Pokey the Wunderbus!

[RustySpokes]

So where are you going to put the radiator? That is/was an air-cooled bus right?

[Inane Cathode]

The rad will be up front, basically sitting on the bumper. I have some ideas for the design but i havent finalized anything :)

[P B G]

Originally Posted by Inane Cathode

The rad will be up front, basically sitting on the bumper. I have some ideas for the design but i havent finalized anything :)

That's how the vanagons always ran it.

I would almost wonder about mounting it in the rear with a good sized fan and perhaps some ducting to encourage flow.

[madeouttaglass]

The broken V6 converted 74 Westfalia we bought for parts had two little radiators under the front floorboards, a huge Olds radiator under the center of the floor, one little one opposite the battery, and three heater cores inside- all with fans and little air bleed screws. I think Rube Goldberg himself designed it.
I hope you do better than that one. I'd be concerned with air flow having someplace to go behind the radiator.

[Inane Cathode]

Originally Posted by madeouttaglass

The broken V6 converted 74 Westfalia we bought for parts had two little radiators under the front floorboards, a huge Olds radiator under the center of the floor, one little one opposite the battery, and three heater cores inside- all with fans and little air bleed screws. I think Rube Goldberg himself designed it.
I hope you do better than that one. I'd be concerned with air flow having someplace to go behind the radiator.

Jesus thats complicated.

Well, the beetle setup i have works pretty good. 20 feet of galv steel lines and an mr2 radiator with fans keeps it plenty cool, never seen it get hot before.
The bus will have about 30 feet of galv steel lines and a bigger radiator with bigger fans. I'm not too worried about air flow, it wont be flush against the nose. There will be enough space behind it to get low enough pressure to have some air flow. There's *alot* of surface area on those cooling pipes, alot of the cooling actually comes from them.
I'll have to find a picture but someone built a pretty cool radiator mount that i might copy myself :)

[madeouttaglass]

I think that they guy who built our parts bus wanted to go stealth. Not worth it at all. I'm enjoying watching your build. Thanks for sharing.

[Inane Cathode]

Hey thanks, i figure i should at least have some blurbs and pictures, i didnt find a whole lot of start-finish busaru build threads so i'd figure i'd make one.

So the radiator, i'd like to do something like this:


Trying to keep it low budget though, so in my head im trying to figure out how to build that. Tube on top (half a tube) and some expanded sheet, but not sure about those side plate pieces.
Thats a jumping off point at least. I like the seamlessness of it. Trying to keep away from the copper pipes and iron threaded fittings if i can

[leakypetcock]

I've seen some really nice conversions done with a radiator hidden inside of a fake spare tire. They had a "continental kit" mounted on the nose with expanded metal/mesh instead of the front panel. Plenty of room inside of one of those for any kind of radiator/fan combo you'd like. The additional benefit is you could throw a soft cover on one for really cold weather. Mount a VW emblem on it and no one would be the wiser.

[Doc.Snyder]

Originally Posted by scottybm1

I've seen some really nice conversions done with a radiator hidden inside of a fake spare tire. They had a "continental kit" mounted on the nose with expanded metal/mesh instead of the front panel. Plenty of room inside of one of those for any kind of radiator/fan combo you'd like. The additional benefit is you could throw a soft cover on one for really cold weather. Mount a VW emblem on it and no one would be the wiser.

Great idea.

[rallybug]

You don't want to do the Brazilian thing then?

[Doc.Snyder]

You can still buy new ones:

http://www.volkswagen.com/br/pt/carros/kombi.html

[EvilGenius]

Originally Posted by Doc.Snyder

You can still buy new ones:

http://www.volkswagen.com/br/pt/carros/kombi.html

Want!

[madeouttaglass]

I want a 2011 version of my 75 Westfalia!!!!

[rallybug]

Originally Posted by Doc.Snyder

You can still buy new ones:

http://www.volkswagen.com/br/pt/carros/kombi.html

I saw 6 of them, in white, on a car transporter just before Christmas, going through here on the way to Danbury for conversion, I presume - not really sure where they were heading though, as the transporter was going east, and Danbury are based about 45 miles north of me

[madeouttaglass]

Originally Posted by rallybug

I saw 6 of them, in white, on a car transporter just before Christmas, going through here on the way to Danbury for conversion, I presume - not really sure where they were heading though, as the transporter was going east, and Danbury are based about 45 miles north of me

Conversion into what? Campers I assume? Links?