Parts Wanted Continental Roof Bed wanted

[milfredo]

So I eventually assembled a bed to the original spec using various bits from NLA VW. I bought the main roof bed kit off Facespace and it was missing the hinge bracket so my friend made an identical one at his shop.



Installation tomorrow at some point.

I'm really pleased with it. It looks almost factory.

 

[milfredo]

 

[ozziedog]

View attachment 7403

That really does look great. Should help with space and organisation immensely.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,almost factory

 

[milfredo]

I also have most of the parts now but am missing the pillow support bar, I’d be interested in your solution too if possible!

Thanks

I made a mock up out of a coat hanger that worked nicely. I've got some thicker 5mm (or was it 8mm) steel bar to try this weekend. I even bought the ends off NLA Vw rubber ends

 

[milfredo]

That really does look great. Should help with space and organisation immensely.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,almost factory

Much appreciated dude. Let’s hope it fits like it did while mocking it up.

 

[naskeet]

View attachment 7403

The Westfalia factory-standard, hinged pillow-section is much narrower than that! Make sure that it can actually be hinged upward into the service position, once one has climbed-up into bed in the elevating roof!?!

Without the gaps at the sides, unless one hinged down the pillow-section, it would be virtually impossible to pass up one's mug of tea and breakfast cereal to have breakfast in bed, or pass up & down the large cloth, towel or sponge, to wipe the condensation (i.e. dew) off the inside of the elevating roof in the morning.

 

[milfredo]

The Westfalia factory-standard, hinged pillow-section is much narrower than that! Make sure that it can actually be hinged upward into the service position, once one has climbed-up into bed in the elevating roof!?!

Without the gaps at the sides, unless one hinged down the pillow-section, it would be virtually impossible to pass up one's mug of tea and breakfast cereal to have breakfast in bed, or pass up & down the large cloth, towel or sponge, to wipe the condensation (i.e. dew) off the inside of the elevating roof in the morning.

Engineered this way… I actually made the complete bed with thinner ply and realised my error when I got up there, it bent and creaked a lot. I remade the bed with thicker ply but I kept the thinner ply pillow with thicker foam for comfort and weight. I have full width ply in the garage waiting for my design to fail at the next step of this build (making the retaining bar). I think it will be fine from testing in my kitchen.

 

[milfredo]

Engineered this way… I actually made the complete bed with thinner ply and realised my error when I got up there, it bent and creaked a lot. I remade the bed with thicker ply but I kept the thinner ply pillow with thicker foam for comfort and weight. I have full width ply in the garage waiting for my design to fail at the next step of this build (making the retaining bar). I think it will be fine from testing in my kitchen.

P.s. these dimensions are from your drawing if you mean the width is wrong.

 

[milfredo]

The Westfalia factory-standard, hinged pillow-section is much narrower than that! Make sure that it can actually be hinged upward into the service position, once one has climbed-up into bed in the elevating roof!?!

Without the gaps at the sides, unless one hinged down the pillow-section, it would be virtually impossible to pass up one's mug of tea and breakfast cereal to have breakfast in bed, or pass up & down the large cloth, towel or sponge, to wipe the condensation (i.e. dew) off the inside of the elevating roof in the morning.

Dimensions taken from this lovely drawing. I hope the width is ok…. ( I did test fit it swinging into place).

 

[milfredo]

So the headrest is a little wide and touches the roof opening when folding it up. Not bad enough to rebuild it (yet) but it's a little annoying.

I made the pillow support bar and it works a treat. I tore the little boot which I was pushing home which is annoying.

 

[redmonty]

So the headrest is a little wide and touches the roof opening when folding it up. Not bad enough to rebuild it (yet) but it's a little annoying.

I made the pillow support bar and it works a treat. I tore the little boot which I was pushing home which is annoying. View attachment 7462View attachment 7463

Looking good, I'm planning on doing the same. Was wondering how the rear hinges fix to the roof, did you have to take the headliner out to fix from below?

 

[naskeet]

So the headrest is a little wide and touches the roof opening when folding it up. Not bad enough to rebuild it (yet) but it's a little annoying.

I made the pillow support bar and it works a treat. I tore the little boot which I was pushing home which is annoying. View attachment 7462View attachment 7463

I don't know whether the roof-bed pillow-section supports of my 1973 model-year Westfalia Continental (manufactured during late-August or early-September 1972), might have originally have had plastic or rubber bungs on the ends, but there certainly weren't any when my father bought the vehicle second-hand in January 1975.

That central toggle-fitting to secure the elevating roof is VERY different from mine, which is more like a revised shape of the twelve strap-bridges that are attached to the moulded GRP Westfalia roof rack. My left-hand & right-hand side toggle-fittings are the same, as seen in the following illustration from the 1973 Westfalia Continental owners' handbook.

 

[milfredo]

Looking good, I'm planning on doing the same. Was wondering how the rear hinges fix to the roof, did you have to take the headliner out to fix from below?

Yes had to remove the ply roof but this was the easy bit when working alone and to rough plans.

 

[milfredo]

I don't know whether the roof-bed pillow-section supports of my 1973 model-year Westfalia Continental (manufactured during late-August or early-September 1972), might have originally have had plastic or rubber bungs on the ends, but there certainly weren't any when my father bought the vehicle second-hand in January 1975.

That central toggle-fitting to secure the elevating roof is VERY different from mine, which is more like a revised shape of the twelve strap-bridges that are attached to the moulded GRP Westfalia roof rack. My left-hand & right-hand side toggle-fittings are the same, as seen in the following illustration from the 1973 Westfalia Continental owners' handbook.

The central toggle fitting is a repo split screen Westy roof toggles put in the vice and whacked to a new shape (no way original as mine had nothing to hold down the back of the roof) and then then ends widened with a jack handle to fit the toggle. This is summer engineering not bed engineering.

This is shed engineering made the bed look 'almost' stock with cobbled parts and NLAVW support bits from facespace (minus one hinge) made to fit the bus from your amazing drawing. I just wanted it better than the examples on 18 pages of thesamba which I think I've almost achieved.

It is far from original but the natty, loveliness is maintained... almost

 

[lamoufle]

Looking good, I'm planning on doing the same. Was wondering how the rear hinges fix to the roof, did you have to take the headliner out to fix from below?

I have the nlavw kit and had replace my plywood healiner just before so didn't want to remove it at all! So just use rivnuts and it works a charm. Some people didn't screw the hinges at all and use strong magnet to hold them.

@milfredo I do want to modify my nlavw kit also as the pillow part is a pain in the a** to store while driving.
In the end what did you use to maintain the pillow part face down?
And what hardware did you used for the zigzag part that maintain the pillow part in place to sleep? Did you bend it on the vice? this is the only one thing that I don't know how to do it correctly...

Anyway very nicely done and far better than the very very expensive nlavw kit. I usually love their products are they are 100% correct so I don't know why they choose to adapt and not reproduce it correctly.

 

[roobug67]

My 68 Westfalia has been fully converted to a genuine continental roof bed, happy to share pics of it for those using the NLA kit as a reference

Pic of it clipped up out the way.

 

[lamoufle]

thanks @roobug67

a few questions:
- on the cosmetic side on things! the yellow/mustard linen is staple to the board? or glued?
- to the side of the board or to the side down?
- how is attached the brown strip?

Can you take a close picture of the hardware that maintain the pillow part?

Thanks!!

 

[W1K1]

So the headrest is a little wide and touches the roof opening when folding it up. Not bad enough to rebuild it (yet) but it's a little annoying.

I made the pillow support bar and it works a treat. I tore the little boot which I was pushing home which is annoying. View attachment 7462View attachment 7463

I have mine all built except for this bar? i don't get how that is supposed to hold that pillow section up very well

 

[Matt84]

I have mine all built except for this bar? i don't get how that is supposed to hold that pillow section up very well

Ditto this.

Still unsure how to secure the pillow once it’s in use!

 

[roobug67]

thanks @roobug67

a few questions:
- on the cosmetic side on things! the yellow/mustard linen is staple to the board? or glued?
- to the side of the board or to the side down?
- how is attached the brown strip?

Can you take a close picture of the hardware that maintain the pillow part?

Thanks!!

Hi, I'll get some pics.

The mustard linen is stapled to the underside of the board and has the brown (its actually dark red) finishing strip glued on to hide the staples. It might be glued as well, but I've never needed to find out.