Chug Chug the 1977 Westfalia Helsinki

Here is the result:-




Thats right another fail, I don't belive it as Victor Meldrew would say.
Item 1 No plate which is sorted now so I'm not sure why he still put it down.
Item 2 the bulb on the dash that lights when you indicate the LED I fitted has gone faulty so I need to replace it.
Item 3 Front nearside wheel bearing, that came as a shock & I'll pick a new one up from GSF tomorrow.
Item 4 Splitpin on the rear nut missing, I knew that was missing but I need someone who can torque up my rear hub nut prpperly before I can fit it I got a new one ready to fit so I suppose its a blessing in disguise as I have been putting this off for ages.
Item 5 I need to fit a nylock nut to the bolt holding the clutch pedal to the arm, there is a spring washer there but it just looked like a normall one to the guy so I'll fit a nylock nut just to keep him happy.
Item 6 off side headlight aim too low, not sure how it's moved, maybee its cos the bus is lower not suere, but I'll adjust that when I take it for a re-test.
Item 7 its only an advisory but it's for the bulb on the dash when you switch to full beam, again its a failed LED & I'll sort it tomorrow.

I should be mad that its failed again but at least I know it will be right & I'm all for safety so it can only be a good thing.

Spotted this on the way out a nice MK II Scirroco.

 

This is the pair of wheel bearings I got off GSF & a new oil seal.



New dash lamps from RJ's green & clear ones, bolox to the LED ones they aren't reliable enough.


Stripped off my caliper & disc I could hear it grinding when I turned i around he was right to fail it. All the grease had stuck to th sides of the hub & the outer bearing was dry, no wonder it was noisy.
Drove the old bearing races out & used the old ones to drive the new ones home. cleaned out all the old grease which was really waxy & no good for anything fitted my new oil seal & packed the bearings with grease. hub turns lovely now, the job went so smooth I am going to do the other bearing next week cos I assume that they are both the same age & these things always go wrong at the most inconvenient time so I'll catch it early.
While I was there I fitted my new speedo cable, I'll need to get myself a c-clip to secure it.




Fitted my new dash lamps while I was fitting the speedo cable & now they all work lovely. The warning lights have clear lamps & the illumination is green to match the stereo & cigarette lighter.


Fitted the nylock nut to my clutch pedal too.


Now the only 2 things left are to fit the rear hub nut split pins, I'll call in Swansea truck centre tomorrow to see if they can check the torque for me. The other job is the light adjustment & I'll do that at the MOT station using his light guage.

 

Went to Swansea Truck Centre & a nice guy there checked my the torque of my hub nuts & they were spot on, I tried to give him a fiver but he refused to take it. Very nice of him, my split pins are in now so its just the headlight alignment now, I think I'll raise that slightly you never know it might be right then.

 

Went for a drive down to FBI to get some bits:-



Chug Chug trip to FBI

 

While in FBI I picked up the 3 ramaining bits of tinware I was missing. Cleaned them up with white spirits & a few rags, scothbrited them & painted them with Black Rustoleum spent about 4 hrs on them & the effort was worth it they came up like new.

Before:-




After:-

 

A lot of my time this week has been taken up helping a couple of M8's I fitted a new Cobra 7928 Cat1 alarm to My M8 Simons bus & give a hand fitting his new Kenwood stereo & speakers.




My M8 Bicky then came up cos his camper failed the MOT on lights & stuff & he's off to Glastonburry on Thursday & needs it legal so I replaced an earth wire to one of the front indicators, cleanned the connections & fitted all new bulbs to the back lights, run a new wire for a rear foglamp & wired it to a new switch on the dash & the most important job of all wired up a new stereo & speakers, I told him I was impressed with the sound of the Kenwood ones so he bought the same ones £99.00 for the lot in Halfords, can't go wrong.

 

Not done a lot today was hungover first thing after a night out last night too many Strongbows.
Helped my M8 Kevin fit his engine back in his beetle & my other M8 Bicky check out the charging circuit on his bus.

Fitted my rear tinware piece & the pipe that screws to it, also fitted the air inlet bit in the engine bay. I couldn't get one of the scres in so I'll have another go tomorrow with the bus up in the air.

Started to fit my split charging relay, just bolted it to the fire wall & run the thick wires to both battery trays.
Here is a good site to check out for info on split charging circuits:-
http://www.kampenwagen.co.uk/split%20charge%20relay.htm

 

Right what has happened?
I heared a rattling from the engine only to find my fan was loose, so I tightned it. then it came loose again & wrecked my fan belt so the charging light came on. Doh!

I have now fitted a new fan belt thrown the allen headed bolts & fitted hex headed ones & torqued them up to 18 ft/lb as per manual now it all seems fine again..

I've also fitted the remaining tinware screws & so I'm happy about that.

Another job jobbed is the heater cables for the heat exchanger boxes I've fitted brand new ones & the leaver works nice & free. I got to replace one of the small cables that goes to the foot well & then I can refit the top of the dash for good & fit the leavers on the front.

Decided today to sort out my interior to a higher standard so I bought some cushin flooring top knotch quality £47.00 I could have got similar stuff for £12.00 but its not worth scrimping at this stage.
I'm aiming to finish it before the weekend. so its units out again & I'm going to sort some of the wood paneling out that I'm not happy with, finish the mains hook up circuit & the leasure battery circuit all before the British Volkswagen Festival in Malvern on 4th of July, I'm also going to see if I can get all my headlining back in with the flocked finish.

Here are a couple of pics I'll try to take a load over the weekend to get up to speed on my progress:-




Got my booze ready for that weekend already.

 

Got myself some over riders for my bumpers they have originally come all the way from the USA. They will need a lot of work to get them right & eventually I'll paint them & put new rubbers on the front. They are designed for normal bumpers not deluxe ones but thats OK I'll modify them before painting:-

 

Gues what?






It only passed, with no advisories:-

 

Got the floor laid & fitted, also drilled for my step trim & got the units back in.

 

Went down the Gower last night to camp & drank loads of cider. stoped in the Kning Arthur pub & just down the road this chap has a 73 bay Westy, a 74 Devon & a 75 Konbi all in orange & all dead. The Kombi is bwyond repair far worse than Gazza's one was before he started, the Devon & Westy are in a real sorry state but coud be salvaged. Next time I'm down there I'll take some pics.

Stayed in our secret location for free camping again & called in Gowerton Golf range for a full breakfast.



Only job I've done today is to fit my step trim & it looks good fairplay.

 

Had a great afternoon today, picked my daughter up from Clarks, had a Mc'Donalds in J47 Penllergaer services & the rip off Barstewartds wanted to charge me 5p for sauce so I told them to shove it out of princible. Just finished my burger & I saw a massive rat running across the car park I couldn't belive it. I won't be going there again. Anyway it got better after that, I drove to Ystralafera & called in with the bloke I bought the camper off called Rob. He was pleased to see me & I'm calling back on Wednesday to show his wife & hopefully he's digging loads of old pictures of Chug Chug out for me. Drove back through the village & saw these on the main Rd.:-



The next stage I called into see the previous owner to show him, a nice chap called Mark Owen (Not from Take That). He was pleased to see me too & will dig out an old pic of Chug Chug when he first had it.
I had to get some prtrol & look at the price of it £1.18 per litre what a rip off.

 

Here is a vid of the trip down to Crosshands on the M4 & the A48 its 8 mins long, I know it looks fast but I stuck to the speed limit all the way.
Drive to Crosshands in Chug Chug
Found out that the owner previous to Makr Owen lives in Laneston in Bridgend so I think I'll try to trace him today.


When I got home last night there was a guy called Lee outside my house he just bought this stunning GT Beetle & wanted to pick my brains, the guy he bought it off had it from new.

 

I want to get the dash top back on & finished as soon as I can so I been doing a bit of tidying up under there today checking conections & making sure the heater leavers don't catch on anything. My Becker radio has a built in bluetooth hands free kit so I ran the mike up the A-pillar so the cable is hidden:-


Then I called into see a chap in Clydach whow been doing VW's for years & has at least 10 scrap Bays in his yard.
I managed to get 4 curtain tie backs & I got to go back another day to get the galv rail that fits on a westy sliding door to hold the inside trim on, I needed a drill to get the rivets out & I didn't have one with me.




My brother Thomas who's been helping me he's off with my pearents to Spain tomorrow for a week, lucky swine.


Fitted my curtain tie backs so now the curtains won't keep creaping closed obscuring my rear view.

 

Fitted a new urathane gear coupler to my gear change shaft but I can't quite get it on enough to get the bolt in. I decided to emery the shaft to see if that would help but now I can't get it off either. I'll have to get it up on a 4 poster so I can get more leaverage.


Took the Bus over to the woods for some photos in the rain thought it would be a good location, took my daughter so I wouldn't get confused with one of the doggers who frequent there luckily there was only one car there so no bother.

 

have you got any photos you can share?

 

]The alarm went off on my camper van last night, I craped myself & just ran outside with my sledge hammer handle.
Lukily it was a real big moth so I let him off.