socks off, we had a lovely late afternoon trip on a heritage tram, which took us round both the old and the quirky modern aspects of the city. We spent our final day in Dordrecht, a few miles east of the campsite. Like Leer and Maribo, we had never heard of it before this trip, and like them, it took us by surprise. With the old heart of the city built on three islands, Dordrecht has Venice-like streets of houses built right into the water. We happily wandered around, taking it in, before treating the navigator to a large G&T and both to tiny poffertjes pancakes, and heading for the overnight ferry…and our first T2 rally at the Embsay and Bolton Abbey Railway!
As in previous recent years the venue was Barnstones Caravan & Camping Site, near Banbury. It was heartwarming to arrive and see so many vans parked and set up ready for a fun but important weekend for the club.
Fortunately the weather held out for the weekend and we were able to sit outside in the (reasonable) sunshine into the early evenings, chatting to friends old and new.
As with every “meet” there was plenty of camaraderie, laughs and fun. There were opportunities to discuss problems with the vans (who’d have thought!!), share ideas, tips and stories. A huge amount of effort and hard work was put into the weekend by the management team, this included organising the Friday night fish and chips run from the local chippie, the Saturday BBQ and the Sunday morning bacon rolls. In addition, there was plenty of cake, tea and coffee for everyone. There were games, a raffle and a quiz too.
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The main purpose of the weekend was of course the AGM which was held in the hall opposite. The management team put a lot of their own time into running the club and this along with their endless enthusiasm came across from those that spoke. The minutes will cover the content. One of the requests was that we, the members, should help fill the magazine with content and I volunteered to make this small contribution of the weekend. So come on lets all help them.
This event is held at the Gwatkin Cider Farm in the heart of Herefordshire’s Golden Valley. What could go wrong with this. Straight out of a James Herriott book this show is English as it will get. I know for a fact i will be sampling those apples for sure. Here we are provided with club camping and a chance to display our vehicles. Better give mine a clean.
