TheSamba.com :: View topic - My 1978 Westfalia Berlin Build/Resto (picture heavy)

Wed May 01, 2024 2:48 am

I've been lurking on this forum for a little while and decided it was probably time to start a thread.

Ive owned a few Volkswagens over the years, Starting with a 1961 Beetle that I drove for about a year and then it came off the Road to be restored, which unfortunately I never got to finish it due to losing my storage facility.
My next big purchase was a 1969 Microbus, 100% original paint, had never been welded and I drove the wheels off it!

Being in Australia you'd imagine the Vw scene would be quite large but sadly thats not the case, not in comparison to the US and Europe anyway. I took my 69 Bay to a local-ish classic car show and met my now good mate James, he introduced me to Westfalias. From that moment on I knew I wanted a camper, My family Vw' history isn't to vast, my dad only ever having 2 Beetles and one 1975 microbus, Campers were new to me. I sold the 69 Bay for exactly what It owed me, And started the search for a Camper. Not realising how involved Westfalia's were, I bought a 1976 Sopru Camper, non running out of a storage shed for less than a third of what I sold the 69 for. To cut a long story short, I spent a bucket load on coin on the Sopru, and it still wasn't ticking my boxes. So I sold that too.

Fast forward about 6 months, (January 2018 ish) I had quit my job to move onto "Bigger & Better" things. With exactly one whole week off between finishing up one job and starting the next, I thought "f*ck it, nows my chance, I gotta buy a Westy"
Booked 2 flights to England (from Australia) for me and my partner to go on the hunt for my forever car. Called my partner up, whilst she was at work and told her we were heading over sea's for a week. With only 3 days notice for her boss, he okayed it and we were off.

Thankfully due to being born in the uk, and having good friends the short notice wasn't really an Issue. My good mate Austin found me a Sage Green Westfalia, that was supposedly rust free and Original paint - turns out it wasn't and the seller absolutely wasted my time. With only one full day before our flight home, Austin found me another lead a few hours from where we were. So we arranged an inspection, drove up the next day and did the deal. Massive shoutout to Dickie, the previous owner. Something I forgot to mention, we'd left 33c temperatures at home whilst the uk was going through "The beast of the east"
It was -11c where we were staying!

We sad our goodbyes, flew home and then organised import approval and shipping. About 4 months after buying, it finally arrived in Australia.

Ill add some photos of the journey and pick up further on.

Jack.

Wed May 01, 2024 3:01 am

How I got it..

How I sold it..
Fully restored pan, painted shell.

Wed May 01, 2024 3:11 am

My 69 unpainted bay, if I knew then, what I know now, this would never have been sold. The person who I sold it too, has since sold it on and its now disappeared off the face of the planet.

Wed May 01, 2024 3:40 am

My only ever breakdown, somehow the springs snapped on the Left hand front drum and locked up the wheel. No damage was done.

Moving onto the 76 Sopru I bought and never gelled with, so sold that on too.
Day I picked it up

Stripped the old pop top off and painted the roof to make way for the new fibreglass pop top.

Luckily enough to still buy brand new reproduction pop tops here in Aus, this was in 2018 though, so not too sure now

And finally how I sold it.

Wed May 01, 2024 6:30 am

Epic journey!!! Can't wait to see the new Westy... :lol: :lol:
As for broken brake springs causing havoc, we endured that one day on my Wife's Beetle, driving around- Never fully locked up the wheel, but it worked at it... :lol: :lol:
Hadn't thought about that in YEARS until you posted your story... #-o #-o

Fri May 03, 2024 11:06 pm

Finally had some time to get onto the westy part.
The sage green Berlin is the one I flew across the world to buy, thankfully that didn't pan out as it wasn't exactly cheap at the time. It had not been on the road in the uk long apparently and was from San Francisco.
Ill let the pictures tell the story.

Bare in mind we were only in the UK for a week, we stopped for lunch on the way back to our friends place, Ended up getting food poisoning and was out of action for a little bit. Fast forward to 2 days before we fly home and my mate Austin sent me the eBay listing for a 1978 Berlin deluxe, mostly original paint, a little bit of rust and fitted with a Fellows Speed Shop Subaru 2.5 engine swap.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dQOWqalo4Gs
Video the previous owner had sent through

Ended up getting the deal done, and the Previous owner was happy to drive it an hour south to a mates house, (in temperatures below freezing) for me to then run Him back home.

And a view from our nights accomodation back in London, the night before flying home. What an absolute mission it was. Massive thanks to my mate Austin.

Sat May 04, 2024 12:38 am

Collected and into short term storage at Austins place in Herefordshire

Fast forward 6 weeks and its being collected (was a bit of a hassle getting it picked up as it was so low)

Week or so later and it was loaded into a container in London, trucked to Felixstowe and put on a boat ready to head to Singapore.

What seemed like an eternity later, it finally landed in Brisbane, somehow the boat docked on Monday, it was unloaded and had customs clearance clearance all within 24 hours and was ready to collect from Brisbane on the Wednesday
First setting eyes on the westy on Australian soil

Loaded up and heading home.

Unloading wasn't too easy, still have the gas tank fitted about 80mm off the ground.

Sat May 04, 2024 3:00 am

Lovely looking bus, and quite the adventure to get it! Glad it all worked out so well.
I was under the impression that you guys had all the rust-free examples and it was UK buyers poaching them from Australia?
You're redressing the balance which is cool. Looking forward to seeing more.

Sat May 04, 2024 3:16 am

3am wrote: Lovely looking bus, and quite the adventure to get it! Glad it all worked out so well.
I was under the impression that you guys had all the rust-free examples and it was UK buyers poaching them from Australia?
You're redressing the balance which is cool. Looking forward to seeing more.

Hey Mate,
Most of the campers over here are hack jobs, sopru pop tops were poorly installed, literally drill four holes and cut between them, No reinforcement added or anything, just slapped onto. Because of this, most of the campers have rust in the tops. Not to mention them being used as surfer vans and living on the coast.
Here's 2 examples of Aussie vans, only the really good ones leave

Sat May 04, 2024 3:20 am

3am wrote: Lovely looking bus, and quite the adventure to get it! Glad it all worked out so well.
I was under the impression that you guys had all the rust-free examples and it was UK buyers poaching them from Australia?
You're redressing the balance which is cool. Looking forward to seeing more.

Here's my sopru that I was incredibly lucky with when it comes to roof rust

And after fixing the minor rust and giving it a fresh coat of paint

Tue May 07, 2024 6:31 pm

Looks like a nice Bay Westy

Congrats on getting it home