Chug Chug the 1977 Westfalia Helsinki

I write this as it all unfolded, it all started in May 2007 after I had just sold my £650 1975 wreck of a Bay (its still on the road by the way)
Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin:-



Hi all here are some pics of my trusty chariot Chug Chug:-
This is how I had him

Started with the front panel & cab area, found some nasty's under the front screen, bottom of the front panel & cab floor. Cut out all of the rust & welded in new plate with seam welds not dodgy tack welds. Welded up the front spare wheel holder holes too.

The roof & gutters were good but someone had painted them white so this had to be sanded down & Painted L63H Sage Green.

 

New rear corner, batery tray & rear panel & filler just to blend it in.

Lots of filler on the side panels not hiding any dodgy welding or rust though, just to straighten things out.



Looking straight now



Not just the outside given the treatment, the inside too, the old paint was 30 years old after all

 

Started to make cup holders in the dashboard, done one just one to go!



Marking out



Check possition



]Drill it out



Fit im plastic cup



Fibre glass it in.



Trim it off & fill it.
Not quite finished, a fit more filling & smothing out then once its done, I'm going to have it flocked.

 

Bought some guages on eBay last week VDO ones originally fitted in an Audi.


This is how they came


Marked out the dash


Drilled it out


Fitted & so is my Becker Sat Nav
I paid £60.00 but I have seen some cheaper since. Dead easy to fit too. I fitted a new Cigarette Lighter today a genuine VW one, that was easy to fit too apart from the hole needed to be 27mm, I only had a 25mm hole saw so I has to wiggle it a bit. looks good now.

The guages aren't staying orange, its just the only bulbsI had they will be green LED by next week & so will the instruments. LED MMM they are the way forward, use a tenth of the power of a bulb & so wont run the battery as flat if you left your lights on.

 

Just picked up another wheel from Benetts who shot blasted it for me & primered it.

 

Bit of bad news today, My Becker Radio (worlds best radio) packed in today, cost £1,000.00 18mths ago but at least its under waranty I'll send it back & hopefully they won't be able to fix it & I'll have the new model instead.

I'm going to wire in my OFC speaker wire tommorrow ready for my Alpine speakers:-

 

Emailed Becker last night & they gave me a phone No. to ring, so I rang it. A company called Advanced Electronic Logistics are collecting my radio tommorrow for repair under waranty & hopefully I'll have it back in less than 14 days. here is a picture of it, dosn't look like a grands worth does it? Trust me though its awsome.


Specs below:-
The Traffic Pro with Bluetooth wireless technology and speech control not only understands you - it is also on the same wavelength as your other communication equipment. Navigating, making phone calls and exchanging data is all so much easier and safer using the Bluetooth interface and speech dialogue system. You get all this plus the exclusive experience of Becker sound quality.

Use your car radio to make a phone call. Or send your address book from your mobile phone to the navigation unit - it's quick and easy with the Bluetooth interface. You can even use speech commands. The Becker Traffic Pro with Bluetooth wireless technology guides you more safely to your destination. Have a good journey!

Technical Highlights

Speech-Dialog-System in Dutch, English, French, German, Italian and Spanish
Hands-free communication via Bluetooth wireless technology
Voice selection of stored phone numbers
Exchange of address- and telephone directories between the mobile phone and the Traffic Pro 7945
200 given voice commands plus 50 programmable commands
OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) display
Night design
Fast route calculation, 166 MHz processor, 32 Bit RISC architecture
64 MB RAM
Address book with 500 personal entriesBecker Traffic Pro
CD/MP3 player
CD-ROM quad-speed drive
MP3 playback from CF cards, Microdrives or CD-R/CD-RW
Becker Surround Sound System
Navigation in 23 European countries
Navigation announcements in 12 languages
Dynamic route guidance with TMC*
Voice announcements of traffic messages in Dutch, English, French, German, Italian or Spanish (Text-to-Speech)
2-RDS Frequency Diversity Tuner
Dynamic Autostore FM
Included: GPS antenna, microphone, navigation CDs for 23 European countries

* Dynamic route guidance with TMC available in Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland

 

Today I started to sort out the wiring behind the radio, I've wired up the 2 front speakers in the doors with 12A.W.G Oxygen Free Cable & the rear speakers with 7A.W.G O.F.C I didn't do the driver side as I had a nightmare getting the cable through to the Passenger side & then it got dark.

The route through the roof I took.


I fitted my chrome GB badge on the back (very important job).

 

Finished one wheel today


& 2-pak primmed another


Primmed my Westy Tow bar


& my back bumper. Thats my M8 Ian painting it he has his own buisiness painting small parts & panels on a mobile basis. .


Which I have drilled holes in,


to fit my cobra digital reversing sensors.
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One done 4 to go

Just need a chrome hub cap now!

 

What you all think of this ? I'm making my own LED front indicators. I have made on so far 142 LED's per light. Just got to solder a resistor in line now & then it should work.

The Front


The Back

 

I have now finished one wheel completly & just to show you I have uploaded photos of all 4 wheels.
Front Left


Rear Left


Rear Right


Front Right

 

]Just paid for my door panels, Bought them off http://www.bromsgroveautotrim.com/ I met them at Van Fest. Very nice people. They carged me £62.00 inc. VAT & postage which I think is dirt cheap. I should get them by Friday & then I'm going to fit them straight away.

 

They told me I'd get them by Friday & they arived today at 7.35 AM I only paid yesterday, Fantastic! I'm going to fit them today now & my Alpine S-Type front speakers.

They look even nicer in the flesh.



The underside, look at the cuts absolute perfection!

 

Built them up so they can be fitted to the doors tommorow.



I also started on the other cup holder.

 

Right then today I fitted the driver door panel, First off I spray glued a polythene sheet over the inside of the door & cut out the openings. Then I stuck on the new rubber grommets for the clips (fiddly)


Then I put the clips on the door card.


Then I fitted it.

Today I had my new alarms the Clifford & the Cobra. After a long think I have decided to fit the Cobra, it is a lower tech alarm with a 100% reliability so thats the one I'm fitting.

I am going to start a separate thread for the alarm in case someone wants to folow it & fit theyr'e own.

 

Here are the last three wheels returned from Benetts sprayed with a different colour primer to the one he usually uses for some reason:-


& here they are after sanding & painting with high build primer ready for the top coat:-

 

I installed my Radio today it has been returned to me in good time (1o days) all fixed & looking as new.
This is the recipt for it:-


The repair note:-

The radio fitted:-


As it looks in the dark, the guages will soon be green too to match.


I also fitted my LED lamps to the dash for the warning lights look how bright they are!

 

Started to do the Passinger door panel today, fitted all the clipsto the panel , soldered some gold connections on my speaker wires, fitted a polyythene membrane to the door & all new rubber bungs for the clips.

 

Had my green LED's today, they are super bright I'm chuffed!
They guy even give me 2 free samples one in amber & one in Red.


In the day:-



In the night, sorry about the blured image's I'll take them again tommorrow:-

They are much brighter than before & look good in green. Ignore the right hand guage (rev counter) thats going to make way for my VDO one when I get it!