The Champagne Imposter - My '70 Westy Refresh

[advCo]

Not a whole lot of physical progress happening lately. I have been selling off a bunch of Ghia parts and collecting sheet metal, some additional welding supplies I need and building the tip-over dollies so I can move the bus around and work on the undercarriage without crawling around on the grass.

Had some time to get over to my buddy's and pull the motor for my bus out out of his Deluxe. The story goes that the owner daily drove the Deluxe, and when the motor crapped out, he swapped the motor from the Westy into the Deluxe. We had to dodge a few downpours but eventually the rain let up just before dark and we were able to unbolt the sucker and slide it out. Loaded it into the truck and brought it to the shop, where I unbolted the Ghia lump from the stand and put the Bus engine there while I had an extra set of hands.

It spins over but its been parked since the 80s and I'll most likely do rings, hone, and lap the valves in and send it. The camper had 44k on it when it was parked, and judging from the loose wires and missing bolts I'm in doubt that the installation was ever finished.

_________________
"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

[BusJunky]

How’s the motor repair coming along?
_________________
Leroux's Autowerks “like us on fb”
https://m.facebook.com/Lerouxs-Autowerks-942149562555768/?ref=bookmarks

[advCo]

[advCo]

Not much but its a start. I decided to tackle the sill rot on the rear hatch to get my feet wet with the sheet metal repair. I figure if I botch it up badly enough I can always buy a new one, right? The first area was out in the middle so I figured it was the easiest to go for.

After a few rounds of trial and error, I managed to make a good repair section out of two pieces of 20ga bent up in the brake. I coated the back side of the bent pieces with weld through primer and stuck them together.

I went ahead and cut out the rotted area after tracing my repair sections. I'd like to get a body saw for better cuts but I'm rolling with what I've got for now. Got my gaps as best I could. The gap on the inner section should've been a bit bigger. Live and learn. Tacked it in place only blew a few holes through

Welded it up and hit it with the grinder and a roloc to finish it out. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. Kind of sucks having to weld so close to the bend there, I don't like finishing out welds that close to a bend since its easy to remove too much material, but gotta do what I gotta do.

I probably should've made the repair section a couple inches longer, I opened up that hole when I was finishing out the weld

Feels pretty good to get the first bit of rot cut out and replaced with new sheet metal. Not the prettiest repair ever but I think its a good start and I'm ready to start tackling more of this stuff.
_________________
"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]

Spent some time in the shop trying to get the rest of this window surround buttoned up. Took a lot of fussing to make this piece, I had to leave the center section 10mm longer to be able to bite with the shrinker, and then trimmed each side before I spot welded them together. After they were stuck together I hit them with the belt sander to get the profile closer, I'll find tune it once I get it welded in place.

_________________
"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

[ccowx]

I am liking this thread. I have a remarkably similar project on the go with a rusty 70 Westfalia and a fairly solid 70 shell. The shell I have is roughly equivalent to yours, with a bit of rust in the front and under the windshield, but better in the rear end. My other one is complete toast, though it has a decent interior that is quite complete. I will look forward to watching this one!

You had asked about an 1835 engine and if anyone had any opinions on that. I have had one in my 1970 Westfalia for the last couple of years I drove it, until it rusted out. I found that it worked well on the highway and it would cruise happily at 65-70 mph all day. It is not the torquiest engine around town and if you are constantly in city traffic or off road you might want the extra torque of a stroker motor. I found it was probably about like a stock 1600 dp around town, maybe a bit better, but this combo shines on the highway.

Chris

[advCo]

@ccowx - Thanks for the input regarding the engine. Still weighing my options at the moment, but I will probably end up keeping stock bore and stroke for the time being since I'll be putting a lot of money into the body and interior right now.

How many posts can I write on this rear hatch? 5? 10? Tallyho! We're almost ready to move on...

I got the corner piece welded in and finished off. Had to massage it a bit to get it perfect but it fell right in place. Next, I went right along the line and made up an 18" piece to fit between the corner section and the small piece I replaced last week.

I had originally planned to only replace the sections that were badly rotted, but the more I looked at the seam where the two halves were spot welded together, I felt like I might as well replace the entire bottom sill. My brake is only 18" so unfortunately I'm forced to do it in smaller sections. It seems to be going well but just a little more work.

I've got the two halves made up for the passenger side corner, just have to fine tune them and spot weld them together, then a small dent to pull right by the latch and the hatch will be ready for epoxy primer.
_________________
"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

[Vee Dub Nut]

Looks like solid work! Good job!
_________________
Fightin' Texas Aggie Class of 2006

67 Beetle (TBD)

74 Transporter (EJ25 Swapped) - Build Thread: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...mp;start=0

See all my VW pics on Instagram @ vee_dub_nut

[BusJunky]

That’s absolutley acceptable welding work, buddy! Looks great! Nice job fabricating the repair pieces. When I come across tight areas like that where I need to remove the welds, it is easy to grind the metal really thin trying to get to the weld. I found that using a cut off wheel and shaving it down slowly works great. Then I hit it with the sanding disc just to polish the last little bit out. Keep on truckin’ bro!
_________________
Leroux's Autowerks “like us on fb”
https://m.facebook.com/Lerouxs-Autowerks-942149562555768/?ref=bookmarks

[honestcharlie56]

Looks great
_________________
1982 Vanagon Westy
1974 Transporter
1971 Tin Top Westy

[advCo]

Thanks all. Finally starting to make some progress and it feels great!

@BusJunky - That’s exactly what I did, I used 2” cutoff wheels on my die grinder and skimmed over the welds until they were flush. Polished off with a medium grit roloc disc. Definitely a good method, and I don’t think I have any thin spots!

I’m glad I decided to replace the entire sill of this rear window. The first 6” on the straight portion of the piece pictured below looked great from above but was actually looking pretty rough underneath. This corner took quite a bit of fussing to get right, eventually it was just “good enough”. I went to let it in to the door and found that I accidentally cut it about 1/2” short on each end guess I like making extra work for myself.

Here’s the finished product. I still need to finish polishing the welds out and do some heat shrinking in a couple spots where I let it get too hot.

The passenger side corner had some rot a little further down than anywhere else on the door. I made a mini buck out of some 3/4” scrap plywood and bent the corner around as best I could match. It was close and with a little hammer action after it was tacked in it fit perfectly.

I’m gonna call this adventure into the world of panel work a success! I learned a lot and feel pretty well prepared to start working my way around the bus itself. Onwards and upwards!
_________________
"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]

Not much to report in the past few days. I'm busy working on a tipover jig based on a design I borrowed from the Split forum. Just a few more days on that and I can finally move the bus again. I moved the Ghia out of the Harbor Freight portable garage in order to make room for the bus and shortly thereafter found a giant split down the ridge of the tarp that covers it . Headed back up to Boston to get hitched over the holidays so I'll be picking work on the bus back up in January.

Switching gears for a bit, I dragged the beam into the shop and finally pulled the spindles off. The ball joints on here are OG and seem to be in really good condition. The bus has 44k original miles on the clock and there seems to be very little play in the ball joints. The boots are trashed. I checked in the manual and theres a method of checking the play by pulling the trailing arms away from each other, and also read there is a way to do it with a C-clamp but couldn't find much more detail on that, so if anyone has a link to that procedure it'd be appreciated. I'd love to install zerk fittings on the tops of these OG ball joints and re-boot them if possible.

After some research it looks like the aftermarket boots available offer pretty crappy longevity. After searching around here someone found some OEM Mercedes boots that fit and are reasonably priced so I'm going to try that if the play is within spec. A link to the thread where I found this info: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=...p;start=20

I finally got around to pulling the driver's side spring plate and torsion bar. The red coating (paint? powder?) is compromised on this side and theres some light surface rust that has formed. I've read that if this coating is compromised, the torsion bar is basically trashed. I didn't take a pic but I'll post one later.

If all goes according to plan I hope to pick up a very dry and roofless donor bus that has all the rear suspension (and OG CV axles) intact so I can hopefully steal from there if this bar needs to be replaced.
_________________
"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

[metz]

[advCo]

[Spike0180]

She aint pretty, but I wouldn't lose sleep over using her. Looks surface to me. wire brush, if its badly pitted then replace. If its not badly pitted, run it. Especially if you aren't gonna be hauling a lot.
_________________
Brutis Patches Izabich: 1970 VW Transporter - 1776cc DP
Current State: Projects never truly end...
Location: Grosse Pointe, Michigan
Other cars: 2003 F150, 2003 Jetta GLI vr6-6sp

Sambastic: adj; the quality of being nit picky, elitist, expecting everyone to do things the way they believe is best with no regard to situation, "sambastic"

[advCo]

[advCo]

Happy New Year fellow Sambanians! Its been pretty hectic with a lot of traveling and getting married over the holidays, but I've managed to get some work done on the bus.

Before we left town to head back to New England, I decided to clean up the spring plates and diagonal trailing arms. They were hanging around the shop dirty and rusty and there's nothing I like less than dirty rusty parts cluttering up the shop.

I had a bit of the POR-15 left over from the work I was doing to the Ghia. I've been pretty happy with the results, but I don't think I'll buy another can. Moving forward I'm going to try the Eastwood Rust Encapsulator as it is UV resistant where POR isnt, and doesn't require all the extra steps.

Tried and failed getting the rubber bushings out at home. I'll get the new ones in hand and find a shop to press them out and in for me.

Do I need to strip the paint off the spring plate where the diagonal arm and bearing housing mate with it?

In the spirit of jumping all over the place (if you haven't figured it out, that's my style - it keeps me from getting bored or burnt out on one area of a project) I started disassembling the rusty, crusty, nasty, roach hotel motor.

So I was originally under the impression ("the story goes...") that this was the original motor out of my bus. Upon matching the number on the cases to the Samba's engine # chart, I discovered that these cases are actually from a 1500cc Beetle engine. Sooo...I wanted to get in there and see what I actually had. This thing was disgusting. I've cleaned up some pretty roached out, seized up engines in the handful of years since I started restoring bikes, but this takes the cake.

Before:

Check out this kick ass moustache bar adapter plate...

The good news is, all the components seem to be correct minus the missing flaps in the doghouse and thermostat. German 34 PICT-3 carburetor which will be headed to volkzbitz for a rebuild. Bosch blue coil will need to be tested. Need to double check the dizzy numbers against what should be on this engine.

Still need to check the end play which I need to figure out how to do. Depending on that I plan to refresh this engine and get the bus rolling with it. After I finish the other expensive parts of the restoration, I'll be building a new long block on correct Bus cases so I don't have to run a janky bracket off the oil pump.

I digress...so I pulled the heads and jugs off carefully because I have no idea whats going on inside this Franken-motor. It turns over nicely after the stuffed-full-of-crap fan was removed. Inside the valve covers looked great. Some massaging with a rubber mallet and the heads and jugs popped right off. The bores look great, no rust at all and the rings are all free. I roughly measured the bores (I only have calipers) and they came up at about 85.5mm, which means I do actually have a 1600cc here to work with. Sweet!

Lots of cleaning to do but I think I'll be able to get rolling with a set of rings and a hone, clean up the heads, lap the valves back in and send it.

Does anyone know what that little deal is attached to the back side of the fuel pump?
_________________
"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

[Spike0180]

By little thing behind the fuel pump, do you mean the stud coming out of the case? That is where the distributor is clamped down at to maintain timing. OOOhhh I think I see what you're talking about, its in the picture of the engine fully assembled. It's tough to see form here, but it looks like it is hooked up to the fuel pump. Was it in line with the fuel pump? or separate? If it was in line, I'd guess it was a fuel filter of some sort. If it was separate... I'd wait to see what someone who is more knowledgeable than I to respond to this thread. lol
_________________
Brutis Patches Izabich: 1970 VW Transporter - 1776cc DP
Current State: Projects never truly end...
Location: Grosse Pointe, Michigan
Other cars: 2003 F150, 2003 Jetta GLI vr6-6sp

Sambastic: adj; the quality of being nit picky, elitist, expecting everyone to do things the way they believe is best with no regard to situation, "sambastic"

[advCo]

[advCo]

My work schedule changed at the beginning of the year so I've had a bit more time after work/before dark to move along on the bus. Back to the battery tray/inner fender/rear pass corner repair. I drilled out the spot welds as best I could (its tight in there) and cut the rotted bits out. Rough cardboard template then cut the piece out of some sheet metal. Bent the edges in and shrunk the edge to get the curve. Fits pretty well but needs some final adjusting before I get it welded in place.

_________________
"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