1971 Westy

As this forum is a great resource I thought I'd make a thread about my bus. Not a late I know but I did have a late once upon a time!
Sold my 69 Deluxe. Needed extra room due to adding a girlfriend and couldn't bring myself to change the interior, so westy was the only way to go.

For


Workshop


Bought the bus in April 2014 from Barry in Holland. Asked him to get it to a driveable state as it had been sat in a barn for 16 or so years. This added a few delays so I didn't go over to pick it up until June.
Flew over to Holland and Barry trailered the bus to the port for me then made his goodbyes and I was on my own.


At the port I got a 40 minute interrogation by a Dutch border guard, complete with aviator sun glasses, something about not having export plates. Interestingly they didn't search the bus. Got on the ferry anyway.

Arrived at Harwich six hours later and proceeded to break down five minutes off the ferry in Harwich due to running out of fuel (faulty fuel sender).


Got back on my way at around 1am (been up at this point since 4am the previous morning) and got to a service station to fill up. At this point two traffic officers approached the bus which was running it's original US plates (though it was insured). Expecting to get a grilling they came over to say how much they loved the bus and that one had holidays in one as a kid, before waving me on my way...

Kipped in service station car park somewhere around Cambridge was I was knackered, temporary curtains courtesy of my girlfriend.


Spent the night crapping it thinking there were black widows in the bus...

And finally, home. Was a pretty fun 48hours to be honest.

Inside:




More to follow...

 

Then it was a mad rush to get the bus legal, taxed and MOT'd before we were due to go to Latitude festival in Southwold. Tax disc came the morning we were due to set off, perfect!
Ready to go





Drove a few hours down the A1 and at around 10pm spotted a sign for a campsite so pulled off. Only around 5 static caravans and a two or three campers. A nice polite sign said to go see the warden Tony in one of the static caravans so we pulled up and knocked on his door. 'Tony' opens in a silk nighty, ill-fitting wig, fag in one hand. We paid our money and bedded in for the night.



Woke up the next morning ready to finish driving to Southwold...


Beach huts!


Got to the festival and it was absolutely packed with VW's. I've seen fewer busses at shows than were at this festival.



Really enjoyed the festival and our first weekend in the bus so we decided to go back to Southwold on the Monday as the weather was amazing. Parked right on the front.


And had some breakfast

 

On the way back from Southwold we stopped in Cambridge for a night and explored the city then back home to finish a lovely week away. Already had plans for the bus to upgrade the interior for longer trips away.
Started getting jobs done on the bus, including US style plates:


Replaced all the leaky door seals and then it was time to turn my attention to the engine...

 

Engine issues!
During my trip to Southwold the bus would cut out every time I put my foot on the brake. When I got back I worked out this was due to the servo being dead. We were also struggling on slight inclines without that much weight in the bus, so I decided if we were going on longer trips in the future, the engine would need a bit of an upgrade and some TLC, so I started gathering bits and bobs...
Vintage speed exhaust


Twin Dellorto 36 DRLA's


Bosch alternator conversion and various other things.
Got a local mechanic to install everything which meant the engine went from this

to this



This is currently where I'm up to. The bus was taken to a rolling road and cylinder 1/2 aren't putting out much so much so that they couldn't do anything with it. Faulty heads/burnt valves seems to be the likeliest fault so it's been taken to Steve at Gasure who comes highly recommended for diagnostics and a cure, plus a carb setup.
Hoping to get it back after Christmas.

Plan then is to install;
Propex
Gas tank
Waeco CR50
Leisure Battery
Leisure electrics
Stereo
Berlin/Westy Deluxe style unit for more storage.

We then go around Europe and North Africa in March so haven't got that much time to do everything, but I like a challenge.
And that's all so far folks, I'm sure I'll be asking plenty of questions. I'm on the earlybay forums too.
Thanks for reading!
Paddy

 

Great posts Paddy

 

That's coming along nicely

 

Absolutely beautiful bus, Envious!

 

Nice straight bus, great pics.

 

do you get any grief over the plates off the police/mot?

 

Thank you all.

Nope. They didn't even notice. That's what I thought they were coming over to talk to me about. Drove from Harwich to Manchester but had the MOT booked for when I got back, so technically driving to an MOT test...

 

this is my idea of a perfect bus! wish I could throw shiney bits at mine like you have! very jealous, great story with it though

 

Cool story /adventure and a very nice bus! Enjoy it!

 

Great story, good luck with the travel plans. I also love the US style plates - mine is ex-US and would like to do the same, can I ask where you sourced them?

 

Thanks for the nice comments! We're hoping to do a few winter trips in January as a bit of practice before we go for the big six month'r!
The next three months are big for the bus, we need to get it completely ready for going. I don't get it back until after Christmas and then it's booked in for new door cards, kick panel and the seats repadded/recovered. Cab will be carpeted and stereo and speakers installed.
The propex and gas then get installed along with the interior leisure wiring and the Waeco fridge.
A million other little jobs need doing so it'll be all action stations.

US plates are from 'StatesPlates' who were excellent.

 

Love the Bus and your adventure so far. Please take the pic's and keep us in the loop!

 

Just wanted to thank Neil, aka @theBusmonkey for his help and answers to all my questions. Got a few things happening to the bus and hopefully in a few weeks I can get loads of pictures on, but for now, picked this up from Neil to help with my planned changes:

 

Inspired by @Lofty, I began re-laminating the Berlin unit today. It'll look worse before it looks better...

Started with this:


Rather lovely isn't in. I then destroyed it, becoming this, when I removed the top to accommodate the new hob:




Started tackling the old laminate, used a heat gun to melt the glue then a scraper to get it off. Managed to get everything off without splitting or breaking.




These are the pieces that came off next to the new laminate:


Do you think I got enough?


First test on the small draw:


Going to carry on tomorrow, all being well, hoping to have it finished by next week. Late bay Berlin in prototype bay laminate...

 

Good work @PaddyD. It's hardwork but very rewarding. I enjoyed reading your journey and adventures so far. 2015 will be a great year for you.

 

Looks really good

if you end up with laminate left over I might be interested in some, I need to cover the doors on one of my units