Jimmy our 68 westy

[67westy]

Well I had an infill cushion arrive earlier this week from Joanne at the trimshack and it fits really well, will be much comfier to sleep on!

Not the best pic but....

 

[Myvanway]

8)

 

[67westy]

Well a job thats been on my list for ages has been done now, the westy fly screens. Wish I had more time to give the frames a good clean but the best I could manage was a quick wash and mesh replacement:

I used new grey tubing for securing the mesh after reading mike202's thread. I could only get 100M though :shock: so I'll be putting up an ad for lengths of the surplus if anyone is thinking of doing the job

Clean and wax
Replace gear knob
Replace handbrake rubber
Fit GPS tracker
Engine out to fit new heat exchangers and find a small oil leak (round cooler I think)
Refurb original seats
Look into LED lighting options
Fit pedal pan
Get the sink unit sorted
Fit chrome rear light surrounds
Fit new steering wheel
Fit wiper spindles + NOS 68 wiper arms
Check why the washers only last 10 minutes
Pop top fringe
Find and fit ignition switch (spring broke)
Fit 150lb springs on coilovers
Remove stuck bolt in CV joint and refit
Investigate water drip round rear hatch (probably caused by screen cover and torrential rain!)
Get front valance damage and bumper sorted by MPW
DONE-mozzie nets for windows
DONE-Fit NOS brake fluid reservoir
DONE-Full engine service
DONE-Check and adjust brakes
DONE-Buy and fit new leisure battery
DONE-Check fuel lines

Still lots to do!

 

[67westy]

Well I managed to break a terminal off the might cluster when putting in the new leisure battery. Tried to solder it with no joy so I got sine new shiny ones from C&C. Fitted them just before leaving for camperjam.

New shiny:

Old and new:

Spot the difference:

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

[67westy]

Well another year another MOT

Flew through promptly followed by having to borrow a jump pack from the garage as the battery is a bit flaky :lol:

 

[67westy]

We've been in our new house nearly 2 months now and at the weekend the van finally managed to fit in the garage after replacing the up & over door for a side hinged one

Hopefully it means I will have more time to do some small jobs now it's not a couple of miles away....

 

[67westy]

Had a plan at the weekend to quickly whip the engine out, swap the heat exchangers, fix an oil leak, change fuel filler hose and then get it all back in. Had nearly 3 days, should be easy!

Old filler hose had seen better days:

All nice and new now:

Going to plan and the then this happened:

Maybe not the end of the world, engine was driving well although maybe burning a little bit of oil. Power was good and I had no concerns before removing it. Thought about just putting it back together as it was fine, then moved on to thinking about getting new heads, barrels and pistons. However decided to bite the bullet and get a brand new VW Heritage engine, thought it would give us peace of mind and hopefully avoid any breakdowns with the new baby.

So my 1641 arrived this morning:

just need to get it fitted now :msn4:

 

[Supertramp]

Oooooo shiny. 8)

 

[67westy]

As it was a nice day I decided to give our new air beam awning a try. Up in less than 20 mins, not bad for a first attempt. I reckon less than 10 next time.

 

[mike202]

Like the new awning, I bet even I could put that up.

 

[67westy]

Like the new awning, I bet even I could put that up.

It was very easy

New shiny bits appeared today (there are 2 ):

 

[gvee]

Shiney!
Awesome sauce 8)

 

[67westy]

Well started off yesterday with this:

And by the end of the day not a lot had changed! Got the oil cooler, alternator pedestal and distributor fitted. Then messed around with some crappy repro tins for the rest of the day before giving up with them and starting to repair and straighten the old tins which fitted nicely.

I had intended to take more pictures but it ended up being a big rush all day. We ended up at this point by tonight:

Gave the tins a quick coat of hammerite, if I had known I was reusing them I would of got them powder coated or at least a second coat of hammerite but they will be ok for now. I will be changing the exhaust for something shinier in the future.

I also changed the emulsion tubes on the carbs after reading a couple of threads about them. I had f22 and fitted f6. No holes at the top of f6 (bottom one) so better for a bus apparently:

So hoping to get done tomorrow, I need to:

Fit new carbs and linkage
Replace fuel lines (got stuff for 100% bio fuel)
Clean engine bay
Tidy up wiring
Remove LPG parts (for now )
Remove air filter stand
Adjust valve clearances
Fit engine
burn in cam
Properly tune carbs and check timing
Refit bumper etc

Easy :shock:

 

[67westy]

Didn't get the engine in unfortunately more bits that don't fit properly. Spent most the morning filing the inlet manifolds to clear the tins. Then a lot of the afternoon was spent adjusting the CSP bell linkage rods. Apparently I should have had a long one but they were all the same size. Had to cut carefully to get it working.

So carbs fitted, clutch on, valve clearances adjusted and engine ready to go in:

Got the air filter stand removed and lpg stuff removed. Bit of tidying in the engine bay to do and fuel lines to fit. Ready to run next weekend hopefully!

 

[67westy]

Got the engine in and running at last arty0053:

Power seems much better and despite taking it easy it definitely pulls better up hill. Can't wait to run it in and start trying full throttle.

I think the carbs still need a little adjustment as there is sometimes a little hesitation at low revs. Will be getting it on a rolling road once run in.

 

[gvee]

Great to hear that you're up and running again 8)

Sorry to hear you had trouble with the linkage though
From memory I didn't use the longest bar in my set?

 

[Bluesnailman]

impressive stuff. good to see and get an idea of timeframes if you throw yourself at job. it will come to all of us sooner or later i guess

 

[67westy]

Great to hear that you're up and running again 8)

Sorry to hear you had trouble with the linkage though
From memory I didn't use the longest bar in my set?

Not sure what was going on with the linkage, bit frustrating as the rest of the kit is really nice. Nothing a grinder couldn't fix though

impressive stuff. good to see and get an idea of timeframes if you throw yourself at job. it will come to all of us sooner or later i guess

Thanks, the timeframe was much longer than I would have liked really. Badly fitting parts and some ****** weather held things up a lot but it was worth all the effort in the end

Just need to fit a seatbelt for the little one and then we can take her on her first ever campervan trip at the weekend :mrgreen:

 

[creationblue]

Awesome 8)

 

[StuF]

Looks fantastic mate!
Top work - looking forward to checking the engine out 8)