'69 Savannah Deluxe continued.....

[markevo30]

72crewdude,

Glad you like the bus . I'm pretty happy with the way the bus sits too, it's about as low as you can go without notching/tubbing and retaining a half decent ride. I have mimimal rubbing/bottoming out issues with this setup.

The front has a 4" narrowed Slamwerks king and link pin beam with the adjusters on their highest setting and flipped spindles with short shocks. The wheels are 5.5 x 15 with 165/50R15 Bridgestones.

The rear has been lowered two outer splines (i think), has shorter shocks and runs 185/55R15 tyres. I'll probably fit some adjustable spring plates at some point so i can raise her up a bit when fully loaded for camping. These would be fitted with just a one spline rotation as there's not a lot of travel before the spring plate hits the top of the housing at the mo.

Mark

 

[markevo30]

I've been thinking long and hard (probably too hard) about sound deadening. This week I finally took the plunge and ordered three different types for different areas of the bus. I'll cover the other areas in future posts but today I looked at the engine bay.

I did originally plan to remove the interior cupboards and rear load area wood and fit deadening above the engine bay. As I've got the engine out at the moment I looked at fitting something above the engine inside the bay. This would save me removing the interior and probably having to altering it due to the thickness of any material added underneath.



I removed the cover and then the tank and was pleasantly surprised with what i found. The tank is in fantastic condition and the original paint where the tank sits is probably the best on the bus.





With the tank out of the way i then fitted the 12mm fire retardant acoustic foam I decided was best for the job.



I gave the tank cover a bit of a polish before refitting and continued to fit more of the foam to the roof of the engine bay.







I've struggled to find any suitable replacements for my knackered tar boards so i thought i'd make my own. After a bit of surfing i found a product called Supalux which i thought would do the job. It's stable when exposed to moisture and has a half hour fire rating. After a bit of measuring, cutting and a couple of coats of satin black i ended up with these.



And fitted, not the best picture but they've worked out really well. Tidies things up no end.

 

[Marshy]

Like it! May just steal your idea

 

[markevo30]

First of my winter jobs done, well almost.

Whilst trying to fix a few oil leaks i took the opportunity to tidy things up a bit. Nothing major, just a clean up and a bit of paint but i think it's turned out ok.

I've got a leaky fuel pump :x so i've not had chance to give it a proper test run but first impressions are good. I set the plug gaps, the tappets and timed her up and she's running sweet.

Before



During



And after

 

[markevo30]

I've done a bit more sound deadening this week.

I decided to go for some 4mm silent coat on the doors as i wanted them to have a nice 'clunk' when i shut them. The difference it has made to the door is amazing, when you tap the door now it feels like an inch thick piece of steel! well, maybe that's a slight exaggeration but it's pretty good.

When driving at anything over 30mph the road noise from the wheel arches and cab floor area overtook the engine as the loudest. I wanted to add a little mass and absorb some of the racket so i plumped for Dodo mat duo which is a 2mm layer of butyl and 6mm of closed cell foam in one sheet. It took a bit of time to apply as there are some fairy complex shapes and curved surfaces to deal with.

After a short test run it seems to have done the trick, it's not modern car standards but it's definitely quieter as now i can hear lots of other noises like rattles and wind noise. :lol:

 

[Myvanway]

Great work there. 8)

 

[markevo30]

Everyone deserves a Christmas present. Gertie's got freshly painted bumpers and new wheels. Not until Christmas Day though!

Happy Christmas everyone, see you in the new year!


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[squareweave]

Hmmm, any hints?

 

[markevo30]

Nowt special. Just fancied a change.

Trying to find something that you're happy with, suits the van and different these days is nigh on impossible. I've gone for an old favourite of mine from back in the day. I had a set on my '64 bug in 1990.


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[squareweave]

Nowt special. Just fancied a change.

Trying to find something that you're happy with, suits the van and different these days is nigh on impossible. I've gone for an old favourite of mine from back in the day. I had a set on my '64 bug in 1990.


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Porsche wide 5 chromies with nipple caps?

 

[markevo30]

Nowt special. Just fancied a change.

Trying to find something that you're happy with, suits the van and different these days is nigh on impossible. I've gone for an old favourite of mine from back in the day. I had a set on my '64 bug in 1990.


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Porsche wide 5 chromies with nipple caps?

Have you been peeking in my garage? Pretty close!


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[markevo30]

I couldn't wait 'till Christmas

I wasn't sure if I'd made the right choice or not with the change of wheel but they're growing on me.

I quite like the look without the hubcaps but her indoors doesn't so they're staying on.


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[squareweave]

Nice choice, thats a nice clean look!

I prefer the with caps look

 

[markevo30]

One area of the bus I was always going to look at were the brakes. I bought a remote servo kit from VW Jim back in the summer. I intended to fit it as one of my winter jobs but was struggling to find a suitable place to fit it and just to work under the bus. I made a call to Graham at MEB and he agreed to fit it for me.

I picked up the bus yesterday and it's made a HUGE difference. The power is incredible. Graham said he's never driven a bay with brakes that powerful, even ones with discs. So powerful In fact he head butted the windscreen on a test run!

I've added a few pics so you can see where we ended up mounting it as there's not a lot of info on fitting these to early bays.

Another thing, I checked the fuel economy on the way back from Graham's and I got about 24mpg. It was mostly motorway at between 55 and 60, is that about right for a standard 1600 sp?

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[markevo30]

We displayed the van at Camper Mart this weekend. As the show is only ten miles away from us and we'd get a free family pass to the Camper Jam i thought why not?

This show has had a bit of bad press over the years as it's quite small and full of nonsense such as a roller derby. They had added and extra hall this year though to increase the number of vans on display.

Would i display the van again? Probably. Would i go again if i wasn't displaying? Probably not.

Here's a few pics.

Setting up on Saturday afternoon.






A few shots of the show










As we had trade passes we could get into the Tattoo show next door. This basically was about 150 tattoo artists tattooing people throughout the day! There were about six rows like the one below.





My mom having a chat with Jenni from MEB.





There was quite a heavy bias towards T5s in the trade bits.



The roller derby is just a bit weird :? I gave it two minutes of my time.



The music didn't seem to go down very well!



A few shots at the end of the day. Time to pack up and bugger off!










Oh, and Katie bought a bag. With bays on it and not splits!!

 

[markevo30]

As the sun was shining I thought I'd take the old girl to work.

Bring on the summer! 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)

 

[Myvanway]

Sweet. 8)

 

[marmite monster]

dunno if i like it more with the other wheels on hummm such a nice bus

 

[markevo30]

dunno if i like it more with the other wheels on hummm such a nice bus

I know what you're saying, i change my mind all the time as to which ones i prefer. Although at the minute i'm loving the 356's.

We had a trip out today as it was so nice. A bit of culture at Ironbridge.



Piss poor parking :roll:

 

[markevo30]

Spotted a photo of Gert in this months Camper and Commercial from when she was at Campermart.

She's described as 'a '68 bay resplendent in new beige and white paint'.......

........she's actually a '69 and the paint's about six years old :roll:

I'm taking the comment about the paint as a compliment after all my hard work polishing