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Jerry and I come to an end of our Brazil trip… over 35 company visits, guess its time to come home now…:)

Last two days we visit another couple of factories… some didn’t allow to make me pictures (and share with you) others do follow BBT Blog and understand its power!

Here is the report of the last “leg” of our trip…

First we stopped at ZF, the mother company that holds brands as Sachs, TRW and Varga. We visited their distribution plant this time.

Jessica and Mariana are our daily contacts here!!

The warehouse of this distribution centre is huge…

They have a similar logistic system as BBT, reach truck put it in the shelves…

Man up order pickers get the orders together.. here the order pickers go full height up to 15 metres!

This is the “small zone” with all kind of transmission parts, this are always ready for “rush orders”

and so after picking all comes to packing zone… very professional, wowh!

Thanks for the tour Mariana and Jessica! we enjoyed fully!

Next stop was a small but high quality manufacturer of tail light lenses and small plastic components. “Small”… hmmm at first sight, but in this building there’s no less than 10 injection machines!!

and no small ones neither!

and a lot of lovely girls that finish the products!! Even they’re kind a “shy”…:)

Reflector part for the big foot tail light…

Fried egg front indicator lens, we work on get the chrome in!

Work samples ready to go back with us to Belgium…

And everywhere You go in Brazil, coffee is ready… hospitality here is enormous!

The owner of this company has a Fusca of his own (guess how we knew him???) ….:)

So a BBT sticker ceremony was obligated!!

Last (featured) stop of this trip was the factory where they make WOLFF bumpers…

This is a BIG operation!

Let’s start with the raw material first… This is what will become bumpers…:)

Machines are old, but nevertheless very impressive!

Bumpers and machines everywhere!

But also the warehouse is extremely impressive…

Same factory has also a production for plastic bumpers…  no less as 4 impressive injection machines ranging from 1 to 2 TON’S!!!

Today we have some meetings in our hotel.. and we will visit a large private collection on our way to the airport, tonight we fly home… Home sweet home!!

Welcome to our weekly Friday product update… our product development team has been quite busy last week…

We finally have the lenses for the license plate light for your favourite Ghia (coupe and convertible) made available through or regular part number system. We sold them already in the shop, but never took them in the program.

These are perfect quality and completely as original!

Sold each!

0689-500 License plate light lens -Karmann Ghia

We have now the complete seal kit for your Westfalia roof available straight from our shelves. Covers all years bay window and T25/T3 vanagon models.

One kit contains all rubber seals, which you will need so that the pop top roof will close nicely again without damaging the paint on the roof. Also the middle rubber will prevent your roof from leaking, especially while driving!

Sold as a kit!

6585-500 Roof seal Westfalia – Bus 08/67-07/92

If you have an early car, with a 25 or 30 DIN Hp engine (that’s 36SAE for our US friends) we have now the correct mounting kit for your exhaust!

1000-01 comes for all single tip muffler while 1000-015 is the correct solution for your dual tip muffler… we found it necessary to break up our part numbers to supply the correct kit for everybody!

1000-015 Exhaust assembly kit 25-30HP / double exhaust tip

1000-01 Exhaust assembly kit 25-30HP / Single tip

Because we could not find a decent supplier, we’ve decided to produce this gasket ourselves…

1849-400 Gasket under oil filler

Improved quality on this top hat section for your pick up truck, (single and double cab) completely pressed as VW used to do, no hand work here!! Best quality on the market (by far) and comes at a very competitive price!!

We will provide a new exploded view soonest, as many more sheet metal parts  are in the pipe line for our beloved VW buses!

0890-58-5 Top hat section under ribbed floor Pick up – Bus 03/55-07/79

T2 68-73 full width rear bench basketwave off-white

TMI43-2122-05                 € 102.00 excl.

Seat upholstery grey rear bench T2b 74-79

TMI43-2124-06                 € 102.00 excl.

The BBT FPU team wishes you all a very relaxed weekend!

Our Brazil trip go full force… we’re still here till end of the week and the schedules are just overfull!

Yesterday we paid a visit to the machining plant of Hübner (Auto Linea) to see how our engine cases and cylinder head been machined after the casting yesterday.

Hubner is a massive factory (I’ve been here several times before) that works real hard on larger diesel applications… The owner, by everybody known as Mr Nelson, is a Fusca lover hence he provides so many of us with high quality products to keep our Volkswagens alive…

The factory is al split up in departments what they call “families” here, well here is the VW engine and cylinder head “family”

The machining of the two cases has to be equal (both sides the same) so only can be done simultaneously…

Jerry was pretty impressed here!

After machining the cases been assembled with the necessary studs and center pens by these lovely ladies! Believe me or not they’re crazy about Fusca!

Full pallets of engine cases everywhere,

We also came here to discuss the new Magnesium case they have in the pipeline. till now all of their cases been made from aluminum.

The improvements from the original case are many… where under more material behind the pulley…

and a reinforced area behind the flywheel, where the original cases tend to crack.

as said Hübner makes a lot of heavy-duty diesel engine blocks and heads so the machines here are out of proportion… a (little) tour for your service!

Here a couple of Sunnen honing machines…

Just a drill? These run all together to drill a cylinder head at once! imagine!!

This is an alignbore machine…

Many machines need many tooling right? CNC tooling are not cheap at all, this is the capital of the company! A team of 5 people take care for only these tools!

a new CNC machine was installed, for a production for Scania of a certain motorblock for the assembly line!  is this big enough to be impressive, I used Jerry as a refence…LOL…:)

at the end there is the shipping department off course!

Mandatory lunch… and yes we still love the Churascheria (Brazilian BBQ) Thanks for the invitation Alison! I think the only vegetarians in Brazil are the cow really…:)

Alison drove us to the factory of our 6 volt voltage regulators… they gave us a very warm welcome!

Some even have  BBT sticker on their computer here, are we friends? You bet!

These are the internals of modern voltage regulators, a whole package of technology!

Production is almost clinical here, no dust allowed!! Some areas are even restricted for visitors…

Test, test, test!!! The number of test equipment here is enormous, every little step needs his own control!

In product research and development department we got simulations for our next production run of 6 volt voltage regulators, as we’re about to run out of our first production. We discussed the improvements and gave it a GO!

This is research engineering (for modern cars) unbelievable what these guys put on just a mini mini circuit board!

But also the production work is here… this is the printer of the circuit boards!! Very extremely high specialised!!

and more testing!

This is the assembly of the circuit boards, they get so small now it’s hardly impossible for humans to put them together, this machine is crazy amazing, it goes so fast! The rolls in the front are the little components….

and more testing… end control is all control as they say…

That was another day… we fly back to Sao Paolo now, for a drive to several larger factories tomorrow..

Our uncle Sammy with a big smile in an old 1951 Plymouth… Sammy is not a real Uncle, but for BBT he is… we go back a long way and Uncle takes really good care for us!!

Hey Uncle, can we drive along to our next adventures?

Tomorrow I leave the Blog for the BBT Friday product update team but will try to make another report for You on saturday and sunday!

stay tuned!!