Mollie has picked up another trophy at Dubs in’t Dales at the weekend taking away the “Best Aircooled” trophy. It was a big surprise as it’s a wide category and there were lots of entrants that would appeal to many different people. Its a real pleasure to win this prize as it was voted for by the public, so a big seal of approval.
Well done Mollie
Mollie has gathered a lovely trophy collection .. 3 shows, 3 wins 
Mollie has just returned from the first Field of Dreams VW show that was held at York racecourse. Sunday was Show and Shine day so we put her in to see how she would do. There were a few categories that could be entered but she was up against the other splitscreens really. There were as usual some lovely buses, each with their own unique sparkle, so it was “game on”.
Here is Mollie in the Show and Shine
Here’s Mollie next to Bob
And OMG! here’s Mollie after winning Best in Show at Field of Dreams… we thought she may get something but BEST IN SHOW .. we were shocked to win
and here’s the lovely trophy made by the sponsors All Things Timber that will take pride of place. We’ll have to get Mollie a trophy cabinet I think.
Massive thanks again to Jez and Louise at Dubtricks for creating a superb show winning bus
It was all worth it .. we now have a show winning bus! This month Mollie entered the Show & Shine at VW Festival 2013 and was in the Top 10 Aircooled which is just brilliant. Big thanks to Jez, Louise and the team at Dubtricks for the fantastic restoration on Mollie.
Here are a few pictures from VW Festival and Mollie in the Show & Shine.
This was Mollie camping alongside Bob, all shiny. She spent most of Saturday undercover though so that we didn’t have to polish her again after the rain.
Here are some close up shots of Mollie’s new engine all fitted. Looks stunning.
The new gearbox has now been fitted, the new engine has been put back in and Mollie is finally out from the workshop and has had a test drive … quoted as being “very quick now”. There is just a bit of work left, to make the handbrake better for the MOT, but she is looking absolutely stunning.
So the Rancho Freeway Flyer gearbox arrived yesterday and it’s getting ready to be fitted. It’s always good to get photos of parts that will never be seen again, especially when they cost as much as this gearbox did, so enjoy! This should be the last piece of the jigsaw in Mollie’s restoration. Next stop the MOT.
We’ve just had some more photos sent from Dubtricks, this time showing Mollie’s hunting lamp all installed. Dave bought this hunting lamp ages ago, I can’t remember if it was originally going to go on Bob, but it looks great on Mollie.
We have also decided that Mollie needed a new gearbox as the old one just wasn’t good enough for her new engine, and was having some issues. We may as well replace absolutely everything on her if we are doing a proper full restoration of the 23 Window Samba! So the custom built engine is back out, and we’re waiting for the arrival of the Rancho Freeway Flyer gearbox in the next few days.
Mollie’s dashboard is all complete with lots of shiny bits! Absolutely loving the new steering wheel and horn press, along with the new set of gauges for oil temp and oil pressure etc, the switches, the retro stereo and clock, and looking forward to trying out the gear shifter.
The interior of Mollie has been given the full works too. The rear seats have all been reupholstered in a vintage cream with matching green piping, and we have also added new seatbelts in a tan colour to match in with the seats.
The last phase of the restoration of Mollie is for a brand new custom made aircooled 1776 engine to be built, along with some lovely new shiny BRM alloys to finish her off. Dave popped over to Dubtricks tonight to drop of her new seatbelts, (all 8 of them!) and took a few snaps.
