1970 tin top westy resto

[tintintin]

Hi,

I thought I'd add a few photo's of my new bus.

It's ex California

An SO70 (I think)

It's now in Simpson Aircooled body shop

I bought it from FBI on the back of some photo's - Nice blokes, but the winky valve was going for a few days until it arrived - it turned out rock solid.

I'll keep you posted.

:wink:

 

[VWAIRCOOLED]

Good luck with it,glad it's a solid one.Will it be ready for this season? What colour are you going with?

 

[Shaggy]

thats nice a solid

 

[tintintin]

Thanks,

It's going to be Beryl green & Pastel white with something darker in the engine bay - I'm hoping to get it on the road by April.

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=321405


Have you ever seen a smoothed dash on a Bus? - I'm trying to get an idea of what it would look like.

 

[gninnam]

Looks like a nice buy!
Looks like a lot of work is going to go into the van 8)
Do remember the smoothed dash - just can't remember

 

[tintintin]

It looks like the smoothed dash will have to wait. The engine fire has knackered the wiring and a new loom is needed. 58Herbie answered my request in Technical - thanks Jon and a new loom is now being made.

Spot the early Dormobile being finished in the spray booth..

The reversing light and side reflector holes are being filled and a new lower quarter panel and battery tray will be cut in. The gearbox if off to CogBox for re-conditioning. Ordered the new Remtec from SSP which should be ready in a couple of weeks.

Quite a bit of smoothing needed where the fire warped the rear floor panel.

Has anybody seen these smoothed panels inside each rear quarter just inside the rear window behind the rear vents - Do they serve any purpose?

 

[Guest]

i wouldnt smooth the floor panel over the enigine... id use it as an excuse to fit an inspection hatch from a t25 and whip out the warped bit :wink: .

its definetly solid, how long did it take you to bare-metal it? and what did you use?

 

[tintintin]

Tks Johnny - Good idea, I'll think about that, just a bit concerned about sealing against fumes.

The strip down started the last week in December and the body work's taken two weeks so far from then - Orbital sander to bare metal and blocks on the filler. I'll get the bumpers bead blasted to save time, the existing ones were u/s but I've managed to get a good front replacement from FBI and a new rear from VW heritage.

 

[tintintin]

Both bumpers were not in good shape so FBI sourced a decent front bumper, and VW heritage had a OE rear available so that's on it's way too.

Has anybody seen covers like these before? They seem to be factory fitted, but don't seem to serve much purpose apart from maybe noise reduction or dress up - doubt they'll be going back on though.

Joe's started flattening the body.

Chosen the paint ( Pastel White & Beryl Green body - Willow Green tin wear and front beam, haven't decided how to colour code the wide 5's yet....), but that's a few weeks away. Bus Boy's adjusters arrived today so the beam will be off next week for lowering hopefully.

 

[Big Nick]

Re: covers, yeah I have them on my 69 as well 1 year only I was told, cant think of anything really useful they might do though! Your going to have a really nice Bus by the look of her!

Regards
Nick

 

[tintintin]

Tks Nick,

Maybe I'll put them back on then.

 

[kempy]

Tks Nick,

Maybe I'll put them back on then.

Don't bin them !!

PS looking good.

 

[tintintin]

No prob's and thanks,

 

[Grazy]

hi tintintin looks like lots of hard work going on there , good to see another Suffolk dude on here They all seem to be from Tamworth or Brizzol on here 8) nice choice of colours mate hope to see it in the metal soon

 

[tintintin]

Thanks Grazy and hello,

And the great thing about were we live with an early bay is that there are sod all hills to climb....

It'll still be a bugger over the Orwell though....

I'll keep you posted on developments, it's been a quite a few years since I was at North Wield or Santapod (Thump Thump did my '67 beetle just before Darren Jacobs Targa Top & Moody was just hitting the 9's !) so I'm looking fwd to a few visits later this year.

 

[Airtime]

Nice colour combo! 8) Can't wait to see it finished!

 

[tintintin]

Thanks,

Had to order a replacement fuel tank today - the existing one was full of crap - It was like one of those rain makers when you lifted it, I would have been gutted bunging up my jets on the first turn..

As you can see - pretty much every thing's been stripped...

Dave has all but finished the welding on the main body, bar the rear battery tray - (overall not much apart from the side indicator's & reversing lights !). He's now in the process of getting the front beam sorted - The Bus Boy's beam adjusters arrived. I might as well go the whole hog and replace the wheel bearings all round while it's all out - Just a few more quid - happy days!

Joe's working hard on the sides and will be giving it a coat of gloss soon so he can spot and flatten any remaining areas, you just can't tell where they are with the matt finish..

Picking up the engine on Friday!

 

[Alzy]

Looking good!! Takes some bottle for someone to completely rip their bus apart!! All be worth it though!!

Good luck mate

Al

 

[caesar]

Re: covers, yeah I have them on my 69 as well 1 year only I was told, cant think of anything really useful they might do though! Your going to have a really nice Bus by the look of her!

Regards
Nick

Got them on my 68 also! :wink:

 

[panalvan]

hi there nice van i will be interested how this turns out as i will be needing my westy painted and i know joe . my 1970 west has the rear panals as well. See you around suffolk soon