The Champagne Imposter - My '70 Westy Refresh

[advCo]

[advCo]

Yesterday after work I knocked out a big dent at the front of the roof. It still needs a bit of work I think but we'll see after I get the rust cleaned up and some primer on it. Are the two holes higher up on the roof are supposed to be there (visible in second pic)

Then I rough cut and formed a small patch for the back side of the roof, where one of the luggage rack screw holes rotted out. It fit up really well and I took my time welding, but the metal seemed to pull in a little bit after it was all said and done so there's a bit of a low spot. I'm thinking I may want to keep my gaps a bit smaller to avoid this in the future.

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"He pulled the mirrors off his Cadillac ‘cause he doesn’t like it looking like he looks back"
'68/'70 Ghia Coupe Project
'70 Westy Project - Champagne I Wannabe
A bunch of vintage Japanese motorcycles
"Much ingenuity with a little money is vastly more profitable and amusing than much money without ingenuity." -A. Bennett

[orwell84]

That’s some tidy welding; no shrink, radiused corners, small gaps. Nice.

[advCo]

[WithTheFlow]

I have the same dent on the front of my roof. It looks like someone sat up there
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The fastest thing you can do is slow down.

“The secret is here in the present. If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And, if you improve on the present, what comes later will also be better."
-- The Alchemist”

[advCo]

I had last week off to work on the bus, and do some work on the house to get it ready for the market.

Decided to tackle the rear parcel shelf and the rotted corner so that I can get the engine bay buttoned up and ready for paint. Unfortunately I ended up having to cut out more metal than I had donor metal, so I had to piece it together with 7 pieces. The "before" pic makes it look better than it was, after blasting the deep pits between the ribs were probably as thin as paper. Pretty much hated myself during that entire repair. The interior corner went in really well, it was cut a bit short by the fuel filler so I had to fabricate some pieces to make it a bit longer, and then fabricate a small piece to patch up the shroud around the filler neck. Skimmed on some Dura-Glass, sanded and shot with epoxy primer. I also seam sealed the back side of the weld and primed the "roof" of the engine bay, got the gas tank shelf all patched up and sealed as well.

Parcel Shelf After Blasting:

Parcel Shelf Welded up:

Interior corner before, there was a HUGE ass mouse nest inside the cabinet. Gross:

Corner welded up and filler neck shroud tacked in. I replaced the whip on my MIG a few months ago and apparently I was too rough on the replacement. It started leaking gas, and I accidentally left the tank shut-off valve open one night and it emptied out my tank. Figures, the one time I've ever NOT closed off the tank, I have a leak in my line. I need to address that cancerous area above the corner I replaced. I welded up some holes but its pretty gnarly. I may just weld up the few more pinholes that popped up and slather some POR-15 on there. Those riveted sheet metal covers go over that anyways, but I do want it to be solid.

Had to refill my argon bottle and then got everything welded up, filled and shot with epoxy primer. I got pretty impatient on those long ass weld runs on the parcel shelf, so its a little bit wavy but it's going to be hidden by the "bed" so I'm really not worried about it.

Later in the week I powder coated and welded in the "mud flap" pieces I made forever ago. Just need to scuff and seam seal them up.

Oh, and I finally got the title! One less thing to worry about.
_________________
"He pulled the mirrors off his Cadillac ‘cause he doesn’t like it looking like he looks back"
'68/'70 Ghia Coupe Project
'70 Westy Project - Champagne I Wannabe
A bunch of vintage Japanese motorcycles
"Much ingenuity with a little money is vastly more profitable and amusing than much money without ingenuity." -A. Bennett

[advCo]

Still working on lots of welding but I'm going to post those pics in a group so its more cohesive. I got some little things tackled between welding jobs.

Cut out the seized e-brake pivot pin. Good god this thing was rusted in there. What a shitty job. Used one of these compact hacksaws, probably took me an hour and a half of 1" strokes but I finally got it out. My neighbor owns a garage down the street so he's going to press in my new diagonal arm bushings, and hopefully he can press out what's left of the pivot pin.

Painted up the gas tank cover. Are you guys just using generic weather stripping to seal this in? I haven't been able to find an actual part for the adhesive back foam seal around the edges/bottom?

Powder coated some engine bits as I'm going to have my buddy's mechanic refresh the engine for me. Normally, engine work is one of my favorite parts of a restoration, but with the move getting closer and closer I'm having to send out a few things and he'll be able to do a better job with the time constraints.

_________________
"He pulled the mirrors off his Cadillac ‘cause he doesn’t like it looking like he looks back"
'68/'70 Ghia Coupe Project
'70 Westy Project - Champagne I Wannabe
A bunch of vintage Japanese motorcycles
"Much ingenuity with a little money is vastly more profitable and amusing than much money without ingenuity." -A. Bennett

[9mmMike]

Still "in progress"?
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1974 Thing - x-Acapulco
1989 Intermeccanica Roadster
1972 SCCA GT4 Beetle
1971 Chianti Red / Pastel white Bus
mcode -
Click to view image

[AlanWesty]

How is the progress on this bus.
I see a lot of familiar issues, but luckily mine were not as severe.
Hope to see more pictures and progress soon.

[advCo]

Still here. Moved across the country and had a kid so the bus is on hold for the moment. Hoping to get the welder set back up this summer and dig back in.
_________________
"He pulled the mirrors off his Cadillac ‘cause he doesn’t like it looking like he looks back"
'68/'70 Ghia Coupe Project
'70 Westy Project - Champagne I Wannabe
A bunch of vintage Japanese motorcycles
"Much ingenuity with a little money is vastly more profitable and amusing than much money without ingenuity." -A. Bennett