Club 80-90 Forums

KarlT wrote:So yours sat at the factory for well over a year before being sold/shipped. I wonder what the lead times are these days on the T5 with all this 'last-minute/just in time' supply chains.
Love the idea that a lock on the glove-box was seen as a 'extra'!

I looked at the date thing with surprise too but, could it be that the trimmed semi finished body was built and then shipped to Graz to be Syncro'd and then came back to Hannover which would account for at least some of the time between birth and shipping to the dealer?

cheers for that Andrew, now I know what M218 means, it's been nagging me for a while cos it's on a lot of vans - all it means is that the VIN plate on the A pillar doesn't have the type number on it

.... and its an extra!!!!

I now have an official birth date for Dave's and my Syncros. Both vans were built on Thursday 20/08/1992 in Graz, Austria. As yet I dont know if its the last RHD one but they are still checking for me but they have confirmed that they were in the last official batch to be made.

syncropaddy wrote:I now have an official birth date for Dave's and my Syncros. Both vans were built on Thursday 20/08/1992 in Graz, Austria. As yet I dont know if its the last RHD one but they are still checking for me but they have confirmed that they were in the last official batch to be made.

Don't really know whether to congratulate you or commiserate ...rumour has it that the last few Syncros did not always receive the full production and QC scrutiny that their earlier counterparts would have. On some late German Syncros components were found that were clearly scraped out of the parts bin and rumour has it that some of the van bodies languished for weeks or months unprotected in Steyr's yard before they were finally bolted together ...leading to untypical corossion issues

Found a couple of places with a date on them on my syncro.
26.06.91 on the 16" wheel arch flares.

and 08.91 on the digijet ecu.

This fits in with the 06.10.91 chassis build date.

peasant wrote: Don't really know whether to congratulate you or commiserate ...rumour has it that the last few Syncros did not always receive the full production and QC scrutiny that their earlier counterparts would have. On some late German Syncros components were found that were clearly scraped out of the parts bin and rumour has it that some of the van bodies languished for weeks or months unprotected in Steyr's yard before they were finally bolted together ...leading to untypical corossion issues

Well with 250,000 miles on the clock and little rust on the body but dented on every panel, everything else underneath is untouched and on its 3rd engine I would reckon that it stood the test of time. IF its the last one then its in for a long and total restoration but if not then it'll get a full mechanical upgrade, and a roll cage !!!!

syncropaddy wrote:IF its the last one then its in for a long and total restoration but if not then it'll get a full mechanical upgrade, and a roll cage !!!!

That's the spirit !

Mine's 31/07/1991 then.

This book looks interesting.
http://www.amazon.de/VW-Transporter-Ste ... 3613020246
States that the syncro production line was dismantled on 02/11/1992 and moved to Poland where it still sits. (source Samba.com)

So all we need now is a lottery win within the ranks, track down the Polish shed that's got the kit and go into production!

Yeah, but is that the "syncro" production line or do they actually mean the T25 production line? I would have thought that there isnt much to the syncro production line the die's for the syncro panel parts etc and chassis, subframe jigs etc

Would be nice to find out what actually still exists though... We can live in hope...

I guess that it may still exist, as they started re making new wbx engines in Poland up until 2006 (iirc) but then why would they keep it? and did bits of the production line go out to Uitenhage in south Africa when bits wore out on that line? (but then they changed the body shell enough to make the Hannover line redundant)

Still love these videos (for those that have not seen them)
http://www.youtube.com/user/syncrosimon ... fscHqwN98Q

Why Poland ...... in 1992?

syncrosimon wrote:I guess that it may still exist, as they started re making new wbx engines in Poland up until 2006 (iirc) but then why would they keep it? and did bits of the production line go out to Uitenhage in south Africa when bits wore out on that line? (but then they changed the body shell enough to make the Hannover line redundant)

Still love these videos (for those that have not seen them)
http://www.youtube.com/user/syncrosimon ... fscHqwN98Q

those presses are wonder full you can feel the ground shake every time they make a panel, nice to know that they are still there knocking out t5's.

neil