Lard's 1971 US Import Westy

[cunning plan]

Nice Lard dude! Liking the idea of the carputer! Just turn it on and transfer through your network wirelessley all mp3s videos etc! Real nice.

Whats the exact spec on this? You using it for gps?
What screen you using? Is it touch screen?
What about radio functions?

 

[gninnam]

A very pleasant looking van you've got 8)

Likeing the idea of the carputer too - thinks that is the way i'll go once she's on the road.
Have you much more to do then :?:

 

[lard]

Nice Lard dude! Liking the idea of the carputer! Just turn it on and transfer through your network wirelessley all mp3s videos etc! Real nice.

Whats the exact spec on this? You using it for gps?
What screen you using? Is it touch screen?
What about radio functions?

Hi - sorry, missed your reply so a bit delayed!

I'm using my works laptop - compaq nc2400 and running a 12v> 19V lighter socket power supply - using a Mimo 720p (iirc) touchscreen to power Centrafuse, it's great as connects via USB so no need for another graphics card.

Radio is either via the web and 3g card or a USB radio tuner (haven't got one yet) - GPS is via my old TomTom bluetooth GPS unit and got me to the campsite this weekend no problem

 

[lard]

Had my first camp in the van this weekend 8)

Weather was shocking but she ran sweet there and back with only failed indicators caused by water ingress through the windscreen to contend with on the way back but as it was sunny I wasn't all that bothered! (it rained from Friday night until Sunday morning :shock: ) but that was it for leaks so well chuffed - hoping relay will dry out and they will start working again!

My bro met me there in his van and was great to get them together at last! - some piccies from my phone:

Need to sort out a permanent install for the carputer, battery tray for leisure setup & awning ready for the kids and the new roof bed & poptop canvas (duct tape came to the rescue as a temp fix for now :mrgreen: )

Thinking of taking out the interior over winter, replacing the floor ply, panel cards and putting in vinyl tiles - should keep me busy

 

[Graham L]

Larry & Matt

Funny that but I could have sworn I've seen both of these buses before :lol: :lol: :lol: , good to see them being used and out together, out of interest where were you camping as it looks nice and quiet?

 

[lard]

Larry & Matt

Funny that but I could have sworn I've seen both of these buses before :lol: :lol: :lol: , good to see them being used and out together, out of interest where were you camping as it looks nice and quiet?

hi graham!

we were at the Hertford camping & caravan club site - always nice facilities on club sites and this one was nice and quiet but only a 20 minute stumble into the centre of hertford so good for beers and food

you could class it as a "Midland Early Bay Mini Meet"

 

[lard]

Just an update - fixed my indicators and hazard's - simple job of removing and replacing the relay 8)

Of note - the relay I got for this from JK was a direct swap into the bottom of the fusebox so quite painless - only issue was that I removed the fusebox by unscrewing the bracket and then noticed that Bentley manual mentioned clipping it out of the frame :roll: - all done and some new HT leads and plugs to fit to attempt to solve my stuttering at low revs issue which is enough to keep me going for now!

More piccies from the weekend in Hertford with my Bro's '67:

 

[lard]

well - I'm a happy bunny, had stutter/hesitation issues at low rev's since I got the van - was usable but had to keep the rev's high to accelerate without any issues,

So I've slowly been going round the list of jobs on the bus that I drew up after I got it - these being fit correct alternator, carb idle/fuel issue, replace filter, fit pre-heat pipe, oil change, valve gaps, timing, leisure system, carputer e.t.c. & hoping that at some point it would address this performance problem (my money was on timing/valve gaps) - had started to think it was me and just how the engine ran - last couple of jobs left on the list and had been saving the easier ones until last - so on Saturday I swapped out the HT leads, spark plugs and rotor arm.....and now it's running like a dream :mrgreen:

Took it out for 60 mile on Sunday and into work today - even had a blonde moment and pulled away in 2nd from a junction and it was fine!

Just pleased that it's transformed the performance - should have done this job first but had a huge list and thought it best to get the harder stuff out the way (that fan nut on the back of the alternator is a bitch!) - turned out it was the simple thing causing the most notable problem!

All that's left to do on the maintenance list is to secure the leisure battery tray and I can start on the interior & pop-top/bed stuff

happy days 8)

 

[gninnam]

- so on Saturday I swapped out the HT leads, spark plugs and rotor arm.....and now it's running like a dream :mrgreen:

Result 8)
Wonder which item was the faulty one then?

Glad its running good now

 

[lard]

- so on Saturday I swapped out the HT leads, spark plugs and rotor arm.....and now it's running like a dream :mrgreen:

Result 8)
Wonder which item was the faulty one then?

Glad its running good now

cheers!

Not sure which and when my brother said i could put stuff back to know for certain I declined politely

though when I picked the bus up from Midland Early Bay, Gadget did recommend swapping the plugs as it had sat around idling for a month with no long runs And likely to have not been used for a while previously - the old ones didn't seem too bad but I didn't change the gaps on the new ones, just banged them
in and the gaps where half the size of the old ones, not sure with modern advances if the gaps on spark plugs matter so much as they did in the old days though could be wrong!

 

[lard]

Got this in the post today 8)

A micro-atx motherboard for the vanputer - the laptop isn't working well, want something more integrated/OG that will power on with ignition and enter standby on ignition off - so have a VoomPC case on it's way with a DC-DC power supply that will go onto the leisure system and hook into the ignition - this along with the new mobo should be a much better setup!

It's very cute and tiny

Hoping case will be here later this week and will get onto the install at the weekend

 

[lard]

The interior panels inside are looking a bit worse for wear and am contemplating re-covering them myself - had a google and found some class video's from Chris at diyupholstery.com 8)

Here's one that I found very useful: http://www.youtube.com/user/diyupholsterysupply#p/u/18/3UePeLp-Ngg

Inspired me to give it a go - I had the panel missing from inside the bootlid so thought that was a good test to see how I got on,

So bought some sand beige leatherette/vinyl from a german company - very happy with the quality, shipping took 6 days but that was over new years - tracking via GLS and parcelforce all the way which is nice:
https://www.atmlabel.com/

Here it is:

And bought 3mm ply panel from JK along with the silver push fittings needed - more on that at the end :roll:

Here's the board - laid out on the vinyl and roughly cut to size with enough to go over the edges:

Then used loctite spray adhesive that I had loafing around (it's for carpets e.t.c.) - spray both the board and back of vinyl with it and left 10 mins - then turned and sprayed where the vinyl will fold over:

Press them both together, start in the middle of each edge and fold over and still, with folded edges cut in (the vid above shows you how to do the edges - hardest bit)

And voila - one completely covered board - surprised how quick it was to do:

Now - made small holes over the pre-drilled ones on the panel and pushed through the metal clips ready.......only to find out the holes in the panel don't match the mounting holes in my bootlid :shock: doh! - drilled new holes in line with the bootlid holes and put in place for now - as it was a test to see if I could do it I'll take it on the chin and re-cover it again - it's my fault for not checking, I just believed the bumf that said it was for my year van without doublechecking, knew it was going far too well :roll:

Anyway - crap pic but here it is mounted in the van - finishes off the boot area nicely:

So after that I'm tempted to buy the rest of the interior panels (about £100 from JK - £80 iirc from a guy on ebay) and have a crack at doing the rest of the interior!

Anyone else done their own panels? Never worked with fabric before so it's all news to me! - would be easier to staple the covers but not sure if you can get small enough staples for 3mm ply

 

[gninnam]

Not tried it myself but you have made a good first attempt 8)

Looking forward to your carputer (should that be vanputer?) build too

 

[AxlFoley]

lovelly looking bus

out of curiosity, what make is the in dash monitor? and are you happy with it ?

mark

 

[lard]

lovelly looking bus

out of curiosity, what make is the in dash monitor? and are you happy with it ?

mark

It's a Navision MIMO 720S USB monitor - very happy as it was around £130 and doesn't need any power, just a USB connection - it's really light (does occasionally feel like it would break without too much effort) but the price and size is great, also works nicely as a second monitor on my laptop to whack office communicator/skype/googletalk on - I've abused the mount for it though to attach it to the ashtray so doesn't work so well on my desk now

Got it from here http://www.carcomputer.co.uk/shop/monitors/usb-monitors-2 - notice they do one now for the same price that has a mic and webcam in-built which would have been nice for my handsfree setup :roll:

 

[cunning plan]

Lard dude, just been given this link which may help you out, seems cheaper than carputer..

http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/CarPC_Shop.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

8)

 

[lard]

Lard dude, just been given this link which may help you out, seems cheaper than carputer..

http://www.kustompcs.co.uk/acatalog/CarPC_Shop.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

8)

Cheers mate! - had a good look through and noticed a nice night vision reverse camera which will be better than my current webcam 8) - do seem cheaper aswell so that will come in handy 8)

 

[lard]

hey hey! - home late after a long day and found this waiting for me

VoomPC with M1-ATX PSU - bargain price of £47 of ebay 8)

Only thing is...put the new Motherboard in and it's got a 2x2 power connection required for the Atom processor (like the P4 boards - don't work with old PSU's ) which is a bummer as the M1-ATX doesn't have a 2x2 power connector....que the M2-ATX power supply!

So ordered up:

M2-ATX PSU
2GB Crucial 667 DDR2 RAM
160GB Seagate 2.5'' sata drive

That should keep me going - off to work out how to get the win xp install on the drive, thinking of putting 2.5'' drive in desktop, sticking on DOS and copying over the install/i386 folder - anyway - once all the bits are here I'll put all this in the carputer thread

 

[lard]

After getting recovered back the other week I *think* I've finally solved my die on idle issue - after changing various bits over the last few months I swapped out the inlet manifold boot on one side and taken the bus out for a 40 minute blast (only happens after warmed up properly, fine on a 5 minute round the block pootle!) and all was well on idle afterwards 8)

Picked up an issue with leaky exhaust but waiting on a reply from T2D to see if they can sort for me - doesn't seem to be affected the performance - what's weird is that I can't see a split in the boot, even if I stress it and turn it inside out, the clamps where tight but think it might have been leaking from the edges, either way, chuffed that this seems to have fixed the issue

Next time I replace things in value of cost not likely problem

Quick piccie from the run out this afternoon - just noticed my dog is colour co-ordinated to my interior :shock:

Got some fuel in the oil when changing out the pump so next up is an oil change and valve adjustment

 

[gninnam]

Nice result resolving the issue 8)

Like the colour coding of the dog to the interior too

Any news on the Carputer?