Gertrude our 1976 Sopru

[onetrackwonder]

So another ten months has passed under the bridge and not a lot has been done to the old girl, we finally completed our house build and I am flat out doing a rather large extension for my neighbours, once that is complete its time to hang the nail bag up for good and get into the shed and do things that I enjoy, like working on VW's and scratch building cars, saying that I have three weeks off from the extension and I been slowly progressing with the engine, after sand blasting of the tinware there were a few repairs that had to be done, some welding broken tabs and panel beating, I then sprayed it all with a epoxy enamel from a can,

https//i.imgur.com/lns0ZKF.jpg[/img]]

A few weeks ago I got the head back on the engine all tensioned up and over the weekend I started to put the tinware back together, man what a job that is, I also replaced the engine mounts as they were stuffed, I am very happy with how it has all come back together, today I rebuilt the carburettors with new kits and finally pulled the lovely venturies out of their box that Wayne had sent me a long time ago, thanks again Wayne its very much appreciated, so now I have the engine pretty much ready to go back in, I just have the fuel tank to install and get the old girl up in the air a bit so that I can slip the engine under and up

https//i.imgur.com/H8ldcPx.jpg[/img]]

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

https//i.imgur.com/7t5l1Zn.jpg[/img]]

Im now just crapping myself a little worried about if I got everything back together the right way, I have other things on for the next couple of days so I wont find out just yet, cheers Greg
 

onetrackwonder, Mar 8, 2021

---

Any bits left over?
It's looking good.
The clubman has not moved for a while either?
 

Alles Gute und einen guten Tag
Alpal & Carol
________________________
Schmetterling (Butterfly) 79 Bay:
DoppelÄrger (Double Trouble) 77 Dual Cab: The Other Bus 74 Kombi
Glitzernwanze (Glitter Bug) : 70 Beetle
Scoots: 1985 Vespa PX: 1978 Vespa Super: 1959 Lambretta Li150 basket case:

Alpal, Mar 8, 2021

---

No leftover bits Alpal, which is good for me, thanks it is looking way better now, we live on a dirt road and with building the house I still need to landscape, I have the bobcat running past the shed a lot at the moment and the dust gets terrible, the earlier pic of the clubman covered in dust was because I forgot to put the cover on, Saturday I changed the front and rear master cylinders to smaller sizes as on the road there has never been much feel in the pedal, its ok on the track but these days i'm only ever on the road, so once finished I gave it a good clean and then a blast through the hills and thats it in the pic above, up off the ground and with the cover on, brakes were the best they have ever felt, I don't need much pedal pressure to lock the wheels now, cheers Greg
 

onetrackwonder, Mar 8, 2021

---

Today was one step forward and two steps back, after work we took the bus down to Cobargo on the trailer for its rego check, halfway down there the pop top popped up for some reason, the night before I had double checked the straps, looks like the front drivers side strap has pulled the pop top material apart and the passengers side has pulled the rivets, looks like as the bus was on the trailer backwards the rear straps have come undone and popped the roof ripping out the fronts, on a better note the bus passed its inspection, now to fix this issue and get it back on the road after the long lay off, can anyone tell me what is behind where the top screws on the Sopru straps screw in, im guessing maybe some timber strips fibreglasssed into the roof where the screws go, must saw I was rather embarrassed presenting the bus for inspection with a big ratchet strap around the car, cheers Greg
 

onetrackwonder, Apr 28, 2021

---

onetrackwonder said: ↑

Today was one step forward and two steps back, after work we took the bus down to Cobargo on the trailer for its rego check, halfway down there the pop top popped up for some reason, the night before I had double checked the straps, looks like the front drivers side strap has pulled the pop top material apart and the passengers side has pulled the rivets, looks like as the bus was on the trailer backwards the rear straps have come undone and popped the roof ripping out the fronts, on a better note the bus passed its inspection, now to fix this issue and get it back on the road after the long lay off, can anyone tell me what is behind where the top screws on the Sopru straps screw in, im guessing maybe some timber strips fibreglasssed into the roof where the screws go, must saw I was rather embarrassed presenting the bus for inspection with a big ratchet strap around the car, cheers Greg

Timber at the front tie downs top & bottom. Timber at the rear upper tie downs.......absolutely nothing other than the thickness of fibreglass on the rear bottom tie downs on a Sopru. Thus your rear travel put load on the weakest part of the pop top install & it opened from that point. Lucky the roof stayed with the bus.
I used something like this

On all corners & just a coarser thread thru the (Thin) fibreglass on the rear lower. There would be many ways to achieve a different outcome.
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, Apr 28, 2021

---

Thanks David I thought as much, they have done well to last 45 years, luckily I was in an uphill twisty section through a cutting and we were not going at warp speed, when it went Katherine spotted it going up, luckily there was a driveway soon afterward’s, I will try and have a good look and make some plans over the weekend, cheers Greg
 

onetrackwonder, Apr 29, 2021

---

So I got the roof all fixed and quite happy with the results, then new club registration organised and Katherine took the old girl for a ten minute run and back to visit her girlfriends and then we loaded up and headed to the Nationals the next day, she ran fine up but on the way back dumped around one litre of engine oil, my guess was that after nearly two years without running some of the seals dried up so I have ordered front and rear main seals along with the oil cooler seals so I will replace them, the other thing that I found was a very low clutch pedal, yesterday I replaced the cable as I thought that it might be stretched, it was a little like 10mm longer and the front clevis was also very warn so I changed that as well but not much difference was made to the pedal, when I had the engine out I didn’t touch the clutch as was fine when I last drove it and it looked too have plenty of meat left but perhaps the pressure plate had lost it’s pressure, I don’t know so new everything is going in, so tonight I pulled the engine, yesterday I ordered everything that I need so by next weekend I should be putting stuff back and getting ready for the Spectacular, cheers Greg
https://i.imgur.com/1ufeR4d.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/CY6o5a9.jpg
 

onetrackwonder, Jun 19, 2021

[onetrackwonder]

Well luckily I was able to drag all of my thread from the old forum over to here so I thought that its time to update this a little, we bought some Porsche Karo Madras Blue which is a period correct fabric from Germany and we had our bed seat and top cushions for the pop top re done along with the little seat between the fridge and wardrobe, very happy with the result but I was a little short with the fabric, 300mm in fact so the rear mattress is unfinished at the moment, the fabric is on its way so shouldn't be long now, while we had to get more fabric we also got extra and will be doing the inserts in the front seats, cheers Greg

[DavidH]

Nice. Very era appropriate .
Cheers

[onetrackwonder]

Thanks Dave, hope your well, how is your blue beast going, cheers Greg

[Oldman]

Looking great Greg ! 

[onetrackwonder]

Looking great Greg ! 

Thanks Mark we are very happy with how its coming along, we can't wait to get it all finished and get her out there, some trips are being planned, cheers Greg

[Elsie76]

Looks great Greg 
Looking forward to seeing the end result back on the road.
Cheers Craig 

[onetrackwonder]

Thanks Craig, we can’t wait to see her finished too, it’s been fun getting out in Olive in the interim, Olive is a fresher straight shiny bus but our hearts are with the crusty looking Possum, cheers Greg