Major the 1977 Westfalia

[Morkc68]

Ill kick off the threads in here with our 1977 Westfalia, simply because I can do the full thread from us buying him to the current restoration/refurbishment project.

We came to own Major because our other bay, Gusbus was taking a long time to restore, gary, Slammedresto on most of the forums imported him from Santa Cruz, California in December 2010. We brought him home in February 2011

The bus was supposedly unwelded, in actual fact its had a new front panel on, by the looks of it, its very poorly done around the airbox. He has got full service history, at some point had new heads fitted, came with the original upholstery, curtains, cab hammock, small toilet box thingy, mosquito net and surfboard bars on the roof. The engine is a 2.0 Fuel injected motor with remote oil cooler fitted in the left hand battery tray.

[Morkc68]

The first thing we did was to out the old dirty curtains, they had faded, had oil stains on them so Michelle made up a new set from an Ikea duvet, they don't match the upholstery but hey, does it matter We then replaced the steering wheel with an MCJ Products one, they have a great feel to them!






A set of Madmatz carpets made all the difference too, still going strong to this day!

[Morkc68]

The wheels looked a bit tatty in silver - time for a refresher in white! All of the wheels got a repaint along with the bumpers, the bodywork got a good wash and polished with the polishing mop and compound, looked rather good!

[Morkc68]

Late 2012 and the running gear was ready for rebuilding; new brake shoes, drums, discs and pads all around along with wheel bearings on the front.




Gasburners finished the look off just nice

[Morkc68]

In later years we popped a pair of Wagenswest drop spindles on and lowered Major by 2 1/2". He looked good, drove very nicely but the Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire roads didn't like a lowered bus, so he went back to stock height. Here he is lowered

[Morkc68]

With four years of constant use and a fifth year stored away we decided its time to do a full refurbishment and bring him back to how he used to look.
We found some corrosion and holes on a section of the sliding door, the left hand front door has cracks on the skin, there is a 2" square rotten patch on the back near the engine lid and we need a new battery tray on the left hand side. The usual window rubber replacement will also be done as they are past there shelf life plus we have a new front panel to pop on as the existing one is poor

[Morkc68]

The sliding door repair is now complete, we learned some lessons on Gusbus for this one and made a template to ensure we had as close a profile on the curve as we could. I'm pleased (so far)!






the stopper filler is on some little dings we found. On the inside of the door, the panel adhesive had hardened and come away offering no bond to the outer skin. This has also been sorted

[Morkc68]

The door lock mechanisms and the various roller assemblies are in need of repair, the centre lock on the slider needed a new spring and rubber bump stop, sorted



The top and bottom roller mounts both had seized rollers, these are all freed up now and rolling smoothly, the centre hold back catch is now clean and just needs a lick of paint and the lock assemblies are all degreased and ready for fresh grease and refitting once the sliding door is painted.

[Morkc68]

The long term plan is to sort the panels out which need replacing, respray the body in Marino Yellow, remove and repaint the westy roof and cap in white, same shade as the bumpers. remove the motor, gearbox, running gear and restore or repaint all of the components. Roll the body on to its side and remove all of the Dinitrol off the chassis and treat all of the rust which a restorer in Derby screwed up.
Interior wise, new mats all round, new upholstery (colour/style not yet decided on), do something with the units, the plan was to get SJH on the case but that may be difficult.
With regards to the motor, I would love to go for a Fellows Subaru conversion, I am quite taken by the install, they look good!

Watch this space for more

[nickj]

Hi nice looking van, I'm looking forward to following your progress

[barryhaynes]

Nice van, love the colour, I've always had early bays(3 of them) I prefer the bumpers lights indicators etc,but late bays are growing on me and yours is fab

[Morkc68]

Following on from our parts scrubbing session, we have made superb progress and the sliding door repair is nearly finished. In between that, I managed to get another part of the lock mechanisms painted:


Prepped ready for paint:


High Build Primered:





And finally, we have colour; absolutely love how its panned out!




First coat on the outer side:


We have one good coat of colour to apply followed by a final lighter coat prior to lacquering it

[gooner]

Looking good Mork 👍👍

[gooner]

I was gonna refurb my slider in the summer but it never happened, might have to pay someone to do it now as I don't have dry space to do it this winter ☹️

[Morkc68]

Dec 10, 2016 19:24:07 GMT gooner said:

I was gonna refurb my slider in the summer but it never happened, might have to pay someone to do it now as I don't have dry space to do it this winter ☹️

its a pain in the ass to do, the Autocraft outer skin is great, profile spot on but the inner Klokkerholm panel can be a bit poor!

How bad is yours, I have most of the repair panels left over if they are of use