Vynii ~ Another 1973 Westy for restoration

Makes all the hard work worthwhile

 

@PopTop is this malaga interior ?

 

to much talking not enough work and pics , get at it , welcome owen nw :baggy:

 

Wow! Good luck and are you planning on keeping it green?

 

We've seen worse. Green ones always look bad, ask @poptop2 about Edmondo!

 

Nice work on rescuing a basket case buddy!

 

No, planning a change of colour possibly savannah beige or Porsche stone grey...I keep changing my mind!

 

Bit of an update....

The last 2 months has been spent buying body panels and stripping the van down. There's not an awful lot left as you can see...



The forklift made easy work of moving the van around





This really is a basket case, if I didn't know what the guys were capable of I would have walked away









Meanwhile I will soon pick up the suspension that will be reused to have it stripped and powder coated. Once enough panels have gone back and it's all straight on it will go onto the rollover frame, but I suspect that may be some time away.

 

Its all looking a bit daunting at the moment so just been doing some research on suspension and brake options to keep the spirits up. Bays are so much more sensible when it comes to upgrades! I'm planning on dropped spindles up front and horseshoes on the rear which seems to be a tried and tested route to modernise the stance without compromising on comfort, from what I've read at least.

 

Brilliant project, best of all with it ! Looking forward to watching this thread

 

I thought it was about time for another update, the last few months have mainly been spent acquiring parts. Given the state of the van I don't feel particularly obliged to complete a 100 point resto so have allowed for some free reign on what will go into it and to focus on building a van that will be useable and easy to get on with.

I've got the interior as shown in an earlier post, Russ got hold of a pair of westy windows for me and I sourced a roof which Russ kindly collected for me.

A few treats await the bus, like these OG fuchs.

They need a bit of work as I bought them looking like this



After removing the tyres and paint stripping they now look like this





And are currently decorating the garage wall

 

Meanwhile, in deepest Bedfordshire work is ongoing. I'm posting up the photos but Russ may point out some things I've got wrong. Whichever way you look at it we are ba!!s deep and feint of heart should look away now...

Front end is off



Dash is trash..



Dash out




rusted on both sides



There's something left of the vents



Replacement part

 

New one in

 

Deformation panel has been removed





We briefly kicked around the idea of going prototype bay clone at this stage, but it was really pub talk and although this van will never be 'right' it will be as correct as we can make it where it counts.

 

Is that new brackets that are welded to the inside of the new dash panel?

 

Nice one for saving that bus mate, will look ace when done with that interior you've got

 

Coolest interior ever, leave it orange!

 

Thanks guys, the Jaffa is staying, I'm after a pair of tombstones I can inlay withe the same material.

Coco I'm not sure on the dash install, I'm sure Russ will let us know soon enough, however pretty much everything is new, the stock of new panels and cuts is pretty much a new van, logically it makes no sense to try and save this one but it's like the ugly dog at the pound that you just fall in love with and have to take home.