Itinerant Air-Cooled

cheesehead wrote:Colin,
I love it! Looks like Clementines twin Can't wait to see it in person.

Can you believe it? I have visited a lot of these Westys over the years, but now I am realizing just how many.
Like Clementine, this bus was repainted too yellowy on the outside. Perhaps I should name this bus after a member of the citrus group.
Satsuma?

cheesehead wrote: How many curtains does it have on the drivers side for the window in front of the tall cabinet? Looks like you have it tucked all the way behind that tall cabinet but then what about the window. Just wonder if I have been missing a section of the curtain all this time...
Meg

These, Meg? There is a front and a rear curtain for both of the side windows.
Colin

Actually no on the curtains and no I can't believe you own one now...but I love the idea..
The curtain to the left for the wing window are there two curtains or one? Seems like just one is needed but you have one behind the cabinet I think...

cheesehead wrote:Actually no on the curtains and no I can't believe you own one now...but I love the idea..
The curtain to the left for the wing window are there two curtains or one? Seems like just one is needed but you have one behind the cabinet I think...

There is a rear curtain for the left side rear window, behind the cabinet, AND there is a front left side rear window curtain nicely tied down.

Amskeptic wrote:

cheesehead wrote:Colin,
I love it! Looks like Clementines twin Can't wait to see it in person.

Can you believe it? I have visited a lot of these Westys over the years, but now I am realizing just how many.
Like Clementine, this bus was repainted too yellowy on the outside. Perhaps I should name this bus after a member of the citrus group.
Satsuma?

cheesehead wrote: How many curtains does it have on the drivers side for the window in front of the tall cabinet? Looks like you have it tucked all the way behind that tall cabinet but then what about the window. Just wonder if I have been missing a section of the curtain all this time...
Meg

These, Meg? There is a front and a rear curtain for both of the side windows.
Colin

I see you need a drivers seatbelt hook....

Colin practicing the handling of a Westy prior to leaving South Florida, in the Bahama Breeze roofless, windowless special.

Can anyone tell me if the kick panels came black or were changed to black. They are the masonite with vinyl. I thought I maybe once might have recalled that they could have come in green?
Colin
(if the temps get up past 50, maybe I will be able to complete my rust-eradication of the fresh air vent area and the wheel wells on Friday/Saturday)

The kickpanels were black, regardless of interior or exterior color. What kind of shape are yours in?

phaedrus76 wrote:The kickpanels were black, regardless of interior or exterior color. What kind of shape are yours in?

Intact, but de-laminating. I will re-adhere them and stick a sticker over the windshield washer bottle. Maybe I will acquire a set of Werksberg plastic panels so I can experiment with more pleasing color.

Chloe came from the factory originally with brown vinyl, but had black plastic when I bought it. Easy enough to paint to an approximation of the original . . .





All passenger buses from 1971 on with the white over beltline had white interior paint with black kick panels. Handsome enough. But, the solid color interiors previously had an assortment of black, grey, brown interiors with corresponding kick panels. Then the later Champagne Edition buses had color in their kick panels.

So, what about this headliner? Is this someone's custom idea?

Yes, it must be as all the Westy headliner I have seen were white.

I don't know what year it changed (74?), the early bay westies have birch headliners. The late ones are white.

Yep, should be a white basket weave vinyl covering over the panel.

sped372 wrote:I don't know what year it changed (74?), the early bay westies have birch headliners. The late ones are white.

Well then, I am going white. I will probably paint it with Krylon Fusion 2322 Dover White because echebus said it was the closest match to oem white interior plastic pieces. It looks well-finished and is sticking to the ceiling properly. Texture-wise, it is not the basket weave of oem, but it has a suitable grain.

Man, what a Thanksgiving so far . . . another coat of Chrysler Hemi Orange and Bright Yellow on the fresh air intake area, polishing the overspray primer off turn indicator lenses with headlight restorer, and fielding calls from all the well-wishers who think I must be on a rock somewhere opening a can of Campbell's Turkey Soup with noodles. But in fact, the lenses look better now and the turkey is about 45 minutes from done . . . actually, I was called upon for my mechanical experience to :
a) balance this bird on two forks and get it over to the serving platter (VW engine center-of-gravity on jack)
b) conduction of bird heat through fork metal was unexpectedly rapid (tolerance to high heat)
Colin

You get a westy, and my westy loving self has a vangon L that i'm turning into a "tin top vanagon westy". Something about these endeavors does not seem right. This Vanagon is Aircooled, 100% original, and no respray. I think the only way to solve this obvious VW god misalignment is to trade vehicles immediately. It is the only way we can bring order and overall peace to our community. The VW gods have made an awful mistake, and we must take these matters into our own hands at this point. By the way, I've missed y'all. Nikki the vanagon woke up from a 6 month snooze with a 7 foot flame out the tailpipe. After that, she was ready to drive? I think the EGR and cat did not agree with my previous AFM adjustment. It still wants " more fuel", but there is no more adjustment left? Block off said EGR at Plenum?

energyturtle wrote:You get a westy, and my westy loving self has a vangon L that i'm turning into a "tin top vanagon westy". Something about these endeavors does not seem right. This Vanagon is Aircooled, 100% original, and no respray. I think the only way to solve this obvious VW god misalignment is to trade vehicles immediately. It is the only way we can bring order and overall peace to our community. The VW gods have made an awful mistake, and we must take these matters into our own hands at this point. By the way, I've missed y'all. Nikki the vanagon woke up from a 6 month snooze with a 7 foot flame out the tailpipe. After that, she was ready to drive? I think the EGR and cat did not agree with my previous AFM adjustment. It still wants " more fuel", but there is no more adjustment left? Block off said EGR at Plenum?

Send pictures . . .
7 foot flame is known as "displeasure" in Volkswagen parlance.
DragonTamer

You remember:




Then:




Yesterday, I painted the fresh air flaps with gray primer, clearcoat, and stuck on some thin closed cell foam strips:







Spent waaaaaaayyyyyyyy tooooooooo muuuuuuch tiiiiiiiiiiime scraping off the orange overspray from the plastic grill, then sanding through the primer down to the plastic mostly:




Two coats of plastic paint (satin black):




Used a razor blade on the original Hella turn indicator lenses to cut out the melted flash where the body/paint guy had hit the damn things with his sanding disc and melted grooves in the plastic and hit the poor things with primer overspray and orange overspray. Then I ran through the four-step headlamp restorer sanding pad treatment and polished them :




Today, I did this:




Utterly painful exercise to Remove Wingnut, because it was rusted. Total joy enveloped me as I undertook to lubricate this clutch cable system from front to back. See the factory quality control sign-off paint dabs? They are also found on the bolts holding together the clutch pedal to arm, and the clutch lever to frame bolts:



Look at the rust *inside the sealed clutch lever shaft*:




I am very glad that I did not skip this because the cable clevis pin and hole ( at the upper left on the photograph below ) were absolutely perfect. Cross-hatch sanded the shaft and greased everything severely excessively:




Do you suppose that I might take the opportunity to replace the front shift bushing and excessively lubricate the shifter socket/stop plate? Heck yeah. Look at how new the metal is on the grub screw in second picture . . . :





Floor pan:




Orange is the new orange. Thus, the name for this car is the oldest word for "orange", "Naranj":




Yes, I am going to put in Halloween Holiday Lights . . .




You might have noted that I knocked that damn spring-loaded pin out of the shift lever ball up in the shifter parts photograph, and I sanded it nice and smooth and greased it all up to make sure that it was a royal PIA to reinstall the shifter. It was, too.
That poor carpet had to come all up and back on down. I lubricated the brake, accelerator and ebrake lever pivot at the same time so I never have to lift that parchment brittle carpet ever again:




Drained the fuel filter, noted that the 10mm fuel hose is on borrowed time, noted that the alluvial rust deposits seem to be diminishing, noted that this car starts instantly. It is a real pleasure to drive. The shifter is a wholly precise and holy smooth experience, on account of the previous owner having known how to drive (unlike BobD's first owner who butchered 1st gear and slopped up the shifter gates at the interlock due to newbie panic or something).
Colin