'69 Westy - "Juan"

[911gt2]

After I had my Riviera for almost a year. I came to the conclusion I wasn't going to start that project any time soon, let alone finish it. So to be able to take my 6 year old out on trips before puberty I decided to let it go and buy a running Westy instead.

It's is now being prepared to get MOT'd and hope to have it on the road by the end of august.

It needs some welding in the front floor but otherwise it's fine.

It's a New Mexico bus so it didn't suffer much from the weather.
Because it's from New Mexico I named it "Juan" :lol:

My plans are:
For now; get it on the road for a short trip before summer ends.
Also repleace the front seat with a bench using the 501 option.

So we can cruise with the 3 of us in front.

Then I will replace the 1600DP with a purpose build 1776 with double Dellorto's and a W110 cam.
And with all that power I need some braking to. I still have this set of Porsche 944 brakes laying around which I bought from Mycha.

And of course need some matching wheels

After all that I will work on the stance, not sure on the best way though. Thinking Red 9, but it needs to be drivable to!
Finally I will rebuild the interior. But I think that will be fall/ winter 2016

 

[Shaggybus]

cool bay.
looking forward to seeing it done

 

[SiDev]

Nice bus, good colour too, unusual.

 

[911gt2]

So today I finally got the engine sorted.
It was running when I first got my hands on it, but man am I glad I did a thorough checkup.

There was so much fuel in the oil it was almost as thin as water.
So I drained the 'oil' and the old us-crap-like fuel and went on to replace the fuel pump, sparkplugs, wires, distributor cap, rotor and contact points and a quick check of the compression. After that it was time to fill it up with fresh oil and petrol set the timing.
It quickly became apparent that, the pump wasn't the only thing leaking fuel. :?
A quick test revealed that also the carb was dumping full into the cylinders.
So after a quick check with a spare carburetor (and again new oil) the engine apart from timing issues and a valve adjustment it finally runs more acceptable. (Video)
So I ordered a new carburetor and will fit it tomorrow.
Now to replace the fanbelt and clean-up the engine bay.

Running on the spare carb.
[youtube]https://youtu.be/_lTI8nrQ1bg[/youtube]

 

[mychatype3]

Nice one love the color, slam it :mrgreen:

 

[911gt2]

Obviously he needed his identity, so I got his name pin-striped on the back. 8)

Got "Juan" ready for MOT.
Rear bumper was a bit wobbly still so I removed that.




It was a clean pass arty0053:

So now I set to work getting him ready for the first trip.
Got the VW logo's back on and the interior sorted and cleaned. Looking forward to a road trip with my daughter next week.

 

[911gt2]

So I recently took Juan out for the first road trip.
I did about 600 Km's.

I found out that the carb still has issues so I replaced that with an old 34pict3 I hal laying around. That was even worse :lol: so Now I've ordered a brand new one. Also I found an original manifold with vacuum port for the brakes.

So I'll drop the engine quick to have easy acces and give it a good clean. Same thing goes for the gearbox.

Some pics of the roadtrip.

Cool just doesn't seem to catch on to new campers. :mrgreen:

Did the entire trip alone with my 6 year old. That was the best part.

 

[911gt2]

Ok so here's kind of an update. :lol:

After the trip with my daughter I did one more trip to Ninove mostly stock, ok I added a new antenna.

After that it was time to get the mods on. First things first, fix the roof lifting in the wind while driving with the awsome kit off Simon.

And while we're at it a throttle kit as well.

Gotta love Simons stuff.

After that it was time to get rid of the dodgy interior. So I cleaned the inside.

And did some minor touch-ups on the floor wich was realy in great shape.
Then a mate helped me with the sound deadning for future plans.

Time for some new curtains.

And vinyl as closely to the orriginal as possible.

Looks much better inside already. 8)

Added a tow-bar, leisure battery, subwoofer, new headunit and speakers and did a small electrics upgrade but didn't take any pics :roll:
Still looking for a good set of used exterior mirrors as I don't want the shiny/ crappy new ones

Now time tot the fun bits! Thanks to Micha for his support on this one!
First off the installation of the 944 brakes.

Starting with replacing the intake manifold, which can be done with the engine in the bus. I'm not sure if it's the fastest option though. :roll:

Put on the brake servo and 944 master.

Then put in lowered spindles en refurbd trailing arms.

And find some nice wheels to cover everything off. Just checking visually.And no I don't want to run the regular fuchs/ cosmic option. :|

Mount discs and callipers

For the rear mount horse shoe plates, new axle's (forget the supplied bolts they are crap and get the ones from simon) end the discs.

Then get your brake fluid reservoir abover the master cilinder (I've put mine inder the drivers seat)

Put your wheels back on and be amazed by your new improved stopping power.

Then fix the stupid mistake you made wich caused massive camber an admire again.

Another summer trip with my daugther reveiled an issue.

I like the regular tires and I like the lowered stance. What I don't like is the rake and the rubbing in corners and on heavy braking. Time to sort that out!

So I had that fixed by putting in on air all round.
[youtube]1uoWuyX9lps[/youtube]
Stance is fixed so it sits level now.

Most of the time I still run as low as I did before only on trips withe the family or on bumpy roads I rease it so I can drive normally. I didn't want tiny front wheels or extreme 'lows' just a nice usable stance and a family friendly ride.

Last of the dings I've had done to it is to add the hand painted patina'd go faster stripes.
Which I really like. 8) 8)

Last bit of progress speaks fot itself:

Again, the idea is to make it famliy friendly and not a loud screamer so I opted for a 1915 with 1:8 compression AA piston and heads and full flow oil system and a 123 electronic ignition and IDF 40's. Setup for torque not horsepower.

Looking for a rancho or 1303S gearbox now. And then get it installed and dyno tuned.

So all in all I went from this:

to this:

 

[mike202]

nice bus, that's a lot of work you've put in :shock:

love the stripes -suits the colour scheme well 8)

 

[Bluesnailman]

great stripes!!