Ref: earlyb006.

Year: 1970
Body: Deluxe Microbus
LHD or RHD: LHD
Colour: White
Engine: 1600cc
Voltage:12V
Condition: Outstanding

Click on an image to enlarge

The Plan: New Paint, Motor, Lowering and Fitting Westfalia Interior.
- following the recent sale of this van the plan has changed slightly. It's going to be put back as a Microbus...cool eh?
Deadline: Volksworld Show 27th - 28th March 2010

If you like the look of this van and would like to speak to us about building a similar spec. van or camper then please contact us on enquiry@skpvw.co.uk

The Van arrived back with us for the final stage of its refit, the new TMI seat covers, which finally arrived.

 

SUCCESS!! - the van is complete and looking good, runs well on it's new engine and has now met its new owners and has been driven off to the sunset!!

 

The interior is back together with new seat belts, excuse the seat covers, these will be changed at the end of April when the new covers show up. The underside has been black waxed too....now to finish off the last little bits in time for collection by our customer.

 

I can't beleive how good those cab floors are, they look even better with a little clean before the cab mats go in. The new plates have arrived and the the front seatbelts are in. And the slow but satisfying task of cleaning everything up begins!

 

Bumpers are all made up...overiders look good covered in NOS rubber....NICE!!! and they look mean on the van, GGrrrrrrr!!...She's taking shape nicely now!

 

Well.... we now have the MOT in hand and the registration process is under way, we're in the hands of the DVLA now. Here's a few shots of it at the MOT station. Also we took advantage of their ramp to get some nice shots of the underside of the van. Damn we love import vans. The whole thing will be black waxed anyway but its good to know it the thing is so darn solid.....the re-assembly contiunes...

Engine is now fitted and looking good. New tyres also fitted and wheels are on. Got the lights fitted up and working, we put the rear indicators in the reversing light housings so we could keep the original US spec look at the rear, also got the side markers hooked up. The front screen is also in with the deluxe trim in the rubber.

 

Got the engine back from the builders it looks spot on and will look even better once in the freshly painted engine bay. Its a standard 1600cc single port engine with rebuilt heads, new barrels and pistons, alternator conversion, new heat exchangers, new exhaust, new fuel pump and new clutch. The wheels are also now ready to be wrapped in rubber, the overiders are finished and one lot on bits has arrived for the re-assembly.

The van and the dash now in their final colours. The van still needs to be polished but so far the finish has come up well.

The roof is white!!....woop!

 

The main body is now in primer as are the wheels and side tracks. All the door shuts and the engine bay have been flatted and then put into top coat too and once dry the main body will be wet flatted ready for top coat. The doors have also started to be flatted back.

 

Decided it was time to attack the engine bay, so we removed the engine and had a nose around after finding a million, dead spiders and black widow nests etc etc we discovered the cleanest LHS battery tray we have ever seen!...shame the RHS was not so good! After a little clean up and moving the wiring out the way, we set to repairing the rusted battery tray. Once this was done the engine bay was completely de-greased and flatted back ready for primer. Have to give a big thanks to our mate Paulski for his time and patience with handling this task! Also the side panel was finished and 90% of the bus is now in etch primer.....Just look at those floors....damn thats clean! The end of the day also say the wheels, roof and a few other bits get primed.

The accident damage to the side panel has been addressed, pushed out and made good, the whole side has been baremetalled. All the black areas are bare metal areas that have been Etch primed. The valance and the side covers have been stripped as well as the bumpers....God damn that rear bumper is straight!!

 

Bumper steps, overiders and front bumper irons now blasted and etch primed, ready for priming. The first of the colour also went on with the inside of the doors being painted....Nice!! and the engine parts are now with the builder.

 

Tinware now in black and ready to go off to engine builders. Just waiting on the last of the engine parts to arrive. The doors are now primed on the inside and the outside.

 

The van is now lowered with the new adjustable front beam and the rear has been dropped one spline. Whilst re-assembling after the lowering process the brake system has been overhauled. This includes, shot blasted and painted back plates, new brake cylinders (German), flexi hoses, hand brake cables and new shoes. everything was cleaned and greased where appropriate so the brakes will be at their best. The steering setup has a new drag link as well as a new pair of gas shock absorbers. The rear also has a new pair of Boge shocks.

 

The Adjuster turned up so decided to crack on with the new beam. Rather than take the old beam out and render the van immobile, we decided to take one from stock to lower and then replace with the one in the van. As you can see the beam was a bit grotty. We decided to fit a Foksy adjuster from Bluebird Custom as this will give us the adjustment we need as this van is only going to be mildly lowered. With the adjuster fitted the rest of the beam was degreased and cleaned up then treated to a coat of black paint. Same treatment was given to the trailing arms before new balljoints were fitted.

 

Inner Valance fitted up and the inner shelf repaired all necessary areas were cleaned up and painted for protection then the new outer skin fitted and the making good process (filling) started.

Anyway all the valance has been cut out, and surrounding metal work cleaned up. Forutnately the rust hasn't spread past the valance metal and all the rails and pillars are still rock solid. The necessary repairs are being made.

The doors are being preped for primer.

We found a mouse nest under the washer bottle which had the rubber pipe at the bottem eaten through, so all the water leaked out into the nest and stayed there....bugger! This equals a rotten lower inner and outer valance. This isn't as bad as it sounds. We removed the outer valance to find even more mouse nest/ droppings and water....lots of water. We can't quite work out why there was still water there. can it be the water from the bottle still??

This van has sat since 1993 in a barn so is predominantly good shape in terms of rust. we have so far discovered that none of the window frames have any rot in them including the front screen - Amazing.