A History of VW in Australia

 VW manufactured vehicles in Australia for many years. Due to a rust free environment, many survive in good condition.

Australian VW Clubs

Club VeeDub Sydney's Home Page A Club Website which is very comprehensive and includes a huge links page

Australian VW Resources

 There are a large number suppliers of VW parts in OZ, here are just a few....

• Vintage VW Supplies Tel 612 9789 1777 Fax: 612 9718 8704. 
  Australian agents for Gene Berg and West Coast Metrics.
• VolksBahn Autos Tel: 612 9688 2761, 612 9688 2933 Fax 612 9896 3291. 
  Large stock of NOS & NLA Parts, reputed to be the largest in the southern hemisphere. Excellent for Type 3 Parts.
• VW Parts Service Tel 617 3391 5998 or 617 3391 3502 Fax 617 260 5179 
  Has been importing and distributing parts since 1972!
• Mick Motors Tel 617 3266 8133 Fax: 617 3391 8769
  Has a large range of parts from all over the world

 The Squareback Project

 Steve Farmer is the owner of a 1970 Type 3 Squareback, Australian built of course!! This vehicle was in a rather sad state when purchased.
 It had been "Hotrodded" but only by flaring the Guards (Fenders for US surfers), fitting wide wheels and aftermarket sway (torsion) bars. The interior had a little work although some of it was badly hacked.
 In late 1995 I decided to make of project of the car and turn it into a good customised daily driving vehicle. I will chronicle the project here as it develops, this is only a modest start to this page.
 After spending much time and effort maintaining and improving the Red VW, someone had an accident in it which resulted in trashed rear guard and the rear end of the car slightly out of alignment.
This damage, coupled with the fact that rust is appearing in a door pillar led me to the decision to search out another Squareback and make a really good one out of the pair of them.
 In March 1997 we purchased another Squareback, this time a 1972 model with a sunroof, flow through ventilation and 2 speed fan under the dash these features are not on the 1970 Australian Models and do add to the interior comfort considerably.
We intend to strip this car to the bone, repair the rust and then treat the entire body. Neoprene Subframe and suspension bushes will be fitted with new Cal Look rubbers all round. Braided stainless brake lines will be fitted etc.

Technical Stuff...

Carburation
Most Australian built Type3's had carbys fitted, a single Solex 32 PHN-1 on the 1500N and A's and Twin Solex 32 PDSIT-2's on the 1500S and 1600's.
Specifications on these carbs are rare I currently have 2 workshop manuals which contain specs for the carbs. The twin carbs have numerous changes listed in the Bentley manual and only a couple in the Scientific Publications manual (Australia only, published 1968). A couple of changes happened in 1971 as well I will scan the relevant pages and post them here soon, if anyone wants them in the meantime, please mail me.
I have heard that it is possible to remove the venturis from the Solexes completely and change the Jets accordingly. This would provide much better airflow and power.
The other option is to install Baby Dellortos which will fit on a Type 3 with the appropriate manifolds. The ultimate solution is fuel injection, by this I mean Gene Berg style modern electronically controlled system, not the original D-Jetronic system.
Ignition
The standard Kettering Ignition fitted to VW's can be helped along by adding an electronic system. A simple system using dwell extension improves smoothness and performance generally. There are a variety on the market such as Jacobs and MSD. CD systems are generally not considered suitable for multi-cylinder engines due to the fact that the extremely high voltages generated cause cross firing.
Exhaust
The standard VW exhaust can be replaced with a proper merged header system which improves flow and performance. It is possible to leave the front heat exchangers in place and hook up the heating system again.
Gauges
The standard gauges leave a little to be desired I usually like to have an Oil Pressure gauge, Ammeter and Tachometer as well. An Oil Temperature gauge is a valuable addition to any VW. A Voltmeter is handy when you don't have an alternator, like most Type3's!!

VW Suppliers on the Web...

• M&T Manufacturing VW Bug Restoration Parts Supplier
• Rocky Mountain Motor Works All sorts of VW stuff, email only
• Type 3 Detectives A UK Supplier for Type 3 parts, can get almost anything
• West Coast Metric VW rubber and plastic components
• Parts is Parts Replicas of the original VW Wooden roof racks
• Brads Bugs A site for Brads addiction and his business
• JC Whitney & Co. This is a subscription site, Quality can be a lucky dip at times I believe

VW Mania!! A list of some hot VW Sites I have found...

Aussie Sites

• RallySprint Volkswagen Beetle
• Australian VW Scene Magazine

Technical Resources

• Dons Kafer Kabriolett Site Very extensive, includes an online manual
• The Sermons of Bob Hoover What more needs to be said!
• Jans VW Racing Cars

 Official Sites

• VolksWagen of America site A nice site it is too
• The Concept One A great tradition continues

 Online Clubs etc

• Type 3 Web Site Contains a large amount of type 3 related stuff
• FUNKENGROOVIN's Vee Dub Chronicles An online magazine and resource centre for dubbers
• Vintage VolksWebbing As the name suggests ...
• Houston Volkswagen Club Maintained by Alan Presley...
• VW's for Sale

 Dedicated Volks

• Type 3 Cabriolet Prototype Project Alan Presley's project
• The Peoples Car, a site maintained by Robert Kuhn
• VW Archive
• SmegHead's Bug Page !!
• Thom Fitzpatrick's excellent site includes the "Hall of Shame"
• The VolksWagen Shrine A massive UK site
• A site in Germany
• The BassBug pages
• Joe Petty's VW Site
• More VW's !!

 Newsgroups and Mailing Lists

• Usenet - rec.autos.makers.vw.aircooled A newsgroup with issues pertaining to Volkswagen products.
• Subscribe to the Vintage VW mailing List In the body of your message enter
  SUBSCRIBE VINTAGVW "yourfirstname yourlastname"
• Subscribe to the Type 3 VW mailing List In the body of your message enter SUBSCRIBE

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