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Sun Jul 06, 2003 9:16 am

has anyone put a westy z-bed in a transporter or other model? I am doing this currently and wanted to know if anyone has any advice regarding drilling holes for the bolts.

Sun Jul 06, 2003 10:11 am

Check this out:

http://www.pottsfamily.ca/westfakia/

Hopefully you can find sme help here.

-=Rob
'77 Westy

Mon Jul 07, 2003 2:07 am

I did it to a '79. I also put the side cabinets (closet, ice box, and sink cabinet) in it. Pretty straight foward except that you have to drill a few holes. I drilled some holes for the closet brackets, but I think that was it. You have to use a floor like in a Westy to get it smooth and at the proper height but otherwise you use the factory seat bolt brackets that are welded to the floor. I put an extra bracket in the front part of the sink cabinet where the spare tire goes to help hold it in place since you won't have the metal panel behind the driver's seat that it normally bolts to. One problem you will run into is the fiberglass guard that goes over the driver's side rear hatch bracket- you either have to take it off or cut it down a little.

Wed Jul 09, 2003 12:52 am

well mines a 71 and the z-bed has bolts that go into the engine compartment. Did yours do this? also any advice about removing the heat sheilding over the engine to put the nut on would be helpful. thanks
-Matt

Wed Jul 09, 2003 5:50 am

There wasn't any insulation under the metal engine hump on mine, only on the access cover. The gas tank is under the area where the bed attaches. The bed was originally held in with screws; I don't have a '71 bus handy, but I would think you could just drill through it and put some sheet metal screws in. I did have to notch the metal channel that the fold down rear seatback attaches to.

I honestly can't say with any certainty what you will need to do though, I can't recall ever having looked in the engine bay of a '71 to see how it was different from mine. After putting the bed in, I did cut a sheet of the "NASA insulation" and lay it on top of the engine compartment.

Thu Jul 10, 2003 12:19 am

will I have any trouble removing the seat at a later date with sheet metal screws and then re-attaching it? I mean can a screw go back into the hole? Thats why i thought perhaps a bolt would be better. over my engine is some cardboard-like surfave with little 1 inch diameter holes all over with sketchy looking insulation behind that with clips holding it all on, the clips are stationary and the insulation doesnt want to budge so sheet metal screws would be less of a pain as they wouldnt require me to remove this.