71 westy cal import (aka The Spider Van)

Decided today to start a blog, so here goes:

Last July I ran short of work and had to sell my split

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It sold pretty quickley,& for the asking price too.

Now armed with sufficient funds to see me & my family through the lean times ahead,
I went straight out to look at a 70 westy in Gatwick!,
which turned out to be a bag of shite, dejected i passed by tims on the way home & promptly purchased this:



First jobs to get done were re wiring of the lights to UK spec, couple of new wiper blades , then an MOT test, which was passed, no trouble

£55 to the DVLA yielded a UK age related registration.

An outing to Tims shop to get the front end lowered with one adjuster in the bottom tube.

Lowered the rear 1 spline myself



Pop top fabric was knackered so Iordered a replacment from Wolfsberg West
Wasnt looking forward to the job of fitting it but it went on a treat



A few interior jobs followed:






12V & 230V systems, 85 amp leisure battery,3 stage charger, 16 amp hook up
additional lighting.

Hopefully planning a family road trip to the south of France in May, so got to sort out practicality of the interior for a family of 5.

The storage/coolbox unit, in my opinion is pretty useless, so i whipped mine out



Giong to put in narrower storage & a buddy seat in its place i think.

In another weight saving exercise i removed the old redundant air con unit fron underneath.







A quick look up its arse reveals a couple of sensible mods: electronic ignition & twin, sorry, DUAL Weber 34 icts



The observant among you may have noticed this bus for sale on various forums recently, well I have decided to try & keep hold of her,
if I can weather the economic down turn, we all need a hobby & I rekon tinkering with the old gal is good for the soul,
Whats the market value for a healthy kidney?

Its a 71 Chianti red, same as ours........

Recently repainted..

Tim i think this bus was called Gregg (?)

Nice write up, I hope everything works out ok and you are able to keep it.

Looks like you've got yourself a cool bus there.
Keep us updated with your plans

Adrian- any chance to show of your buses

How'd you mean Sam ?

hippychick wrote:

How'd you mean Sam ?

I just seem to keep seeing pictures of your buses on the forums.
There was a thread on vzi about vws in the snow and there was a picture of the frank pierce bus with no snow.
Just amused me.

Which reminds me i'll go and buy VW camper and bus tonight to see the frank pierce write up

Its not in the shops until friday mate, subscribers got it last friday tho......

hippychick wrote:

Its not in the shops until friday mate, subscribers got it last friday tho......

Cheers for the heads up.

Saved me a journey

A couple of recent jobs on the bus


Type 2 detectives dropped spindles



bluebird full width r&r bed



and a bit of a re trim

You know for some reason i've completely missed this thread in the past!

Nice to see a diary type progress report, it all looks good so far!