Date:         Mon, 1 Mar 2010 12:45:09 +1300
Reply-To:     Andrew Grebneff <goose1047@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Andrew Grebneff <goose1047@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Are Vanagons pretty?
Comments: To: Greg Potts <greg@pottsfamily.ca>
In-Reply-To:  <4B8AF9BF.9030904@pottsfamily.ca>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

The South African, Brazilian or Mexican bays might be as you describe, but
> the German models from 1968-79 are completely different from the splitty.
> They have a much improved suspension and steering, better running gear and a
> unibody chassis.
>
> It's a lot more than a new cab on the old chassis. And beauty is in the eye
> of the beholder.


Actually the Mexican Bays use the German panels, with sliding door and big
tailgate, unlike the Brasilian, which have hinged side-doors and small
tailgate.

If you look closely I think that you will find the German Bay floor panels
and structural mambers to be the very same as the Split's; the lower side
panels may well also be carryovers (if the Bay was an all-new design they
wouldn't have retained the identical panel profiles including the waistline
bulge*)... it's called cost-cutting, updating an old model to make it look
"new". Both have chassis rails welded to the body and are "semimonocoque".

The Bay suspension merely added semitrailing arms to the Split's trailing
arms; the front suspension beams remained the same and are interchangable,
making a Bay front-end into a Split a bolt-in way to to get discs and
balljoints. Converting a Split by adding semitrailing arms is simple and a
good thing to do, as Bays handle very well  (not that Splits with swaybars
don't!).  I'd bet you could also swap fueltanks between them.

Steering is the same layout, with a draglink connecting the box to the
radius rods.The box itself is probably updated, but probably no great
improvement on the Split's worm & peg unit (a rack conversion is the way to
go with both vans).

VW has just done the same thing with the so-called "all new Golf 6", which
is a Golf 5 with only the outer panels changed except for the roof, which is
carried-over.

* You can cut off the cabs of a Bay and  a Split and weld them to each
others' bodies; the panels will line-up perfectly except for the roofs,
which were changed to suit the Bay cab's squared-off plan.

--
Regards
Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin
New Zealand
Fossil preparator
Mollusc, Toyota & VW van fan