A promise, patience, and persistence - My 1974 Westfalia thread

[white74westy]

[notchboy]

Hey brother good work. Gets me in the mood to do my doors.
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[white74westy]

[white74westy]

I've been busy trying to get the bus running well over the past couple of weekends. In the meantime I had also been doing a lot of work on little things of late. Trying to clean things up before I put them back in the bus. I hope to get the interior squared away this weekend.

Original cover/strip:

This is the piece that covers the metal crossmember that supports the upper bunk:

These two were from a couple of weeks ago. I was just enjoying the late afternoon light. Just for fun...we're getting close.

Hope you enjoy!

[white74westy]

Things have been busy, busy, busy of late. I have spent the past couple of weekends tweaking the carbs and bringing renewed life to the engine. As I uncover and remedy one set of problems, I'm sure to find others. Nevertheless, I feel like I'm making good headway. I will delve into that a little later on in the thread. I've also spent a good amount of time installing the interior. Things are really starting to shape up pretty nicely.

For the sake of continuity, I'm going to continue to show the work as it has been done in chronological order. I'm getting real close to being caught up to real time, as far as updates are concerned. I'm pretty stoked about the progress that has been made!

So, a couple of weeks ago, I decided to start pulling apart my Essen trailer and prepping it for a long overdue rehab. I will start an individual thread on that in case anyone ever wants/needs to look at how things go. Here are a couple of pictures to give an idea of how things went, before the parts were shipped off to powder coat:

[notchboy]

Are you going to source those big ass rivets to put it back together? I've often wanted to pull mine apart but stopped at the rivets.
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[cliveawn]

[white74westy]

[white74westy]

[Hikelite]

Your bus looks great!

The love shows through all the attention to detail. Or is that just some mild OCD? I can relate


What color did you paint it?
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~Kevin

My 1968 Campmobile

[white74westy]

[WildIdea]

I always thought those trailers were neat. Can’t wait to see how it turned out.

Bus looks great poking out of the garage!

[white74westy]

[white74westy]

A couple of weekends ago, I made an effort to move towards making my little buddies really happy...I secured the upper bunk!

Good things are happening, and I'm making some really good headway on the project! I decided to start tackling the interior and putting things back in place. As I've mentioned before, I have been somewhat tortured by which direction to take with the interior. Do I do a full restoration, with "new" products, that don't quite match the original materials? Or, do I put the existing pieces back in place and leave it historically correct? Little things like not being able to find a suitable Formica that actually matches the stuff used in the '74's has been a little bit of a PITA. If anyone has a source for NOS 117-58, colonial cherry, let me know! Again, this bus has weathered time pretty well, and shows as a pretty good survivor. After much back and forth, I've decided to leave as much of the history in place, as possible. There may be a few things that have been changed out, but I prefer the idea of my kids not being frightened to use the camper, as it was intended.

I started by putting the "head-splitter" cover back in place:

It was not a horribly difficult task. However, it did require the part being left in the sun for a while, to soften up, before I could get it on. Once I had it in place, I finished securing the upper bunk, using the hardware to attach it to the body of the bus.

From there, I finished insulating the walls:

I know it may seem silly. However, I couldn't bear the idea of using the pink Owens Corning fiberglass. I threw out the original insulation, as it had seen better days. It was gray. The closest thing I could find to replicate it was the stuff seen above. Its made by Johns Manville. I believe it is R-13. It comes in small rolls that are individually wrapped. So far so good, no complaints!

Put the long piece back in and installed the plastic sheet, that goes under the carpet:

Carpet is in:

Wanted to see how the step cover would look, before I actually attached it:

I need to get some new screws. The old ones need to be replaced, before I can put the metal coping back in place.

Put the bench back in place and secured it and the arm rests:

Well, you may have noticed a step stool and a pair of shoes, laying about. I couldn't keep them out of the top bunk. Actually, it was really cool having them hanging around, up top, while I was fiddling with things:

It was so nice listening to them making plans for how things were going to go, once we get out in the wild with the bus. I can't wait!!! We also talked about taking them to one of the remaining drive-in movie theaters, which is a couple of hours from here, so they could watch from up top and eat popcorn. Again, can't wait to make it happen!

[white74westy]

Life has been very busy lately, so I haven't have much time to spend on the bus, nor updates.

None of these things are necessarily bad, as I have been spending time with my family. My kids just wrapped up spring break...lots of fun was had. Unfortunately, one of the things I missed out on was the No Dough Show and subsequently the Southeastern Bay Window Rally. That bummed me out quite a bit this year! I've been saying that I would attend since the inaugural event and haven't been able to. I really thought this would be the year. Alas, no such luck. However, we will make sure not to schedule anything on that weekend for next year, and God willing we'll be there.

With that behind us, I have tried to pick up where I left off and revisit the idea of doing at least one thing per day. The past few days have involved a little more cleaning and prepping.

I started with the plumbing for the sink:

Some of the parts attached to the outer portion of the pipe:

Nothing too crazy...just cleaned them up with soap and water, prepping them before I install them in the cabinet. I'm going to test all the connections for leaks and fit before I put the cabinet back in the bus, rather than finding out the hard way that something wasn't quite right, before you fill things up with water.

The next part actually brought me a good deal of joy...probably more than it should have, but I was really pleased with the results! I started to clean the trim that outlines the upper bunk opening. I'm sure that not all of the grime could possibly be attributed to use - some of it must have accrued during storage. Nevertheless, it was a lot nastier than I thought! Yuck!!!

I started with this:

A little Krud Kutter and a toothbrush. I was careful to test it, to make sure it wasn't too aggressive. Thankfully it was not. Now I did not leave it on the material for very long at all. I would work in very small sections, maybe 4-6 inches at a go. I would do some on the front, then turn it over and do the back. After about 6 inches, just used a paper towel to wipe off the excess. Here's how things looked as I went along:

Some side by side comparisons:

All done:

As I said, I probably shouldn't experience as much joy as I do, cleaning up these pieces, but I do. Oh well! There is something very satisfying knowing that I may be adding a good many years of service to the parts.

That's it for now. I'm still waiting to hear back from the powder coaters, regarding the trailer. I had some paint color matched for the wood panels above, as they have begun to show their age. Also, I damaged the headliner [before we moved houses] by dropping it on the end that meets up with the rest of the interior. The small ears were damaged beyond use and I don't think the clips that attach the two sections will hide the damage, so I'll be making a new one. Naturally, it will need to be painted as well.

Thanks again for stopping by to check things out...stay tuned!!!

[NoBudgetVWGarage]

I've always enjoyed the cleaning aspect. It make such a HUGE difference! Thank you for the updates as it keeps me motivated and the detailed pictures. Looks Great!
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1969 Transporter
1968 Ghia
1959 Ghia Hot VW Drag Car

[white74westy]

[white74westy]

It has been ages since I have been anywhere near the bus! It has been killing me! Very little has been done. I am using this post as a reminder and inspiration, to pick up where I left off. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, I'm a firm believer in doing at least one thing a day, no matter how big or small the task is. Today, this is my one thing.

We just got back from a nice, overseas, family, vacation. Coupled with the fact that the kids have been out of school for a while now, and an absolutely relentless schedule, I have managed to neglect the bus and have made nearly zero progress. So in order to change that, I'm going to focus on the interior, ceiling panels. They have all been prepped and need to be painted. I hope to address them in the very near future.

In the interim, I finally got around to making new wires for the sidemarker lights. One of them was fine, however, as you'll note in the pictures below, the other had been "gatored" up. Therefore, if I was going to make one, I might as well make the other.

This one was pretty chewed up. I couldn't deal with it! I had to peel back a bunch of electrical tape, but this is what I found when I got there:

Pretty ugly!!!

The other one looked like this:

Not nearly as bad!!! Just a couple of little nicks on the 12v wire:

Here's some of the stuff I used to replicate what was original to the bus:

A couple of shots of the new wires along side the old:

Onwards!

[Tcash]

Nice job and the correct tools always help.
Keep it coming.
Tcash

[white74westy]