Guido the B-Movie Bus

[davesmith84]

Hi all, thought it was about time I posted a thread on our bus - "Guido". We bought him in June from Bob Hemms (Volks Haus in Brum) which he clearly wasn't over the moon about! The history shows 56,000 miles from new and the story is that he was bought by an Italian monastery and was used to ferry Italian Monks around! He then stood for about 20 years and was bought into the UK about 2 years ago. Here are some pics of when we went to view it at Bobs place:

The door card was off because Bob was fitting a new genuine door look.

The interior is insane, other then being a bit dusty, it's in mint condition.

Couple of weeks later we got him home:

Radio flyers which had been sitting in my Father in laws garden for as long as I have known him. I mentioned them and the next thing I knew they were in the back of the bus!

The mini Jager was part of the deal

Sat in front of Bluebell our 65 RHD deluxe steel sunroof beetle (now for sale )

All tucked up as we went off to Glastonbury

After a couple of very smooth weeks driving him around at stock height and comfort I thought it was about time to lower him a tad so off he went to Guy @ Slamwerks

Add in 4 of these to the mix:

and you get this:

Some pics from Bugjam:

Me and the lady:

Temporary interior:

My mate Chris (AKA Ginger Flag auto rescue) welding a plate where the bench seats were bolted in. Rust had eaten away to bottom on cargo floor underneath where the bolts sat.

Guido with Pete Gee's bus (bob's mate old bus I think Gadget said?)

I want to get the front down another notch on the adjusters I think I will get away with it. The ball joints are close to the limits though. I would like to go over to a link pin beam 2" narrowed but that will have to wait as next job is the interior. Other things to come are detailing the fuch, roofracks and loadsa period accessories!

Thanks for looking 8)

 

[dubdubz]

amazing the bus looked great and then wow with the fuchs and lowering....

more details for the unwashed please - repro fuchs on adapters? narrowed beam?

cool as.............

what colour is that as I may go with a beige on my 72..........

 

[Loxy]

Very nice esp. on the fuchs

Do all non-walkthrough vans have the spare wheel well in the back missing then? presumably the spare is under the front bench? never noticed it before.

 

[davesmith84]

Thanks guys!

SSP repro polished fuch. I had them in 112PCD so I could keep all the original hubs. It has stock ball joint beam with CSP adjusters. Creative Engineering plates at the back.

Yeh the spare wheel sits under the front double bench seat - I think you can see it in one of the pics above. It's nice to have a completely flush rear cargo area.

I am in two minds about the interior. I would love a nice Westy Continental interior but obviously this was built with walkthroughs in mind. I want something that makes use of having a full width partition. The space is there so I may aswell use it. One thought I had is to put a Westy Continental interior in and build a small buddy seat to 'bridge' the gap. The subwoofer could sit under this then. Obviously the bottom drawers of the wardrobe would not be accessible but I plan to use the bottom of the wardrobe to store a couple of water bottles for the sink in anyway.

Gadget mentioned a specific S0-something-something interior that has a double buddy seat and sink that sits along the partition with no buddy seat against the opposite side to the sliding door (like normal westy interiors). Does this mean Westfalia built an interior for full width partitions? (microbus' and the like)!?

 

[davesmith84]

what colour is that as I may go with a beige on my 72..........

L345 - Light grey 8)


Also BIG thanks the Deano (Gadget) for helping me out so much, Bob Hemms for actually letting me buy the bus and Guy at Slamwerks for top notch service with a smile. Thanks guys.

 

[dubdubz]

what colour is that as I may go with a beige on my 72..........

L345 - Light grey 8)


Also BIG thanks the Deano (Gadget) for helping me out so much, Bob Hemms for actually letting me buy the bus and Guy at Slamwerks for top notch service with a smile. Thanks guys.

in the flesh is it grey or beige then or a greyee beige......... :lol:

 

[petegee56]

Good to see you finally got some pictures up dave, looking good

Pete

 

[ib-bus]

That is one cool looking bus, thanks for the information on the wheels, I wonder if I can get them in the States, are those repro caps as well ? They look very good, obviously not cheap repros.

 

[davesmith84]

what colour is that as I may go with a beige on my 72..........

L345 - Light grey 8)


Also BIG thanks the Deano (Gadget) for helping me out so much, Bob Hemms for actually letting me buy the bus and Guy at Slamwerks for top notch service with a smile. Thanks guys.

in the flesh is it grey or beige then or a greyee beige......... :lol:

When it's dirty - beige. When it's clean - grey :lol:

Honestly I would say its bang in the middle of both beige and grey.

The wheels are very nice and the out of the box polish isn't bad at all althought the centre caps are chrome and so they look a diffeerent colour to the wheels. I have seen that even if you get the chrome wheels the centre caps still look a different colour :roll:

Would like to get some original caps one day.

 

[Nigel]

Wow Guido, an Italian cousin. See thread – 1970 Italian Kombi, happy travels, Nigel

 

[faux]

Sweet ride, I have a thing for L345, had 2 buses painted in that colour before. I think the 2" KnL will look great with it too.

Looks a bit like my first bus:

Keep us posted, you seem in good slamming company (Ben and Deano)

 

[Danbury Doug]

Lovely bus!

My previous (late) bay was also an Italian one, and a Kombi too.

 

[Gadget Boy]

This thread wants Updating Asap to show the new floor and new stereo and the bed etc etc Come on Dave :lol:

 

[davesmith84]

Here you go Gadget!

Done a few shows last year and everything has been great. The only problem I have been having is with the ride quality. It's lowered on beam adjusters and I have tried everything to get him to ride smooth. The only thing that seems to work is to take him back up a few notches on the adjusters. Which says to me I am trying to lower him past the point of operation for the ball joints. Gadget - I really don't know how you managed to get the Gagdet Bus so low when it was running the original beam with adjusters! Some Gagdet black magic at play there I swear!

So it was with great annoyance that I raised the bus for The Final Fling which is held in Woolacombe and so meant a 4 hour drive. Not something you want to be doing when you have the bounciest vehicle in the world.

Here is a pic of the stance that I set for The Final Fling - the bus rode great but I wasn't happy with the wheel arch gap. It is going to have to stay like this until I can afford that link pin beam

It probably doesn't help that Paul and Amy's awesome bus is parked in front and looks insanely good.

Anyway, got back from The Final Fling to a welcome site. A couple of HUGE boxes from Creative Enginnering. Roof racks had arrived.
I ordered a 4 bow and a 2 bow, even after Creative told me a 4 and a 2 would touch each other when on the bus which I knew wasn't the case.

Something didn't quite look right with both racks on. I think the front need to be slammed in order to pull of a front 2 bow rack. So, for now, I have removed the 2 bow.

My mate Paul very generously offered to mop my bus so I jumped at teh chanced and I am amazed with the results. The bus now actually looks like L345 Light Grey!

During...

Half and half...

My missus being a knobba...

MASSIVE thanks to Paul and Amy for the moping and hospitality!

Yesterday I managed to get my mad matz floor tiles stuck down. I ordered the kit from mad matz which included a roll of insulation foam stuff (basically like a camping roll mat). I sanded down the cargo floor which was in pretty good conition anyway and then applied a coat of por15. I then stuck the insulation foam down and glued 6mm ply ontop of that. The tiles stuck down nice and easy with some vocal tips being supplied by Gagdet as he was stripping bumper off to realign it correctly (cheers chunky! - never did make that tea did you! Ate my last two marrylands aswell! Git!)

Very pleased with how they look. I have a guy coming over tomorrow to talk about a unit he is making me. It's going to be a modern take on and original SO-62 westy interior. It's a full with unit with a wardrobe behind the driver - al la continental. The missus isn't keen on the original westfalia trim so we are going for an oak look and feel - I also have a smev combi sink/single burner to go into the worktop.

Can't remember where I got these photos from - I think from here (earlybay) so thanks to whoever and I hope you don't mind...

We have also ordered our curtains and enough of the same material to be able to cover our bed foam so it matches.

My next job is to get on with the hardboard panels and headliner. Hardboard because I am going to be covering them but with something a little different watch this space! Thanks for reading 8)

 

[dubdubz]

Here is a pic of the stance that I set for The Final Fling - the bus rode great but I wasn't happy with the wheel arch gap. It is going to have to stay like this until I can afford that link pin beam

why not go dropped spindles from transporterhaus [currently on offer I believe?] or T2D ones - less expense than swapping the whole beam out for now - you can always add a narrowed bay balljoint beam later.........?

 

[davesmith84]

I've always been led to believe these aren't safe as they are welded. Also don't they mean you flip your ball joints? :?

 

[Gadget Boy]

My missus being a knobba...

Ha Ha I havnt heard anyone Use the word '' Knobba'' for years :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[davesmith84]

Well... it's just "one of them" !

 

[dubdubz]

I've always been led to believe these aren't safe as they are welded. Also don't they mean you flip your ball joints? :?

there's some new fings on the block - the are reversed ball joints in unwelded but machined std spindles. So you get a 3.5" drop. no increase in track.

I know there's 2 suppliers doing these - but mine came from Alex at Transporterhaus - so I'll stick this link in

http://transporterhaus.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=70&Itemid=129 for fairness T2D also do them.
Both have a safety ring machined into the spindles and balljoints so they won't pull out [although that is unlikely even without the rings in my experience - I've had a press upto 20tonnes pressure and they still haven't popped!] BUT it is good that the failsafe is there in both suppliers. I am led to believe that the balljoint is not std and is the same from both suppliers.

have a read and see what you think - mine will be here soon - there's a couple of people got them Ballbag? Popcornballs? Clem?

 

[davesmith84]

Thanks for this dubdubz - I have spent the last couple of hours researching the Transporterhaus and T2D flipped dropped spindles and I think they look great. I just don't like the idea of the weight of the bus pushing down on the flipped balljoint. But like you say would your bus ever put circa 20 tonnes of pressure on the ball joints when hitting a bump at speed? Hmmmmmm.

I would like to see someone fit and run them for a while before I made the leap.