Monday 29th may 2000

A visit to the BBT shop near Antwerp was one of the first things to be put on the agenda for this trip. Bob van Heijst owns this big VW parts empire (shops all over europe sell his parts) and he has a verry nice collection of cars, including the famous stretched limo bus. he was waiting for his fellow club members at a motorway exit near one of his warehouses. Some other SSVC busses joined the convoy at the first stop: a cafe next to the Westmalle abby. The make a verry nice (and strong) beer at this abby. Bob bought us all lunch after which we split the convoy into 2 groups. One would start with a tour of his shop/parts depo and the other group would visit his warehouse full of cars first.
This collection has some verry rare cars: a NOS type 181, a splitty laddertruck which had never been out in the rain, all kinds of beetles and busses in need of a resto, a fridolin, a Rometsch with a Judson engine, A Schwimmwagen and Bob's new toy: a semi finished split window beetle. With a narrowed and dropped front beam, Porsche 356 brakes all round, all kinds of rare parts, a cabrio enginelid, firetruck semaphores (the ones that keep going up and down), original BRM wheels and a fast engine.
Back at the shop Bob has a few more cars, one of them is a splitty cherrypicker. This warehouse is so big, you wouldn't believe it. Almost any part that ever has been used for an air-cooled VW is kept in stock, not to mention all kinds of rare parts and NOS pannels.
We spend the evening with a big BBQ at the campsite, where would could talk VW with Bob, his wife and some of the employees.