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mcdonaldneal Samba Member
Joined: June 13, 2013 Posts: 2649 Location: Gullane, Scotland
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Posted: Thu May 27, 2021 2:50 pm Post subject: Re: 'Let's Go! Scotland-Croatia and onwards in our Kombi!' |
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A few days since the trip now but the Kombi was needing a wash. She is coming to a beach barbecue to celebrate my early retirement at the weekend! One of my lovely colleagues has made a great poster and it should be a fantastic day, although some social distancing is still required. I’ve overlooked the technical error on the poster, as she has definitely got the cat right!...
I have recently got a pressure washer and it seems everyone is raving about snow foam as a pre-wash treatment so I thought I’d give it a go. It certainly great fun to use and I got the feeling it really removed the bulk up of the grime from the road trip so that it was ready for hand washing. The great thing is that it’s so easy to do the wheel arches, underbody and the wheels. I’ll work on fine tuning the sequence of treatments, but I think I’m sold!
_________________ 1978 marino yellow Bay Dormobile camper
1969 signal orange Karmann Ghia convertible
1976 martini olive Bay Dormobile camper
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Abscate Samba Member
Joined: October 05, 2014 Posts: 22670 Location: NYC/Upstate/ROW
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Posted: Fri May 28, 2021 2:46 am Post subject: Re: 'Let's Go! Scotland-Croatia and onwards in our Kombi!' |
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Happy retirement Phil, if you ever want to come Stateside for a bit we’ve got a T4 we can lend for the Mountains Hills
I’m winding down but still about 5 years from self-retirement, we did make a big change to a seaside residence this year though _________________ .ssS! |
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mcdonaldneal Samba Member
Joined: June 13, 2013 Posts: 2649 Location: Gullane, Scotland
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mcdonaldneal Samba Member
Joined: June 13, 2013 Posts: 2649 Location: Gullane, Scotland
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mcdonaldneal Samba Member
Joined: June 13, 2013 Posts: 2649 Location: Gullane, Scotland
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Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2021 3:09 pm Post subject: Re: 'Let's Go! Scotland-Croatia and onwards in our Kombi!' |
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I’m low key preparing the Kombi in case there is an opportunity to drive to Croatia again later in the summer. At the moment it’s not possible to travel from the UK to the Netherlands or Germany except for emergency reasons, but who knows what might happen?!
The Kombi has two small bunks up top. Too small for us, and we never use them. They protrude into the roof opening and I wondered if removing them might make a bit of living space. More importantly, they are quite heavy, and removing the dead weight (top heavy weight too!) would be good.
Each bunk is attached to the roof opening frame with two bolts at either end. One also had a rivet, which I drilled out. Pretty simple to remove. There is also a grey, heavyweight vinyl cover that wraps around. This is sandwiched under a trim strip which came off and got a clean!
You can see that without the left hand bunk, the roof canvas sags down into the cabin, so I reinstalled the grey cover and I will make that into a ‘hammock’ for the roof canvas.
It’s all easily reversible, so I’ll see how I feel about it after the summer, they can always go back in!
_________________ 1978 marino yellow Bay Dormobile camper
1969 signal orange Karmann Ghia convertible
1976 martini olive Bay Dormobile camper
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DocNexil Samba Member
Joined: January 19, 2021 Posts: 145 Location: Southern Utah
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Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2021 5:58 pm Post subject: Re: 'Let's Go! Scotland-Croatia and onwards in our Kombi!' |
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It's nice to see some better angles of the inside of a Dormobile top! I recently re-installed my canvas (taken off by a PO, but still original) and it is rather difficult to find some nice pictures of a complete inside. I actually emailed Dormobile and they were very kind and sent me some instructions with step by step pictures for free.
What's really interesting is I decided to remove one of the top bunks a few days ago, so it was weird to see someone else doing the same just a few days later. The metal frame that the bunks bolt into is missing some screws on the side I took off, so it has bent a little bit, making the mechanism scrape when opening. Working on fixing that currently.
I'll be removing the other bunk soon here as well because I ordered some new cot material from Dormobile. My current cot fabric (not original) wasn't made properly and ripped. Best part was that it was 2x cheaper than the quote from my local upholstery shop, and will be a guaranteed fit.
Also, when I took my bunk off, it felt to me like there was a sizable amount of room freed up. So if you don't use them, I think you will be happy with the extra bit of space! _________________ 1971 Dormobile "Juliett"
1970 beetle "Rudie" |
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mcdonaldneal Samba Member
Joined: June 13, 2013 Posts: 2649 Location: Gullane, Scotland
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Posted: Mon Jun 07, 2021 12:40 am Post subject: Re: 'Let's Go! Scotland-Croatia and onwards in our Kombi!' |
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DocNexil wrote: |
It's nice to see some better angles of the inside of a Dormobile top! I recently re-installed my canvas (taken off by a PO, but still original) and it is rather difficult to find some nice pictures of a complete inside. I actually emailed Dormobile and they were very kind and sent me some instructions with step by step pictures for free.
What's really interesting is I decided to remove one of the top bunks a few days ago, so it was weird to see someone else doing the same just a few days later. The metal frame that the bunks bolt into is missing some screws on the side I took off, so it has bent a little bit, making the mechanism scrape when opening. Working on fixing that currently.
I'll be removing the other bunk soon here as well because I ordered some new cot material from Dormobile. My current cot fabric (not original) wasn't made properly and ripped. Best part was that it was 2x cheaper than the quote from my local upholstery shop, and will be a guaranteed fit.
Also, when I took my bunk off, it felt to me like there was a sizable amount of room freed up. So if you don't use them, I think you will be happy with the extra bit of space! |
Love your Westy/Dormobile DocNexil!
One of our bunks was attached with an extra rivet at each end, as well as the bolts, but I just drilled it out. Actually I think our frame is largely held in by pop rivets, rather than screws or bolts. If you need pics of any area, let me know. Ours was built by Dormobile Australia though, so there are some ‘unique’ features!
Good luck with your restoration!
Aussie Dormobile thread
_________________ 1978 marino yellow Bay Dormobile camper
1969 signal orange Karmann Ghia convertible
1976 martini olive Bay Dormobile camper
Stop dead photo links! Post photos to The Samba Gallery! |
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mcdonaldneal Samba Member
Joined: June 13, 2013 Posts: 2649 Location: Gullane, Scotland
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mcdonaldneal Samba Member
Joined: June 13, 2013 Posts: 2649 Location: Gullane, Scotland
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Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2021 1:48 pm Post subject: Re: 'Let's Go! Scotland-Croatia and onwards in our Kombi!' |
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Also for the insurance, I had to have a record of the annual mileage. I dredged through garage bills and Samba posts and although it is of zero interest to anyone I’m going to post the figures here so that I can find them again next time I need them!
Figures all in kilometres, as the Kombi is Australian:
May 2012, 6951km
Aug 2013, 9158
May 2015, 15103
March 2017, 20000
Apr 2019, 24000
May 2019, 24429
March 2020, 25018
18th Mar 2020, 25327
July 2020, 26135
Sept 2020, 27982
June 2021, 30000
That means, roughly speaking, the annual mileage was (in km):
2012 and 13, 2207 (1100pa)
2014, 5945 (trip to Croatia, see this thread!)
2015 and 16, 4897 (2500pa)
2017 and 18 4000 (2000pa)
2019 1018km
2020 2964km
2021 to June 2018km _________________ 1978 marino yellow Bay Dormobile camper
1969 signal orange Karmann Ghia convertible
1976 martini olive Bay Dormobile camper
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DocNexil Samba Member
Joined: January 19, 2021 Posts: 145 Location: Southern Utah
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Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2021 6:56 pm Post subject: Re: 'Let's Go! Scotland-Croatia and onwards in our Kombi!' |
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Beautiful bus as ever you have there! I meant to respond a while back haha. I noticed the rivet holes but mine had screws in them. I'm assuming they had rivets originally. I'm still not done affixing my top back together because my local hardware store still hasn't restocked the screws I need. Is it difficult for you to open your roof? Mine is pretty tight and only locks easily if it's warm outside. I'm thinking mine shrunk a bit in storage.
Anyway, my new cots have been shipped and they should be here on/before Monday! I'm also going to take your offer of pictures, thank you. Could I get some of how your curtains attach to the top? I'm working towards making curtains for the whole bus.
Also, good job keeping track of all those numbers!
Thanks again! _________________ 1971 Dormobile "Juliett"
1970 beetle "Rudie" |
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mcdonaldneal Samba Member
Joined: June 13, 2013 Posts: 2649 Location: Gullane, Scotland
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Posted: Sat Jun 26, 2021 10:52 pm Post subject: Re: 'Let's Go! Scotland-Croatia and onwards in our Kombi!' |
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DocNexil wrote: |
Beautiful bus as ever you have there! I meant to respond a while back haha. I noticed the rivet holes but mine had screws in them. I'm assuming they had rivets originally. I'm still not done affixing my top back together because my local hardware store still hasn't restocked the screws I need. Is it difficult for you to open your roof? Mine is pretty tight and only locks easily if it's warm outside. I'm thinking mine shrunk a bit in storage.
Anyway, my new cots have been shipped and they should be here on/before Monday! I'm also going to take your offer of pictures, thank you. Could I get some of how your curtains attach to the top? I'm working towards making curtains for the whole bus.
Also, good job keeping track of all those numbers!
Thanks again! |
Yes, our roof is stiff to open, especially in cool weather and at the start of the year. I think there is an adjustment where the struts attach to the roof but once the weather improves it opens fine, so I never get around to adjusting the struts!
I’ll get pics of the roof curtains. They just have fixed track at the top and bottom of each curtain. _________________ 1978 marino yellow Bay Dormobile camper
1969 signal orange Karmann Ghia convertible
1976 martini olive Bay Dormobile camper
Stop dead photo links! Post photos to The Samba Gallery! |
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mcdonaldneal Samba Member
Joined: June 13, 2013 Posts: 2649 Location: Gullane, Scotland
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Posted: Sat Jul 10, 2021 1:26 pm Post subject: Re: 'Let's Go! Scotland-Croatia and onwards in our Kombi!' |
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We had to cancel a camping trip this week, so I’ve been getting some minor jobs underway.
The sliding door panel covering material is sagging, dirty and needs something doing. First step is to take it off. Filthiness confirmed.
It’s attached with staples to fairly thin plywood. We’ll probably try cleaning it in situ, but will probably end up removing it, varnishing the plywood and washing and/or replacing the fabric with upholstery material.
While the panel is off, I removed the sliding door release mechanism, which had been getting very stiff. It’s soaking in some paraffin before it gets cleaned and relubricated. It was easier to remove than I thought, thanks to Colin’s (Amskeptic) instructions.
Also cleaned up a Type 4 (85-90eg) and a type 1 (65-70deg) thermostat bellows which will serve as spares.
Sliding door latch refresh
_________________ 1978 marino yellow Bay Dormobile camper
1969 signal orange Karmann Ghia convertible
1976 martini olive Bay Dormobile camper
Stop dead photo links! Post photos to The Samba Gallery! |
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mcdonaldneal Samba Member
Joined: June 13, 2013 Posts: 2649 Location: Gullane, Scotland
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mcdonaldneal Samba Member
Joined: June 13, 2013 Posts: 2649 Location: Gullane, Scotland
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Posted: Sun Jul 18, 2021 5:44 am Post subject: Re: 'Let's Go! Scotland-Croatia and onwards in our Kombi!' |
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I got the sliding door locks and latches reinstalled and I’m pleased to say that the outside handle is now nice and tight with no slop and the door release works beautifully! I had meant to refresh the slider hinges and rollers too but there wasn’t time before a planned weekend away. I oiled the bottom roller instead which will do for now. Shona has done a great job cleaning the fabric of the door panel but that also has to wait, as we ran out of time!
Friday we drove up to meet friends at Loch Leven in Fife. On the way I realised that the large steering wheel nut was slightly loose and, although I didn’t have the large socket, I managed to tighten it with an adjustable spanner and ‘amazingly’ it has solved the steering ‘clunk’ that I had erroneously pinpointed to the link pin and was waiting to dismantle. Happy days!
Next came a long drive through Glasgow to the West coast seaside town of Largs to catch up with another set of old friends. Just at Glasgow airport, a police car behind us fired up the lights and sirens and pulled us over… I ran through the potential reasons, but it turned out that his number plate recognition computer had flagged us up as not having a valid MOT (roadworthy) certificate. Fortunately, a historic vehicle over 40yrs old no longer requires an mot so he apologised and let us go!
The campsite was busy, but picturesque. We arrived late (8:15pm) but the sun didn’t set until after 9pm so we had time to heat up a curry and enjoy it in the evening sun.
_________________ 1978 marino yellow Bay Dormobile camper
1969 signal orange Karmann Ghia convertible
1976 martini olive Bay Dormobile camper
Stop dead photo links! Post photos to The Samba Gallery! |
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mcdonaldneal Samba Member
Joined: June 13, 2013 Posts: 2649 Location: Gullane, Scotland
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Posted: Sun Jul 18, 2021 6:00 am Post subject: Re: 'Let's Go! Scotland-Croatia and onwards in our Kombi!' |
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The next day looked absolutely gorgeous, and it turned out to be Scotland’s hottest day of the year! The sea breeze cooled things a bit for us but the campsite had no shade whatsoever. The Kombi usually doesn’t get too hot for the cat, as it is a big internal space, the curtains provide shade and we have a cooling fan that runs off the leisure battery. We also direct the fan over tubs of water to give a bit of evaporative cooling. Even so, I cut my walk short to stay with Medo and the bus and I am able to report that it actually felt cool inside and the inside temperature was 26deg (79F) in the midday sun. The pic shows Medo looking chilled.
My main concern is the jaunty angle of the camp spot. I really must get some levelling ramps!
_________________ 1978 marino yellow Bay Dormobile camper
1969 signal orange Karmann Ghia convertible
1976 martini olive Bay Dormobile camper
Stop dead photo links! Post photos to The Samba Gallery! |
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mcdonaldneal Samba Member
Joined: June 13, 2013 Posts: 2649 Location: Gullane, Scotland
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mcdonaldneal Samba Member
Joined: June 13, 2013 Posts: 2649 Location: Gullane, Scotland
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mcdonaldneal Samba Member
Joined: June 13, 2013 Posts: 2649 Location: Gullane, Scotland
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RalphWiggam Samba Member
Joined: February 02, 2018 Posts: 906 Location: SouthEast
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Posted: Mon Jul 19, 2021 3:22 pm Post subject: Re: 'Let's Go! Scotland-Croatia and onwards in our Kombi!' |
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Keep posting pics and stories. This is awesome. |
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mcdonaldneal Samba Member
Joined: June 13, 2013 Posts: 2649 Location: Gullane, Scotland
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Posted: Fri Jul 23, 2021 3:08 pm Post subject: Re: 'Let's Go! Scotland-Croatia and onwards in our Kombi!' |
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I finally got started on a restoration job I have been putting off for a while. The door locks have been a bit stiff and I knew I would have to take the door cards off to fix that and at the same time inspect the vapour barrier sheet and I was worried about the state of the inner doors.
After a fiddle trying to work out how to get off the inner door release (the finger plate levers off from the front edge!) I popped off the door card. A couple of the clips were broken and all of the grommets will need replacing but I was most horrified to see that there was NO vapour barrier whatsoever (just the remains of plastic around a couple of the grommets). Amazingly, considering the Kombi’s 20+ years in rainy Scotland, the door card had no water damage at all and so I will ‘just’ install a fresh barrier as well as cleaning and lubricating everything inside the door and maybe installing some sound deadening.
_________________ 1978 marino yellow Bay Dormobile camper
1969 signal orange Karmann Ghia convertible
1976 martini olive Bay Dormobile camper
Stop dead photo links! Post photos to The Samba Gallery! |
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