Funky Larma
Active member
It's been a long time since I've been on the forums but thought I'd better show my face and give peeps a bit of an update.
End of last summer we purchased our first bus, a 1971 LHD Westy who was later coined Twinkie by the other half as to the expression we both had.
We went to a few shows and met a few board members and life was great. Until the summer ended and Twinkie was tucked away and we planned the purchase of our first house.
But life has a habit of chucking you a curve ball and what should have been a simple transition of the world of paying rent to one of a lifetime of debt did not go well, so much so we ended up homeless over Christmas. Some might say we could have lived in the bus but as a solicitor was going to pick up the bills we ended up in a hotel. Not how we had planned our first Christmas in our new home.
One day though I was bored out of my mind and went to see the bus and make sure the water in the engine had not frozen; yep I'm that technical with things!
However instead of realising my mistake and going back to my hotel room I decided to just lift the front carpet and check the condition of the floor. Two days later I had done this...
I should have seen the error of my ways and stopped there, I mean there was nothing really wrong with the bus; it looked sound and was running fine. But something in me made me continue and check a few more parts...
Finally I found a reason to justify my work
So with everything out I thought it best to make good the grim and give the floor a liberal coating of Hammerite just to be on the safe side.
This then made the engine bay look bad so I thought, what the hell I'm here lets try it out
It was now heading into February and we had finally resolved our house situation, we had a home, but it now meant that the bus was 15 miles away and I could only work it in at the week ends. So I would sit at work thinking of what I could dismantle, sorry fix, next.
One thing I did want to try was looking at the condition of the interior paint work. So armed with a can of Pastel White I had a go at finding out.
This is not a complete restoration, I'm just not that patient and skilled. It is turning out to be a bit of a refurbishment with some of the rough edges tidied up and just making sure everything is working as it should. So with most of the painting done I'm starting putting the bits back
Next on the list is some new roof trim and some fresh vinyl panels then the furniture can go back in, ready for a summer outing. But life throws you that curve ball again...
All of a sudden spending every week end working on the bus does not seem quite so important.
Once the smell of nappies gets too much I'll be back and hopefully updating this with some more pictures.
End of last summer we purchased our first bus, a 1971 LHD Westy who was later coined Twinkie by the other half as to the expression we both had.
We went to a few shows and met a few board members and life was great. Until the summer ended and Twinkie was tucked away and we planned the purchase of our first house.
But life has a habit of chucking you a curve ball and what should have been a simple transition of the world of paying rent to one of a lifetime of debt did not go well, so much so we ended up homeless over Christmas. Some might say we could have lived in the bus but as a solicitor was going to pick up the bills we ended up in a hotel. Not how we had planned our first Christmas in our new home.
One day though I was bored out of my mind and went to see the bus and make sure the water in the engine had not frozen; yep I'm that technical with things!
However instead of realising my mistake and going back to my hotel room I decided to just lift the front carpet and check the condition of the floor. Two days later I had done this...
I should have seen the error of my ways and stopped there, I mean there was nothing really wrong with the bus; it looked sound and was running fine. But something in me made me continue and check a few more parts...
Finally I found a reason to justify my work
So with everything out I thought it best to make good the grim and give the floor a liberal coating of Hammerite just to be on the safe side.
This then made the engine bay look bad so I thought, what the hell I'm here lets try it out
It was now heading into February and we had finally resolved our house situation, we had a home, but it now meant that the bus was 15 miles away and I could only work it in at the week ends. So I would sit at work thinking of what I could dismantle, sorry fix, next.
One thing I did want to try was looking at the condition of the interior paint work. So armed with a can of Pastel White I had a go at finding out.
This is not a complete restoration, I'm just not that patient and skilled. It is turning out to be a bit of a refurbishment with some of the rough edges tidied up and just making sure everything is working as it should. So with most of the painting done I'm starting putting the bits back
Next on the list is some new roof trim and some fresh vinyl panels then the furniture can go back in, ready for a summer outing. But life throws you that curve ball again...
All of a sudden spending every week end working on the bus does not seem quite so important.
Once the smell of nappies gets too much I'll be back and hopefully updating this with some more pictures.
