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sled
Samba Member
Joined: February 16, 2005
Posts: 6179
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 Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2014 11:30 am Post subject: Refinishing a 1961 sloped westfalia rack |
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I picked up a second '61 (single screw) westy rack that was in touuuugh shape, and decided to give it a new lease on life. Not sure if this little project warrants a new thread, but I think if other westy nerds are anything like me then they cant get enough of this stuff. Plus it makes it easier for people to search and find later on down the road.
anyway..
Although the rack was in pieces, it had pretty much every piece of original hardware. All 6 "ribbed" clamps with original screws/lock washers/square nuts. All socket cap screws and all the carriage bolts, even most of the original slat screws.
here are some before photos
somehow it seems I always end up having to strip paint...
for some reason, this rack as well as my other sloper have the same corrosion under where the slats mount. The galvanizing seems to have been burned off by a chemical or something? Possibly someone refinished the slats and the product reacted to the galvanizing? either way it is bare metal and will eventually rust I suppose. Maybe someday I will look into have them hot-dipped again.
The original wood used on these racks was European Beech, still available and still inexpensive. I ended making enough for 4 racks worth. I ordered plenty of rough-sawn material and all of it ended up usable.
I used a screw setting bit to drill and countersink the holes at the same time..really speeds things up.
I chose to give the slats one coat of natural shellac as a sealer and to give them a little 'glow' and then two coats of a marinesemi-gloss spar-varnish
one coat of shellac..
All the aluminum parts were cleaned up with 0000 steel wool and rubbed a little bit with some Brasso metal polish by hand. I didnt want anything to have a mirror finish like I could get with a power buffing wheel, and I wanted to leave the little nicks and character.
here is essentially the finished product. I still need to install a few more screws onto the middle leg, and install the carriage bolts, but I havent finished paint stripping the heads of those fasteners. Also need to install the aluminum rivets in the corners of the basket.
I'll try and get some better outside photos with it installed on the bus but its hammering snow right now.
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drive your split.
Last edited by sled on Sat Dec 20, 2014 12:12 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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vw7266
Samba Member
Joined: April 28, 2004
Posts: 3038
Location: the point, ohio
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| Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2014 11:48 am Post subject: |
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| nice work as usual jake! |
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srfndoc
Samba Member
Joined: August 21, 2010
Posts: 3275
Location: SoCal
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| Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2014 11:59 am Post subject: |
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Looks great Jake. Did you get the original tag with it? If not, Chad makes some really nice repros (that's what I used on my poptop rack that was missing the originals).
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RPM=(MPH*336* (R&P*4th*1.26))/Tire Diameter in inches |
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easy e
Samba Member
Joined: May 28, 2008
Posts: 3931
Location: 1 hr north of Santa Barbara
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| Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2014 12:03 pm Post subject: Re: Refinishing a 1961 sloped westfalia rack |
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Man, that turned out beautiful!! Anybody would be proud to sport that rack! Very nice work!
| sled wrote: |
| ... it makes it easier for people to search and find later on down the road. |
Amen to that. It's a little more work, but it'd be great if your pics were Gallery pic links in the camper section. So often, down the road... broken / dead photobucket dead links literally litter threads & make them lose their effectiveness as a resource. Your work is worth remembering / referencing!
e |
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sled
Samba Member
Joined: February 16, 2005
Posts: 6179
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| Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2014 12:14 pm Post subject: |
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| srfndoc wrote: |
| Looks great Jake. Did you get the original tag with it? If not, Chad makes some really nice repros (that's what I used on my poptop rack that was missing the originals). |
no I didnt unfortunately. That is the last detail I will need to finish. I may buy the tag from Chad but I found a better looking repro from England, but its 75 bucks instead of 40. hmm
yes I have had people ask me to upload to the gallery before, but honestly I cant stand the fact that I have to resize every picture individually to upload them. If I could upload my fullsize images to the gallery then I would.
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drive your split. |
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srfndoc
Samba Member
Joined: August 21, 2010
Posts: 3275
Location: SoCal
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| Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2014 12:27 pm Post subject: |
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| sled wrote: |
| srfndoc wrote: |
| Looks great Jake. Did you get the original tag with it? If not, Chad makes some really nice repros (that's what I used on my poptop rack that was missing the originals). |
no I didnt unfortunately. That is the last detail I will need to finish. I may buy the tag from Chad but I found a better looking repro from England, but its 75 bucks instead of 40. hmm
yes I have had people ask me to upload to the gallery before, but honestly I cant stand the fact that I have to resize every picture individually to upload them. If I could upload my fullsize images to the gallery then I would. |
If your running Windows, there is a great free tool to resize photos (you can select as many as you want and it will do them all in one shot):
https://imageresizer.codeplex.com/
My only complaint about uploading to the Samba is you lose some control over the photos as you can no longer delete them easily (Everett will if you ask).
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RPM=(MPH*336* (R&P*4th*1.26))/Tire Diameter in inches |
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G-wood Todd
Samba Member
Joined: January 11, 2005
Posts: 1047
Location: Colorado
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| Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2014 12:38 pm Post subject: |
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Nice resurrection.
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and take the kids for instance "Are we going in the Volkswagen bus?" and they say "Yay!" and clap their hands and if it's a glorious day you can slide the sunroof back and let a little of the glory in and all of a sudden, it stops looking funny.
-Volkswagen ad |
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cdennisg
Samba Member
Joined: November 02, 2004
Posts: 20279
Location: Sandpoint, ID
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| Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2014 1:09 pm Post subject: |
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| sled wrote: |
| srfndoc wrote: |
| Looks great Jake. Did you get the original tag with it? If not, Chad makes some really nice repros (that's what I used on my poptop rack that was missing the originals). |
no I didnt unfortunately. That is the last detail I will need to finish. I may buy the tag from Chad but I found a better looking repro from England, but its 75 bucks instead of 40. hmm
yes I have had people ask me to upload to the gallery before, but honestly I cant stand the fact that I have to resize every picture individually to upload them. If I could upload my fullsize images to the gallery then I would. |
I take all of my photos in small size for email and stuff. No problem uploading them either. Never needed larger photos except for portraits and such.
Nice build thread, Jake. Gonna look good on your Westy for sure.
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nothing
Last edited by cdennisg on Sat Dec 20, 2014 2:58 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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campingbox 
Samba Member
Joined: November 14, 2000
Posts: 10198
Location: Petaluma, CA
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| Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2014 1:33 pm Post subject: |
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Pretty.
I could use a few sets of slats if you want to unload some. |
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jjjjack
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Joined: August 08, 2005
Posts: 1013
Location: Gainesville, FL
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Stocknazi
Samba Member
Joined: June 18, 2004
Posts: 5150
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| Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2014 2:06 pm Post subject: |
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Nice work.
_________________
WANTED:
58 Westfalia cabinet knobs (3 needed), roof rack, and (7) privy tent poles (silver painted).
"When the people are afraid of the government, that's tyranny. But when the government is afraid of the people, that's liberty."
"Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God."
Thomas Jefferson |
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scvw
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Joined: September 02, 2006
Posts: 3544
Location: South Carolina
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zuggbug
Samba Member
Joined: June 17, 2008
Posts: 3479
Location: Anderson SC
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| Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2014 5:57 pm Post subject: |
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Awesome job jake, thanks for sharing
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SOUTHERN INTEGRITY AIRCOOLERS
58 15 window
56 westy |
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BarryL
Samba Member
Joined: November 01, 2004
Posts: 14271
Location: Casa de Oro, California
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| Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2014 7:06 pm Post subject: |
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| Sooooooo beautiful the way it came out. OG galvanizing or is it re-plated? Can you describe the clamp fasteners i.e are they brass with square nuts etc? |
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sled
Samba Member
Joined: February 16, 2005
Posts: 6179
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| Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2014 8:56 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks guys!
The clamp screws are chrome plated brass and the square nuts are raw steel, maybe they were cad plated? They're just raw now.
The galvanizing is original, although it is a little rougher in person than in pictures.
_________________
drive your split.
Last edited by sled on Sun Dec 21, 2014 4:40 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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j.pickens
Samba Member
Joined: December 03, 2002
Posts: 9791
Location: Exit 7, New Jersey
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| Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2014 2:23 am Post subject: |
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I may have missed it above, but were you able to source the wood in the proper profile, or did you have to rip it down and champher it yourself? What dimensions did you use?
Also, Everett changed the photo downloading software in the last year or so. I've been able to directly download photos to the gallery without resizing for a while now. TheSamba automagically resizes everything large I've thrown at it recently. Give it a try without resizing and see how it goes.
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Founder and Chairman Emeritus, ECMSAS
BBX BBXII and BBXXI Long Distance Award Winner
| BeaterBarndoor wrote: |
i wish more people would actually drive their vws rather than just talking about what they have in the garage. |
| Red Fau Veh wrote: |
If you've seen one sunroof swivel seat kombi, you've seen them all!  |
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earlywesty
Samba Member
Joined: May 03, 2004
Posts: 2358
Location: In the woods, Ontario
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| Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2014 7:46 am Post subject: |
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| Nice job Jake! |
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sled
Samba Member
Joined: February 16, 2005
Posts: 6179
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| Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2014 4:42 pm Post subject: |
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| j.pickens wrote: |
I may have missed it above, but were you able to source the wood in the proper profile, or did you have to rip it down and champher it yourself? What dimensions did you use?
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I just got rough sawn 8/4 (2inch net), I think maybe 8 inch wide? Milled it down from that and then used a trim router to put the chamfer on the edges.
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drive your split. |
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mandraks
Samba Member
Joined: November 28, 2004
Posts: 7050
Location: Lawrenceville, Ga
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| Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2014 4:49 pm Post subject: |
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| sled wrote: |
| srfndoc wrote: |
| Looks great Jake. Did you get the original tag with it? If not, Chad makes some really nice repros (that's what I used on my poptop rack that was missing the originals). |
no I didnt unfortunately. That is the last detail I will need to finish. I may buy the tag from Chad but I found a better looking repro from England, but its 75 bucks instead of 40. hmm
yes I have had people ask me to upload to the gallery before, but honestly I cant stand the fact that I have to resize every picture individually to upload them. If I could upload my fullsize images to the gallery then I would. |
it might be easier to just batch convert your images on your PC before you upload them. irfanview for windows is free and easy to use, on linux there are a ton of options that do that for free as well. don't have a mac....
resizing the images automatically during the upload would be reasonably easy, but it puts a good bit of load on the server. I guess that is why Everett does not do it.
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regards
Uli
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'53 3-Fold Oval, L35 Metallic Blue, looking for a narrow hatch panel |
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sled
Samba Member
Joined: February 16, 2005
Posts: 6179
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| Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2014 5:11 pm Post subject: |
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drive your split. |
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