5 maart 2016 - Stock parts
Day n°2 in Brasil … We set our trip further… today a hardware manufacturer, a stamping plant (where we were not allowed to take pictures sorry for that) and the Wolff bumper factory.
First the hardware factory… in Brazil most of the factories still work conventional as labor cost still allow… all the parts on our beetles been made conventional back in the day… PLC and CNC only came after VW seized Beetle production…
This company is no exception..here we see the forging of the rear axle nuts, nut just made on a lathe, or a mill, but really forged like it should, with this type of manufacturing BBT parts makes the difference!
This is the forging machine for axle nuts, pretty impressive uh?
The forging department… they produce valve adjusting screws, pins for fuel pump etc etc all that need to be forged, hardened or tempered… exactly the same way like VW used to make back in the day… even hardware is important for us!
The “Fusca” from the boss of the plant , believe me or not…
All kind of lathes to make all kind of hardware, nice view uh?
Rolling the tread on a valve adjusting screw… a little experience to operate the machine was really necessary, man that went fast!
Up to the next… did i tell you traffic in Sao Paolo is a mess?
Welcome to BBT Brazil nerve center… BBT Ricardo in “our” office…:) BBT run two offices in Brazil…
and it rained again “cats and dogs”… swimming pool, palm trees, bikinis and cocktails? i don’t think so…:)
This is Wolff, a plant where they make bumpers, a lot of bumpers if you can see well the size of the building…
This steel becomes bumpers anytime soon!
now it get into dimension…
One of the deep throat pressings, pressing bumpers is kind a special procedure… deep throat pressing is a passion here, like VW’s are passion for us…
The final “rolling” after pressing to take the stress out of the metal..
tooling for VW bumpers..
a mixture of product, half product, tooling materials machines… wowh! almost art to me!
another way of working is the vacuum procedure, here been plastic bumpers made in low volumes… plastic bumpers, that’s NOT for us…:)
Alain in the warehouse where thousands and thousands of bumpers been stocked… Wollf sells no less like 4000 beetle bumpers and 1500 bus bumpers a MONTH! Quiet a very impressive operation…
Bird view of metal bumper production..
And these are two injection machines, the green one push 2000tons! The white one in the back 1200 tons, jawadde! Every one of this machines “spit” out a bumper every 2,5 minutes! Plastic bumpers for modern cars only…:)
after a days work man deserves a good meal… welcome to Brazil, the country of MEAT!
stay tuned for more… we have a lot of visits to take care for!
4 maart 2016 - NEW
This week we have some really cool new items for you, Karmann Ghia lovers… and we have some universal parts that returned into our stocks after being not available for too long…
New in the BBT program
The reinforcement rail is in your sill, between sill and heater channel, and makes the car more rigid, so this was initially designed for the Karmann Ghia type 14 convertible, any convertible needs this, otherwise doors will not close nicely very soon after a restoration. But because we always wanted to improved our cars we started to use these rails also in our coupes, withe a nicer car and a longer life as a result… so you have to use on your convertibles, and You can use in your coupes… that said…:)
0889-300 Sill reinforcement KG Type14 left
0889-301 Sill reinforcement KG Type14 right
Back In Stock !!
0573-01 Universal seat belt – grey, each e-marked
0573-02 Universal seat belt – blue, each e-marked
0573-04 Universal seat belt – beige, each e-marked
3 maart 2016 - Service
We do produce and buy a lot of spare parts for our beloved Volkswagens in Brazil. there is tons of factories and manufacturers and some do have real good quality, to find them and improve products and deliveries we have to travel over times to times and see how we can make the Aircooled Volkswagen aftermarket a better place on our planet…:)
Welcome in Sao Paolo, this is a real city, very large, (actually Third largest city in the world ranking) loads of traffic and very tall and modern buildings… this is the economical heart of South America…
Brazil country where kombis still work very hard… Kombis are everywhere and part of daily life… one have to work harder than the other…
ok make that car ours…:)
First a sheet metal factory… can you see the floorpans?
rows and rows, stacks and stacks…:;)
Punching machines can make EVERYTHING!! I need a couple of those I guess, if only labor was not that expensive where we live!
Discussing split window bus cargo doors, will we succeed this trip to let them change the tooling so the Kombi door will fit european models? Can we bring finally a solution home?
more floorplates await paint booth…
Overview from the back, cool building, very old school…
600 tons press does the job!
More punching machines, my favorites!
Time for lunch!
Inside we choose for traditional Brazilian food, sold by the weight…:)
Everywhere the old Volkswagens are in Street view, here is the Brazilian made Brasilia on a billboard…
After lunch another factory… one of our larger suppliers in Brazil… bumper brackets, washers a load of parts… here we came especially to discuss back orders and poor deliveries, after 3 hours of meetings in different departments I think we did find a solution that suit all parties… thanks to our Brazilian BBT Ricardo and Uncle Samy off course! Hopefully supplies sart up soon again!
Production is very impressive! Here they make the bearings for the steering column!
Our friend in the manufacturing, so neat guy! say Hi to all BBT friends all over the world! We visit and talk to everybody, if we like to improve? We have to start with production!
This is how You make pulley’s… on a punching machine…:)
Another dept. where small parts been finished… this are production lathes… crazy how many of operations they can do at once… some machines been set up up to 20! operations in one spin! Imagine this is not CNC, no these machines still make parts like it should! Oh my God I love this plant!
And back to the hotel, first day was more than exhausting! Oh for You guys who were thing Alain and me entertained the girls near the swimming pool of the hotel, this was the kind of weather we had whole day… and forecast don’t show a lot of progress actually… this is work, hard work, but something we love to do, try to make the VW aftermarket world a better place!
stay tuned for more!