Last friday we’ve started with a meeting @ the ZF export center… a meeting about delivery, infill, quantity and turnover… a 2 hr meeting about a lot of BBT money:)

From left to right, Jerry, yours truly, our super contact Mariana, Alfredo, Belle, and Jessica.

Thanks for your service guys!

We continued our trip by Schadek… manufacturer of oil and water pumps, about 12 million units a year! Yes that’s massive…

We got a real nice lunch in the factory restaurant, Thanks Monique for guiding us…

and on the road to the next one…

We spotted this cool “taxi” down the road….:) Clearly a collectors car…:)

Next was a Fabio’s factory that make late-model tail lights… and we came right in time, as the tooling was broken… they needed help….

You need really this big of a machine to make the Beetle tail lights, yep… but bcause of the  broken tooling its temporally out of service…

Shall we co invest in new tooling? The future will bring the answer. But we talked for sure!

This is how they assemble the tail lights… continuously production!

Eagle view of Fabio’s factory! This guy is real good!

Its scale models don’t worry…:)

Next and last for the day was a real Brazilian Kombi only restoration business.

Leo and Marco drive a hell of a business here, and work real hard!

Not exactly what You would think from Brazilian restorations, right?

He guys keep up the great job, you’re on the right path!

Always nice to see a picture board with only Belgian flyers in a workshop in Brazil!

Tomorrow we will report about our arrival in Curitiba, that was just MASSIVE!

Stay tuned!

Bob & Jerry

So if you think on Brazil as your typical third world country you’re wrong… Sao Paolo is a very vibrant industrial capital with nice buildings and well maintained freeway sides… the skyline is impossible to capture as it’s extremely spread out, and the nice area’s are growing, the favelas shrink….

Outside You see kombi’s… everywhere, feels so cozy, so real…:)

Fruits are very fresh here as never been deep frozen, so different, if we don’t eat fruit at home or about, here… everyday, plenty!  Especially when we can buy them out of a Kombi!

Habitants of Sao Paolo been called “Paulistas” and they’re extremely inventive when they buy a car that’s larger as their garage…:)

ok we never say no to a good churasceria, or Brazilian BBQ! The Brazilian meat is fabulous!  Let the picanha come!

Yes! Networking in Brazil means having beers on the street!! Thanks Ricardo you’ve been a good host!

Yes we ‘re having a good time, and yes in between our too many visits we enjoy this beautiful country with its beautiful people… its different for sure, but its different everywhere isn’t it?

Today we fly south, to  city called Curitiba, for more factories and suppliers! Stay tuned!

More factories, more parts, more machines and….more friendly people, we’re in Brazil after all!

Rubber mixing, the preparation of the rubber for the extrusion machines…. hard work!

This is the inside of a rubber extrusion machine and mould…:)

Extrusion machines are not exactly small! Pretty impressive right?

Hard working factory employees finishing our products as it should… Multo obrigado guys, Thank You very much!

More extruders, this place had plenty!

And yes, we like to check on inventory, in a country as Brazil it tells a lot about the financial situation of the company…:)

Up to the next, smaller, supplier. But here the aim on quality and service is extremely high! We just love these guys!

As You can see they’re extremely well organised….

Happy workers, means many times good quality jobs!

Let’s learn about oil pumps, and find out to start-up production for 25/36 Hp correct oil pumps….

This IS Mr Oilpump himself! Assembling oil pumps for over 35 years, any questions? Plse ask!

Cup grinding of oilpump covers, for a perfect finnish!

Hardworking people, finishing oil pumps….

This is an aluminum extrusion machine…. you really should feel the heat! Astronomical!

This tooling extrudes around 7000 oil pump housings a year for aircooled Volkswagens. There’s two tooling for the base… together they “pump” around 12.000 units yearly… all to keep our aircooled friends on the roads!

This machine grinds the gears for the oil pumps, very specific job!

In another (small) factory we discussed a production of early vent wings, but quality was not there yet, let’s see what the future brings… there was other interesting projects going on here too, more later…:)

Next stop was a factory that is specialised in small parts casting, alu and zinc extrusion and fuel pumps….

We will try to bring back all model fuel pumps in their original looks, not just as a replacement spare part, but as a full value restoration part. Details are important for our cars, especially in the engine bay!

You like soup? Hot aluminum around 700°C!

He guys don’t look so serious, its only VW parts!

Time to drive back to the hotel, back to the city…

Lots of driving, we spends many hours in the car… And too many visits, but we learn a lot and meet many of our suppliers, can discuss many many products, quality, delivery times etc… is it worth it? You bet, somethings You can only do in a personal contact, it simply don’t work by phone or email….

First week is over, another week to go! So stay tuned!