Mr Keith Bennett

[scotty]

It's that time of year again to wish our wonderful KB a very happy birthday sir.

[Dave the rave]

Ooooh, ‘appy buffday youth….

[Agnes]

Hip hip hooray
It's Keith's birthday today
Hope it's GREAT xx

[Keith Bennett]

When I saw my name on the forum, my immediate thought was "Oh bugger, I must be dead", but dear Mr Parfitt was just being kind enough to mark my birthday (for which, many thanks, Scotty).

Happily I can report that this 78-year-old is still above ground and making noises. Gab, however (ten years younger than me) suddenly felt her age last week and decided she'd better off without a working clutch.

Thanks to Derek's recommendation I rang Mini Spares (01707 607700) and three days later a new UK-manufactured metal-bodied master cylinder and slave have arrived and await fitting

If only the human body and brain could be so easily repaired.

[austina40sam]

A very happy belated birthday Keith! Hope you had a good day? Is Gab okay now too?

[Keith Bennett]

All good, thanks Sam. Mechanic Gary is currently run off his feet coping with customers' cold weather bumps, scrapes and leaking pipes so Gab can wait a bit.

It means the VW bus is earning her keep; if only the interior heating arrangement was (a lot more!) efficient.

I was waiting at the traffic lights, wrapped up to beat the sub-zero temperature INSIDE the bus when a movement caught my eye in the wing mirror. A cyclist was warming his hands on the warm air coming from the engine while I - sixteen feet in front - was busy dying from frostbite!!

[austina40sam]

Hope you have Gab back soo Keith. I did like that story about the cyclist!

[scotty]

I always remember my uncle's beetle as nice and warm with the hot air duct system. Does the extra length in the bus not work as well Keith or do they use a different system?

[Keith Bennett]

The bus heating layout is pretty much the same as in the beetle; ie the engine cooling air passes over the very hot fins before travelling via flexible paper/wire bound tubes through heat exchangers on each side of the engine. The two sides meet up at the rear end of an insulated tube running the length of the bus (which is at least twice as long as the beetle').

At the cab end it's divided again and pipes route the air up to the windscreen demister vents. In addition a spur leads to a floor-level outlet.

The entire system has a number of joints at various places, and leaks abound (helped by a small "pressurizing" fan sitting in the system at the engine end installed, no doubt, in an attempt at shifting the air forwards as quickly as possible before it cools).

Despite careful attention leaks are inevitable but bus owners do their best to maintain warm(ish) air to the demister vents.

So to answer your question, Scotty, the same sized engine in a bus is trying to heat an area around twice as large as a beetle, along with a much bigger glass area and four doors as well. Don't even get me started on the elevating roof!

[Dave the rave]

And the “elevating roof” Keith….