No, by "air cooled bus" I meant air cooled Vanagon.
I probably shouldn't interchange terms like that!  :)
Cheers,

Neil.

On Dec 8, 2007 3:38 PM, Scott Daniel - Shazam <scottdaniel@turbovans.com>
wrote:

> Perhaps by 'air cooled bus' you mean an 80 to 82 air-cooled vanagon, and
> some people might enjoy going that route.
> But, if you mean any air-cooled VW Bus up to 79, I absolutely do not
> recommend those - old, unsafe, antiques, and much harder to work on than
> any
> vanagon.  Cute maybe, but really.........just light-years behind compared
> to
> a vanagon, in all aspects.
> For those who don't yet have a vanagon, the first really decent year is
> 85.
>
> I saw an 80 air cooled vanagon once, it was such an early model it had
> this
> weird small horn pad, not the kind we're used to that goes across the
> whole
> steering wheel.
> It was very much like an older Bus still, in various ways.
> Scott
> turbovans
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> neil N
> Sent: Saturday, December 08, 2007 10:20 AM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Re: Friday humour: Top 5 Reasons why you SHOULDN'T try converting
> Friday humour: Top 5 Reasons why you SHOULDN'T try converting Re: Top 5
> Reasons why you SHOULDN'T try converting an 81 AC Vanagon to water cooled
> (pic
>
> Hopefully I'm not misunderstanding your post. :^)
>
> For the record everyone, I started this thread as an attempt at Friday
> humour.
>
> I love my air cooled Westy, (though it is underpowered). Why else would I
> be
> going to all this trouble to convert it?
>
> :^)
>
> I started my driving life with the old Beetles. A 58' in fact. Loved that
> car. And I really enjoy the sound of an air cooled engine.
>
> True my 15 degree conversion site contains a "warning" of sorts, but
> that's
> only in an effort to help other people really think about what they're
> getting into. i.e. I *strongly* suggest that one should think twice about
> doing this conversion **unless** their air cooled van is cherry and rust
> free.
>
> But that's just my .02 --- :^)
>
> I'm totally "into it" and I'm posting what I can to help others if they
> choose to go this route. Thinking about it now, for the "handy" people on
> this list, an air cooled bus might be a really economical way to go in
> terms
> of an engine conversion. Pick up a rust free with a blown motor for a
> "song".....
>
> Not sure if you are referring to the quoted text below, but as for
> "chiseling" I'm pretty sure Robert was being literal. I ended up chiseling
> the top rad mount bracket out because 6 or so of the spot welds were only
> visible from the top in area behind dash. Drilling would have been really
> tough due angle, so I found that the chisel went through the metal easily.
> If I did it again, I'd just drill a few "starter" holes and chisel around
> the welds, and remove the extra metal on the bench.
>
> Neil.
>
>
> Robert wrote:
>
> I converted a 1980 Westfalia to a water-cooled
> inline -four and I don't understand what all the
> chiseling is about.
>
>  The two holes for the two top ten mm bolts are
> already in place- all you need to do is make a
> grille template from a water-cooled Vanagon,
> trace it onto the air-cooled and cut the lower
> radiator grille opening  .
>
> The top mounts are there from the factory in the
> air-cooeld models. The bottom has two brackets
> that bolt to the frame and the radiator.
> Assuming that the Canadian model is identical up
> front to the American one..
>
> Robert
>
>
>
> On Dec 8, 2007 7:31 AM, Jonathan Poole < jfpoolio@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I am with you Robert.  It seems to me that on this list of all places
> > folks
> > would be open to the idea of such projects.  Also I don't think you even
> > need to cut the lower grill opening as it is for air conditioning and
> the
> > top opening allows for plentiful airflow to the radiator so that makes
> it
> > even easier.
> >
> > I am guessing that the anti early vanagon/air-cooled (conversion and
> > otherwise) folks are in the minority but I don't understand why they are
> > so
> > against the early vanagons?
> >
> > Jonathan Poole
> > '83 ac westy
> >
>
>

--
Neil Nicholson. 1981 Air Cooled Westfalia -
"Jaco"  (Bustorius) http://web.mac.com/tubaneil

Engine swap beginings: http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/