Toni Baa

This is Toni Baa! (the one in the middle)



Hi All, just bought my mates 2003 aircooled Brazil and then found this site. Here's a pic of my '71

Fast, Low and very rarely makes it on to the road, hence the new Brazilian. Something really nice about having a standard bus again and my wife gets to drive the '03.

Welcome! Get the tappets reset on your Kombi and when starting from hot hold the accelerator down as you turn the key. Release the moment the engine fires.

Cheers Tim, I'll give it a try. Also I only have one key, should I go back to Danbury to get a couple of spares cut, or are there equally good alternatives?

Hi and welcome to the Forum
We had a '72 low light previously - not as fine looking as yours though!
Looking forward to some pics of your Brazi Bay
Roo b Roo

Danbury can sell you the correct blank but you'll need to get it coded to your T2. Contact AJR - one of our advertisers re getting a spare.

Welcome to the forum, hope to see you around

Hi & welcome

Been a while since we joined the forum and thought it time to get some pictures up for Toni Baa our Brazilian.

Super stock except the wheels, standard height.

Interesting interior material, a bit caravan stylee but practical hard wearing and in great condition, quite comfy as well.

Kitchen unit down one side

Another nice shot of that beautiful material

Nice Colour!!

First thing to do was get a Danbury style roof fitted. At the same time Toni had a bottom half respray done.

Needed a little TLC as being 10 years old at the time was showing a little rust on the seams and around the headlights.






I would at this stage recommend a company that had done good work on my bus, but seeing as they did a real poor quality job I won't. If anybody else who lives in the Sussex area wants to get their van serviced or work done on their bus please PM me and I'll tell you who NOT to go to! Suffice to say nearly a year on and the problems are not yet solved and I'm considering court action as they don't like responding to any emails I send. More about this as time goes on.

ianclarke1970 wrote:

Nice Colour!!

Well it was, in fact it's now a bit more like yours because we had him sprayed in Jaguar Saturn Orange, which is less salmon like than before. The photos don't really give a true representation.

So we got Toni back. he now looks like this.

Not a heck of a lot different really but we like it.

When I first posted I had problems with hot starting and after Tim V advised getting the tappets checked, I ignored him as I new they had been checked when the work was all done as I had it serviced at the same time (or so I thought).

As it turns out, even though I was told otherwise, the van had not been serviced and the hot start issues continued. I was told by the Sussex company at the time that this was a known problem and something we had to live with… errr OK.

I thought I'd try the forum for clues and came across fitting a switch that cuts off the fuel pump relay. I fitted this and it worked (most of the time). Meanwhile Tim V PM'd me to say "take your bus to Paul Brand and get the tappets checked and adjusted". This time I thought I would.

What can I say? Paul Brand of Brand Autos (who is one of the sponsors of the forum) booked me in and I took the drive over to Hampshire.
The brief was give the whole bus a thorough service, report all issues and repair or replace. Paul very kindly lent me his loan car and I left Toni with him. That afternoon he rang and said all was done but could I come over in the morning to pick Toni up at about 10.30 as he still had to adjust those tappets (they should ALWAYS be done cold). Upon arrival he was ready.

I cannot thank Paul enough. The list of things Paul had found wrong was not too bad but disappointingly many of them had supposedly been done by the Sussex company less than a year ago. They included:

1. A full service, which included, oil change and clean mesh filter, Air and fuel filter change, Spark Plug change, Tappet adjustment etc. He also checked the brakes along with the handbrake that had been adjusted incorrectly. It should be done at the Brake drum not on the lever under the bus. Check the front beam and bushes for wear and grease. This bit made me laugh, he reported that not only was it bone dry he managed to pump nearly two tubes of axle grease into the system. All of this should have been done the year before by the Sussex based "professionals"… BS!
2. Check the auxiliary battery for condition and charging. He tested both batteries and reported that the aux should probably be replaced as it charged fine but only held about 30% and 10volts, which obviously isn't good.

Now Toni Baa is running sweetly  , starts first time, every time whether hot or cold and is now an absolute pleasure to drive  . Why oh why the Sussex based "experts" couldn't have done this I don't know? They said they had and quite simply they lied to make a quick buck  . I really don't want this to happen to anyone else so rather than berate the cheats I'd rather champion Paul at Brand Autos, he's efficient, importantly, knows what he is doing (he has mainly worked on VAG vehicles for most of his working life), I borrowed his loan car for free and all this cost the princely sum of £295.03. Needless to say I'm definitely going back. If you live in Sussex or Hampshire I recommend go there and forget the companies with large premises and all the talk.

Phew glad that's off my chest.

Other jobs completed so far have been to replace the front screen seal as it was leaking (over the fuse box). Nice an dry now.

Next, sort out the leaking rear hatch door. Bought a new seal, fitted it and it still leaks, annoying. Anyone have any ideas? The new rubber has a different profile to an original old school version.

OK seeing as this is a comprehensive stream of consciousness here is some more.

Now as previously mentioned, and due to the shocking work done to Toni Baa we didn't have our bus for the whole of the amazing summer we had last year  . We are definitely not going to let that happen this year. We've got a great summer of trips lined up and thought we would buy this bad boy.



It's huge!


Really easy to put up…

all in very pleased with it.

Now after a test erection… I sat around and thought about lighting for the awning and the annoying issue of cables through windows and open doors. On previous camps with the '71 we encountered problems when we needed outside light and power but our sleeping daughter not be disturbed with us leaving the sliding door open. So I made one of these:



It sits very nicely here


It's positioned between the floor and chassis rail just behind the front wheel on the nearside (ours is a LHD). It's so far been driven in the rain and not got the slightest bit wet. The images are of it early in installation. It ended up with another coat of paint and was then placed in position and the edges sealed with seam sealer. Then a couple of coats of underseal for good measure (excuse the grotty quality image)


This is the back showing waterproof connections


Earth breakout (attached to chassis) and then braided nylon covering (you can just make out the red cable within)...


up to the auxiliary fuse box.



Now to replace the interior lights with LED units.


I'm going to use the original Fluorescent cases and custom fit the LED strips.


(You can see the metre long awning strip stowed above.)

I want to keep the cases because I kind of like them and they sit well in the interior panels.
The covers will also diffuse the light a little and make it less harsh as LEDs tend to do.

At the same time I'm going to fit a new set of speakers and another power socket for the rear passengers, then I just need to get that Webasto working...

Well done for getting it all sorted. I also use Brand Autos and have always found him excellent at maintaining and repairing my Kombi.
I take it you still have the caravan esk interior?
Mine looked the same as yours until I treated Eddie to a full interior make-over a few months ago. I can thoroughly recommend the company that did it.

Read the full story here -

http://goo.gl/32neCB

The painted inside trim looks great.  Really like the colour.   Very '70s.

TimV wrote:

The painted inside trim looks great.  Really like the colour.   Very '70s.  

Cheers Tim. The colour was intended to be a nod at the retro era in which these where originally made, as the name of the colour suggests, "far out man!"

harryhornet wrote:

Well done for getting it all sorted. I also use Brand Autos and have always found him excellent at maintaining and repairing my Kombi.
I take it you still have the caravan esk interior?
Mine looked the same as yours until I treated Eddie to a full interior make-over a few months ago. I can thoroughly recommend the company that did it.

Read the full story here -

http://goo.gl/32neCB

WOW! My daughter Lauren and I simply made ooohhh! noises when we saw your new interior, really, really nice. Maybe one day we'll do something similar. I suspect that was not a cheap thing to do? Well worth it though, amazing.

HI all, been a while since I posted, been out enjoying the bus to be honest. It's because of this I'm writing this update.

Unfortunately whilst driving back from West Wittering I was hit from the side by a car. Thankfully it was low speed but the other driver managed to mash his car completely down the nearside of my bus damaging every panel after the front wheel arch. The worst bit being the large panel opposite the sliding door and the rear wheel arch. The seam that joins this panel with the rear wheel arch panel has been ripped open, not pretty. The rear wheel arch has also been pushed into the rear wheel tub, again, not good. Has this happened to anyone else? If so did the interior have to be removed to get at the problem areas? My camping interior is getting on a bit and I'm worried if this has to come out will it go back in or will it need to be replaced?
The insurance is not a problem as the driver admitted fault. Now comes the task of finding someone good to repair my bus. Does anyone have any recommendations for reputable repairers in the South East of England? I'm a bit OCD and want nothing but the best so "quick fixers" aren't an option, I really want someone who knows our buses and has experience to do the work. really appreciate any input, thanks all.

Hi,

We will be able to fix this under your insurance.

The whole lower half of the camper would be repainted also as well as all new replacement panels.

Ian

www.braziliankampers.co.uk