Let’s start with the sad news first…. the Unions at VW do Brazil seemed not to be strong enough to keep up production, the government has won, the last Kombi rolled from the assembly lines on Dec 19 2013, it’s done, it’s over, the numbers known, forever…

VW do Brazil, a view on the last days of the assembly line…

And off course…. the very very last Kombi, ever made… Bye Bye Kombi or better in Portuguese….

Kombi Fui…
We will miss the new Kombi forever!

So here we are, on the other side of the world, in Asia… What happened since our last travel update, that last wonderful lunch offered by our friend Lee in Taichung, Taiwan (very beautiful city btw!)

Monday morning pretty early @ Starbucks in Taipei international airport we ordered 2 caffe Latté…

An hour later we where on board of a Boeing 737 from Garuda airlines on our way to Jakarta Indonesia, for more VW adventures… Garuda is a very very good airline, believe me, wowh, what a flight….

My friend and big time VW collector and VW lover Wawan had some “shit” in his office (his own words!) So wasn’t able to pick us up but he send one of his employees Kenni, and Sudi the helper and a driver! Three persons only to pick us up, wowh, thanks! And welcome welcome to Indonesia, this must be paradise, right?

The dinner with Wawan was cool, off course we ate Indonesian cuisine, but only in Indonesia, as we ate Mexican food in Mexico and Japanese… everywhere…

1 metre of Satées…

Left to right…. the president of the VW club from Indonesia, our own “Alain”, yours truly, my big friend Wawan, and the president of the split window club from Indonesia, the last one came especially for this dinner by train out of Bandung, and that’s our next destination…

I hear you all ask, why is Bob celebrating Xmas in Indonesia, well let’s reveal a little secret, I’m invited to Indonesian largest VW festival, Yogja VW festival, do we look forward to the weekend? You bet….

As for now, DEC 24 on the evening before we celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ I wish all of you a very very Merry Christmas, may we all pray for peace, and think about people in the areas where the war rules still today, let us pray and wish the War lords and radical people from this world will understand anytime soon violence will NEVER EVER bring any solution.

A little love, peace and understanding from me to all of you, out of Jakarta, Indonesia on Christmas eve, next to the Xmas tree in our hotel.

A very Merry Christmass!

Stay tuned for all of our Indonesian VW adventures!

Normally we don’t post twice a day, but this is an exception, because the last day in Taiwan is over and we want you to inform as close as possible….

This morning after breakfast we went to the Taipei central station for a High Speed train ride to Taichung, a city in central Taiwan, home of Vintage Speed, our partner for Stainless exhaust, roofracks and shifter systems…

Can you read the train tables?

No space shuttle, but the Taiwan High Speed train. Taiwan has developed a lot the last 20 years! Train operated flawlessly, everything works here so smooth and cheap! 40 euro for two tickets, with reserved seats….

Oh yes we will…

Old sign for a Vintage company, we arrived!

Beetles everywhere, Lee started as a restoration company…

Now many of the cars are used as R & D

Wowh! early vert behind the fence!

Final stage of the prototype for a Type 3 exhaust, finally an alternative….

Hey I know this car! Lee’s brother bought it from us about 12 years ago!

Whoeps, another room full of cars…

Production area, almost all is made “in house”, very clean and well organised production operation…

Welding robot, now you know why the welding on the Vintage speed exhaust is so nice! Also they weld with a special mixed gas, because they want the welds not to turn black as a normal MIG weld would do with Stainless Steel… and believe it or not the spit rotation system is based on a Belgian BBQ Lee ever attended!

356 Abarth replica… nice, but only on special order…

The meeting with Vintage Speed was very good, we’re even more proud now we stay the only official distributor for Vintage Speed in Europe, nobody can beat our price! You want a quality exhaust with nice welding in stainless, or a good shifter, a nice roofrack from the Vintage Speed line? Don’t delay call your BBT distributor today!

Oh yes…. when you need a Taxi whenever in Taichung area…

The way back to Taipei we had a train from Cartoon Network, my son would have loved a ride in it!

That was the Taiwan travel report, tomorrow morning early we have a transfer flight to our next destination, so no travel Blog, but two other very interesting posts… Hopefully Tuesday you get to know where we ‘ve landed, a new VW adventure for sure! So stay tuned!

Saturday morning we met with our very first Taiwan contact ever … Mike. As it was 15 years ago since we did come to check out the factories we cooperate with it was about time for another round of Taipei…

Taipei changed a lot, as did the whole Taiwan, the last 15 years, very livable now, wowh! good quality of life!

On the way to our bumper plant we passed the airport, and guess what? Ron Fleming and Greg Aaronson the creators of the “Cal Look” and owners of “FAT performance” in California must be here too, with there own airplane! These guys doing good I suppose….

Or those unfamiliar, that was joke off course, but I wouldn’t mind seeing a BBT airplane one day…

We thought the local Tyre shop was cool too! All these crazy Chinese signs…

Welcome to the bumper chroming plant, yes they have some “rotating stocks”.

The polishing shop… these guys makes 20 to 30% more salary as average, but it’s a heavy job too! To all youngsters, maybe better to study well and find a nice job. The guys working here never had the change to study mainly, well then this is your destiny! Thanks God there is still people that wants to do it!

Stainless bumpers need to be polished as well before electrolysed, the process is about the same as chroming, the BBT bumpers besides a perfect pressing make here the big difference, our bumpers are electrolysed  to the very best norms… Yellow chrome, dull chrome, cheap chrome or all other stupid terms chrome we love to leave to our competition. BBT Stainless bumpers been made by and for BBT  to OUR standards and that’s final!

Quality inspection nr 1, after polishing… Here the guy most to the left finds flaws on EVERY bumper, his eyes are better as an eagle, unbelievable…

The chief of the chroming plant show how little flaws been corrected on a big machine..

After polishing, ready for some second quality control, before some electronic treatment…

Unfortunately the electrolysis process was a “no camera” zone, so we couldn’t picture, but I was blown of my socks what they did invest in the last 15 years, its a complete computer controlled process now, no workers anymore, only to hang up and take off, but bath after bath all goes automatically, our bumpers have a cycle of about 2,5 hours…; There was none of our bumpers being done at this stage so no pictures from end control, paint and packing neither…

After the visit we went for lunch, but first the picture with the lucky cat, known for bringing fortune and luck… typical Asian, we love it!

After lunch we went to the pressing plant, yes more bumpers….

A 1000 ton press, to press bumpers, only bumpers, many for US market… but this press do press the final stage from our stainless bumpers as well, the first stage is rolled…

After seventeen years and over 5000 pair of stainless bumpers our tooling getting used, but we’ve been assured they’re not tired yet… so maybe we will let re-check them one of the years, and “clean them up”… If somebody claims they press bumpers ask pictures of tooling, we have our own tooling, and are pretty proud to them, seventeen years already!

A demonstration of a bumper beeing 3D plasma cut, this was impressive, and was fast too!

HOT….???… no it was cold! we weren’t lucky with the weather…

Evening dinner with Japanese food specialist Jason (owner of our trading partner in Taipei) and our trusty Mike… If you like Sashimi, man this was heaven believe me! Good food keep us going… up to the next!