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Ive been offered a really good condition VW412 estate for a good price, it needs a bit of work to get back on the road but not much. I’ve had a few Vw vans in the past but this is new territory for me , so any advice of what to look for or horror stories from the air cooled crowd.
thanks
The last of the air-cooled beauties! I had a Type 3 Variant (squareback) years ago that became uneconomical to keep, due to the lack of available body parts which rusted in front of your eyes! I would imagine bits for either of the Type 4s, 411 & 412 would be few and far between nowadays as they're such rare cars, but have a try here for advice: http://www.vwtype3and4club.org.uk/forum/
My old man had one of those in 1973 - 412LE Variant - Blue - reg PPF 249 L. Is it the same one by sheer coincidence?
Took us, as a family overland on 2 trips to Italy (Pompeii, Naples, Amalfi Coast on the 1st trip). Bit of an adventure driving all that way in 1973.
From what I remember, it was smoother than the Type 3 1500 Variant that it replaced.
Early Bosch electronic fuel injection (K-jetronic I think). The fuel pump played up a few times. Located in the front boot area. Didn't pressurise the system properly.
Apart from that, everything else reliable.
Pretty rare now.
Photos!!
My first car was a type 3 square back. Cool car terrible brakes and always breaking down, but that’s what you expect with old VWs pics please
yeah photos.
they where slightly ahead of the times. love the headlights on them Google brian burrows take on how a type 4 should be done.
I begin to weep when I think about the air-cooled opportunities I passed up years ago. Like the fresh Aussie import 67 split screen, completely and utterly rust free for £4k..
FML
I love squarebacks and notchbacks. If you have the time/space/money then just do it. So much soul in those old hunks of metal.
I used to break 411s just for the engines and brakes to transplant into Type 3s. A very capable and tuneable engine. Type 3s used to eat engines, they had the ultimate version of what started out as the beetle engine and was probably developed a couple of generations too far, the Type 4 was very much stronger.
And yeah, photos.
i dont know about 412s but I guess the heater channels and heat exchangers were prone to rusting and a lot of work to get the heater working safely