Gertrude our 1976 Sopru

[onetrackwonder]

Hey guys thanks for the kind words, its a pleasure to be back in a Kombi and on here rather than just stalking the site occasionally, we currently are living in our shed while we are building our house, certainly not roughing it thats for sure, Gertrude is parked just outside our cabin section and I don't know how many times that I have opened the door to look out at her, mentioned it to Katherine and she said don't worry I have done the same, we have to keep pinching ourselves, this week I have crawled all over her and had a real decent look, there is no sign of any previous accident repairs, and the underside is in great shape except for one of the floor support cross sections adjacent to the rear torsion bar and it had been impacted with something and one side of the section has been pushed up towards the floor and the stretched metal has split, looks like an easy repair to get back into shape and a small weld to make good, and certainly not structural so of little concern, apart from that the grey primer that you see at both rear corners is where the battery boxes have been replaced, the front panel and drivers door has also had a lick of primer down the adjoining edges and my guess there is that the door has been folded back onto the front panel damaging both but apart from that she looks like original tired paint everywhere and is also blue behind all doors and panels that I have looked at and blue under and in front of the engine bay, and behind the front underside crash protector under the bumper, I have found a couple of small patches of rust that I will get onto sooner rather than later up under the passengers front floor to bulkhead area which looks like a real pain to get too, as for the dogs expect to see them at any event we attended, they all like a pat and only one bites but not very hard, you will have to work out which one  David H the curtains were already on the car so I have no idea but I'm sure Google will be your friend, Wayne murray the previous hippie owners bought the car especially to be married in her and then wrote all over it with chalk pens, most of this is under the Ankor wax so unless I strip the wax it will stay there, the previous owner had never been able to get the fridge running on 12 volt and this morning I have had a look and traced the power wire and it went nowhere, connected it to the battery and still nothing, power goes into a small relay and nothing comes out, bypassed the relay just with a jumper lead and yay the fridge works so looks like a shot relay so hopefully an easy fix again, the radio even with the new aerial still doesn't work so ordered a new stereo last night, fuel lines are all brand new so nothing on that front needed, however I still have to chase the rest of the connections on the vent system as the fuel smell is still quite strong and there is no charcoal canister which from memory there should be, 

rstucke said: ↑

Great re-start to kombi-ing
Love the character of your van
We spend a lot of time in your area (Mystery Bay, Berma,) and always spend time in Tilba looking through the shops.
Hope to meet some day
Might run into you at the nationals (not literally)

You should send me a message next time you are down and we can catch up and anyone else passing through for that matter

farquire said: ↑

G'day Greg i've still got the 75 bus i bought from you,good to hear you finally got another
mike

Mike that is great news, must be ten years you have had that now, well done, from memory that was also Flipper Blue, hopefully we can catch up somewhere one day for a chat, cheers Greg
 

onetrackwonder, May 10, 2018

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I agree, you did find yourself a beauty. Love the patina and the writing on the tail gate. Was looking at it in Helensburgh and Berry and imagining that writing being on there for 30 odd years......do you know the story behind the writing??
 

Borgey, May 10, 2018

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Very important to peen and glue the fuel spigots on both carbs, if you have carb version, as they are regularly a source of fires.

If it has been changed to electric pump and on carbs a tachometric relay and shutoff valve is good insurance against sump filling via carb needle seat issues.

Keep enjoying the discovery process.

• 
  

 

cbus, May 10, 2018

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Also meet the couple you bought the van from in Boat Harbour Tasy in feb 2016,they'd recently got married ,all the writing was fresh,he was new to kombis and we talked for quite awhile,had a good look over the van very solid,nice people,small world isn't it
 

sons 75 panel
75 microbus
79 microbus project
90 syncro panel camper

farquire, May 10, 2018

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Borgey said: ↑

I agree, you did find yourself a beauty. Love the patina and the writing on the tail gate. Was looking at it in Helensburgh and Berry and imagining that writing being on there for 30 odd years......do you know the story behind the writing??

Hi Borgey the writing has faded some what and it has only been there for about 4 years, the previous owners were on their way to Tasmania where they were to get married and were looking to hire a Kombi as their wedding car, on the boat over they found this for sale on Gumtree so they bought it hence the writing on the back, I guess for the memories they left it there, there are lots of photos of them and the wedding party in and around the car on that other public medium but I will honour their privacy and not show them here, but here is one of the car,

https//i.imgur.com/IU7Hi1t.jpg[/img]]3

I also have history from the original owners with the owners manual and service history along with the genuine book for the fridge and a pile of other receipts and workshop manuals etc, first owner was in Perth it then went to Tassie and then back to the mainland in Warburton and now will spend the rest of our life in Central Tilba, all very exciting, cbus the car has Dellorto's on it, would these be an issue too or just the standard carbs, may have to look at that, it does have an electric pump on it and I'm not sure that I like it yet, I can't see any relay wired to it and I also not sure if like where they placed it next to the battery, but thanks for the heads up, 

The reason the previous owners were selling was that they had bought a Syncro to travel to the Kimberley's, they felt that this one wouldn't be up to it

https//i.imgur.com/ppBqJW4.jpg[/img]]

This was us as we were heading off from home to purchase her

https//i.imgur.com/1nFgsV0.jpg[/img]]

This was us in convoy on the way back home, cheers

https//i.imgur.com/jza7NOu.jpg[/img]]

https//i.imgur.com/LliT39p.jpg[/img]]

https//i.imgur.com/QQf8qh8.jpg[/img]]

And tucked up safe and sound in the shed when we got home, cheers

https//i.imgur.com/IoF7ABK.jpg[/img]]
 

onetrackwonder, May 10, 2018

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I'm not familiar with any delorto issues but plenty on here should be able to advise.

The issue is known for solex on vw at least.

I would have pump outside engine bay.
Worth fitting the solenoid outside as well so that in event of fire and engine stall all fuel is cut.
Each unit around the $50 mark.

Another issue is siphoning if parked nose up.
Don't know if this is an issue with Del's.?

Often the cheap square pumps have variable pressures.
A check and pressure regulator if needed is good practice.
Don't use the empi chrome one with adjustable dial.
Cases of them loosing fuel.

In case you haven't seen it...

http://www.ratwell.com/technical/FuelHoses.html


Cheers
 

cbus, May 10, 2018

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If you can smell fuel that’s a problem that needs fixing immediately. It could be one of the breather pipe hoses too. Either way, fuel smell means possible fire.
 

Chris and Sharyn
Team Fun and Niceness

Mr Beckstar, May 10, 2018

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Hi onetrackwonder,
The oft overlooked is the filler collar to tank. Used 2 of these in 40 yrs.
Cheers
 

Yesterday is history, Tomorrow a mystery, Today is the PRESENT.
Pilot of 'Old Boy' 76 Sopru Fuel Injected
Co pilot Lauren
http://forums.kombiclub.com/threads/76-sopru-resto.54261/
http://forums.kombiclub.com/threads/76-sopru-old-boy.56558/

David H, May 10, 2018