Chug Chug the 1977 Westfalia Helsinki

Here are some pictures of the Christmas goodies I had today:-





I am chuffed with the Chopper, my brother bought it for me, its a MK3 I had a MK2 when I was about 7 or 8 & I loved it. It was purple but I runined it by hand painting it turquise cos thats the paint my dad had in the shed. I don't know what happened to it in the end I thnk it got scrapped. As for the other prezies I don't think some of the family really know the difference between a Split window & a Bay window but who cares I love Splities anyway.

 

I have a small update today. Autowindscreens finally sent a man who knew what he was doing.
He removed the new screen in a few minuites. Then I checked the widow apature & realised when I welded up the rust I didn't re-drill the drain holes, so I did it now I drilled 2 3mm holes either side & then sprayed the whole window frame with Waxoil just to make sure it doesn't rust out in the future. We then fitted the chrome trim to the rubber poked the heated screen cables under the rubber & fitted the screen.

 

Right for anyone thinking of fitting a heated front screen, if your old one is damaged, by accident, the hammer (I mean a stone off the road) broke it. I informed Auto windscreens that mine was broken & that it was a heated one. They ordered a replacemnt from Danbury Motor Caravans. Now its fitted it needs to be wired up.
There are 4 wires basically. 2 of them are -ve or earth which just need to be bolted to a bare metal part of the bodywork or an earth tag. The other 2 wires are the +ve +30 connections. What I need is a switch to turn the power to it, a relay & a fused power supply to the relay. this is the basic diagram:-

+30 is a 12V supply that is permanent. When I pull the switch out which will have a +15 (12V ignition suppy) this will energise the internal coil of the relay which will bridge the connections from terminal 85 to 86. This will put a supply on the screen & the heating element will then melt any ice that has built up on the glass

 

Now I may change my mind cos I know in the garage /i have a couple of SSR's (Solid State Relay) As these are more reliable than a mechanical relay & I already have them (I'll need to go out & buy a relay I may just use one of these, for those of you that don't know what they are I got this from Wikipedia, see how good I am to you.

Operation
Bi-directional solid state relay with opto-isolation.

Voltage applied to the control line of an SSR causes the LED to shine on the photo-sensitive diode. This produces a voltage between the MOSFET source and its gate, causing the MOSFET to turn on. An SSR based on a single MOSFET, or multiple MOSFET's in a paralleled array works well for DC loads.
There is an inherent substrate diode in all MOSFETs that conducts in the reverse direction. This means that a single MOSFET can't block current in both directions. For AC (bi-directional) operation, two MOSFETs are arranged back to back with their source pins tied together. Their drain pins are connected to either side of the output. The substrate diodes then are alternately reverse biased in order to block current when the relay is off. When the relay is on, the common source is always riding on the instantaneous signal level and both gates are biased positive relative to the source by the photo-diode.
It is common to provide access to the common source so that multiple MOSFETs can be wired in parallel if switching a DC load. There is also commonly some circuitry to discharge the gate when the LED is turned off, speeding the relay's turn-off.

Advantages over mechanical relays

• SSRs are faster than electromechanical relays; their switching time is dependent on the time needed to power the LED on and off, typically on the order of milliseconds
• SSRs provide an isolation barrier between the control logic and a high voltage load
• Increased lifetime due to the fact that there are no moving parts, and thus no wear
• Clean, bounceless operation
• Decreased electrical noise
• Can be used in environments where a spark must not be generated during turn-onTotally silent operationDisadvantages

• 
  
  Higher impedance when closedReverse leakage current when open (µA range)Possibility of false switching due to voltage transientsOften more expensive than comparable electromechanical relays

 

Small update, just sprayed the new kick panels matt black, I have decided to have them flocked & it will look beter if it has a black base:-

 

While I'm getting stuff ready for flocking I thought I would turn my attention to the dash top. As it was:-

I gave it a quick coat of Matt black:-

Only problem is the passenger side one fouls on the glovebox liner so I'm going to have to think of a solution.

 

Got loads done today on that driver side sill, its a nightmare, whoever fitted the last one got all the alignment wrong & had filled all the aukward bits with silicon. Anyway thats all gone now, got the outersill on & welded, just filling in the missing bits now. I haven't finished yet just having a break:-



I see a guy on another forum last week from Thyland who made all his own panels by cutting groves in blocks of wood & hamering metal into different shapes so I thought I'd have a go:-





I'm very happy how it turned out, I'm going to use it to sort out this:-

 

Is that it?

 

Only 4 pages ? No ! Surely there is more ?

 

we're about a tenth of the way.

 

I noticed this horror story while I was under the van, its the torosion tube houseing It had a bead of silicon sealent hiding it :-

 

Right this is my final installment for this year I'm off up for a shower now see you all next year, hope you all have a good night & happy new year to you all!
I'll leave you with some pictures of the half finished sill:-






You can see that the rear wheel arch section is a bit lower, so I will need to sort this out but thats a job for next year. See ya!

 

Like most of you probably did I spent New Years Eve getting *******ed, my misus took the camera & I turned into David Baily. I took almost 400 phots very funny seeing them today. I got back to the house at 4.30am & for some drunken reason decided to take loads of photos of Chug Chug. Don't ask me why becaue my brain works differently when steaming here they are anyway:

 

Right guys all the cab parts are ready for flocking, the kick panels, the dash top & the grab handle padded bit.
My M8's picking them up tomorrow & I should have them back in about a week. If any of you want anything flocked his name is Ian & his No. is 07774 444691. He's awsome only a one man band but does a really good job:-


A random picture of the side cushions my mother recovered for me:-


This is the original cloth & I have decided to recover everything in this, if you have any of this material lying about let me know I'll buy it off you:-


This is my buddy seat that goes between the front seats, my mother recovered this for me too:-

 

]Right today I am working on my Westy louvered window:-
It was broken cos the top lourver wouldn't go up, I bought one with a knackered mech off Graham in FBI & a westy window recon kit off Custom & Comercial. Forgot to take any pictures as it was but this is it now on my workbench, I mean kitchen table:-


Been stripping the parts off then sanding them with 500 paper, scotchbrite & finaly autosol on a rag, stripped out all the glass & fitted new rubbers broke one glass (lucky I got the spare one)
I found the two top alumminium leavers were snapped so I drilled out the rivets & fitted the ones off the spare. I hoping that I can finish it tonight & get it all back together.
Here are the broken bits:-

Here is one done & one not done to show the contrast:-

Another bit I've polished up:-

The cosmetic front trims polished up:-

 

Right got it all put back together & this is how it looks:-
The outside open.

The outside closed

The inside closed

Can anyone spot the mistake?:-

 

Because I used 2 windows to make one I didn't realise that mine has some additional parts onthe outside to stop wind noise, I used the end pieces of the earlier window & it doesn't have the holes in it.
I anint going to bed till its done so heres the difference:-

& I done the top one:-

The screws for the covers will be replaced with Stainless Steel ones on Monday but I want to get the old ones on for now.

 

Right finally finished the Westy window, All the end plates are back on, the only thing I got to do now is replace the screws on Monday grease the mechanism. Ignore the gruby marks I'll clean them off with nail varnish remover when they are dry. It looks lovely & shiny now & moves as free as the day it was new. All the seals are top notch too so it shouldn't leak or make too much noise in the wind when I'm doing 100 miles an hour (not):-



So Im off to bed now, I told you I'd finish it tonight.