Hello, newbie and first time air cooled owner from Newquay Cornwall!

Hello all,

My name is chris, and I have recently bought my first air cooled motor, a late 1979 bay Devon Moonraker hopefully for some great camping trips away!
I plan to use this as a rolling resto, the bus has had a lot of welding just before I bought it, but unfortunately thee was no pictures of all the work the guy did.

The bus is currently in DIY painted cellulose, which is poorly finished, needs rubbing down and mopping, as it currently looks like rollered emulsion! My only concern is the thin pain cutting back to primer!

I may just run it as is this summer and through the winter I may either reprint it in cellulose, or roll it with rustoleum, I don't have a big budget and have seen some great results with roller end rustoleum so that may be the answer

As you would expect I have loads of questions due to being a new owner, I have started doing bits, it was serviced by the previous owner about 300 miles ago, but the oil looks like glitter on the dipstick, which my mechanic mate reckons is down the the previous owner changing pistons and barrels to 1641cc and not cleaning the new parts enough.
I'm going to replace oil and strainer, new rocker gaskets, new fan belt as the one fitted is on max adjustment, looks like it could do with new rotor arm and distributor, electric ignition already fitted, new battery as existing is tiny 52ah I have a new 096 diesel battery which is 76ah to go on, I've re fitted the crap earth lead and crimped a new pos lug on with new terminals, ripped out a load of old wiring which went nowhere both in the engine bay and under the dash.
I've stuck in a new stereo already, plan on sticking in a full leisure battery, split change and 230v setup (being an electrician)

I did however have to be recovered home when traveling back from purchasing it which was a bit disheartening for its maiden voyage! I traveled probably 100 miles on 40mph B roads from the chaps house to Marvell zoo to catch up with my family, all went well and I got used to driving the van, however when we left in the evening and jumped onto the dual carriage way things started to go downhill, I think due to my driving!
I cruised along at 70-80mph which the van seemed comfortable with, but power started falling away, and downhill towards a roundabout the clutch down the engine stalled, but still moving when I pulled off the clutch it jumped started itself, so we carried on, started to climb a hill and crawled up at about 20mph, got to the lay by, pulled over and she conked out!
Popped boot lid and the engine was well overheated! Lesson learned, he would not restart! had a look about, oil cap looked like it had leaked oil onto tinware below, that was burning off, fuel filter fitted in engine bay was pretty much empty which didnt look right, 30 mins later still wouldn't restart, called AA, 45 mins later guy turns up, started first time FFS!!
AA guy suggested continuing, set off with him following me, went ok for a bit then same symtoms so pulled over, and AA guy suggested a truck to take me and my now sleeping 2 year old home!

Got her back to my mechanic mates garage, he took a look and thought the fuelling was the issue, the filter by the tank had not been changed in ages, and the pipes looked bad and had a small leak when standing, so we ripped the filters out, put in a new filter next to tank and put new pipe straight through from solid (plastic) pipe into engine bay to the fuel pump..

Hopefully that, plus the oil change and other maintenance bits above should sort me out for another test drive!

Sorry for the essay!

Hope to receive a d give some good advise here

Thanks for reading, and any input to the above would be great!

Pics to follow

 

Nice intro, welcome

 

Hello, hope you get it sorted

 

a warm welcome man
that looks like a nice bus!

 

Awesome intro and nice bus
Welcome dude

 

Hi mate, glad you enjoying your bus, I never had an aircooled of vw either till this one and it is a bit of a learning curve and there is always something to tinker with. but there are some great folk on here with lots of good advice as I have found out. cheers welcome aboard..

 

Welcome to the forum Chris

 

Hi Chris. Most of your original Devon Moonraker interior is there too. Looks like a good bus and as you have already indicated you can be doing it up as you go along. Many of us are doing that. Not sure it is supposed to be pushed to 70 / 80 mph - these are better running at 60-65. You'll have great fun with it and doing things to it. Ill be in Newquay at the end of June. Ill say hi if i see your bus.

 

Hello & Welcome from The Colonial Contingent

 

Hi nice bus and a great part of the world - enjoy the site we all help each other on here good bunch of Vw people

Dale & Gladys

 

No, I think I'll be sticking to 55 - 60 mph from now on!!

The original interior is there, I need to know what a few bits are, and if I can get replacement doors, or how easy they are to repair as the edges are gone, does any one do direct fit replacements, either hat or I was thinking if recutting some new beech melamine and ticking some edging strip for the cut edges?

 

Hi mate ,have the same van ,devon double top.

You can get some bits here ,I've got some spare doors ,is it the one where the gas is kept and one of the cutlery drawers your after?

Loads of stuff here.

http://www.caravan-supplies.co.uk/docs/accessories.htm

 

Yes, and some of the other doors like the pull down for the hob etc have had the edging strip missing and now the actual door has worn away in places!

 

The stippings here

http://www.caravan-supplies.co.uk/images/accessories_TE1.jpg

plus I've got loads of spare bits as I got an entire interior for £29

 

What you could do is use the cupboard door in the bottom left corner and put a RM123 fridge there (somebody on here has 2 for sale)
Use that piece of wood to make the fronts to those drawers ,or I can send you them or so me material?
I have the fridge there.

 

Tbh I was going to get a decent sized cooler box to put in the deep storage unit down the side of the bed, and had thought of remaking the whole kitchen in beech effect melamine using the old kitchen as a template. Should keep it original with an upgrade! May get my chippy mate to cut all of the melamine to size and glue all the strips on so as there are no crappy jagged or chipped edges!

 

Sounds like a good idea ,good luck

 

Keep it original but get your mate to freshen it up