Edubs FAQ. 1. Welcome! 2. Mail addresses, Subscribing, Unsubscribing and Majordomo. 2a) What the hell is TEMP Edubs ? 3. Edubs Website and how to get the latest copy of this FAQ. 4. List content and geography. 5. The T shirt and sticker conundrum 6. Events list and Site locations. 7. Proper ways to behave whilst posting to Edubs. 8. Recommended drinking. 9. Do you have the number for Insurance Company X ? 10. I need some bits for my Beetle/Bus, do you have XXX's number ? 11. How do I get in touch with the type X club ? 12. How do I find out when my car was made etc ? 13. Is my car Road Tax exempt ? 14. You *still* haven't answered my question! 1) Welcome! Welcome to the Edubs FAQ. It has been written in response to many of the same questions doing the rounds time and time again, and to attempt to maintain the pervading spirit of peace and harmony on the list. All hail Stephen Moggan for getting edubs off the ground. This FAQ was originally written by Damon Green (damon@sprynet.co.uk) a recognised loudmouth, and will be posted to the Edubs list on a "whenever it gets remembered" basis. Jo Coffey (aka. Hey Jo!) promised to convert this to HTML, we'll see if she does won't we ? (she didn't, but Jon did, it's here : http://fly.to/edubs ) It will hopefully be posted somewhere on the 'Net, probably at the Edubs Website, Damon's website and the FAQ repository at rtfm.mit.edu 2) Mail addresses, Subscribing, Unsubscribing and Majordomo. Subscribing, Unsubscribing and Majordomo. There are two email addresses you will need, edubs@dmu.ac.uk to mail to the other list members. majordomo@dmu.ac.uk is the address of the server, you can use this to get help and find out who's on the list. To get help, send an email to majordomo@dmu.ac.uk without a subject, in the body of the message write: help edubs To unsubscribe send a message to majordomo@dmu.ac.uk which says unsubscribe edubs You will already have received the intro message below, but might by now have lost it, so for your viewing pleasure here is another copy. [Last updated on: Fri May 1 11:12:04 1998] =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= E-dubs - Internet Volkswagen Club, UK =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Established 20th May 1996 The club is primarily aimed at UK air-cooled and water-cooled Volkswagen owners, although contributions ARE welcome from all parts of the world. To mail to club members, send your E-mails to edubs@dmu.ac.uk Your message is then sent to all the members on the list. As a new member it would be nice if you send a message introducing yourself to the rest of the members. Thanks. The club now has a page located at : http://www.dmu.ac.uk/~smoggan/vdub/edubs/index.htm List Maintainer: Stephen Moggan (edubs-list@moggan.u-net.com) 1st May 1998 =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Here is Stephen's disclaimer: "This is a private mailing list, the opinions expressed by individual members are not necessarily the opinions of the club in general. We are based in the UK, so discussion centres on UK issues and is not always 100% VW based. Once you have joined you are responsible for your own membership. If you no longer want to receive mailings from the club, you must remove yourself from the list. " There is also a Digest version of the list, but I've no idea how it works. Neil C. gives some sketchy advice on how it works: subscribe edubs-digest It could be edubs_digest I'm not 100% sure.... 2a) What the hell is TEMP Edubs ? The general consensus is that the server is pretty good on the whole and we're sticking with it.... however, if you like your air-cooled flow to be seamless, or just hate having no Dub stuff to read at dinnertime, then there is a back-up list which some of us switch to when it's obvious that edubs has gone down. It's not a defection!... and you find everybody switches back to the main list when it comes back up. It is NOT a mirror of the Edubs list, so being subscribed to both lists does NOT mean you'll get all messages in duplicate (unless someone has mailed both lists!).... and if you use mail filters of any sort it's a fairly easy deal to get stuff from the temp list to hit your main edubs box, making threads even easier to follow! There is also a digest version available for those who prefer. To subscribe: either go webside to http://www.onelist.com and find your way to 'tempEDUBS' or alternatively mail Oliver Wilson off-list and he'll subscribe you. 3)Edubs Website and how to get the latest copy of this FAQ. As you've just read, there is a website for edubs at http://www.dmu.ac.uk/~smoggan/vdub/edubs/index.htm be patient as it's on a slow link. Its a bit out of date now, so here are some members websites with pictures of us and our Volkswagens: Dales World : http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Downs/6565/index.html (Contains Edubs 'events' pics) Damons : http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Speedway/5365/ (Theres a few Edubbers pics here too) Paul K : http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Marina/7160/ Steve : http://members.tripod.com/~steve_vwworld/mypage2.htm Neil Rowswell (The lazy one) : http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~mgopher (includes V.W.suspension FAQ) Steve's Browns show car in the making(?) http://www.brown.mcmail.com/vwpics.htm Ploon's Aircooled VW Site (he gets everywhere doesn't he?) http://ploon.nl/ Jo Coffey's GSB's Site. http://www.geocities.com/Paris/LeftBank/7323/greenshieldbug.html Neil Crumpton, who may or may not be the events co-ordinator. http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/Flats/1601 Phill Nuttall has the Edubs Census on his site, who drives what! and all that. http:\\www.comm-tech.demon.co.uk/ Sander Hessels is another of the Dutch contingent http://www.xs4all.nl/~sanderh/index.htm 4)List content and geography. The list is primarily a Volkswagen discussion list, but it does tend to become a free for all as far as subject matter goes at times, please don't flame people for non-Volkswagen messages. The water vs. air debate is held in good humour here, please don't go getting yourself all upset about it. 5. The T shirt and sticker conundrum T Shirts : We have made now 2 attempts at making T shirts, we're hoping it'll be 3rd time lucky.... Here's Jon on the last attempt: "The T-shirts, theoretically with the cool edubs ("empi") logo printed back + the inch-pincher on the front would have been excellent. Unfortunately, things didn't quite work out one way (*cough*) and another. If anyone else has such ideas in the future...good luck!" How about it Tom ? Tom is now frighteningly close to finishing the Tshirts, he may have some spare, why not ask him ? Tom Fawdry Stickers : Genuine EDUBS stickers £2-3.50 (depending on size) from Steve Brown - see http://www.brown.mcmail.com/stickers.htm (From Pim van Loon) "How do you find other listies whilst you are at a VW show ?? it's simple, just stick a special @-sticker on your VW! they look like the oval shaped countrycode sticker, but then with an @ in stead off UK, D or NL Available in: normal print (not pressure washer proof) and in-side-out (sticks to the inside of your window) Cost: $ 1,- US (= inc/P&P anywhere in Europe/UK) send the cash (UK pounds, NL guilders, German marks is also ok) to Pim van Loon Hamerstede 27 4485 AV, Kats Holland ploon@vweuro.nl " 6. Events list and Site locations. (in no particular order I'm afraid :) --Meltdown, Avon Park Raceway, Nr Stratford Upon Avon, Warickshire: 29-31st August --VW Euro September 18-19-20 1998 VW Euro '98 @ Venlo Holland http://www.vweuro.demon.nl/ --VW Action. (Includes GTI Festival) East of England Showground, Peterborough, Nr A1. 12-13 Sept '98 --Slough Swapmeet, Montem Leisure Center, Slough. 8th November '98 Events at Santa Pod : Santa Pod Raceway, Poddington, Bedfordshire: --Bug Jam - 3rd week of July --Big Bang - June Three counties showground, Malvern, Worcestershire: --BVF (British Volkswagen Festival) 1st week of July --Vanfest 2nd week of Sept --VW North West, Tatton Park. 9th August Bingley Hall, County Showground, Stafford, Staffordshire --Bug Freeze 2nd week of February Sandown Park, Esher, Surrey --National Volksworld Show 2nd week of March County Showground, Detling, Nr Maidstone, Kent --VW Spring Festival Last day of March? Stanford Hall, Nr Lutterworth, Leicestershire --Stanford Hall 1st week of May Newquay! --Run To The Sun 4th week of May Minehead, Somerset --Minehead VW Show 3rd week of July Tatton Park, Knutsford, Cheshire --VW Northwest 2nd week of August -- GTI International, TRL Centre, Crowthorne, Berks. (Second weekend in May?) 9th & 10th May '98 -- GTI Treffen, Baarlo Sportpark, Venlo, Holland (First weekend in July?)3-5th July '98 February 14 1998 4th international swapmeet for aircooled VW's, Belgium's largest indoor VW swapmeet Mol http://www.club.innet.be/~year4263/beurs.html Belgium April 17-18 1999 VW Euro Spring Market. Swapmeet + resto demo's "De Schatberg", Sevenum, exit 38 A67 Eindhoven-Venlo http://vweuro.nl/ Holland May 22-23-24 1999 Algemene Buggy Club Holland - International Weekend '99 Off-Road & Oval-Racetrack Lelystad http://home.wxs.nl/~samjaars/iw99.htm Holland June 20 (3rd weekend) 1999 International vintage VW weekend Bad Camberg Bad Camberg Mr Lotterman Germany June 19-20 1999 Budel '99 'd Auwe Meule, Budel Tel +31 (0) 40 2854777 Holland June 22 1999 International Drive Your VW 2 Work Day World Wide http://ploon.nl/int-vw-day/dyvw2wd.htm Global September 17-18-19 1999 VWEuro'99, Europe's biggest aircooled VW weekend "De Schatberg", Sevenum, exit 38 A67 Eindhoven-Venlo http://vweuro.nl/ Holland 7. Proper ways to behave whilst posting to Edubs. Please do not send any attached files to the list e.g.. photos, as many people pay for their access and don't want to spend 20 minutes downloading a picture of your car, however nice it is. Preferred methods of displaying photos are posting to the usenet group alt.binaries.pictures.autos or to a website of your choosing/making. Free webspace accounts can be obtained from the spiffing Geocities (http://www.geocities.com) you will notice that several Edubbers have these websites, and will be only too pleased to help you out, if even this simple task is too much for you, beg and plead like snivelling dog, someone will post your pictures to their website for you. Please follow internet standards for E-mail, plain text only, no HTML or rich text mail, some people still use 'elm' you know. Please use the big "Enter" key on the right of your keyboard once in a while. About every 80 characters is the accepted norm, otherwise many of us will get your messages as onegreatlonglineandwewillallthinkyouareretardedandprobablywonttalktoyou. DON'T CAPITALISE EVERYTHING EITHER, IT LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE SHOUTING, AND STILL RETARDED. Bad spelling is NOT cool, no one will think you are cooler, they will think you are an imbecile, and probably won't reply to you for that reason. It's why the spellchecker was invented (or if you dont have one, a dictionary). Replying to a long and perhaps interesting and/or informative mail, quoting the entire text and only adding one of the following : "me too", or "I'm going", or "doh", or "hello", better still - totaly blank, is stupid. It's a waste of time, effort and bandwidth. People will get upset about it, because again, some folks pay for their download times. Spam, chain letters, virus alerts, make money quick scams etc. are NOT encouraged. 8. Recommended drinking. Thatchers Cider and Vodka are both recommended Volkswagen event drinks and will be eagerly accepted by most edubbers. In the same glass or not, we're not fussy. 9. Do you have the number for Insurance Company X ? HERTS : quote line -> 01279 506090 customer service -> 01279 757772 Classic Line : 01455 891330 Adrian Flux : 01553 777888 existing policy holders can use 01553774477 Hyperformance Insurance Tel 0181 979 9511 or 0181 941 9098 Jadine Faber Insurance Consultants LTD Tel 01604 639011 (ask for Dean) Volksurance from Norton Insurance Brokers Tel 0121 246 6060 10. I need some bits for my Beetle/Bus, do you have XXX's number ? Places marked *G.G.* have ben recommended by Edubbers, this doesn't mean the sun shines out of there a*se, but you're likely to be treated fairly. You get the picture. I'm not commenting on the Bad guys, I don't want to get sued, ask on the list for comments. *G.G.* Kerry Volkswagen Evoloution Upton Scudamore, Warminster Wilts BA12 OAQ (01985) 846625 (07970) 893833 Mobile *G.G.* Alan Schofield has all Splitty & Bay repair panels etc. 01457 854267 http://www.lenro-international.com/schofield/ West Coast Metric supply rubber (steady!) and ship to the UK. http://www.westcoastmetric.com/ *G.G.* Karmann Konnection, The Trinketemeisters. VW and Porsche - everything, at a price. http://www.altimaweb.com/karmann-konnection Tel: 01702 551766 *G.G.* Cogbox: 01818422580 (5 speed Genies etc. top geeze!!) *G.G.* Julian or Tim @ Friendly Beetle People: 01815704482 01815775376 ( restorations, parts, servicing - Hounslow Middx (London ish) *G.G.* VW Books (every tome for the VW owner) 25 Cambridge Road, Cosby, Leicester LE9 1SH. For Latest Catalogue. Fax 0116 286 6959. http://www.altimaweb.com/vwbooks/ Volks Bits Standard, Custom and Performance parts Mail order line: 0990 143397 'VW Camper Centre' in Portsmouth on 01705 731111 German & Swedish Standard parts (mainly pattern parts...............) Currently 16 branches, not listing them all here! Mail order available from Heathrow branch 0181 9173833 Autocavan http://www.autocavan.com Performance products Tel: 01252 346810 Volkspares http://www.volkspares.demon.co.uk Tel: 0121 7494700 Big Boys Toys, Performance and Custom parts http://www.volkspares.demon.co.uk/bbt.htm Mail Order 01708 861827 Wizard Roadsters, Fibreglass wings and other strange things. Tel: 01753 551555 German Car Company, Owners of the 'Awesome' Product lines http://www.germancarcompany.co.uk Mail Order 01702 530440 Bernard Newbury, Mainly renowned for his Custom Interiors, but also deals in Berg stuff, Simpson Harnesses, disk brakes etc. Good gear, if you have plenty of the folding stuff. Tel: 01702 710211 http://www.volksnet.co.uk/newbury/ Stateside Tuning Volkswagen & Porsche Performance Experts Tel: 0181 8054865 *G.G.* John Maher Racing (JMR) Manchester 0161 881 5225 www.johnmaherracing.co.uk Just Kampers body, mechanical and rubbers for campers '68-92 Tel: 01252 371331 The Herbie Hospital, Unit 5, Longclose Industrial Estate, Dolly Lane, Leeds, LS9 7TU. Tel.0113 242 0029 Kingfisher Kustoms Tel 0990 168109 Machine 7 Tel 07002 machine seven (07002 622446) Midland Wheel Supplies Tel 01926 817444 Spirit of the 50's (Reasonable cheap carpet's, etc) Tel 01757 617008 Terrys Beetle Services Tel 0181 567 3165 Type III Detectives Tel 01638 743211 URO VW Dream Machine (18 Branches in the UK) Headquarters (Birmingham) Tel 0121 749 4700 VW Heritage Tel:01273 424330 http://www.garlands.uk.com/vw/ Lots of handy VW wiring diags here: http://www.vintagebus.com German Panel Company (Cheap for Golf bits by all accounts) 504 Dunstable Road, Luton, Beds. Tel: 01582 596 971 States Plates PO Box 99, Coningsby, Lincoln, LN4 4AS Tel: 01526 344460 Eastwood auto products etc. from : T & S Auto Restoration, Unit A4, Station Road, Badminton Centre, Yate, Bristol, BS175HT phone: 01454 329 900 phax: 01454 329 988 They do the entire Eastwood Range :0) (sez Paul K) Joe Durrant helps the waterpumpers with: TSR Performance, Taunton Road, Bridgwater, Somerset. TA6 6LD (01278) 453036 http://www.tsr-performance.co.uk/ C&R Enterprises, C1-C4 Lake Street, Radford, Nottingham, NG7 4BT (0115) 978 5740 German Panel Company 504 Dunstable Road, Luton, Beds.Tel: 01582 596 971 Mainly a tuner: Automotive Developments, Oddington, Kidlington, Oxfordshire OX5 2RA (0)1865 331226 http://www.auto-amd.com/ These are three highly respected tuners & performance parts suppliers who I personally have not heard bad stories about. For second hand parts (national delivery): Volks-Apart, 2-4 Majendie Rd, London SE18 7QB (0181) 317 2330 11) How do I get in touch with the type X club ? Type II owners club (Bays & Splits & later busses): http://members.aol.com/vwt2oc/ Annual membership subscription is #15.00 (for non-UK members the subscription is £20.00, this is to fund extra postal charges etc.) All cheques should be made payable to the "VOLKSWAGEN TYPE 2 OWNERS CLUB" and sent, along with a printed and filled in copy of this form (sorry no membership by E-mail), to:- Mandy Davies, Volkswagen Type 2 Owners Club, 7 Temple Street, Lower Gornal, Dudley, West Midlands, England DY3 2PE Split Screen Van Club: Membership: 19 Pounds Stirling for 12 months includes: Joining pack of A5 binder (organiser with various inserts, year planner, recomemded traders etc etc) Sticker and 6 Magazines a year. contact. Mike & Sue Mundy 01453 767319 or email mikemundy@aol.com The SSVC can also be found at http://www.altimaweb.com/ssvc Type 3 & 4 Owners Club : Subscriptions: The current annual subscription of 10 GBPounds will bring you a new member's pack including car sticker, (additional stickers 60p each), tax disk holder, recent back numbers and the next twelve months of Club publications, plus many new friends and aquaintances. (Membership falls due for renewal on anniversary of joining.) Club GTI, PO Box 2747, Brighton, BN2 4EG, UK http://www.clubgti.demon.co.uk/ ABVWC Association of British VW Owners Clubs (discounts on insurance, breakdown recovery, etc) 01753 651538 Handy Tyre size calculator, found by Sam Daly. In the FAQ because I like it. http://www.powerdog.com/tiresize.cgi 12) How do I find out when my car was made etc ? You can get the legendary (although it does really exist) 'VW birth certificate' by, says Pim "Send your VIN number and 10,- DM ($5,- US) to Customer assistance Volkswagen AG Postfach 3180 Wolfsburg Germany and you will recieve a very nice document which states: Build date, delivery date, destination of delivery, along with the original color of the paintwork and interior and any factory fitted extras." It should also be possible to get the same information by emailing this address : devw1kdb@ibmmail.com 13) Is my car Road Tax exempt ? From: Dale Simpkins Tax exemption explained (maybe?) In the UK, vehicles are subject to a vehicle excise duty (VED) if used on public roads, but it's more commonly known as Road Tax. Several years ago the government decided to allow cars of a certain age to become exempt from VED. Originally, the government decided that any car that was manufactured over 25 years ago would be exempt from VED. This meant that if you had a car that was say only 20 years old, eventually it would become tax exempt, once it was OVER 25 years of age. However the government has now changed what's known as 25 years tax exempt to Historic vehicle exemption. This now states that for a vehicle to be VED exempt, it must have been manufactured before the 1st January 1973. So to qualify for Historic vehicle exemption, you have to prove to the DVLA that your vehicle was made before 1st January 1973. There is a section on how to obtain a birth certificate for your vehicle from VW in this faq. Unfortunately, this exemption applies only to PLG vehicles, Private/Light Goods, and not to commercial vehicles such as lorries, tractors, etc. Also this exemption doesn't mean you don't need an MOT certificate (12 month certificate of road worthiness) You still need to get a MOT, and have insurance, and get a tax disc from the post office, you just don't have to pay for it! Once exempt, your renewal form for road tax will state on it, Historic vehicle exempt, and say nil to pay. Just take it to your local post office with your MOT and insurance certificates, and get a free tax disc! 14) You *still* haven't answered my question! Heaps more info here : www.geocities.com/MotorCity/4000/bsfqindx.htm Including what to look for when buying your first VW. The legendary Bob Hoover Sermons are now available on CD from Glynn S on Edubs, quoth he: a VAST source of knowledge and wisdom for types1, 2, 3 and variants. Over 800 pages! only part of this was in net archive but became too big, now all and more is on CDRom. (you may have heard of Bob, his Sermons or the Grendel Saga from www.type2.com ) available NOW in all of Europe from Glynn Seabridge. Details can be found at http://website.lineone.net/~hippybus/no6.html or email him for enquiries hippybus@lineone.net If you are unsure what we are talking about ask the lists.