Date:         Mon, 24 Feb 2003 19:36:19 +1300
Reply-To:     Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Andrew Grebneff <andrew.grebneff@STONEBOW.OTAGO.AC.NZ>
Subject:      Re: '99 SA Vanagon pics... exhaust
In-Reply-To:  <17e.176b94f4.2b8a878f@aol.com>
Content-type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=us-ascii

>I'm also curious about the labrinth of exhaust pipes under the SA bus which
>seem to go forward from the engine and take a trip to about half the length
>of the bus before taking a 180 degree curve to the back of the bus finally
>exiting at the the rear. I wonder if that set up could be developed for the
>Tiico conversions and if it is the extra length of exhuast pipe that would
>cut down on some of the exhaust resonance, vibration, and noise associated
>with the Tiico conversion.

My V6-equipped Caravelle had stock manifolds; the excausts ran
forward to a point under the trans nose, where a single-ended muffler
sat. Both pipes entered rear face of the short muffler here, and the
tailpipe left the rear face and ran to the back of the van. Tidy,
effective. BUT it did cut down on ground-clkearance under the muffler
for 4WD trekking.

I may do something similar with the SVX exhaust, but put a single
stainless bigbore muffler at the back end, merely looping the
extractor and tailpipe forward and then back to give a decent pipe
length.

>I also wonder if it would be cost efficient to import the fiberglass bumpers
>from SA. Even the SA metal bumpers off the later models are cool. As I've
>seen they are black (not chrome) and appear to be more streamlined than the
>USA bumpers. The SA metal bumpers have what look like end caps that are the
>same dimension as the bumper, meaning they do not "clip" over the bumper
>adding a littl bulk, but join the bumper with the same dimesion and a smooth
>look.  Once the front bumper has mad the bend around to the side of the bus
>it has the option of an "extra" piece continuing on bolted to the bottom of
>the front doors like the fiberglass bumpers on the later USA models. This
>giving a bit of the added protection on the bottom of the door and changing
>the look a bit. The rear metal SA bumpers come around to the side of the bus
>all the way up to the back of the rear fender well. I have an old Just
>Kampers catalogue that shows the metal SA bumpers as what JK sells as a
>"styling kit." I suppose all in all the SA metal bumpers are a suble
>difference, but in my opinion a improvement.
>
>Anyway, I don't know how favorable the Rand exchange rate is these days. But
>does anyone know if VWSA will do business with a customer in the USA and ship
>and all? Doesn't seem like that should be too complicated, but I'm guessing
>it is.
>
>Jeff
>83.5 Westy
>LA,CA
>
>
>In a message dated 2/21/2003 2:42:33 PM Pacific Standard Time,
>kimbrennan@MAC.COM writes:
>
><< So I was looking over those pictures. I sure would like to have that
>  style steering wheel. Hey, Ron, you were talking about Steering Wheels
>  (that didn't come) a couple of months ago. Any chance of getting some
>  of those South African ones (on the assumption that they'll still work
>  with our North America Vanagons?) >>