Chug Chug the 1977 Westfalia Helsinki

More welding done today, I decided I would seam seal all of the welds now cos thats what they do on new cars & they don't rust as bad as old ones so must be good.
All of the jacking points & outriggers are finished now so I am chuffed about that. Anyway here are some pics:-




Nearly finished the under neath now, just the torosion bar ends to do at the rear & passenger rear wheel arch to finish off.
I'll start on the engine bay tomorrow & I'll try to tidy up the wiring loom underneath too.

 

Some wierd bloke randomly sent me this photoshoped image, well I supose it is a hippy bus & might have been smoking something.

 

One rear torosion bar done & seam sealed.

Also picture of the driver side sill all seam sealed:-

 

This is the engine bay before I start:-





This is one part I cut out:-

Left had rear of engine bay all done cut out some dodgy steel & fabricated a couple of new bits to fit in, Its only the surface metal thats bad all the boxsections underneath are OK.

 

I'm off out tonight for my Brothers birthday, the old git is 35.
Anyway before I go up for a shower I thought I'd show you wat I done this evening.
This part is the air inlet for the gas appliances so we don't die in the night of Carbon Monoxide poisoning & its what fits into the square hole you keep seeing on the driver side of the floor.

I scraped it down with a razor blade to get all the underseal & thick paint off it, sanded it inside & out with 240 grade paper, used my powerfile an a few of the dodgy factory welds & my trusty hamer to knock out a couple of small dents. Finaly I wiped it down & sprayed with high build primer.

Westfalia who made the part had the foursight to Galvanise it so luckily there is no rust on it:-









I'll give it a rub down when I get home (probably drunk & another coat so I can satin black it tomorrow.

 

Give it a good sanding with 400 grade & filed a few high spots with the electric file. (I didn't get drunk, I only had a few)
Gave it another coat of the primer.

I should be able to satin black it tomorrow then.
I will start on this part then as well which fits over the vent on the inside:-

 

Right small update but it has to be recorded:-






Its not purfect but its better than it was, I wish now Id done it silver cos black is very unforgiving, I may in the future fabricate one out of Ally as its quite heavy.

 

Tawraste has very kindly decided to do a tech spec labeld diagram of the engine bay & its components for the clueless out there here are the pics M8:-

 

Burgled someones idea & decided to post some wiring diagrams of my bus:-





Didn't come out very good but I hope to alter this later.

 

Any one know what these are? They were mounted on the RHS of my engine bay:-

 

Found these on the another thread, what you think? I may decide to go down this route in the future:-

 

As I can see light at the end of the tunnel I thought I'd sort a few bits & pieces out went through my tinware:-
These bits are scrap & so is the piece under the pulley:-

Decided to have all of the rest shot blasted most came out real nice but 3 bits have now become scrap, so I'm going to need 6 pieces of tinware, two heater control heads & a heat exchanger

 

These are the bits that come back like new:-

Fan & oil filler pipe.


Good tinware.


Two bits I painted satin black, I'm real happy the way they came out.
Also done the belly pans & engine support bar. Started painting the large belly pan & run out of paint I got some more here some where so I'll sort the rest out later.



These are the bits that come out worse than expected, Graham in FBI said he has some so I'll call with him tomorrow to pick them up:-

 

Been running around all day today again, the wife had the car in work so I had to scrounge a lift off my brother, cos he's skint untill pay day I had to put Diesil in for him & to bribe him buy him breakfast in the Midway Cafe. Anyway got the missing tinware from FBI 5 parts out of 6 & the two heater control heads all for £70.00 which isn't bad at all. Took them to Bennetts to be shot blasted, called in Halfords & Maplins then moped my Golf & then collected them all done like new & primered, as quick as that.
I even shotblasted the heat exchangers, as I have decided to weld the hole in each one, cos they are £150.00 each new.
Painted most of the parts but have run out of paint again.
I had the fan housing shotblasted too which is a bit of a risk as its alloy but it came out nice. I'm going to paint that satin grey.
Painted the fuel tank cover satin black too cos I didn't like it in matt grey. No pictures sorry cos my daughters got the camera with her in a birthday party.

 

Been hunting around for weeks for door arm rest securing clips, these are plastic clips that clip into the metal work of the door 3 on each side. I got these from FBI for free. I'm chuffed now cos I could finally get my door panel on & arm rest, only thing is I can't find the window winder & latch cover doh!
I also got a two guage pod of a guy called Syko on VZI for £12.00
Real nice quality & deliverd fast, here is a piccy of that I haven't got the guages, I'll get them again, I think I'll have this flocked to match my dash.

I have removed a bit of ply that was covered in green carpet off my roof side, peeled the carpet off & there is the original white vinyl underneath, this is poor condition so I'm going to clean it up & have it flocked white. I'll post some pics later.

 

and here is a link for the full res picture you can download directly:
http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/4566/panoramicviewnumberskn2.jpg

 

Right took some pics of the finished tinware etc:-

 

Managed to get some clips for the armrest off Graham in FBI yesterday & got my door panel on.

However I can't find the window winder & the door handle cover, I'll have to dig around the various piles & boxes.

 

Forgot to update you all on this, On Tuesday I took a drive up to Ross-on-Wye to meet a fellow Vee Duber the Rev. I bought off his a new heater duct its not the same as mine its off a 1971, now I'm not 100% sure what to do wether to modify this to fit mine, have one fabricated out of steel, fabricate one out of another material or continue looking for the proper one. Anyway here are some pics.


If I do use this it will obviously need shot blasting & a small metal patch will have to be repaired.