Club 80-90 Forums

Hello Guys,

I'm Khoo from Malaysia(between Thailand and Singapore). Here's some pictures of my Caravelle C Syncro which I got in November 2011 . I'm been driving Aircooled VWs for 20years so this is my first venture into watercooled VW. There's only 6 or 7 Syncros in Malaysia so I bought the 1st one that came up for sale for around 4500pounds. Wish it was a walktrough and had diff lockers but none avalable here . It's the only LHD Syncro here, brought in by the Zimbabwe embassy. The other 5 Syncros(2 Doka's) here were used by the forestry department and all RHD with no lockers.

I'll post more pictures soon.

The Syncro the morning I drove her home (over 500km from Northern state of Kelantan)


Mcodes

Interesting story Khoo

jed

Looks like a set of 15" duchatelets.
There were some centre caps on ebay a couple of months back, the centre caps are very difficult to find.
Rob.

Yup LHD, those are 15" Ronal Duchatelets. I may just get some covers made as they are just flat pieces. Anyone know the weight rating for them? Safe to go off road wz them? They do seem quite solid. Nothing much about them in the Merc forums as I guess weight is not much an issue wz them

Jed, I've seen many of your videos and learn a lot from them, Thanks!

khoo10cents wrote:
Jed, I've seen many of your videos and learn a lot from them, Thanks!

Just sharing the love

jed

hi Khoo, welcome, thanks for the pics, nice looking bus and nice colour and rare gear ratio : can always supply locking diffs and case if you want to rebuild yours to lockers, that would be the cheapest way to get just the parts you need to swap sent out, bit chunky for hand luggage

Nice looking Syncro you have there my friend, and nice colour too. I too have a caravelle C Syncro, although mine had the rear diff lock.

Looking forward to your progress on it.

Whats your plans?

Aidan, wish I could just pop in your shop over the weekend to put rear lockers...if I buy the locker parts, would you need any special experience or tools to fix them. Trouble with Syncros here is none of the mechanics have done any work or even seen them... Closest I get are watercooled Mk1/2/3 Golf mechanics. I really need to get a Bentley book so I can be sure whatever they take out, they can put back correctly.

I'm also getting German Decouplers (I've read the BIG decoupler debates!) Malaysia is HOT all year round so I'm sure the VC will be cooking if I don't disengage on long highway trips. A friend of mine, Tigerbus Martin from Germany is driving on a BIG asian overland trip in his Syncro and will bring the decouper, He will be there to help supervise the installation so not so worried... Let me know further details regarding the rear locker, I've relatives in England who can help bring the parts back. Thanks!

Mickyfin, read about Flintstone and the trip to Ikea:ok. Both our Syncros are nearly the same colour...yours a bit more desirable with the walktrough and the lockers but I'm just as happy being able to own this rare bus...I'm starting to love it more than my 23 win Samba!

I agree, they are very desirable, and our Flintstone is part of our family now.

Whatever you do with yours, Im sure you will continue to love it. Making it a walk through is not too difficult. Have a search around as a few people have removed the inner bulk head in theirs.

Hi Khoo and welcome nice looking bus Hope it serves you well be warned they are very addictive!!

khoo10cents wrote:
I'm also getting German Decouplers (I've read the BIG decoupler debates!) Malaysia is HOT all year round so I'm sure the VC will be cooking if I don't disengage on long highway trips. A friend of mine, Tigerbus Martin from Germany is driving on a BIG asian overland trip in his Syncro and will bring the decouper, He will be there to help supervise the installation so not so worried... Let me know further details regarding the rear locker, I've relatives in England who can help bring the parts back. Thanks!

i think that you will need more parts than just the deocupler kit, as you van is a non locker i cant imagen that it would have any of the vacuum associated parts fitted to it. ie control panel, non return valve, 3ball thing,pipe work etc. i am sure that all these things can be sourced just something tho bear in mind.

welcome to the forum nice looking van with some interesting history.

neil

Here's some pics of the interior

Here's underneath, prop shaft was taken out as there was a knocking noise under load.

Great looking bus , very straight and clean. Welcome to the forum. As I am finding out for myself as a newbie, you are in very good hands. I would love to hear more about trips in your Syncro in Malaysia, when's your friend heading out there? Cheers Jes