FuscaNet
The entire plan for the day was to drive to Montevideo and find some veedub parts. We need ball joints, a tie rod, brake hoses, and a host of other things that don’t seem to be available in Argentina.
The drive from Colonia to Montevideo is pretty much a straight shot with not much between, but I did manage to spot a Karmann Ghia inside a garage on the way. After 17 countries, that would be #1.
The one and only destination for Montevideo was FuscaNet. I went in and went through my list. I ended up with only the tie rod and a few gaskets. And, some stickers. And some new friends. And, a tee shirt.
It turns out that this place is run by some really cool guys who started importing aftermarket parts from the US into Uruguay to support their hobby a few years back. Now, it’s a booming business (the place was hopping) and they even export VW parts to Brazil! After all the places we’ve been scrounging for parts for our bus, I can honestly say that this is the first aircooled-only VW shop we’ve seen in over a year. Still, it looks like we might be hosed due to the minor differences between the Brazilian and German buses. Forget that you can buy Brazilian-made VW parts almost anywhere in the US. Locally, it’s just Brazilian parts for Brazilian buses. Or Argentinean parts for Argentinean buses. Some of it’s the same – some of it isn’t.
Anyway, they sent me to a local mechanic who had two used German ball joints – we won’t use them, but it’s a start. Super nice guy. We’re going to come back and work something out in a few days – he’s confident we can get the right parts. In the meantime, I seriously need to work on my Spanish.
After doing everything we could, we decided to hit La Rambla and go find a campsite. Another hour along the coast and we happened on a nice spot near Solis. Freebie!
If someone were to tell me that you could camp on the beach and watch the sunset over the ocean in Uruguay, I would have guessed they were holding the map upside down. Well, we found one of those spots.
Jason,
I did the ball joints on my 71 a few weeks ago. What a job. We ended up having to cut them out using an oxy-acedeline torch & an air chisel. I found that after new, tight ball joints the slop in my steering box became excentuated I hope that you don’t find this in Red Beard. Good luck with your project.
it is a job, smoke wrench and air chisel for removing. take boots off and frezze the new joints , need a ball jt installer tool or hard way is a press. also check your arms there were 2 sizes of ball jts, do you have a bentley? it is shown in there how to tell. tthey also have to be pressed in in the correct direction. Some places are selling them already pressed in the arms
Boy, what a beautful sunset – great shot! It’s a well-deserved treat at the end of the day…