Chug Chug the 1977 Westfalia Helsinki

Right a bit of an update, despite working on my window untill 3AM I was up & out on the camper by 10.30AM having a general tidy up & getting stuff together. Got the front of the sill finished now & started on the rear jacking point, I have used a front outrigger as the rear one didn't fit very well but the front one did for some strange reason. Here are a couple of pics the rear one is only tacked on at this stage:-

 

Sick of working in the darK I hired a flood light off my M8 in Knight & Brenchley.

I wanted to make sure the jacking points were lined up spot on so I bout a brand new alloy step off my M8 Harry the Bast**D its a Blue Bird customs one. The quality is very nice although I had to modify it to fit:-





Basically the bar that fits into the jacking point was too thick so I ground it down, the width was OK just the height.

 

Right the rear outrigger & jacking point is on & all lined up put the door back on to check fit & I'm happy with it:-




Got a bit of welding to do now around the torosion bar housing tube the last outrigger end, the rear wheel arch/sill joining bit & the captive bolts for the belly pan, then just tidy up all the welds, seam sealer & paint:-

 

I'm not 100% happy with the underneath of the corigated floor on this patch so I'm going to make a panel for this tomorrow as well:-

Took some random pictures of the under neath while I was under there with the camera:-




Finally for now a picture down the side with the step temporalily in place:-

 

Thought Id finish off the sill today & all of the driver side for that matter:-

 

Making panels Thyland style:-

Found one unexpected nasty, does anyone know if this part ia available anywhere?

Enquired about Halfords paint maching service today just so that I can use it on hard to reach places, but they couldn't mix my colour as one of the colours is carsonogenic, but I was cheeky & took a picture of the screen:-

 

Thats one milestone reached the driver side finished so now time to turn it around & do the other side. Before anyone comments the wire hanging down is redundant, the heater duct is going to be replaced & Chug Chug is taxed MT'd & insured so is alowed on a public road, just ignore the fact that the back lights are missing, the battery is out & so is the engine.

Half empty garage:-

 

This the sill where it joins the front wheel arch at this moment in time, it still needs more work but its getting there:-

This is where it joins the rear arch:-

Don't be too critical cos the door is only placed there its not latched in place properly.

 

Started butchering the pasenger side last thing today not quite as bad as the driver side but still needs sorting, the inner sill is made up like a jigsaw all welded together, looks strong but its too scruffy & has to come off. The jacking points are a joke someone has welded a plate over them leaving all the rusty old metal there:-

 

This is the engine bay, Its going to need lots of welding & I got to sort out the snakes wedding in the corner. While the engine is out I'll change the gearbox mounts, oil seal & clutch release bearing:-



All the welds you can see were already there nothing to do with me, their all coming off.

 

I'm going to start on the interior when the welding is all finished:- looks a bit bare with no furniture:-



I took out the pasinger seat & I'll send this off to be retrimmed tomorrow, just need to order the correct plaid:-






This is the dodgy tinted window that I temporary fitted while restoring the Westy one this will be coming out soon to refit the original with new seals:-

 

Thanks to tawraste and his photoshop wizardrey here are some pics of Chug Chug in various stages of lowering, from mild to slammed:-

 

Here are a couple of pics of the inside before I prep it all for paint:-

 

Got all the old inner sill off today, the outriggers & jacking points:-








As you can see the outer sill is really good so it will stay.

 

Took some pics of under the wheel arch, look at the state of that beam. It passed the MOT a couple of months ago.

 

Right then guys sent my passenger seat off yesterday to be re-trimmed by a local retrimmer Jack Smith in the original plaid westy cloth so now I eagerly await its return. If I had a few quid spare then I would invest it in these they are VW T3 seats but I can't afford them at the moment:-

 

Called into Swansea fastners today & bought all the screws I need to replace the crusty ones on my Westy window & fit it back to the bus cost a grand total of £2.75 not bad at all for over 40 S/S screws.
I put copper ease on all the screws before fitting them to stop any reaction with the Alloy so If I ever need to take them out they should come out.
Fitted the window backin with a brand new seal from Custom & Comercial:-




I only just noticed my daughter being cheaky outside.

 

Right the one you been waiting for, cut out the crusty bit under the passenger floor above the outrigger but didn't get a picture cos my camera batteries were flat. Put them on charge & by the time they had charged the front jacking point/outrigger/wheel arch section looked like this:-

 

Finished the passenger side sill, I left a patch that someone else had put on the back because it was fully seam welded & I could see inside it & it was solid, the only snag was it was kicking the rear arch out slightly so I ground a slot in it & pushed the two halfs together this has put the arch back in the correct place & the bus looks much better for it:-

 

Next welding job is to fit the rear outrigger & jacking point & to repair this dogy patch on the rear wheel arch, you can see where I had to cut the slot to pull in the rear arch:-


I need then to clean up the wavey edge on the sill so its all in line & nice & straight.