1971 Westfalia “Fitz” saved from the scrapper

[Ceckert64]

I found yet another Westfalia…

A few weeks ago I was doing some homework and a friend calls me up and asks, “have you been to Ed’s salvage yard recently?” I hadn’t been and had honestly forgotten the place. After I realized which place it was, it’s only a mile from school. Then he said there were 20 old VWs out there. I was immediately intrigued. He said there were two busses and a bunch of bugs and the one bus was actually pretty nice. He sends me a few pictures and its original paint with a nice patina. I leave doing homework and head out there to check it out with my friend and it looked decent. The years said they’d sell it but they’d let me know on a price and give me a call in a few days. A few days go by and they say make an offer. Pond story short I picked it up for cheap and got bumpers, the engine, transmission and some other parts thrown in from the other 1971 sunroof bus in the yard. They even delivered it for free

It was covered in moss and full of junk but it was very complete and not too rusty. The engine turned 350 degree, but not the whole way over, but it looked nice, more on that later…
After I power washed the bus it started looking real nice

We used my friends Subaru to pull the engine and haul it home from the other bus

_________________
1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop

[richparker]

That’s some dope patina!!’

Definitely don’t paint it. Clean it up with CLR mixed 50/50 with water and scrub it with a green scouring pad. Then coat it with Sweet Patina.
_________________
__________
’71 Westy build
Adventure thread
’65 Deluxe Build
’63 Deluxe Build

[Ceckert64]

So progess moves slow on it since I got school and other stuff going on but we got a warm day so I decided to yank the engine with the help of some friends and start to tear it down. We take it into the basement of the house I’m living in and start to tear it down. I figured there was just dirt in the cylinder preventing it from turning over. Turned out to be true but in the process I found one of the worst engines I’ve seen. To start, I discovered the engine had 1/8-1/4 inches of end play, that’s no good at all. When I pulled the engine, it was missing one of the four bolts holding it to the transmission and one out of the three holding the engine hanger on and few of them used washers. The whole engine was a mishmash of parts and fasteners. The carb was a mix and missing screws.

Then I get the heads off, the cylinder are badly worn down, and worse, the valves aren’t even all the same size the one intake valve looks like it’s from a 1200 and almost falls through the seat it’s so small. All the head bolts were over torqued and seemed have pressed the cylinder into the head. Once the cylinders were off my friend moved the crank it you could see the main bearing moving back and fourth. The crank also could move up and down it was so bad and it had started grinding into the bell housing. The flywheel also just looked all dented up.

Then the engine in my friend’s Subaru from the other bus is locked up so hopefully that will work out or I can find another good engine.

Edit: here’s the smaller valve, the seat isn’t sunk, it’s just too small of a valve

_________________
1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop

[Ceckert64]

[Ceckert64]

For a bit more of the story on the bus, a lot the cars in the junkyard, and all the old VWs came from an estate they were cleaning out and he was into foreign cars, I think he had 30-50 cars the junkyard got. The bus was full of crap as seen in previous pictures. I threw out three contractor sized garbage bags so far and have more to go. As I cleaned it out, there was a bunch of old magazines, letters, etc from the 90-91 all left in the bus to the PO. Some pretty cool old magazines and old letter wrote to or from him. A bunch of the stuff was in different languages. It turned out he was a professor at the university Im going to and had a son that went there. He had a pretty interesting back story, here’s one blurb I found on him

On another note, I decide to name it Fitz as a tribute to the wreck of the Edmund Fitz Gerald since it happened on Lake Superior and I got the bus at about the same time as the anniversary of the wreck. Also because it’s been a fitz to deal with.
_________________
1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop

[Ceckert64]

I’m back home for the week for thanksgiving break so I’m starting to sort through my parts stash for the bus. Clearly it needs an engine rebuild so I’m scrounging up parts for that. First off is the case, I doubt the seized engine I pulled as a spare has a good case, if it’s original to that bus, it’s seen a lot of miles. So I figured I might as well try to find a good one in my stash, I narrowed it down to two nice cases, a 1973 Type 3 case so it’d need the oil pressure sensor hole drilled out and tapped as well as a dipstick adapter (which I have) but is a super clean and needs a line bore, then I have a 1971 beetle case so it has no engine hanger mounts so it’d need the adapter and it also needs a line bore. I’m currently thinking using the Type 3 case since I’d rather have the proper hanger. Any thoughts?

_________________
1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop

[scrivyscriv]

Looks great, and congratulations! A complete bus like that is a lot cheaper in the long run than piecing a bare shell together with parts from everywhere. You'll get that engine knocked out in no time.
_________________
Robert in Memphis
Dünkelgrügen 1967 Java Green bug thread
Engine rebuild thread
If you're ever in the Memphis area, you are welcome to stop by for advice and help.

[Ceckert64]

[Shonandb]

Nice. Celebrate the wins when you can!

Love this "On another note, I decide to name it Fitz as a tribute to the wreck of the Edmund Fitz Gerald since it happened on Lake Superior and I got the bus at about the same time as the anniversary of the wreck. Also because it’s been a fitz to deal with".
_________________
*******************************
76 Westy with a 2.5L Subaru SOHC + Vanagon (010) Automatic Transaxle
Build & Trip Thread: https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=758760
Previous 1973 Panel Bus:
Click to view image

[alman72]

i might have a stock radio out in the garage. f i have it, and you want it, you can have it. untested, would be amazed if it works.

nice michigan basement in your school rental. great to have some indoor hobby space

[Ceckert64]

Thanks you guys!

I’ll send you a PM Alman, I’d be interested in the radio to stick in the dash for now.

The space in the basement is nice, it’s right next to the boilers so it’s decently warm too I got a few lights set up on it.

Yesterday I ordered a bunch of parts so when I get back up to school I’m going to start on brakes before it gets too cold or too much snow
_________________
1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop

[mikewire]

Awesome score! Totally nice patina there too.

It even has an interesting back-story.

I've always said...you don't find them, they find you

How cool is that!!? Good for you brother!
_________________
-Mike

@countdowngarage
@bigskyeuro

1972 VW Kombi 9 Passenger Deluxe w/ 2.0L F.I. VWAC swap
1965 VW Beetle Deluxe Bahama Blue

[Ceckert64]

Thanks mikewire! I’m excited to have it, it needs a lot of love but it’s a great starting point.

While I’m still back down state from the bus, I’m getting everything for an engine together. I started cleaning up the 1600 parts that came out of the 40hp case. The rods all weighed out at about that same weight after I cleaned them up. I started cleaning up the crank too. The rod journals are beautiful since the assembly lube kept them from rusting, the main journals have a little rust that needs to be cleaned up, but it’s definitely a fresh machining. Here’s the starting pile of crust

I started cleaning up the camshaft but the edges had some pitting. I’m not sure if the camshaft will be usable. Thoughts?

I cleaned up the cases earlier today, I pulled the galley plugs on the bug case since mud wasp built nest in them A self tapping screw and washers always work good on pulling the plugs.

Then I made a visit to my local vw shop…

_________________
1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop

[scrivyscriv]

That camshaft is going to be a definite "nope"

It will eat up your lifters faster than a fat kid eating cake at thanksgiving.
I'm willing to take a gamble on quite a few things inside the VW motor, but cams and lifters are too risky to play roulette with.
_________________
Robert in Memphis
Dünkelgrügen 1967 Java Green bug thread
Engine rebuild thread
If you're ever in the Memphis area, you are welcome to stop by for advice and help.

[Ceckert64]

[Abscate]

If that pitting is off the contact area you can run that. It’s close though. How about some Prussian blue and a clearance test ?
_________________
.ssS!

[Ceckert64]

I got back up to school and brought a bunch of parts up for it. I brought the off road tires from my yellow bus up and put them on so I’d have more room under it.

I had decided to see if I could get the glandnut off the spare 71 bus engine that was seized up. I started putting force into it and the engine broke free and starting turning over. I decided to bring it inside and start a tear down to see if it was decent. Turned out there was a little bit of sludge in it. There was a bunch of junk in the cylinders. I took the P&C off and it turned over nice with “no” end play. It looks recently rebuilt mileage wise. I think I’m going to get it moving by just throwing this engine together.

_________________
1964 sunroof Beetle Restoration "Herbie"
“Joann” 1970 Elm Green Squareback
1972 Sierra Yellow Tin Top Westfalia Camper
“Fitz” 1971 Westfalia Poptop

[Abscate]

Nice work area! I’m not sure which I enjoy more, your projects or watching you turn into a greater and greater guy each year.
_________________
.ssS!

[Clatter]

Yeah, I love your threads my man. You go brother.

You never know what good parts you'll find tearing down an engine.
I tear 'em all down and save what's good.
Eventually you can build a nice one with the parts accumulated!
_________________
Bus Motor Build

What’s That Noise?!?

[wcfvw69]

Congrats on the bus. For a Minnesota bus, it' didn't look too terrible rust wise which is shocking. Did the bus come from that area? How rusty is it?
_________________
Contact me at [email protected]
Follow me on instagram @sparxwerksllc

Decades of VW and VW parts restoration experience.
The Samba member since 2004.

**Now rebuilding throttle bodies for VW's and Porsche's**
**Restored German Bosch distributors for sale or I can restore yours**
**Restored German Pierburg fuel pumps for sale or I can restore yours**
**Restored Porsche fuel pumps or I can restore yours**
**Restored Porsche distributors or I can restore yours**