TheSamba.com :: View topic - 1960 SO23 Westy

Tue Aug 06, 2019 9:19 pm

The bus shipped to Poland about 5 weeks ago, so I should get it soon.

I've still got a bit of interior work to do, and restore the sloper rack, but the body and mechanical restoration is done and should pass the local inspection (like the German TüV inspection). After that, we get to explore Poland and Europe for the next few years.

Thu Aug 08, 2019 8:00 am

Many happy roadtrips to you both!

Bill

Mon Sep 02, 2019 7:39 pm

Very beautiful. Inspirational

Tue Sep 10, 2019 10:30 am

Today, I received a wonderful shipment here in Warsaw, and I thought I might share the unboxing.

I got to drive the bus out of the container at the customs port.

Just a few more details and tweaks before we can start driving the bus around Poland.
More updates soon.

Tue Sep 10, 2019 10:51 am

npbusguy wrote: Today, I received a wonderful shipment here in Warsaw, and I thought I might share the unboxing.

Just a few more details and tweaks before we can start driving the bus around Poland.
More updates soon.

I can feel your excitement through this picture!

Tue Sep 10, 2019 11:14 am

glad to hear it made it over there safely neil- i can't imagine how nerve wracking it must be wondering what shape it would arrive in. I once read a story about someone shipping a bus in a sea can and they forgot to secure the bus in any fashion inside the container. Three guesses what sort of condition it arrived in on the other end. Glad your faired far better

Sat Sep 14, 2019 12:02 pm

Today was the first day that I really got to play with the bus since it arrived in Warsaw. Jacek, who makes all the reproduction parts, came over to check it out.

Got to add some of the fun trinkets I've collected for the bus.

I picked these window screens up a couple years back, and man are they cool. I've not seen another set come up for sale, and don't know the history on them.

Sat Sep 14, 2019 1:04 pm

Beautiful bus and those screens are badass.

Sat Sep 14, 2019 6:29 pm

you must be amped to have that with you in Poland. Someone was repro-ing those screens not so long ago(maybe still). I always thought they were a good idea for camper buses

edit: here is the place that has them https://www.aircooledaccessories.com/index.php?rou...uct_id=303

Sun Sep 15, 2019 5:01 am

Thanks for the comments guys.

It drives me nuts if something is supposed to be on the bus, and my recent fixation has been the early westy cargo latch lock pin.
Anyway, I figured out what I needed to do to make one, so here are the pix.

The chain is a bit short and the gauge is a bit light, but it works for now.
The weird thing is that my latch has two holes in it, but only one is drilled all the way through to accommodate the cotter pin.
Westy mistake? Probably.

Mon Sep 30, 2019 11:34 am

We've been able to take the bus out to a few local car gatherings, and have met some great people.
I haven't been able to travel much, but I can see that touring in Europe with my own split camper will be worth all the headaches we've gone through to get this far.

Kudos to all European bus owners who have to get their buses to pass a TüV or MOT inspection. They look at EVERYTHING, even the amount of play in the king and link pins and if there are any oil drips. I've got to get special approval from the ministry of transportation because my rear lights are all red, and I don't have headrests. Because of the plates that I will receive, I don't get the normal exemptions that would be afforded by Polish antique plates, but at the same time, it will be easier to travel throughout Europe in the bus.

This is coming soon.

Tue Oct 01, 2019 12:10 am

What a great looking bus. Congrats.

Sun Oct 27, 2019 10:29 am

I've been enjoying the beautiful autumn weather here in Poland, and of course, that means driving on small back roads through quaint little towns.

I've still got more work to do, but at least it is getting used as it is supposed to, especially since it is my only car here.

Thu Jan 02, 2020 10:37 am

A few updates and cool pix of the camper living it's life in Poland.

Since the bus is a daily driver, I figured I'd add a little safety feature to the back.

I also added a GPS based speedometer to help with the metric conversions

I've also been working on some details that I didn't get around to when I was putting it together, like the clam shell light wiring.

And here are a few of the bus around town

Sun Apr 05, 2020 7:29 am

This Covid-19 lock down is good for something. I got around to installing the clam shell wiring harness in my camper.

Let there be light!

These are LED bulbs that have been coated with amber glass stain to warm them up a bit. The lights are super bright and are a pleasing temperature, so I'm happy with them.

Next on the project list are curtains, or maybe the water pump or.... So many little things to do on a westy.

Sun Apr 05, 2020 10:55 am

Can you tell me more on your GPS speedo ? Where you got it from and how its hooked up etc ?

Sun Apr 05, 2020 3:09 pm

Seeing ‘der busbesitzer griuppe ’ sticker which is a WI-IL club, how did you happen on it?

Sun Apr 05, 2020 5:01 pm

panel wrote: Can you tell me more on your GPS speedo ? Where you got it from and how its hooked up etc ?

You can buy them on Amazon for about $24 shipped. The only hook up necessary is to a USB power source, and a power bank is all you need if you don't want to wire up a USB outlet.

Sun Apr 05, 2020 5:04 pm

Slip356 wrote: Seeing ‘der busbesitzer griuppe ’ sticker which is a WI-IL club, how did you happen on it?

I've been a member of this group for years and would go to all the events when I lived in the US.

Sat Apr 11, 2020 5:20 am

I made a little more progress on some interior details this weekend.

Still more to do, but the list is getting shorter.