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Transporter Talk No 145
MEMBER’S MOTOR continued
mother, I built a rear buddy seat and trimmed this to match the rest of the interior. VDO gauges were added to the cab along with a rose wood steering wheel, followed by another re-trim of all the dash panels.
Exterior
I wanted the classic wheel look for Doris and I have always loved white wall tyres, so I tted a set of Atlas whitewalls which completely transformed her look. I wanted a full length roof rack but the cost of them was so high I found a good used 3 bow instead which helped me towards the desired look, I might add a 2 bow to the front in the future. I purchased clear front indicators, clear and red rear lenses and re tted the all important VW badge to the front. Another addition was the air vent ears which aid to the engine cooling.
Mechanical
Doris came with a 1776cc engine with twin 40 IDF Webber carbs and a custom made exhaust with a fat boy mu er, which the neighbours love at 7am in the morning!
Unfortunately the gearbox had a bad second gear syncro so had to be replaced along with the shift rods and shifter. I talked to a few people and decided to upgrade the standard gearbox to a freeway yer and changed the lightened ywheel she came with back to a standard one with a new clutch for good measure.
In 2014 - 2015 after the show season I left Doris on my drive over winter under a cover and then when it came to MOT time she had developed a few issues. The front brakes had seized, so the callipers were replaced with a late bay conversion and the twin carburettors needed to be rebuilt as they were leaking fuel into the oil. I also decided to get the ignition system overhauled and upgraded, so found a new old stock Brazilian Bosch 009 distributor and had an electronic ignition tted with new plugs, coil and leads at the same time. Other upgrades were red MST Serpentine pulleys, a fuel pressure regulator, new rear tinware, EMPI bolt on rocker covers, a breather box and the most important thing, an automatic engine bay re extinguisher. If I could give any advice, it would be to t some sort of re suppression system to your engine bay and check your fuel lines every year as I have heard too many horror stories of res destroying peoples’ pride and joy.
The engine and gearbox work was carried out by a local VW specialist, White Hill Garage in Chorley, they were great at giving me advice and sorting out issues with Doris and also gave me pointers on how to x things myself, they certainly know there stu
Following the issues I had in the past, I set out to nd dry storage for Doris and fortunately came across a large barn space to rent. This has given me the opportunity to t it out with tools so I
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