1974 Westfalia MAJOR Restoration

[notchboy]

Yeah thats original. Kind of takes you off guard since its a plastic bag.

74-75's have some unique bits. Hazetguy knows the ins and outs of these years and I learned a lot from him when I got my 74.

They have the collapsible spare, the blue VW Coleman pump to name a few. The Blue plaid is only available for US Westys these two years.

Just save it all when you get to that point, lay it out in the "things I found in my bus" thread and we will see what you got.

Nice to have a Deluxe as well with the cooker and Westy Box. Please don't stop posting and be discouraged by us gruppy butts. I wouldn't do what you are doing, but I am routing for you
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[blink]

HELL YEAH DUDE

get into it. Hats off to you mate. will be a killer bus when you finish it

keen to keep watching the thread.

Ps F##K the Haters, good for nothing but a laugh and to show them in the end that it can be done!!

[Abscate]

You will learn a ton no matter what way this one turns. Don’t let the grumpsters suck you into their nursing homes.
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.ssS!

[HoboBus]

I'm sure you guys have all seen the movie Christine:

"Once I cleaned up the broken glass, it wasn't so bad."

The thing looks like a filthy mess for sure, but once you gut it and scrub every single piece with bleach or whatever, you'll have an idea of what you're working with. My guess is a lot of the parts will clean up to useable condition with a whoooole bunch of time and elbow grease.

If you've got the time, get on it! Good luck and keep the pics coming!

Hobo.
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Salt air it ain't thin, it'll stick right to your skin,
it'll make you feel fine. Makes you feel fine.
And I wanna be there. -- Jimmy Buffett

Just a beach-oriented camping Hobo with a bus.

[Clatter]

Shit.
If you were my kid, or were around here,
It would be fun to hand you tools, drink beer, and heckle.

With some real ambition, a pile of green metal (OK maybe WW metal but not KK), cut-off wheels, sandpaper and paint cans
(And about 5,000 hours)
You could bring this thing back.

Those 74-75 campers might just be the new Holy Grail.
They are certainly harder to do than many other VWs for several reasons.
To do one right would take some real stones.

Thing is,
Unless you get it water tight,
You'll always have a moldy/stinky hippy-foot POS that NO non-meth girl would ever be seen anywhere near.

To get it water-tight again requires some metal welded in and rubber seals that fit.

You're going to have to finish it to at least a certain level in order to keep it from being a total derelict nightmare..

If you're welding in patch parts,
It really doesn't take much more effort to do a decent job as a halfassed one.

Steps that people skip like sandblasting and welding make it so you just have to do the whole job over again in a couple of years.
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Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[Clatter]

You roll up to the show..

The crowd is gathered out front..

Heads turn, especially the ladies want to know who the guy is rolling that thing.

All eyes are on you,
The sliding door comes open,




… And proceeds to fall off the track and onto the ground with a loud crash...
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Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[Clatter]

[67ctbug]

[Abscate]

The ladies will flock to see your Bus, then get into my air conditioned 7 series with me the old geezer with $100 bills stuck in the door gaskets.

Reality bites.
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.ssS!

[TomWesty]

[Busstom]

[Zed999]

10-15-20 years ago restoring a rust bucket like this was ok because you could pick up a complete set of rust free doors and lids with all the windows and catches still fitted for £3-400 even in UK and VW were still making good front arches, whole side panels, whole rear corners and they were cheap - I remember buying a genuine front arch for £50 and it was buy one get one free so that was 2 complete arches for £50 - and all those other good quality genuine parts - front and rear wheel tubs, cargo floors and deformation panel for instance. The bodywork parts costs were not so bad and with just (a lot of) your time, if you had it, a fairly nice bus could be made fairly cheaply.

But now is not then, you can buy a bus with a decent shell for the current cost of the panels and doors and save yourself a LOT of time so why bother? When you have the bodywork sorted, straight, painted and watertight... really you're not even half way. Nowadays even doing all the work yourself it's an expensive way to get to the end point. Keep a record of the TIME including scanning the internet for parts and scratching your head and you'd see it would be more effective to get a second job, save the money and buy a good one.

But all that said if panel work is your hobby and you're good at it I guess it's something to do with your spare time and no more daft than any other hobby so I wish you well.

[67ctbug]

Where'd I go? Did you think maybe I came to my senses and stopped liking rust? Of course not! No I did exactly what I said I would and finished up my bug before starting another project (that didn't stop me from getting more projects though ) If you want to check out the bug, there's the little blue link in my sig line.
Anyway here's the low down, I'm fixing the bus and I still love rust! Took delivery of it from my Grandfather's house in July and have been cracking away at it. Stripped the interior out first thing and did some poking and prodding. From what I can tell, the bus was redone at least once completely. The cargo floor is pretty nice actually with the exception of the edges, you know, the spot you expect them to rust
I've got a heap of repair panels here and getting ordered. I have to say I'm very impressed with the quality of British panels.
First major repair was the sliding door track. It was nowhere near as hard as it's made out to be in my opinion. Put some holes in it to make sure it went back in the right spot and the door works real well now. Big thanks to cmonSTART for the panel!
I did find some rust on the frame... I don't want to hear about it though They make panels for it, but I'm planning on fabbing them up myself. Shouldn't be too hard. Here's some pictures of it.

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'67 Beetle L41
'74 Westfalia
'69 Plymouth "Adam-12"
'63 Ragtop
'73 914
'72 Dodge Wrecker
Go Cubs!
World Series Champions 2016

[Ceckert64]

Big applauds for saving that!!! Nice to know there is some other kid crazier than me I did a really rotted bug and got part way, started a Squareback, finished that, started a bus, got quite a ways along and finally finished the bug. Good choice at going one project at a time. Keeps those around you in better graces There are more solid busses at my local VW junkyard but there is one that is actually pretty solid you may be able to get some pieces off of. I would never want to do that rusty of a bus. I’m rooting for ya!
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1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop

[Globespotter]

Great to see you back on the Westy! Can't wait to see the progress!!!
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1977 Westfalia - October 2015 - Current
1971 Super Beetle - May 2012 - Current
1979 Westfalia - 1986-1991
1971 Super Beetle - 1977-1980

1971 SB Survivor Story: https://globespotter.com/
Road Trip Thread: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=511800&highlight=
My 77 Westy Thread: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=647114&highlight=

http://vw-mplate.com/mcode.php?lang=EN&id=30990
https://vw-type2-id.xyz/mplate/72067382

[notchboy]

The bug turned out nice. Good luck on this one. Lots of work ahead of you.
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[67ctbug]

Thanks guys, working right now on moving it up to the front yard again. Would like to fix up the frame section and do the engine bay up. Got some paint from my local jobber for a spray out, love the color all shiny!
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'67 Beetle L41
'74 Westfalia
'69 Plymouth "Adam-12"
'63 Ragtop
'73 914
'72 Dodge Wrecker
Go Cubs!
World Series Champions 2016

[The Volkswagen Ranch]

Follow your dream. Don’t let others take away what you want to do. You have more support than you can imagine. Just keep moving forward , a little at a time. You will learn and develop skills along the way. Nobody said it was going to be easy! Bob
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1963 Convertible (Lizzie) and 1964 Convertible (Patience) 1976 Westfalia (Winnie)

[67ctbug]

Registered the old beast last week, didn't want any issues at DMV down the road like they did with my bug. I got a lot of updates for you all.
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'67 Beetle L41
'74 Westfalia
'69 Plymouth "Adam-12"
'63 Ragtop
'73 914
'72 Dodge Wrecker
Go Cubs!
World Series Champions 2016

[dodger tom]

Add me to the list of folks who think it's great you're not crushing this thing. There are fewer and fewer left as many head to Japan, Australia, Europe, and where next?

Make it into something you use and enjoy. Perfection, if achieved, when achieved, runs smack dab into entropy.

Congrats on the ongoing resurrection.
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1978 Champaign Edition 2 Westfalia
Would never find the time to keep up another classic air-cooled.