Winnie the Poo (update: volksworld)

the good thing is, you can just re-create the things you miss - that way there's nothing superfluous. still think you should upholster it in westy plaid and paint it brown too ...

that clip idea - yep, i have a similar concept i'm working on to make the dash table more secure when its fitted, with an over-centre locking clasp - i have the clips just need to work out the details - i may also then make this in a way that i can have two tables large/small and have them interchangable in the front or the rear of the van... trouble is, too many ideas not enought time

 

No, not had chance to do anything with my van at all recently so not got to trying those springs yet. Will give you a shout as/when I make progress - thanks

 

Update on some minor fettling i've been doing over the last few weeks.

Reversing lights:
when i got my van it didn't have reverse lights. in fact it's probably not had reverse lights for a very long time.. No bulbs in the holders and no wiring evident. Thanks to this thread : http://thelatebay.com/index.php?threads/reverse-light-wiring.54428/ i knew where to look and located the switch on the gearbox with a couple of "chopped" wires coming out of it. With the very helpful content on the forum i managed to wire these up myself and get them both working, very satisfying

 

some other stuff i've been fiddling with:

Interior Cab LED light:
Since we put the new headlining in the van the cab interior light never seemed to fit right 'cos of the slightly thicker walnut stuff we'd used. The light was also a bit tatty and i had a longer term desire to move over the led lighting (lower power drain, less heat generated etc).. so i bought a new replacement hella item to play around with, only 6 quid on ebay and did some fettling/filling of the clip parts to get them to fit better with the thicker headlining. I also put some bullet type led bulbs in at the same time, again these were cheap as chips off ebay. The first set were a little harsh with a cold blue-ish colour so i swapped them over to some "warm" coloured items which are much better. More light, less battery drain, less heat generated and the new light fits nice and tight in the headling. Excellent.


Dec 2015 by Rob E, on Flickr

Replacement Fluorescent light with LED:
My OG westy fluoro light in the back of the van was tatty (broken corner) and didn't fit very well. I've seen several thread where folks have gutted these and soldered up their own led replacment innards but as my lens was cracked it made more sense to find a replacement. I looked at a couple of options but chose the Labcraft Trilite LED unit. It's a fraction bigger than the westy unit but still fits fine in the space available. Looks pretty close to the OG hella unit, not idential but close enough. As with the cab light, i get more light (brigher) and less current drain. Fits very easily with two self tappers.

These units come with bright white leds. I would have preferred a "warm" colour but tbh its fine as it is. Cost me about 40 quid from a marine chandlers place on-line, but offset with the money i got selling the original item.

Old and new:

Labcraft LED Trilight vs. OE Hella fluorescent Westfalia interior light. by Rob E, on Flickr

Fitted:

Dec 2015 by Rob E, on Flickr

R&R bed - new springs for the hinges and some fettling.
We've had our interior in its new full-width configuration for a year now and although we're very pleased we made the change there have been a few niggling issues with the bed operation. During the summer the mechanism developed a problem where the base would not drop flat after you'd lifted up to get to the storage underneath - you needed to pull out to a flat-bed configuration before it would go back properly, very annoying. I'd tried to resove this with some bending/tweaking with pliers whilst camping and made it worse.. and damaged one of the springs. Oops. I then managed to lose the other spring. Double oops. Luckily JK do some replacement springs which are only a couple of quid each. These fit great but didn't solve my problem... luckily the snagging hinge was only one side so i could see how the other side worked - turned out a tiny amount of reprofiling of the "L" catch that the spring hooks to was all that was needed. Lube up and these now work great - very satisfying fix. Whilst i was working on the bed i realised that the woodscrews we'd used hold the bed base unit together were just not going to be strong enough so i re-fitted the base with two very solid 90degree steel angle brackets and bolted these securely in place, with stainless carraige bolts through the front as per the OG westy design. It's super strong now. Whilst i was messing around with the bed i also found that there should be some foam pads on the frame that the seat back sits on when its in "bed" mode - i added these back (self adhesive neoprene cut to size) and the bed now sits nicely as opposed to clunking down. Cost £4 for springs.



Dash pod re-fit.
My dash pod was missing several of the fixing screws and the ones that were there were the wrong type and some just rotated as the clips were missing. @lhu1281 (steve) does a kit of replacement screws and clips for a tenner. Simple fix and again, very satisfying to have all the (right) screws in there and functional. Cheers steve. Cost £10.


Dash speaker
Although i had a lovely OG blaupunkt radio (with VW logo'd knobs) there was no speaker so we'd been using just the ipod with a bluetooth speaker sitting on top of the dash - fine for music but it would be nice to the radio working again and be able to listed to the radio. I'd read some threads on here where folks have bought the retrosounds speaker and had good results .. tbh the amount of time we'd use the radio didn't justify spending any money so i re-purposed some redundant speakers from a sony music system from the house that had stopped working. The speaker was a perfect fit and a good quality unit being sony.. i made up a spacer from the old speaker enclosure so it can work properly and fitted it with some self-tappers through the grille from above (is this how vw fitted them? .. couldnt find a picture of the og installation) Radio works great now, cost £0.


Dec 2015 by Rob E, on Flickr

USB charger in the glove box
Although we have one of those cigarette lighter USB adapter things, we often use the dash lighter socket to power a sat nav when we're travelling, plus it would be useful to have somewhere to charge phones out of sight.. so i got a simple 12v usb charge socket off ebay and i've fitted that in the glove box. It's a switched unit so it can be "off" when not required. Easy to fit as I re-appropriated the live feed from the silver map reading dash socket - we don't have anything that fits in there so its no loss. Cost £6.

Whilst i was working in the glove box i also routed a hook up for the iPod so we can play music via aux directly into the OG blaupunk unit via an ipod of phone hidden in the glovebox. Much nicer than having wires trailing across the dash


Dec 2015 by Rob E, on Flickr


Hockey tape the westfalia upholstery
After we re-upholstered our R&R bed i'd tried a couple of options to replicate the black tape that westfalia used to tidy the edges and hide the fixing staples. Third time lucky as they say, this time with "hockey tape" - ie the stuff they use on the handles of hockey sticks. I got a slightly wider version that westfalia had used (1.5") as that makes it a bit easier to apply. The tape i bought is made by "Howies" - this stuff is great - very flexible and sticks great and looks OG/westfalia. Cost £5.


Dec 2015 by Rob E, on Flickr


Roof luggage strap.
I've been using some old bungee straps when we carry stuff on the roof but these have lost their elasticity so i was on the lookout for something more effective. I managed to get a luggage net with the right number of hooks to suit the westy front rack off ebay for not much money.. Its a great fit and much more secure than bungees. Cost £10.



New fuel cap.
My original item was not making a good seal, the rubber had perished so it was also super-hard to rotate. I managed to locate a NOS item with a lock which fits great and makes the van safer and more secure - can't nick my fuel with this baby in place and it also shouldn't ******* out over the road when i'm cornering on the limit (yeah, that never really happens..) Cost £20.

 

leisure battery clamp:
My battery was not secured when i got the van so would slide around a bit.. not ideal. this is a very simple clamp that bolts through from underneath (one hole was already there, just had to drill one more..).

Jalousie window inner seal.
My louvred windows didn't have a seal - i saw these on another site so i thought i'd give it a go. Thirty quid per side, just tried one so far bought from a guy who sells on ebay which is black... tbh the fit is not great - it's a bit of a faff to get it on, definitely looks better that it did before as it covers up the exposed screw heads etc.. but not a perfect fit around the corners. I have since found that there is another option available in grey from NLAVW which apparently was the orignal colour.


Dec 2015 by Rob E, on Flickr


Leather document wallet.
When camping we'd often found that there wasn't a logical place to put maps, paperwork, leaflets etc in the van - i'd had the idea of some sort of wallet or folder mounted somewhere inside the van. My super-talented wife made this for me, hand cut and stitched.. including a vw logo on the front - how cool is that! Mounted it on the side of the buddy seat so it's accessible from the front or the rear and doesn't get in the way.


Dec 2015 by Rob E, on Flickr


Whats next? Well i bought a "wheelskins" leather steering wheel cover, need to fit. I also got some replacement foils from dubkeys to re-do my keys so all the locks work of the same key. Both of these are good jobs to get on with during the winter.. Some new ideas on cab and rear table designs and fixing.. needs some thought and it's not a high priority..

 

@rob.e where did you get the wheelskins cover from, i meant to buy one before i left the states but i forgot. haven't been able to find one here in the UK.

 

Just noticed I have no reversing lights so will have to read through this.

 

i couldn't find a uk supplier so i bought one direct from the usa - there's a guy on the samba who sells them.

 

cool cheers

 

.. found the link for you: http://www.thesamba.com/vw/classifieds/detail.php?id=299053

 

Asked the guy for a quote for shipping to UK and he wants $34 plus the $60 for the actual cover!!

 

oops. i seem to have bought some wheels by accident

you know when it seems like a good idea, and you put a silly low bid on, not expecting to get anywhere.. and you end up buying something? Yep, just did that.

These are zender sport split rims, 7x16 ET30 - offset should be good, a little bit wide but i've measured and there should just be enough room in there. I have some new tyres ready to go on - 195/55 16's with 91 load rating (current fronts are 185/55 with 87 rating) which should give me more precision in the steering hopefully.

I think these were originally a mercedes fitment as they have a pretty wide centre bore (66.6) in which case they'll probably have bolt holes designed for a M12 bolt/stud so they might need opening up a tad - not had time to try them out yet.


Zender Sport 7x16 ET3- by Rob E, on Flickr


Zender Sport 7x16 ET3- by Rob E, on Flickr


Zender Sport 7x16 ET3- by Rob E, on Flickr


I like the look with the 16 steels i've been running but i fancy a change - might go back to the steels at some point. Hopefully the zender's will look ok on the bus - a bit different, simple classic /retro design..

 

MOT day today, and also first drive of the new year.

Fingers crossed


MOT day today by Rob E, on Flickr


MOT day today by Rob E, on Flickr

.. couldn't resist a couple of cheeky pics with the new wheels on.

 

Good luck. Those wheels look bad ass!!

 

bus looks cracking ....real nice .... prefer the caddy wheels ,just a little less blingy for my taste ..but a stunning bus none the less

 

^ thanks chaps.

MoT passed for another year, no advisories woohoo

 

Great updates but love the wheels..nice to see something different.

 

Another minor update... here's what my og westy fridge vent and "city water" hookups used to look like, a bit faded and tatty:


Westy fridge vent and city water hookup by Rob E, on Flickr

I've given them a few coats of plasti-dip now, in flat camo brown so they now look like this:


Plasti-dip fridge vent and water hookup by Rob E, on Flickr

Looks a lot better now and easily reversible in the future (the plasti-dip can just be peeled off if needed). The don't actually serve any purpose at the moment as i'm not running a fridge or sink in the new interior right now, but as this may change in the future i don't want to lose them.. plus it's part of the history of the van.

 

you're missing the lid on the city hook up it looks better when it's covered, you can buy them i did mine