The life of a daily driven 68' RHD Devon camper.

[LivinInnaVWBus]

While working on a major clusterf*ck of wiring that left me stranded on the side of the road yesterday, I realized my day-to-day driving experiences might be different than most motorists. This became even more evident as my friend and I were entertaining the seemingly subjective term "reliable vehicle". - Intimidating to some, entertaining to me. - My daily driver and only form of motored transport is a 68' right hand drive Devon camper I scored from the thesamba classifieds about two years ago. From what I've gathered through research, there are only a small handful of Devons in the US, none I've found other than my own are RHD or a first year bay window - maybe someone reading this post could tell me different?
Under the assumption my adventures may be compelling to others, let me introduce my vehicle. Mostly all original with exception of the engine. It had a 1600dp which was having issues, I replaced it with a 1500sp I built from spare parts I had lying around and yes, it has plenty of power for every day driving. The engine now wears a 40hp Big Cap cast iron vacuum advanced only distributor in place of the 034 in the photo.

[Joey]

I would suggest you move the filter out of the engine compartment or at least put the filter before the pump not after it. The fuel line and plug wire zipped together is scary as well...

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Joey

‘60 Kombi - '74 Bus - '79 Panel - '65 Beetle

[richparker]

Looking good! I use my 68' and my daily driver too. I've clocked 11,000 miles in the past 12 months. I agree that our day-to-day driving experiences are a lot different then most motorists. Sucks for them that they don't get to enjoy a bus on a daily basis. I though you were gonna live in this bus and make stuff out of it. I can't remember if it was some sort of vegan food or something like soap. Did that dream ever come true?

I agree with moving the fuel filter from its current location to before the pump. I don't mind it in the engine bay, I've heard "rumors " that there is a chance of vapor lock if installed on the other side of the fire wall. Nothing I've experienced but something I've heard.
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’71 Westy build
Adventure thread
’65 Deluxe Build
’63 Deluxe Build

[LivinInnaVWBus]

I did have the filter over the trans but I was having what seemed to be vapor lock issues. I've got a hard line which runs right under the coil and putting a filter there is far more dangerous, but I hear you, I didn't feel good about putting it their either - I AM however replacing it with a glass filter and some new solid lines. The ziptie on the spark plug wire was just temporary while I was working on a few things, it was never run with it.

And yes Rich, well, for the most part. I'm not full time living in the bus but I am a good portion. I lived in New Orleans for awhile and being in the bus was easy with that type of climate, but I moved back to Chicago during the middle of the winter. The first night in Chicago was -5, and I did stay in the bus that night but it became apparent that wasn't sustainable so I found an alternative living situation. Before I moved to New Orleans, I was making and selling organic/vegan toiletries(tooth paste, deodorant, mouthwash, beard oil... etc) but after I moved, my job didn't allow me enough time to continue doing that so it is currently on the back burner. I was making enough money to survive doing that so once I am full time in the bus, I will be touching on that business adventure again.

[bugmandave]

Hey, nice looking westy in the one picture. BTW I have a filter in front of the firewall and never had an issue. I would keep that bus complete with the original interior since it's so unique and in that nice original condition. Not sure if you're still trying to sell it. My bus is not a true daily driver but damn near. At least during the nicer seasons. It's my first choice for running errands.
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'63 Karmann Cabriolet L456 Rubin (Ruby Red)
'71 Westfalia campmobile tourist delivery
January '59 SWR panel
'63 Karmann Cabriolet L54 Poppy Red

[dasdachshund]

What's the spigot for in the bottom right of this pic?

Nice bus.

-dasdachshund

[brothernumberone]

Lovely looking van. I've got a '72 Devon devonette and a '79 moonraker with a '71 moonraker interior. Early interiors are so nice. Also like the gentle irony of you driving a RHD devon imported from the UK, when everyone here seems to be driving LHD westies imported from the states;)
I'm going to sidmouth in a couple of days to look at the site of the Devon factory, I'll post some pics up
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http://vintageautorepair.co.uk/

[LivinInnaVWBus]

That IS a nice looking Westy in that picture Dave, what year is it again? (For everyone following, the gorgeous and mostly original white Westy parked next to my Devon in one of the photos used to be a chicken coop!) I see your bus parked around town quite often, I'd say you're more of a daily driver than most. You should make a post about that crazy trip you took a couple of years ago with your family! We missed you at the Fun Fest this year.

dasdachshund, the spigot I believe is for the two burner propane stove on top of the cabinet. The bus doesn't have a tank and I've never used the stove so I never really payed much attention to it. You can see a portion of it in this photo...

brothernumberone, please - please - PLEASE post photos of the Devon factory. I'm very curious.

[bugmandave]

My Westy is a '71 tourist delivery so it spent some time in Europe before coming home. I found a mint 1971 Greek drachma coin under the sub-floor when I gutted it for cleaning. It was stored in a chicken coop for 15 years so it was full of mice and birds.
I was planning on going to funfest but the wife had surgery the Thursday before so that was a no go. We have plans to do other shows/ swaps. I'll keep you posted so you can cruise along with us. Can't wait to check out that bus in person to see the differences from a U.S. version.
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'63 Karmann Cabriolet L456 Rubin (Ruby Red)
'71 Westfalia campmobile tourist delivery
January '59 SWR panel
'63 Karmann Cabriolet L54 Poppy Red

[LivinInnaVWBus]

Now, for the issue that inspired me to make this topic... get ready to cringe.
I had just put a new carb on in the morning before work, took it for a test drive and the bus ended up shutting down. Immediately I assumed something with the new carb, but then the dashboard started smoking. I turned off the ignition, pushed the bus to a side street and tried to start it to no avail. It sounded like the starter was spinning but the solenoid was not engaging. I then (incorrectly) determined it must have been a couple of loose power connections from an aftermarket relay grounding on the headlight bucket. I tightened them up and she started! I must have moved some other wires around in the process because this certainly did not fix the problem but I made it to work shortly after.
As I was leaving work later in the night, I had a repeat performance from earlier in the day. I was pulling out of the parking lot, the bus shut down and dashboard started to smoke. I unbolted the steering wheel, examined the damage and realized one of the wires from the ignition pigtail was toast - This ended up being the power wire to the coil. This was too much of an issue to deal with at 11:30 at night so I pushed the bus into a parking space and walked home with my tail between my legs, luckily I live about a mile away.
After seeing the damage, I made the determination I needed to hot wire the bus to get it back in my driveway... here's where it gets hairy. I had power to the starter up front still but needed power to the coil, again, keep in mind this was a mile drive. Two fire extinguishers ready to go. Pay attention to the big red wire which was attached to the battery(everything was tied away from metal during the drive).

One of the previous owners must have had limited wiring experience, in the state I purchased it in, the wiring got me 40k+ miles so far but when I looked behind the cluster I realized how lucky I've been.
I pulled out at least half a dozen wires directly connected to power at the fuse box, dangling and at the very most, taped on the ends... very old and dry tape.

I spent a day straightening the wiring out, bypassing the original ignition switch then improvising with a series of hardware store switches. Now I start my bus like a rocket ship, it's pretty damned cool actually...

[chachi]

great photos, nice bus. it's really useful to see how all these different camper configurations carved up the space.
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'74 transporter panel
'91 vanagon carat NAHT

[bugmandave]

Not sure it's the same. But I have a used but working ignition switch with the housing and og key.
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'63 Karmann Cabriolet L456 Rubin (Ruby Red)
'71 Westfalia campmobile tourist delivery
January '59 SWR panel
'63 Karmann Cabriolet L54 Poppy Red

[LivinInnaVWBus]

[brothernumberone]

Hello, I managed to find the Devon factory today, or what's left of it. It's called the Alexandria industrial estate now. I also found an article from the local newspaper on line which explains the origins of the company and shows the works as they were.

http://www.sidmouthherald.co.uk/news/features/sidmouth_story_of_success_the_caravette_1_1334659

I spoke to a man in the unit pictured who has been there for years and remembered when it was Devon before he moved in there, early to mid 80's I guess.

From the black and white picture in the article, it seems that several of the buildings have been knocked down, but the one in my pics can be seen in the centre left. You can see the two sliding shutter doors, the small door and the window I think. I got a shot of my van next to it:)
Front.

Side.

Rear.

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http://vintageautorepair.co.uk/

[LivinInnaVWBus]

WOW! That's crazy. In case the link disappears in the future, here is what it contains.

VW Caravettes arrive at Jack's factory by train

An aerial view of Jack White's Sidmouth factory

Caravette founder died just as business was on road to success

IT began in a builder’s shed in a Sidmouth garden. The iconic VW Caravette was the brainchild of Jack White, who ran a building company in the town.

Last week, Sidmouth Herald news editor Di Bowerman, looked at the birth of the Caravette. This week she continues to trace its historic path to success.

NEW buildings were found at Woolbrook and more staff taken on, with Jack White trading as J P White (Sidmouth) Ltd.

By early 1957, 56 vehicles had been produced and sold and larger production premises were needed.

“Father acquired the freehold interest of the old Gasworks at Sidmouth, which consisted of a five-acre site, plus fields and woodland,” Shirley Pratt, his daughter, said.

The bonus was it had its own railway line, a siding coming into the works.

Jack, who was captain of Sidmouth Golf Club and sponsored his staff to enter Sidmouth Carnival, built his factory using 16 bricklayers and in a weekend completed nearly all the outside walls, getting triple pay for working on a Sunday.

He had a canteen and offices and bought several adjacent houses to act as a security barrier, while Shirley and sister Mary kept their horses in the field there.

There is no doubt that Jack benefitted from running a building company too because during the quiet months he could put his carpenters back to work building bungalows.

The new Alexandria Works was officially opened in May 1960 and the firm, still in its infancy, employed 75 people, mostly local carpenters and craftsmen.

By this time more than 1,000 Caravettes a year were being produced - some three or four VW and two Austin and Morris vehicles daily.

Although production expanded to take on BMC vans, Jack’s real interest was the Volkswagen.

“I recall father worked extremely long hours, always looking ahead, meeting targets, thinking up new ideas, investing, taking part in the London Motor Show at Earls Court and caravan and camping shows at Olympia,” said Shirley.

By now Jack employed 120 and Caravettes were being sold around the world and to famous celebrities such as the late Jimmy Savile.

“Our own Caravette was used as an everyday runabout vehicle as well as spending many memorable holidays roving around Europe,” said Shirley.

Jack’s wife, Annemie, had a special version of the Caravette built as a present for her husband.

It had extra windows at the roofline and the units were in mahogany rather than light oak. It was painted red and white. This unique vehicle still exists and Ralph, Shirley and Mary’s brother, would like to track its owner down. Annemie, Jack and their children feature in brochure photographs produced in 1960.

When Beeching axed branch lines in 1963, Jack travelled with local councillors to the Houses of Parliament to try to persuade him to change his mind.

That year, as his business grew, Jack suffered a heart attack while driving at Alexandria Works and died. He was 51.

Shirley was 14, Mary 12 and Ralph seven.

Shirley said: “He was driving through the road on the estate when he had a heart attack in his VW pickup. All the workmen were in the canteen for the morning coffee break.

“When they came out they saw his vehicle and they had a first aider there and Pat was there and they tried to revive him, but couldn’t.”

Annemie was left with swingeing death duties which gave her no alternative but to sell the company and the following year it was sold to the Renwick Wilton & Dobson Group who took on most of the staff and continued to trade under the J P White (Sidmouth) Ltd., name until June 1971 when it was renamed Devon Conversions Ltd.

With an ever increasing leisure industry, the firm continued to grow to more than 3,500 vehicles produced in 1972 and it was appointed as sole official VW motor caravan convertors in the UK.

“Father contributed much to Sidmouth in the form of housing and employment. He was a popular figure in the town and among his workforce, and the trade union only came into the factory after his death,” said Shirley.

In 1981 the business moved to Exeter and in 1985 announced it was going into voluntary liquidation.

[LivinInnaVWBus]

On the way back from Mid America's Fun Fest. This is where he spends most of his time on long trips.
Pit bull love.

[LivinInnaVWBus]

And for this weeks adventures...
My speedo was angry. It started growling at me. Then screaming. And then it did a 360. Time for a rebuild.

I also met up with some old friends at a local car show and ended up running into another forum member which ironically balanced tires on my 67' beetle years back before he had an air cooled. He may not have a post about his current build but holy hell is it gorgeous. I'll link later if I find it. You'll see my buddy's $100K Nissan GTR in the corner of this photo.

Post scriptum, if anyone is looking for an original Aussie visor - for sale in my classifieds.

[LivinInnaVWBus]

Just some updated photos as of recent. Oh, and the Aussie visor has sold and is not mounted on a beetle in Asia.
Got a Hurst bumper from Project VW! Excellent quality and a very easy installation.

Took Devon to the local car show, wearing some antiques on the inside and my 51' Roadmaster cruiser even made an appearance.

[LivinInnaVWBus]

Just some cool photos taken recently.

[LivinInnaVWBus]

I apologize for the lack of updates guys and gals. I've been occupied downsizing my life in the mid-west to fly south for the winter where I'll be living in my bus full time (again) in a much warmer climate.

The life with a daily driven VW bus is still very interesting...

Most recently I took a horribly rebuilt (by a samba seller) 34-3 carb off and replaced it with one of the best rebuilt carburetors I have run to date. I'm easy to satisfy, but hard to impress, especially being a prior customer of Mark Harney. Tim @ VolkzBitz is THE man to purchase rebuilt Solex carbs from. I've tried a couple of properly jetted 34-3s on this 1500 single port and they all have been dogs in terms of low end torque. This time I had VolkzBitz build 30 pict 1 with a power circuit (and a barbed fuel inlet fitting, because engine fires are no fun). Now I've got tons of torque, a ridiculously smooth power band and excellent fuel economy - the bus is running better now than it has since I purchased it.


It's been months since I've posted, did you really think that was the only repair?

A month ago I took an emergency 6 hour (each way) trip to Wisconsin with a friend, it was abnormally noisy, too noisy to talk or hear music from my phone's speaker but I removed the camping interior just prior to that so I chalked it up to less insulation. On the ride back home it was difficult to stay in my lane and I started to hear a very light rotational noise that sounded like I was going over the raised pavement bumps on the side of the road. Luckily I made it home just fine, pulled the tires off and diagnosed the issue. I had a broken tire cord on the tire under the drivers seat which shook my (original)tie rod into submission.
I'm sure I'll catch slack on this, but I'm in the process of getting new tires now - I took the tire with the broken cord and moved it to the rear then ordered a Chinese tie rod from Autozone which tightened up the front tremendously.

I currently have two STA Super Traxion tires on my bench and I just paid for a set of period correct 14x5" wheels which will be sent off to be powder coated. The Traxions will be my spare/off road rear tires and I'll be putting Firestone 750s bias plys all around. I am determined to make 30mpg+ in this bus and narrow tires will help.

Super Traxion:

Firestone 750:

Three weeks ago, with little warning front left wheel bearing started to scream, then the steering wheel jerked to the left, then... nothing and it drove fine. Removing the dust cap revealed all and I realized this may have been contributing to the noise on my Wisconsin trip as well.
A few of the bearing pins were dust and the bearing was seized on the spindle. I picked up a cheapo Chinese bearing and Timken seal kit from Autozone for a few bucks (temporary, until I get my disc brake kit installed) and used an angle grinder to cut the old bearing into pieces for removal. The bearing has yet to give me troubles, let's see how long that lasts.

Two weeks ago while taking a test drive after installing the 30 pict, I heard a rotational whine I hadn't heard before. The new carb made my bus whisper quiet and just in time. My left side CV boot was torn and I found little grease inside of it. Again, Autozone to the rescue with a Chinese CV axle with a lifetime warranty for $80. I've got German Lobros on the way which I'm tossing on the original axles.

Fellow Samba members, don't get me wrong. I am a serious proponent for buying local, sustainability and USA made products, almost to an obsessive extent however I initially made this post to show what is necessary to keep one of these vehicles on the road at all times. Yes, I expect you to cringe. Yes, I expect to be flamed with comments. Yes, these Asian made components will be replaced with NOS, USA or European made. I cannot afford to have my only vehicle on jack stands for an extended time.

Now, let's talk about my less than a year old $250 genuine Bosch AL82N...

I went down a dusty road and the alt developed a squeak. I thought it was the belt until my charging light started flickering, now it's solid and it still gets 14.3 at idle. I'm guessing the regulator but I'm going to run it as is until it stops charging with a spare battery ready to go.
Until next time, friends.