Nigel A. Skeet's 1973 VW "1600" Type 2 Westfalia C

[NASkeet]

In recent months, some of you have asked me to post some pictures of my British specification, 1973 VW "1600" Type 2 Westfalia Continental campervan, which my father bought second-hand, in January 1975 and which was the very first vehicle I drove solo, after passing my driving test on 1st July 1974.

Although I have been a moderately keen photographer, since I was a teenager, my photograpic interests have principally been in landscapes, although I have deigned to take the occasional holiday snapshot for the family, plus a few of the VW campervan from time to time.

In recent years, I've tended to use my camera (a 1979 vintage, Olympus OM2, with various interchangeable lenses), for technical photographs, some of which I have already posted in The Samba Gallery and/or published in various VW magazines, including Transporter Talk, VW Motoring, Volkswagen Driver and Volkswagen Camper & Commercial.

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Sweden - 1982

The two photographs, above and below, were taken on a campsite in west, central Sweden, during our summer touring holiday of 1982. The red squirrels were rather tame and probably on the scrounge for food.

One of them seemed interested in our campervan and later made a close inspection of the Michelin XZX 185 SR14 Reinforced radial tyres. Originally, this vehicle had been factory-fitted with 7·00 14 8PR cross-ply tyres, but we upgraded to Reinforced radial-ply tyres (as specified in the official owners' handbook), in circa 1977~78.

Note also, the following non-standard features:

During the late-1970s, as an additional safety feature, I retro-fitted, North American specification, red rear-side-marker lights and front amber-side-marker reflectors. In the future, I intented to convert the front units to amber front-side-marker lights and replace the red rear-side-marker light lenses with amber ones.

During the early-1980s, I retro-fitted some genuine VW Type 2 accessory mudflaps (Votex brand, purchased from the franchised VW dealership), attached to the rear mudguards, using home-made, duralumin brackets and M6 stainless steel machine screws, 25 mm washers and M6 Nyloc nuts. The duralumin (tough, corrosion resistant, aluminium alloy)brackets, were made from off-cuts, I had scrounged from various scrap bins, at university.

The splash-resistant BNC connector socket, mounted beneath the side-marker light, was my solution, to providing a low-current power supply, for the clip-on, 8W fluorescent light, in the annexe frame tent.

As one might deduce from the factory-stock, exhaust tail pipe, this vehicle had the AD-series, twin-port, 1971~73 VW 1600 Type 2 engine.

Our Swedish touring holiday, was one of the more eventful, as far as technical problems were concerned; sustaining three, on three consecutive days!

The first episode occurred, somewhere north of Västervik, when the ignition warning light illuminated. Realising it might be either a charging-system fault, or a slipping or broken fan belt, I immediately stopped to check and determined that the fan belt was okay.



The two pictures below, show our campervan being prepared, for a long-distance tow, from the petrol station, to a workshop in Kalmar, some 40 km to the South.

As we were driving South, from Västervik, towards Kalmar, the engine began to misfire and died, just one or two hundred metres from the OK petrol filling station. Noting that the fuel gauge needle, was hovering above R for reserve, we thought we might have inadvertantly run out of petrol, so we pushed it the remaining distance and filledup the tank, with 92 RON petrol. However, when I attempted to restart the engine, it did not fire, but I noticed the smell of perol, consistent with flooding.

Knowing that the single Minnow Fish carburettor, was prone to flooding, I removed the side of the float chamber, to check for dirt or other contaminants, which might have prevented the needle-valve from sealing properly. What I found on this occasion, was that the brass float inside, had filled with petrol (which I could hear sloshing around inside), causing the carburettor to flood.

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Austria - 1983

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Hungary - 1985

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Republic of Ireland - 1989

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Campervan modifications - since January 1975

cutlery drawer, etc

Javelin Mono radio with short wave

Complete rear hatch & rear-window wiper

[Img]https://www.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/360682.jpg[Img]


Vauxhall Cavalier fuse & relay box

[Img]https://www.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/328338.jpg[Img]


Supplementary, 6-postion relay mounting cum connector blocks

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/gallery/pix/327969.jpg