Bus Late Bay Window - old spare wheel hole cover

[HibsMax]

I've just ripped out the interior of our 77 Westy because we didn't use any of the furniture and we wanted more space. I will be building my own replacement furniture soon, but still got other things like panels to build, etc. One of the improvements I wanted to make was giving us more sleeping space. Removing the vertical wardrobe was half the battle, but then you're left with a big hole where the spare wheel used to live. That wouldn't be very comfortable to sleep on, so I made a cover. It was actually quite challenging since I didn't have a template, the rectangle has oddly curved corners, and the hole is tapered at either end. I grabbed whatever scrap wood I had lying around (3/4" plywood, I think it was) and made my own cover which I think looks pretty good. It took a lot of back and forth to the workshop to get it fitting nice, but it's not perfect. It's not an airtight gap, the finish isn't great, but it looks like it's going to work just fine. It lies flat and is stable.

The Kilmat does not cover every square inch of exposed sheet metal, but from the limited testing I did, it seems to do a decent enough job. It's going to sound better than it did before at any rate. I saw lots of videos where people don't leave a single gap, and maybe that's what you have to do, but I also saw some videos where people claim you don't need to do that and leaving gaps is fine. I guess I'll find out.

[Jrh5r]

I’d love to get my hands on that old interior
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1973 1.7L Bus

[HibsMax]

I have had a couple of notes about that. I don't have photos yet, and this probably belongs in the classifieds, but I want to say that it looks like my Westy is a *partial conversion if such a thing exists? There is no propane hookup. No stovetop. Maybe they were optional? I'll get around to putting together an ad for the interior. Everything is going except the rear seat since I need it for the bed and the hinges are 300+ dollars.

update: *weekender package seems most likely.

[Jetfxr69]

well hell! now thats a novel idea.

some rough cut cherry we milled down and shaped just as you did. even got the same holes in there. ours will make the bed more functional with the added width. gonna put the hyd jack, handle, breaker bar w/ 19 mm socket and a large flat screwdriver in there. everything needed for a tire change. a couple of anchored thick rubber clip straps to secure everything should work well.

i like the way you think
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You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer. Zappa

‘77 westy Seamus
‘76 tintop Crusher
‘77 westy The Judge
‘72 tintop bastard westy Hudson

[CanStan]

Nice work! I did the poor man’s version of that. I had some scrap 1/8” ply laying around. I basically made a rectangle, and cut an angled section to fit against the wall. It just lays on top, but the rear cushion holds it just fine. And it’s plenty strong enough so it’s not going to break if you’re on top of it.
It’s a good spot to stash a few parts or tools, or even your wallet and phone when you need to hide them. Total build time was about 90 seconds.

[Jetfxr69]

[HibsMax]

[HibsMax]

Hey, there's nothing wrong with spending hours on stuff people will never see. I love the process despite my cussing all day long.