My new '74 Westy- Getting her in working order

[Wildthings]

Someone bastardized the opening for your engine to fit an air conditioning compressor. You can make a piece to fill the void or maybe buy a piece of tin off of a donor van.


If you can find a piece of 411/412 rear corner tin, you can remove the AC hump all together and just make a flat fill piece.

[box12360]

I improvised and took a plastic piece off of a 73 and fabricated a piece of metal to cover the hole where the air conditioner compressor was. Unfortunately at this time i do not have a mig welder so I improvised and used a liberal amount high temp rtv silicone to cover the small cracks that we're not covered. One day when I buy a welder I will do it right but for now this will do.

Tomorrow I'm going to fill the holes with rtv, gasket maker, and foil tape. (No welder). This may be over kill but I fell the more insulation between the hot air and the top of the motor the better.

Holes to be filled...

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More pics to follow after I've installed it. At this point I'm looking for practical and something that works so I can get her road worthy.
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'74 Westy Pop Top "old yeller"
1700cc progressive carb
009 Dizzy with Electronic ignition

[box12360]

Update:
I adjusted the valves, all but one cylinder was off. It starts a lot eaiser and runs a whole lot better!!
My friend had a dwell meter and we checked the dwell, timing and set the ideal around 1k rpm. His meter was awesome!!! Able to read the rpms's on it on the meter.

I thought I had a knock but after some detective work (plugging the exhaust tip) I found it was only a exhaust leak which is my next project. When I installed the aftermarket muffler I was a little to liberal with the rtv from the header to the muffler.

I'm sitting around 28 psi for oil pressure ideling is that normal when warm at 1000 rpm? 1700cc motor
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'74 Westy Pop Top "old yeller"
1700cc progressive carb
009 Dizzy with Electronic ignition

[box12360]

Changed the Drag link today. Man these buses really handle well!!!!

Also adjusting the valves for hydro's instead of solid lifters. I took the rocker arms off and push rods out. Both the tip and the rod were steel. When I looked at the valves they also had a spring in in them. In the process of adjusting them right!!! 1 1/2 turn after there is no lash, instead of .006 for solid lifters.

I fixed the dash lights 7-01-2015 bad ground.

On to the next project.....

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'74 Westy Pop Top "old yeller"
1700cc progressive carb
009 Dizzy with Electronic ignition

[Wildthings]

[box12360]

Took the bus to the beach.

Pretty sure I mixed up the # 4 cylinder with the # 1 cylinder while adjusting the lifters. I heard some weird sounds hopefully nothing is messed up😳[/img]
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'74 Westy Pop Top "old yeller"
1700cc progressive carb
009 Dizzy with Electronic ignition

[box12360]

Update, Putting in a new fuel tank soon.

Also rebuilding a 1.7 L motor I purchased in pieces on Craigslist with a Kustom1 rebuild kit.

Here I am Checking rod clearance:

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'74 Westy Pop Top "old yeller"
1700cc progressive carb
009 Dizzy with Electronic ignition

[box12360]

Update we have been working on the interior of the bus.

Put in insulation between the body and panels. Also cut out some new panels for the interior and stained them.

Sanded and por-15 the floor, then a installed a new floor. Reupholstered the back seat. She's coming together!!

Next weekend on to installing the new pop top tent and painting the pop top.
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'74 Westy Pop Top "old yeller"
1700cc progressive carb
009 Dizzy with Electronic ignition

[Bala]

Looking good!!
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1976 Westy

1966 Beetle

[curtp07]

That's coming along great! What was your reasoning for the foil backed foam for the floor? (I'm asking because I just did mine as well).
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Subaru

[box12360]

I put it down for a couple of reasons.

Help with sound deadening
To have some cushion below the vinyl flooring and with the foil on the board to help retain heat.
If i could do it over I would have put a piece of plywood down first maybe another project in the future.
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'74 Westy Pop Top "old yeller"
1700cc progressive carb
009 Dizzy with Electronic ignition

[box12360]

Lots of work done to little miss sunshine recently: painted the pop top and put a new canvas in. Thank god for the pneumatic staple gun from harbor freight made light work of the 100's of staples used on the top of the canvas. My electric staple gun would not push the staples in the wood. It turned out great!!

The photo below is on the Volkswagen Facebook page, great free professional photo 😊

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'74 Westy Pop Top "old yeller"
1700cc progressive carb
009 Dizzy with Electronic ignition

[box12360]

Updates:

Built a new motor and removed the old "gex" motor that the PO had put in. That would explain why the motor mounts wernt connected on the mustache bar. Also explain why the transmission would jerk

New fuel tank going in, painting the Engine bay, painted tin....

She's coming togehter!!

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'74 Westy Pop Top "old yeller"
1700cc progressive carb
009 Dizzy with Electronic ignition

[Pinetops]

Nice work on your bus so far. The pop top looks so much better.
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"A rolling bus gathers no rust."

[box12360]

So it’s been awhile since my last post. Update I have put in a sink vanity with og westy sink and water reservoir. I bought a original sink out of a 76 model but our queen mattress would not fit in the back with that sink in. My original plan was to build a sink cabinet but Lowes had a deal on this vanity I couldn’t walk away from. The top is oak which I need to stain or put some sort of water proofing on.

I also added rock guards to the head lights to give her a little more flair 

I do have an oil leak, the bus has been sitting for about 1-2 months and it has leaked per the original oil stick, from the top fill line to below the bottom fill line. New motor with about 500 miles on it. I’ve tried to locate it with a flash light to at least see where the leak is staring but have not had any luck. Any tips on finding the source?
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'74 Westy Pop Top "old yeller"
1700cc progressive carb
009 Dizzy with Electronic ignition