My 1968 Campmobile

[Hikelite]

First, allow me to say thank you to all of you for sharing your knowledge of and experience with our beloved VWs.

I bought this '68 back in '96, when she was a sexy 28 year old. I was a poor SDSU student at the time, and got her for $1800. She was my daily driver, other than the usual down time for thrown rods and such, until 2002. I drove her to Flagstaff, AZ to move, and there she sat, sadly neglected, until last year.

She is now sitting, still neglected yet loved, in NE WA. Why is this important? The change of locale has brought with it some advantages. First, I have a larger 2 car garage now (only had a single car carport in Flagstaff), AND a separate HUGE workshop! The workshop needs to be finished up, but the budget dept (ie wife) has already approved funding to finish the workshop AND to restore my beloved Campmobile! As you will see in the pics, the workshop is a steel building that still needs the front wall built. I've already acquired a large roll up door, and I hope to be working in there this winter, but I digress. Back to the bus...

She is mostly original, and, based on many of the build threads I have read here, in pretty good shape. Before moving to AZ, I had a 1915cc longblock with hydraulic lifters (I hate adjusting valves and a bus doesn't need to rev high IMHO) built by Headflow Masters in North SD County. It has maybe 20k miles on it, but probably closer to 15k. As far as the engine goes, I always thought it was under carburated (and then there was that fire incident), so I will add some dual carbs or maybe a progressive.

The interior is in fair shape. Sorry, I have no pictures of the interior yet. She still has some things stuffed inside from the move up here (she was towed on a carrier behind the uhaul). I'll take some interior shots when I clean her out soon. I apologize in advance for the poor quality of the pictures. They are taken with my phone. We haven't unpacked all the boxes yet, so I don't know where my DSLR is :p With no further adu... pics!

Here she is in the outbuilding I'll be making into a shop.

The front. Almost no rust. There is a dent on the drivers side of the bumper. Can that be fixed? Or will I have to buy a new bumper?

Drivers side. The top looks rough, but I think it can be saved.

Passenger side.

The rear. You can see some paint peeling on the engine hatch. You can also see it in the passenger side pic near the gas filer. The brass nipple for the fuel line on the carb came out one day causing a little engine fire

The Engine. 1915cc with hydraulic lifters from Headflow Masters in San Diego. It has the outlets for an external oil cooler I already have, but haven't mounted yet. This bus has original AC. You can make out the compressor in the back left. It's just sitting there. I have taken the mount off (still have it though) to make room when I was working on the motor. Since the AC didn't work when I bought it, I never tried to hook it back up... yet

I apologize in advance for posting this way too prematurely. I probably won't even be able to begin tearing this thing apart for a few months, but I've been reading threads here and it's really getting me excited to work on her! I also apologize, in advance, for the many long winded posts, like this one, that I will make relating to this project.

I'd also like to thank everyone in advance for all the help and advice I will surely need. My first car was a '70 Beetle. Then I had a '74 914, so I've had some experience with working on air cooled VWs. There are a lot of areas of this restoration I have little or no experience with, such as welding, but I've always wanted to learn to weld. I also discovered a spray gun really isn't all that expensive, so I'm going to try my hand at painting her too. I'm in awe at those of you who restore an entire bus in months. I expect this to take me at least a year. After a little time researching prices for items to restore the bus, it may take longer just due to budget reasons.

[busdaddy]

Welcome!
That's a great looking bus with alot of potential, stop apologising . Your questions regarding how hard it is to fix things are best answered by you and your skills, nothing looks hard from here but I've seen some less than mechanical people make small jobs like that into a big deal, I guess you'll have to dig in and see how you stack up.
As for that shop it looks like I could fit 9+ buses in there, can I store a few for a little while?
_________________
Rust NEVER sleeps and stock never goes out of style.

Please don't PM technical questions, ask your problem in public so everyone can play along. If you think it's too stupid post it here
Stop dead photo links! Post your photos to The Samba Gallery!

Слава Україні!

[peaceful warrior]

Congrats on getting back to your Westy, and on the new workshop....Add a lift in the wife's budget!
_________________
"Two things are infinite: The universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." Albert Einstein
"Notchboy" says "Man up!"
"Tram" says " My bus is bigger than your bus."
66 13W Deluxe, 68 Westfalia, 87 Syncro.
TOOB Member #15
Brian

[BusterBrown]

Welcome! I love '68s. My first bus (Buster) was a '68. Never underestimate a '68! I'll be watching your progress along with everyone else.
_________________
1978 Sage Green Westfalia (Happy Trails, SOLD)
1977 Transporter

Life is short. Can I have some of yours?

[grandpa pete]

yes yopu can fix the bumper but in the long run it might be better to just leave it like it is untill you find a cheep replacement at a swap meet . $40.00 at the last show i went to....have fun with your new workshop
_________________
63 two fold rag
66 sedan delivery Type 6

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=569619&highlight=sedan+delivery

[Hikelite]

Here are some close up pics of the damaged areas and pictures of the plates on the bulkheads.

Passenger side door sill

The dented bumper. I think I'll have to replace the bumper

Drivers side floor. I don't know if I have t replace this or can I just clean it up? While I've never dealt with this sort of thing, I am determined to learn how to do all the body work on this bus. Can I just wire wheel off the rust, or it is impossible to say until I start cleaning it up?

Plate behind passenger seat.

Here is the M Plate. I put it into the 2 automated decoders, and neither of them knew how to interpret some of my codes. This bus has A/C, so I thought maybe that would be one of them, but I read in another thread that ALL A/C's were dealer installed.

Here is the link to the vw-mplate.com page for this bus

I don't know how to share the alltheprettybuses.com page.

[Threads To Treads]

I have a 68 Campmobile I'm restoring too. I'm having a bit of a problem figuring out the water tank. What is the part number?[/img]

[notchboy]

MMmmmmm dead thread revival.

I did a lot - I mean A LOT of par-te-ing at SDSU in the early 90's. Shit I wasnt even a student there either.
_________________

[Threads To Treads]

So, notchboy, do you know?

[notchboy]

[engelwagen]

I have a 68 Westy that I am almost done restoring and I was looking at your first two pictures of your bus. Your top is slightly different then mine. Your top angle is more square on the front corners, mine is angled to match the lines of the bottom layer. My top is original, did yours come off another year?

_________________
1968 VW Westfalia, 1966 Beetle, 2018 Golf R

[Threads To Treads]

Yes, it did come with the camper and we are pretty sure it is original because it is so different than the other years. There are lots of things about the 68 that are different and one year only, like the rear view mirror and the Friggin Water Tank!!!!

Man we almost killed that top after we re-glassed it. It was so pretty and white as snow. We strapped it on until we were ready to put it back on.

We were towing the bus to have some body work done and it flew off on the freeway and we didn't know it for miles. Went back and found it in the island between the lanes.... broken... and all dirty! Then we had to call in the professionals! I'm pretty sure it actually came with the one year only bus, I've seen a few others just like mine, OK maybe one other but I did see it. It may depend on what month your bus was built too.

[Threads To Treads]

Con Founit! Posting photos is hard!

[Hikelite]

Wow sorry to have neglected this thread...

Nice Campers!!

TtT, are you asking me to look at my water tank and find a part #? Where should I look?

ew, my top is original afaik. I bought the camper from the original owner. I'm not sure if it's managed to stay in the bus all these years, but I had the window sticker when I bought it back in the 90's.

I do see the difference you're talking about though. They are definitely different. I posted my M Plate, who's was built first? Perhaps they changed the tops? What about TtT's top? I can't tell if his looks more like mine or yours.

I was near SDSU from ~'92-'98, then a year more inland before leaving SD.
_________________
~Kevin

My 1968 Campmobile

[Threads To Treads]

I believe if you're looking for the month and year the bus was made it's in the VIN. The 3rd number from the left is the year. I have been told by professional, old school VW techs that the month is in the VIN somewhere and it may be the 2nd number... but I'm not positive. My bus' VIN is 238110582. According to this site, (http://www.thesamba.com/vw/archives/info/chassisdating.php), I at least know my bus was made sometime between Nov. 30, 1967 to Dec. 31, 1967. Because my last 3 numbers are 582, it would seem to me it was built toward the end of Nov. 1967. But.... What do I know? I took pics of my plates but they came out too blurry so I'll try that again some other day.

EDITED MESSAGE: Afterthought... looking at my VIN it seems my Old School Tech may be correct except the month follows the 3rd number in the VIN. 3rd number being the year "8" for 1968, following 2 numbers being the month, "11"... November! Yeah! Mystery solved. Who's bus in oldest then?

If my theory is correct, yours is older because the 2 numbers following the year in your VIN are "04". That would mean yours was made in April 1967? But according to the samba link above yours would be made in October 1967? So.... I just full of hot air! I don't know diddly!

[Hikelite]

[Hikelite]

Well I was out looking at the carburetor earlier, and it's not original
It's a Bocar. I seem to recall that brand from my bug days in the 80s. The more I read here and compare to my bus, the more stuff I find that is changed.

So I need advice on what carburetor to install. While I'm certainly no purist, my preference is to remain stock, cut I'm not sure what was stock in 68.

With the 1915 motor, would a 34pict3 be able to supply enough fuel?
After reading some builds here, I'd like to put the engine back to stock as much as possible, but use the long block that is in there.

Thanks in advance for advice.
_________________
~Kevin

My 1968 Campmobile

[Hikelite]

[secretsubmariner]

Lots of searching in the forums, using the 'title only' check box next to the search bar, you'll be able to find QUITE a bit of threads about fixing stuff and preparing for trips. You definitely want to make sure your brakes, suspension, shifting and pedal stuff is all tip top, as well as electrical stuff and of course your engine and fuel system.

Regarding the ancient vin discussion,
The first digit is the car, The Type 2. The second digit is the model its based on. The 3 stands for kombi, which is what the Westfalia was built on. The 3rd digit is the model year. After that idk. lol
_________________
-Tony
ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ
1978 Champagne Edition Bus FI
1970 Auto Fastback FI

[jtauxe]