eche_bus: 1976 Westfalia Deluxe Camper

[Bala]

[eche_bus]

Thanks Bala, that blower is proving to be harder to pin down than I'd ever imagined.
--------------------

Before moving on to some "real" work, I want to show you one of our most recent parts finds. When we bought the bus the front table was missing - not just the table, but the dash brackets and leg too. There were screw holes in the dash, just no brackets and the seller had no idea what became of any of it.

From what I've gathered these things don't show up in the classifieds too often and I got worried when I found the dash brackets but no reinforcement plates, then a table with no leg, then a table and a leg together but the veneer was crap and the price was over $200.

First I found a guy parting a Westy. Table was gone but the dash brackets were complete. Bought cheap. Next I found a *perfect* table but no leg but it was also a good deal. Right after that a leg came up - I almost missed it as it was shown with a '74(?) table in the ad photo even though it turned out to be a leg from a '77 or '78. Damaged on one end, but cheap.

So here we go starting with fixing the leg and ending with a complete working front table. It's not exactly a thrilling "how-to" article, but it's nice to have an easy task now and then.

The leg - cheap but ...

damaged on the end ...

and a bit on the side.

So let's fix it.

First, compress the latch pin flush with the body to allow removal.

The latch removed; just a bit of spring steel bent to form a spring.

I found an 11mm deep socket that fit fairly loosely in the pipe. I then inserted the socket along with a long rod and hammered it through the dented leg several times. Next, I stepped up to the largest socket that would fit inside the pipe, 7/8" and hammered that through several times. At that point things looked pretty good, so with the socket immediately under the damaged end I hammered around the outside to remove any high spots.

The new table reunited with the repaired leg. Is that nice veneer or what? The plastic molding around the edge is just as good.

Here's everything together. The bus may still have a hole for an ashtray, ugly seat covers, and dirty original carpet, but it's got a front table again!

Just gotta find the right size bungee cord now

[chrisradioman]

Excellent work on the table leg.
_________________
http://www.vintagevwweddings.co.uk/contact.html

[notchboy]

Ah, the trill of the HUNT!

eche, thats what keeps most of us in the game. Good scores.
_________________

[TommyBoyGomes]

Notchboy I had no idea you were a closet baysexual! What are you doing out of the T3 forums?
_________________
1969 Squareback, 1776cc
1990 Vanagon Multivan

[Westfabulous]

Eche....the table looks real nice. Slowly but surely, and one piece at a time.
_________________
*****************


"I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today."

[notchboy]

[TommyBoyGomes]

Heh I'm just givin ya crap. I just bought a vanagon myself the other day, so I'm in no position to talk
_________________
1969 Squareback, 1776cc
1990 Vanagon Multivan

[eche_bus]

OK ... after that lightweight post "Hey, look I restored a table leg" I figure I better put something up with a little more substance.

Almost caught up now, but have skipped photos of the fuel/vacuum/evap emissions overhaul because I don't have a decent "after" photo to make for much to look at. Frankly, that overhaul was the first work I'd done to this beast and by the time I was done I was in no mood for taking photos. It was a b*tch, I'm glad its over, that's enough for now.

The left tail light was cracked, the side marker lights were a mess (hazed, loose, one black/one silver, one on backwards). Both tail lights were missing their rear covers, so the wiring was just kind of hanging off the lamp terminals. I discovered the likely cause was that a PO had installed a towing kit - and wires and diodes had been spliced into the connections to allow a tow vehicle to control the tail lights. Oh, but there was more ... which I'll show in photos below. Time to dig in.

I bought new lenses with the idea the rest was OK. Nope. The housings were crumbling inside. Ordered new complete assemblies.

The red reflector just makes me want to find the guy that installed it and smack him.

Everything was hooked up, just plenty corroded and dirty. Without the rear cover, those grommets sure weren't doing anything to keep out the weather.

Inside the hole ... looks pretty rusty and dirty. There's been a battery there likely for years, so isn't all bad considering.

A look 'round the side. The yellow/black/green wires are part of the added towing wiring. This is the last day of their life.

How will it clean up? I hit the space with a vacuum cleaner, then degreaser, then flushed with water and dried. What do you think?

There's rust, but nothing gone through and a lot less than thought. Nothing a little POR-15 can't handle for now. I'd call this real lucky.

On to the other side.

The lower right corner of the opening has lost paint and has rust starting but very minor. POR-15 will stop this in its tracks for now.

I still want to hit that guy with the reflector fetish.

Let's look inside ..

Luck has to run out sometime, right? Actually, I knew about this before. What's incredible is that it was still possible to prop a battery in a way to allow driving. Borrowed time.

From inside - kinda hard to miss this any time I opened the engine hatch. Not out of sight, not out of mind.

This side has towing wiring too. Snip, snip, snip.

How will it clean up? Seems silly to wash a rusted hole, but I needed to clean up the area and also ready to rusty bits for rust treatment.

Still a hole, but the green parts are greener!

I'll be treating the rust in the next few days. By then a new battery tray should arrive which I'll trim and trim the rusty metal to allow it to sit over the remaining flange. The tray will be sealed and screwed down onto the flange and the works will be sprayed or brushed with undercoat from underneath to finish up. It's a half-assed repair but it provides usability and stops rust for now. A new tray can be properly welded in when the bus is fully restored.

[eche_bus]

It's been a while so I figured it was time for an update.

I've cut out the RH side battery tray rust leaving enough of a flange to support and attach a new battery tray. After more cleaning and prep to remove anything loose, I applied a product called Chassis Saver over the area. It's supposed to be superior to POR-15.

The spot to the right of the photo that looks a bit like rust is just a reflection from light shining through the side marker light hole. It's a good solid tray mounting surface now.

As per what I'd seen others here do, I bought a VW battery tray and began work cutting it down to sit flush on the flange created from the old tray. Time consuming, but it fits nicely now. Here's the victim after the crime:

You can see it has a few extra screw holes. They'll be sealed up thoroughly during installation.

On to the LH side, which had fared much better. I didn't find any rust-through whatsoever but there were many patches of scale where the paint had long been eaten away by battery acid and moisture. I decided to scuff up and rust treat the whole pan rather then dab a bunch of spots.

Although I found no holes in the wheel lip area it was pretty crusty and surface rust extended well up the wheel house where VW had left plenty of bare metal. I cleaned the joining seams out thoroughly, removed any loose scale, and applied Chassis Saver to the affected areas. It was hard to know where to stop, but this certainly seals up any rust that demanded attention now.

During the rust treatment work I removed those @#$%! reflectors that were inboard of the taillights. I already knew there were @#$%! holes drilled, but I had no idea a (insert stream of lewd profanities here) PO didn't even bother to remove them when he had the camper repainted. The OG paint is a shade lighter. Here you see the results:

The obvious solution is to put the @#$%! reflectors back on. I am open to any and all better ideas.

[Stuartzickefoose]

Notch: i see your raise, im all in with a westy and a jetta, and i still will loose... first time i saw this...

Eche: try waxing the area under the reflectos. it may end up a lot deeper once waxed and come alot closer to matching the rest of the bus.

i love it ! how will i ever compete! (i gotta get on that...)
_________________
Stuart Zickefoose

2011 Jetta Sportwagen TDi 6 speed manual

206-841-7324
[email protected]

[Bala]

I just realized I have the fan you want in my bus. Probably the original to my bus, but I could pretty easily be talked into parting with it (for a good cause). Send me a PM if you're interested and maybe we can work something out...

_________________
1976 Westy

1966 Beetle

[eche_bus]

Got really behind on updating this post, but giving it a shot again now. The battery tray and tail light work ran into trouble as the temperatures here dropped further and further below freezing.

Before installing the battery tray, I heavily applied seam sealer with a brush where it mated with the underlying metal, squished it in place and screwed it down. Then I applied thick beads of sealer over any seams and smoothed it out. Between the black rust-sealer and the white seam-sealer, it looks like heck but I'm confident that moisture will be kept at bay.

Trouble is, the seam sealer needs above-freezing temps to properly dry and also needs to be top-coated in order to stay waterproof. I could keep things warm for a few hours, but not enough to complete the job. That was as far as I could go until Spring when I can give the sealer a once-over and then prime and paint the whole works so it's body color and not spotty.

[eche_bus]

The dash area has a host of issues, and the time had come to dig in.

The first issue? There is a hole where the ashtray should go.

Just buy and plug in an ashtray, right? Nope. Get this: an ashtray can't actually be installed as the A/C duct won't let it. Why is the A/C duct blocking it? Because it's been pushed below the aftermarket radio. But that's not all. The underdash A/C can't actually be pushed up flush with the dash. The ducts seem to prevent it. Why? Who knows ... so we have to tear the works apart and then go about putting it together again right.

What I discovered was the RH air defrost duct was missing (WHY??) and the A/C duct routing blocked both the ashtray and the A/C unit from proper mount. There seemed no reason for this. A P.O. had just stuffed the radio in and made a complete mess of things. Oh well, it's a good time to clean and inspect.

By the time I was done pulling things apart, it looked like this:

[eche_bus]

One of the things on the agenda was to see if the carpet could be cleaned up and to inspect underneath to see if I had any rust issues waiting to cause trouble.

The floor area was in remarkably good condition. No rust of any consequence that I could see.

The carpet? Well, it was one sad, old, rag.

But I just had to know what was under all that dirt. After rounds of vacuuming, carpet cleaner, rinsing, and an overnight drying, here's the result:

It's still plenty sad, and frankly the backing and the edges are in such poor condition that I'm not sure there's anything that can be done for it. I think the old dirt and oil was holding parts of it together. The photo belies the numerous worn-through patches, and the only part that is really the original color is really the upper middle that looks a bit like a brownish stain. So much for wishful thinking.

No idea what I'm going to do to replace it, but to keep watching the Classifieds. No reasonably accurate aftermarket replacement exists. I could take a Keift and Klok carpet and have my heel pad sewn in and replace the edging with vinyl, but its so much time and money. It sits on the shelf while I put off a decision. Seems likely I'll end up buying the cheapest aftermarket carpet and throw a rubber mat over it. Damn shame.

[Westfabulous]

Keep up the good work Jon. PO hacks are a pain, but all of that stuff will go together perfectly. Both of our buses have the AC; it's a great feature worth saving.
_________________
*****************


"I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today."

[eche_bus]

Now it was time to find out what 37 years had done to the windshield washer system. The wipers seemed to move well, but the bottle was empty when I bought the bus and I sure wasn't going to "hope for the best" and try it out.

The bottle, just waiting for trouble. Hoses all seemed to be there.:

I removed the control assembly at the steering wheel. The hoses were predictably dry-rotted and nearly fell off the switch. On the bench, the switch seemed to be in good shape otherwise.

I brought the tank inside, cleaned the works thoroughly, pressurized it with a bicycle pump, and submerged it in the laundry tub to check for leaks. The valve stem had a slight leak. After working some silicone into the valve and moving it in and out several times, the problem cleared up and the assembly held under pressure with no leaks.

I was able to buy new narrow hose from one of the VW vendors, but (of course) couldn't find the thicker hose. Fortunately I found something close from one of the local FLAPS to do the job. It was thicker than OEM and although (I think) Ratwell talks about drilling the bottle cap, I was able to coax it through the too-small hole with a bit of silicone and heat gun action.

That done, I tested the control switch, fearing the worst - that the NLA switch (WW has a repro but ouch what a price) would have a leak. NOPE! It worked "well under pressure", so I cleaned and greased it up.

The recent talk about refurbishing the wiper assembly got me thinking about digging into mine. Although this is a 150K mile bus, the motor worked well and dis-assembly revealed no worn parts, only hardened grease and dirt. Got to it just in the nick of time, I guess!

Cleaned and regreased ...

Seemed like a good time to clean up the area under the wiper assembly. I'd seen evidence of mice here and there (no chewed wires, though), so am trying to clean down all surfaces I can get to.

Re-installed, with new washer hoses in place. I also replaced the grommets and some of the wiper post attaching hardware. ...

It was also time to replace the squirters. One of the originals disintigrated as I removed the old hose from it. No big deal, right? Replacements are available from several sources. So, I bought a pair from Bus Depot.

The squirters from Bus Depot are crap. They are not reproductions, they are fake squirters posing as the real thing. They are so loose and flimsy, not only do they freely move around once they are installed, the tabs break off without any stress (unrelated to looseness problem).

Here's a photo of two squirters. The one on the left I bought from Wolfsburg West. I believe its a VW part. On the right is the Bus Depot junk part:

The first thing I noticed was that the junk part was glossy, not textured as original or the WW part. The next thing is how different the thickness of the rubber seals are. The WW part looks just like an original, the junk part's seal is flimsy and doesn't properly fill the space so it readily moves around once installed. The last thing, not real obvious from photo is the plastic tab is slightly thinner on the junk part.

The WW part snapped in place and I was done installing them in *seconds*, just like they should be. They don't move around, they just work.The junk part did nothing but waste my time both installing and then having to remove them. Bus Depot should be ashamed of carrying this bogus part.

I reglued the white foam insulation (nice little chew-spot there, eh?) and re-installed the washer bottle. The system was ready to connect back at the steering column...

[eche_bus]

[eche_bus]

I give a lot of credit to anyone following along. This is getting to be one long spew. Just trying to get caught up, and my hope is that at least someone finds some of this useful in some way.

Back at the steering column, we've got another problem to address. The turn signal switch turns the signals on and off, it just doesn't auto-cancel. Nothing wrong with the cancel ring in the wheel, the problem was the switch was partly busted up inside. Also, as you can see in the photo below, the copper contact strip near the top is pretty twisted up.

I'd pulled out the assembly to replace this signal switch (thankfully this is one part you can still get new and it actually fits right) and inspect the washer switch.

With the switches squared away and the new hoses routed, it was time to close the washer system and put things back together. I was worried that the the thicker hose was going to have trouble with fit, esp. the short tubing that goes over it at the switch nipple, but with silicone spray and a blow dryer, everything went in place.

It may not be much, but it's important that it all works right, not piss me off as I drive down the road. Looks nice and shiny, too.

[Stuartzickefoose]

this is the stuff i love to read right here...all the little steps with pics that people do. keep it coming!
_________________
Stuart Zickefoose

2011 Jetta Sportwagen TDi 6 speed manual

206-841-7324
[email protected]