Wee White Westy

Early Bay Forum

Help Support Early Bay Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
It has all been quiet this summer with the VW, having to set up new businesses before my October deadline. Finally got round to re-chroming my front emblem. Sent it off to Doug Heath Polishing in Baldock which cost £45 for a proper polishing job and should last much longer than the shop bought chromed badges. Should be white I know, but it looks so much better chromed! Gave the van a proper wash and fitted it...very proud moment! Sat back and admired it :lol: Didn't get time to fit the OG wiper arms, but that will be done this weekend along with the door vapour barrier. DPC joint tape to stick it doesn't work at all! The bitumen melted and came off. Part of my ABS kick panels snapped off, don't even remember kicking it?? And my OG wiper blades perished because one of the water jets isn't working. Oh and my newly rebuilt engine needs rebuilt. This thing is falling apart already! :) At least it's got a shiney badge.

 


Off on a trailer to Rackhams to get some interior work done. I should be excited but sad it's gone, the summer ended today.
 
Thought my original interior was perhaps beyond repair, but with the new cherry veneer available and baltic birch which of course is in plenty supply, I'm going to rescue it. Started with the ceiling locker, removed the old damaged board and relined it with new Baltic birch. I've applied some Osmo oil honey tint to give a nice warm aged look and to protect the wood. So that's the headliner and side panels all ready for fitting. A good clean and polish will bring it up nice. Very fine wire wool and WD40 on the edging should get rid of all the crud.



The floor has been cut, applied the vinyl which buckled when glued! So experts were called in for that ;)

Discovered today that the original seat vinyl is beige.
 
At last the interior is starting to look more homely. The locker turned out great, the headliner and side panels give it a nice warm glow inside. I was lucky to be given (er sold) some original headliner metal trim. Pop top rubber trim installed, new visors, cab and Westy lights wired in. Managed to source a westy table metal rail so that is the table installed. Vinyl fitted to the floor along with some edging and it's all looking very neat. Rear seat belt installed for the little one. So buying the upholstery today and the rest of the bits.

I was planning to repair the original interior with new cherry laminate that's being sold, but I was disappointed that the colour is more yellow (less cherry) than the original. It's not going to match very well; fine if you are doing everything...it will look amazing, so a wardrobe will have to be sacrificed.







 
I have enough of that vinyl left to cover my entire house! If anyone needs a mad looking psychedelic floor for their bus let me know.
 
It's the original locker restored. Glued back the laminate and recovered the underneath with brand new birch ply.
 
mike202 said:
Interior is starting to look nice.

The floor is very, ahem, individual ;)
Click to expand...

You haven't seen the curtains yet! Late sixties psychedelia was the height of fashion you know. :)

Not much of an update, but more of a moan at delays. You have heard of TMI right? They make those standard sized seat covers every !!^%%^** day for decades? They made mine 2 inches short....another 6 week delay. :evil:
 
Nothing is ever straightforward is it? The rear cushion on the rock n roll bed needed modification to fit the rear seat belt, so off to the upholsterers for that, pleased with the finish.



Trimshack's (dollydaydream) newish mustard vinyl. Much less yellow and bright than the previous repro material. Quite subtle and fits nicely. New fire retardant foam from Newton Commercial which is less smelly and minging than the original 45 year old foam.



Coconut hair pads from C&C and TMI tan upholstery. One day I will receive a correctly fitting driver's seat cover.



Pleated curtains correctly fitted second time around.





New calibrated speedometer fitted with a 00000 counter...nice!

Fitted an electric water bottle, wow these things really work. This one is most likely for RHD, so some extra tubing was needed to go the extra length over to the left.
http://www.coolairvw.co.uk/Item/Shop_by_Vehicle~Baywindow_Products~Baywindow_Electrical_Products~Wiper_Products/211953453ELC/T2_68-79_Electric_Washer_Bottle.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Bits and pieces still to do...nearly there.
 
So after TMI messing up the size of the seat upholstery, we got onto them and said that we were not going to wait another 6-7 weeks for the correct sized standard seat cover. So we waited for the rush order to finish this interior. Well another 6-7 weeks later (cheers TMI :evil: ) they send the new cover. Four attempts to fit the new cover and guess what the replacement is still the incorrect size. What a bunch of incompetent amateurs, a complete joke.

Borrowed a seat to pass the MOT, so she still looks like this!



Electrical contacts for the lights cleaned up, curtains in, cab seat curtains and tags installed, gear shift re-greased, dash board polished up, glass in speedo cluster cleaned and fixed, glove box hinge fixed....almost there. :roll:

edit: Had to drill holes in the door to fit a simple pair of repro inner door handle surrounds. The bus was fitted with a velvet green door at some point. Just one more thing that has complicated what should have been a straightforward interior refurbishment.
 
Looking good :) out of interest who modified the rear cushion for you and was it just the infill bit? Need to butcher mine after installing a belt but don't want to make a mess of it!
 
Rackhams sent it out to an upholsterer in Ipswich, I'll find out on Wednesday when I get the cheque book out.
 
Not quite the magazine shot I was hoping for, but at least I have somewhere to sit. Correctly fitting Tan TMI standard seat cover 'in the post'.



The Delta Green door decided it wanted to have holes for the door surrounds in a special place, some drilling and modifications to the door to get the handles fitted...nice quality from C&C.



Joanne at Trimshack done a great set of curtains, good and heavy. She doesn't overcharge for authentic looking tiebacks either. The photo hides a mountain of crap in the back to be sold..anyone need a speedo cluster? I have a collection!



A polish up to impress the valuator.



A shot of the Bluebird exhaust which sounds lovely. The gears front and back which were re-greased during the MOT made a huge difference to the gear changes. Getting into third isn't the lottery it used to be.

I'm not quite driving into the sunset just yet as the rebuilt engine needs an examination...to be continued...


 

Similar threads

P
Hi from new 69 Westy owner
Replies
13
Views
923
froggy
froggy
poptop2
Rhubarb resto the story so far
2
Replies
27
Views
4K
poptop2
poptop2
C
The next European adventure - or jesus's old bra goes south
Replies
16
Views
2K
windsurfer
windsurfer

Latest posts

Top