TOPIC: T34 & others in Finland

Hello everyone.

I'm new member here as I bought my first T34 last summer (2010), a '65 project car from Germany. Basically drivable but needs a lot of TLC before registration and being reliable (hopefully somewhere in summer 2011), so I'll tell a bit of my other VWs, old and current:

I've had some kind of flat four since 1983 when I bought my first Beetle ('66) and after that I've had three Beetles, all sold by 1994. But I liked the engine and Karmann made a very nice chassis so when I had the economic opportunity (and found one for sale) to buy [url=http://http://kharon.suomiforum.com/www/ghia/index_e.html]a typ14[/url] in 2000 ('63) I bought it immediately. Now I can't sell it anymore, unless to change it to a convertible.

I've fully restored (but period wrong) 12V 1915cc engine with dual DellOrto on my living room floor waiting for the installation, we'll see what happens, hopefully in summer 2011. (pics in engine-section)

I bought a half of a '74 typ2 in 2004 and it was a bus, so it had seats (albeit home made) for 9 and lot of room which Ghia didn't have. On the other hand, Ghia had floor, which was mostly missing from the bus from the passenger compartment and I used about a month in one summer to weld it back into shape (most pictures from that era). Engine (1600cc) was also in very bad shape so we did a full restoration on it and made it a 1915cc engine with stock Solex, an interesting combination: Much more torque than the original engine had but not much more top speed.

I managed to inherit half of a '61 typ2 panel van in 2002 and it just sat in a shed into 2006 (having already been there from 1978) as I was working on '74 bus. It's now registered and actually quite nice for being (mostly) unrestored car and having been in very heavy use as the previous (and first) owner (my step grandfather) was a blacksmith (!) who used the van to transport iron (!). Bars, plate, wire, you name it. That shows too, a lot of dents and bumps everywhere.

But as I'm the second owner and history from new is known, I really can't restore the van to look like new. I'll fix small things here and remove a dent there but overall impression should be that nothing has been done, even if it is.

8000 kilometers in summer 2010, my daily driver when my real daily driver was under service and my motorbike was broken. Lot of vehicles and only so much time and energy to repair them.

I'm also one of the maintainers of the website of Finnish Volkswagen Association, which has about 2800 members now. Our site is in Finnish as many of our members aren't fluent English speakers, but galleries might be worth looking anyway.

Hi Kharon8,

Welcome to the Registry.

Seems like you are a typical VW owner - not satisfied with just one car

I love the story about your '61 panel van, there are probably very few family owned un-restored VW's left. I agree, it should be preserved as it is.

Your Type 34 looks pretty complete and doesn't look like it will take too much work to get it back on the road, it also looks like it has survived pretty good considering the weather over there. What kind of plans do you have for it?

Love the site too - lots of info there, looks pretty busy as well. (For those not up to date with their Finnish. Google translate does a fairly good job - Click HERE to view).

It also seems that I have overlooked Finnish as a language option in our recent site update - I will add it in

Once again - welcome.

P.S. don't forget to add your car to our database, or update the record if it already exists.

Thank you Mick.

I already registered it, it's there.

I wrote a long message here (about type2) but while writing I was automatically logged out and story went to large bit bucket in the sky. Ouch.

So just a small notice that windows, seats and rest of the interior is made in Finland and van was first year plain panel van, cheapest model you could get.

"What kind of plans do you have for it? "

Some of this went into registry db description but a quick peek:

First to street legal, then to daily driver (hopefully both in summer 2011) and later, probably much later, some kind of restoration, there's a lot of body work in this car if I want it to be even good.

Which in my vocabulary means no visible faults (obviously wrong parts, rust, dents, everything fits etc.). Not perfect nor fully restored but good. "Not an eyesore" like a friend of mine said.

T34 is on hold for now but I managed to get my t14 from winter storage to same town, much easier to do something like replacing the door striker plate which has disintegrated and other minor parts.

Putting engine back is waiting for an opportunity to do it but here's a picture for you with t14 with its new rims and wheels on trailer.

Classic hotrod (or not so hot) style, 135R15 in front and 165/65R15 in back.

Summer holiday is going on and I managed to grab a week to do something to t34, so I changed brake hoses, installed hand brake cables (old ones were cut off), emptied and cleaned fuel tank and carburators.

Now I've brakes that work nicely and slighly limping idle, much better than nothing.

Brake drums are quite rusty so I didn't even try to adjust brakes yet, for now I'm happy I've brakes which disengage.

I don't have register plates so test drives were done on the yard (and very short) but even those revealed an really odd fault: The car idles fine and pulls strong from the standstill but after a few seconds of acceleration the engine dies completely. If I engage the clutch, it idles but not much else.

Odd. Unfortunately that's all the diagnostics I've for now but any ideas welcome.

One guess I got is that vacuum advance of the distributor is totally stuck/hose leaks and thus no advance but would it generate symptoms like this?

I have to admit I've no idea, dual carburators are new to me and this isn't even PICT34, but 32PDSIT-2.

Clogged fuel line should lead to shutoff and not even idle?

But anyway: The car moved and stopped by itself, that's progress.

PS. Pics will follow