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Thu Jun 03, 2004 1:42 pm

Okay, i am trying to reverse engineer my interior (which is more or less gone) and have a question on the westfalia curtain rods....

I have 3 curtain rods along the top of the driver side living room windows, but only 4 holes drilled into the body along the bottom of these windows

the cargo doors have curtain rods on the top and bottom of the windows (one of the curtain rods is 1" longer than all the other curtain rods and was drilled in by previous owner, leaving the original factory drilled hole currently unused...this rod would span the length of the holes on the bottom of the driver side living room, but if i had 3 of these rods, the ends of aluminum rod would be overlaped at the mounting holes )

my question is wether the bottom curtain rods are supposed to be the same style as the top curtain rods or elastic/bungee chord or metal springs (i have one metal spring as a curtain rod and have seen very small diameter bungee chord used along the bottom on the cargo door of a well restored 60's era westy)...

if metal springs or elastic, how/where do they attach to the body?

the other question is wether there is even supposed to be a bottom curtain rod, or are the bottom holes drilled by a previous owner and just confusing me?...

since I've got yr attention, the curtains on my bus are high quality, really old and made of a light weight fabric and white in color...are these proper for any certain year bus..they certainly seem like westfalia quality.... (i think my westy is supposed to be yellow checkered plaid curtains)...just wondering....thanks, Mark

Thu Jun 03, 2004 2:25 pm

You should have an aluminum curtain rod at the top of all 6 of your side windows. The only window that has a lower rod is the rear hatch; the rest have a bungee cord. 1 cord for eack side door and one long one for all 3 windows down the non door side.
The ends of those bungees are looped and crimped together with a brass press on clamp.
My guess is that the curtain rod that is the longest is for the wider of the two cargo doors.

A '67 bus could have the yellow/white/brn plaid curtains.

Thu Jun 03, 2004 2:25 pm

Hello Mark,

The aluminum curtain rails are only for the top. The bottom is just a long bungee cord for all 3 windows, secured at each end and with 2 more holding clips underneath the interior lights.

This pic shows the curtains held by the rail and the bungee cord.

This pic is the close-up on the holding clip,

And this is the cargo door window, with its short bungee cord. Same for the rear cargo door.

My curtains' definitely not OG. They are placemats from Pier1. Sorta look-alike so I snapped buttons on top and they've been there since. The bungee cord is not OG either, I think I found mine from the REI outdoor place. Should be plenty there in Colorado.

Have fun.

Thu Jun 03, 2004 2:35 pm

thanks for the extra effort with the pics!....

this is one of those shoulda asked first sort of things (i suppose that all comes with the reverse engineering thing)...

i got several more curtain rods yesterday from a fellow samba'er....i thought i was five short...now i have four extras!....anyone need any?....they are in pretty good shape but neeed to be cleaned (they are painted poorly with green paint of some sort)...PM me and i will send pics if interested...

luckily, i have the 2 long ones in the back :)....

Thu Jun 03, 2004 2:40 pm

Major Woody needs them in a recent post. Dunno if it's still the case. I have one to give, but that post was buried somewhat so he might have missed it.. He'll see this post I'm sure.

And to get rid of old paint on stuff, I find the dot3 brake fluid a very handy stripper... since I use a fresh bottle for replentishing anyways, the old bottle is poured into a big glass jar. Whatever I want stripped I just throw it in that jar.... let sit... a few days after when I remember what I did the paint would be lifted. Clean, wash, good as it was before painted.

Thu Jun 03, 2004 3:25 pm

I could use a few of 'em too if they are still around.

Thu Jun 03, 2004 4:32 pm

ya... the side curtain rods aren't all the same length... I forget which goes where... I just followed the holes on my bus. I got some thin bungee cord at a boat supply place, wrapped thin wire round the end to make a loop of the bungee, and screwed it to the bus using the screwholes there.. well I put a couple bungees in... more to go. Though evidently my 65 came new with that yellowy plaid used through 73(?), they and the bungees were long gone. I have off white curtains now. (Thanks, Mom).