Gertrude our 1976 Sopru

[onetrackwonder]

Another dragged over from the dark side

Hello to all, first of all I have to say in the short time that we have owned her what a ride it has been, I would like to introduce both myself and my wonderful wife and best friend Katherine, about 4 years ago we moved from Pitt Town in western Sydney and now we live in the wonderful NSW far south coastal village of Central Tilba, if you haven't heard of it do yourself a favour and look it up, we are developing our 10.6 acre property which was a raw bush block, first we built a big shed and now building our house which we are hoping to have close to being finished by Xmas.
I have been on here for quite a long time now and opened the account when Katherine and I were last restoring a 75 Transporter about ten years ago now, unlucky for us we were forced to sell due to some unexpected circumstances after we had all the body work nice and straight and almost ready for paint, so to say all the hardest bits were done, luckily one of the forum members got a great van to finish his way.
We both are long term Kombi and VW owners/tragics, Katherine bought a brand new 76 Kombi van when she was 20 and I bought a one owner Flipper Blue 76 Sopru Delux Campervan when I was also 20, Katherine sold hers when she met her first husband to bale him out of his debt and because he didn't like the Kombi, she should have got rid of him there and then, I kept mine until I decided to buy a house five years later and sold it to help with the deposit, it wasn't long before I was regretting the sale and started saving for another, it took me about 18 months until I had enough and then found a local Riverina Orange 76 Sopru Delux which I owned for 23 years, along the way both Katherine and I were divorced from first marriages and came together and bought more VW'S, my Kombi was sold as we were both doing house renovations and she wasn't getting used due to our limited time away from the renos, we still own a 2007 T5 which we bought 10 years ago and a 66 Beetle which we have had from memory for about 14 years.
And now for our latest acquisition, Gertrude, I/we had been looking for the right 76 Sopru Campervan for a long time, and we wanted the best possible original interior, wasn't too fussed with the exterior or running gear as I am reasonably capable of sorting that, we found Gertrude down in Victoria at Warburton, and what a ride it has been since deciding on purchasing her, after the owners sent me plenty of photos of areas that I requested I was reasonably confident on making the 9hr trip to inspect.
And road trip it was, we have a little Avan that we hitched to the Transporter and off we headed on the Tuesday morning, the Kombi was as per advertised and as per the photos supplied, so we are now the new custodians, it has its issues that we will fix, and what 42 year old cars don't, it has some rust in the steps and front floor along with the spare tyre wheel well and that is it, the windscreen frame and the underneath is awesome along with the running gear, the rear door has popped a bolt in the hinge that is now wedged in there some how but still operates just, it has the usual fuel smell and the first time we filled it up there was a pool of fuel behind the rear left wheel.
After purchasing her we then had to go over to Riddles Creek which we got to on the Tuesday night in convoy with Katherine driving the Kombi, the Wednesday morning we then headed home and drove to the Lakes Entrance where we camped overnight and then Thursday we then headed home, she ran like a train all the way and gave us both huge confidence that we bought a great vehicle for us to develope and make even better.
On arriving home on the Thursday we stopped into Tilba and went to the post office where a heap of parts that I had ordered before we left were already there, I had bought an aerial because I could see the one on the car was broken, I also bought clutch and accelerator cables along with a Bus Stop under dash tray, mesh headlight grills and also a set of Empi Porsche Replicas, also when we arrived home there was a set of tyres for the Empi's on our house slab, so then Friday we ran down to Cobargo and dropped the wheels and tyres off for fitting, the guy there said what are these for and I said a 76 Kombi Camper only to be told that he had just bought two of them, found in a shed in Brogo, he is also the local NRMA man and come across them on a call out so they are still out there, anyway got back at 4.30 and picked them up and then I installed them and continued as per the day doing as much as I could on tidying up the van, replaced fuel lines and filter, found a broken hose behind the spare wheel well in the vent/overflow system and replace that and by then had run out of time.
The Saturday morning we were up at 5 am and headed in the Kombi for Sydney, we had a mates 60th Saturday night and then Sunday morning we were up again at 5am and headed out to Helensburg to meet up with the club members for the run down to Berry for the Blast from the past, what a great introduction to the Kombi Club, met some great people already and will be heading up in a few weeks for the Nationals at Fairfield and then onto Valla, will also book for next Easter so enjoying the ride already, already in the short ride that we have had we have clocked up almost 2000km and how good is it to be back behind the wheel of a Kombi, cheers

Gertrude
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Last edited: May 12, 2018

onetrackwonder, May 7, 2018

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Great story. Love the Sopru beautiful inside and out. I just put the exact same rear bumper on Harry!
 

Chris and Sharyn
Team Fun and Niceness

Mr Beckstar, May 7, 2018