My Westy Resto

gmag69 · Post by **gmag69** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 3:41 pm

This is My Westy I picked up to do a resto on. I'm transfering everything from my '78 transporter to this Westy. I'll update this thread as I go. Some of this is cut and paste from another site so please bare with me.

Loaded on the trailer:

VDubTech and I after we got the doors on and I'm getting ready to come home.

Here it is after I cleaned the moss off some of it.

Geno

gmag69 · Post by **gmag69** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 3:43 pm

HereI got the nose cut off and most of the left over metal taken off. Here is a few pics.

This is what happens if mice build nests in you fresh air ducts and it isn't cleaned out. This will be replaced with pieces from my '74 parts bus.

gmag69 · Post by **gmag69** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 3:46 pm

Here I got the front painted up and the passenger side air duct welded in. Here are some pics.

Geno

gmag69 · Post by **gmag69** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 3:48 pm

Here are some pics.
Here is the driver's side fresh air duct welded in:

Here is the nose in place with most of the door seams bent over to hold it in place.

Sorry for the dark pics. Was just about dark here when I got done and snapped these.It was fun getting the nose to fit right. I had to hook the passenger's side door lip onto the A pillar and use a ratchet strap hooked to the driver's side bulkhead to pull the nose over enough the bend the door lip over. Then had to put the strap on the passenger side and pull it enough to bend the door flange over there. Looks good. Just need to drill the spotweld holes and weld them up and bend the bottom lip over right above the bumper.Also weld up the A pillars. A word of caution to anyone going to do this.Make sure you get all the old metal off of everwhere before you try and put the new nose on. Even the littlest piece of old metal will throw the nose all out of wack.

gmag69 · Post by **gmag69** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 3:50 pm

Here the front nose is completely welded on. =D> I hope to god I never have to do that again.

Here are a few pics.

Light and grill installed.

windshield Temp setting in there to keep any rain out.

Door seam all crimped over. Kind of hard to see sorry

Geno

gmag69 · Post by **gmag69** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 3:53 pm

Here I barrowed this tool from the garage at work.

This is a window seal tool. If you can find one get it you won't be sorry. I popped the windows out of the blue bus and put them in the new one.

If you have sliders it may not be a good idea to use it on those.The window frame sets so close to the pinch weld that it ripped the hell out the seal. It might not do that with new seals. Mine are probably the originals so they are brittle. I plan to replace the seals anyway so it doesn't matter to me. It's just to keep the rain out for now. The back driver's window went right in no problem. I left the passenger's side one out for now. The window frame needs some work there so I don't know if I'll put it in yet or not. Thought I'd share .

Geno

gmag69 · Post by **gmag69** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 3:55 pm

Here I got the Passenger side back window frame cleaned down and primed and the glass put in.It had a few small rust holes in it so I used some JB weld to plug the holes after it was wire wheeled down. I bet I'll get flamed for that one.

It only took about 20 mins to do. Here are pics of the window in.

A hell of alot better then the garbage bags.

I have to pull the long strip that hold the cover for the back door track off and weld it to this one. it is totally gone. Should be an easy job.
Starting to look like a bus again.

Geno

gmag69 · Post by **gmag69** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 3:57 pm

Here I started working on my passenger side dogleg and cleaning up a little rust . Here are a couple pics.
Here is the hole in the dogleg. I'm just patching it up seeings how I have a brand new one to put on once this one rots off.

Here is the right rear corner cleaned down ready for a temp. primer job.

Here it is primed for right now. I have some work to do here so it'll be coming off again anyway.

I'll post some pics of the dogleg once I get it all sanded down and primed again.

Geno

gmag69 · Post by **gmag69** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 3:59 pm

Here I finished sanding down the dogleg and put a coat of primer on it. Here are a few pics.
Here it is with the primer on it.

close up of dogleg

It could use a skim coat of light filler which I will do before I prime and paint the bus.

More to come.

Geno

gmag69 · Post by **gmag69** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 4:02 pm

Here I started on the driver's dogleg since It was nice out. Here are some pics.

Here's the new dogleg that'll be going in:

Here's the old step that is all rotted out:

Here is the dogleg mostly cut off. Note the hundred spotwelds that hold the top of the dogleg to the floor:

Here are the only holes that are on this side that I've found so far. They'll be patched before the new dogleg goes on:

Here you can see I still need to get the front of the step off and the rest of the back of the step where it connects to the floor needs to come off as well. Probably finish this up tomarrow:

Here is what was left of the dogleg after cutting it out. It was pretty rusty underneath so I'm glad I'm replacing it. All the undercoating is going to be coming off and I think I'm going to use the bed liner stuff instead. This bus won't be driven in the winter anyway so the salt won't be a problem.

Well keep an eye out there is alot more to come. I got a long way to go.

Geno

gmag69 · Post by **gmag69** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 4:05 pm

Here is the rest of the step cut off. Have to do a little metal work here too before the dogleg goes back on. The floor needs some also which will be done too.

Here I had to bend the floor back to get the grinder in there to get the welds ground down.

After I test fit the dogleg I realized this bracket was in the way of it going the whole way on.

Another pic of the bracket.

Since the original dogleg didn't have this bracket I decided to just cut it off.

Here is the dogleg test fit into place.

Another pic of it in place. Note the floor work needing done.

As you can see it is going to need some work to get it where it needs to be. you can kinda see the gap at the back in this pic.

Another closeup pic of the front. Fit is pretty good here.

More to come. Please check back.

Geno

gmag69 · Post by **gmag69** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 4:08 pm

Here I decided to pull the z bed forward and see how bad the rust was on the wall behind it. There were some holes but over all it is decent. I started to weld in patch panels from the same area on the 74 parts bus. Note most of this panel is stamped the same except on the Pass side it is missing a few of the raised parts of the panel. I'll have to weld in a few diferent pieces to make it work but it'll be ok. Here are some pics.
Here is a before pic of the back wall.

Here it is after poking around with a screwdriver. Deff. have some holes to patch.

Here it is with the patch welded into place and temp sprayed with paint.

Another pic of the same thing only a closeup.

Geno

gmag69 · Post by **gmag69** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 4:11 pm

Here I finished welding up the rear wall yesterday . It's looking good. Now I just need to clean the rust off the floor from where the screws went through for the subfloor and fill them in and paint them up and then I can set my cabinets and z bed in to get the floor all measured out.

I put in my cushions for the top bunk. They look sweet.

Hope to set in the cabinets sometime this week.Then It's on to the dogleg.
Here's the pic.

I admit I won't win welder of the year but it is secure and a heck of alot better then the holes that were there. Plus no one will see it anyway except me.

Geno

gmag69 · Post by **gmag69** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 4:13 pm

I found some of this undercoating/sound deadener when I picked up my clamps so I decided to try it on the bus.

Here's the back wall covered.

Here's the side wall covered.

Geno

gmag69 · Post by **gmag69** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 4:16 pm

Here I decided to coat the whole floor with the undercoating/sound deadener stuff. Here are some pics.
Above the engine done.

Cargo floor done.

Another cargo floor pic.

Geno