My westy multi-project with pics

[madspaniard]

all right, so before I start losing all the pictures and forget how I did things, here is a brief description of my winter multi-project coming to an end.

It all started when I bought the westy. The interior of the fridge didn't look too cute, too fainted yellowish for my wife (and me, I'll admit it) so I decided to replace the fridge with a whiter one. While the fridge was out I started checking out The Samba (big mistake! ) and decided to do more things like replace the water lines to the faucet.

So when I was just about to replace those water lines, a rainy day showed me that water was coming in from somewhere behind the hookup panel. So I decided to remove the cabinets and check out for rust and remove the fiberglass. That is when I detected water coming in from the vertical panel seam in that area.

see the water here shining along the vertical panel seam in the out-of-focus picture

So I sealed the seam from the inside and replaced the outside hookup boxes. Sealing the seam in this picture.

I also wire brused some small rusty spots at the bottom of the panel, sealed the botom panel and sprayed a zinc oxide primer and Rustoleum paint before aplying Waxoil for rust protection.

While the cabinets where out I decided to pull out the floor and rear bench to vacuum everything and replace the press boards which were soaked from the water coming in from the panel seam.

While the floor was out I also decided to do everything I could need in the future here so my good friend Sergio helped me thread and weld two front bolts behing the passenger seat for the second LP tank that I already have and also weld two pieces of metal with a nut on each piece to receive the leg pegs of my jumpseat with armrests.

here is a picture threading the second LP tank bolt. You can see the first bolt welded already.

some welding going on

here you can see the metal plates and nuts for the jumpseat and the heads of the two bolts for the second LP tank after priming with zinc oxide and painting with Rustoleum

More Samba stuff, I decided to install factory 3-point rear right seatbealt with reel behind panel

Another look at The Samba and I was convinced I needed to do the sound dampening and heat insulation. I used RAAMmat (sound) and Reflectix (heat)

floor back

detail of jumpseat nuts in floor. I'm installing black plastic caps to cover the nuts when the jumpseat is not mounted.

I can finally see the end of this project, today I started putting the cabinets back in place, and replaced the water lines and the rusty metal straps that used to hold down the wires inside the water tank cabinet.

new water lines

new metal straps. Need to clean that yellowish floor

I'll be posting more pictures as I complete the second LP tank install with new valves and extend-a-stay and connection to the original LP tank, and the jumpseat with armrests.

I need to thank a lot of people here on The Samba for posting a lot of great information and also than a bunch of you (Erik) for giving me advice over the phone.

Enrique

[1621]

Well planned, and nice attention to detail! Keep us posted as the projects wrap up.
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'85 Westy

[markz2004]

Nice Job! but, holy crap. I just pulled my galley this afternoon. Boy do I have a ways to go. I just wanted to put in a jump seat and needed to pull the floor up to install the peg leg receivers. Now I am sensing a serious amount of scope creep in my project.

I bet all of that sound proofing is going to be really great. Again nice job!
Mark
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87 Westy, 250k GW 2.4 - 2.0 , 16" wheels

[madspaniard]

hey Mark,

just giving you my support, it is a bit time consuming but also rewarding. I was working only during one day of the weekend and some weekdays after work in a street parking lot (I live in a condo unit) and with a pregnant wife just a couple of weeks away from baby time.

The key thing to save a lot of time and headaches is to be organized when pulling stuff out, the Bentley is great help, pics also help. You will get really familiar with all the stuff that is in your van and how it works, piece of mind when you are camping and something goes wrong, you already know how it works and how to get there to fix it.

Good luck and PM me anytime for questions. Hope I can help!

[insyncro]

How do you plan to address the exterior of the seams now that the interior ones are sealed up? If they are cracked or split, water will be able to get in and sit, not good. These are flexible joints that will open at some point from flexation of the chassis during normal usage. They were designed that way. If the rust is is showing on the interior, no matter how small, it has affected the seam and is working its way out.
I appreciate your efforts and don't want to see the rust excellerate due to the interior seal and no exterior seal. You have a beautiful van, no doubt there. Just want to see it stay that way.

dylan

[madspaniard]