TheSamba.com :: View topic

Sun Dec 04, 2016 3:45 pm

Ive been a watcher of what has been going down on here; joined up a while back but never got round to posting.

Hello from Nottinghamshire in the UK, I'm Mark (or Mork as most people call be over on thelatebay.com).

We own two latebays, our first one is a 1973 Kombi, stock height running a 1911 type 4 motor, custom built interior to our own specification.
Our second bus is a 1977 Westfalia Campmobile from Santa Cruz, CA, full service history, the previous owner looked after him. He is now in the process of having a top to bottom rebuild, he was used regularly for a fair few years!

The key question, to avoid cluttering the forum up, is it forum etiquette to continue posting on this thread when I update any work done on the buses?

Sun Dec 04, 2016 4:58 pm

I think you could post here, or you could make separate threads for each bus. It's really your choice.

Sun Dec 04, 2016 7:19 pm

Keep it all together. We know what you have from your first post. It will keep replies from getting mixed.

My

Aloha
tp

Mon Dec 05, 2016 1:23 pm

Tom Powell wrote: Keep it all together. We know what you have from your first post. It will keep replies from getting mixed.

My

Aloha
tp

Thanks Tom!

Ill keep it simple and make one thread to cover all, avoid cluttering things up!

Thanks :D

Wed Dec 07, 2016 1:52 am

Cool bus. I'm 20min from Santa Cruz CA.

Wed Dec 07, 2016 5:59 am

Vova wrote: Cool bus. I'm 20min from Santa Cruz CA.

Thanks Vova, much appreciated!

Good luck with your '78, hope it goes well :D

Wed Dec 07, 2016 9:21 am

Hi Mark, Very nice looking buses! I was confused by the fact that they had the same wheels in the pics! :oops:
Looking forward to reading about them both. :D
(Our Ghia was from Martin McGarry in Mansfield, and my Dad was from Kirkby-in-Ashfield).
Welcome!

Wed Dec 07, 2016 7:13 pm

mcdonaldneal wrote: I was confused by the fact that they had the same wheels in the pics! :oops:

Might wanna check that, they are different wheels(rims). Gas Burners and BRMs :wink: :)

....

To the O.P. .... Nice Buses! I am liking that grey/orange combo on your 73 especially.

Wed Dec 07, 2016 7:21 pm

Gday, love both your Bays.
Looking forward to following your thread for updates.
Good luck!

Thu Dec 08, 2016 6:03 am

mcdonaldneal wrote: Hi Mark, Very nice looking buses! I was confused by the fact that they had the same wheels in the pics! :oops:
Looking forward to reading about them both. :D
(Our Ghia was from Martin McGarry in Mansfield, and my Dad was from Kirkby-in-Ashfield).
Welcome!

Small world, we're living in Kirkby!

Ill have a look for photo's of your Ghia, they are great looking cars! A guy from Ashbourne way had two in an orchard under an apple tree, I dont know what happened to them though :(

Thu Dec 08, 2016 6:04 am

VWDog wrote: mcdonaldneal wrote: I was confused by the fact that they had the same wheels in the pics! :oops:

Might wanna check that, they are different wheels(rims). Gas Burners and BRMs :wink: :)

....

To the O.P. .... Nice Buses! I am liking that grey/orange combo on your 73 especially.

Thanks for the compliments, he gets used regularly :D

Thu Dec 08, 2016 6:05 am

Kick Kombi wrote: Gday, love both your Bays.
Looking forward to following your thread for updates.
Good luck!

thanks Kick Kombi, appreciate the comments!

Thu Dec 08, 2016 12:30 pm

Nice look forward to reading more about your 1911 Type 4 motor Bus.

Any pics on the Santa Cruz Bus?

Thu Dec 08, 2016 4:45 pm

Cheers Mork - welcome on the samba. Nice rides 8) Love the Essen.

Fri Dec 09, 2016 6:05 am

chabanais wrote: Nice look forward to reading more about your 1911 Type 4 motor Bus.

Any pics on the Santa Cruz Bus?

Ill add some info on that as I go along, no problem!

Fri Dec 09, 2016 6:06 am

notchboy wrote: Cheers Mork - welcome on the samba. Nice rides 8) Love the Essen.

Thanks Jason!

Fri Dec 09, 2016 2:31 pm

Our '73 tintop, Gusbus. This was my very first bay window restoration project me and my Dad worked on, we did all of the work in his garage over a six year period! We love how he turned out and use him to go away most weekend when the weather allows us to.
These photos where taken on the first day he was home:

After a very lengthy restoration, he now looks like this:

Fri Dec 09, 2016 2:39 pm

We didn't want to go for a stock build as we wanted to do it to suit us, so up front we have Saab leather seats

We made ourselves some Aluminium Alloy light units for the roof panel from a billet of 7000 series AA:

The interior was made by a friend, Scott who runs SJH Joinery, he has made interiors for quite a few show winning buses here in the UK:

And Keith at Kens Customs did the seat and bed in grey leather with yellow piping

Fri Dec 09, 2016 2:43 pm

Damn.. Those cabinets turned out NICE! Love them..

:D

Fri Dec 09, 2016 2:47 pm

Michelle, my better half made the curtains and some cushions, finish him off!

colour coded the roofrack grey to match the roof colour and varnished the wooden slats:

In our spare time at work, we made a towbar up out of some box section steel, same as the Watling one on the westy and incorporated the hookup plug:

Finally, after six years off the road, we had him MOT'd - he passed successfully, job done, all we had to do was enjoy!!