Milly the 1979 Westfalia Berlin Deluxe Bay Window Camper Van

[chrisradioman]

Bought a new inner door handle for Milly the one on the right:-


Entered Milly in the Show & shine, she didn't win but I'm still glad I entered her:-




Some of the SWT Massive on the way home:-

[chrisradioman]

I stopped to fill with LPG on the way home for the first time ever sice I had her, I had to remove the side step, remove the cover, attach the adaptor &Fit the Nozzle, only took £2.13 to fill her up:-





I got home to find Charlie White had tidy'd my garage & I got Milly in there, cheers pal:-

[chrisradioman]

Removed the tow bar & bumper today as only 2 bolts are lineing up & I want all 6 to fit. I tried adjusting the brackets with a lump hammer & a block of wood before eventually having to resort to plan B, now it fits all the holes. One hole is jammed up with a snapped stud that some one in the past has tried to drill out. The plan tomorrow is to cut out a small square, weld a nut to a square & weld it back in. I've also fitted my towing socket supplied by Dan of Britania Tow Bar Centre:-

[chrisradioman]

Wired up my factory Hella power outlet today, it never had a feed to it for some reason I ran it back to the fuse box & now it works. Bought myself various Hela adaptors:-

[chrisradioman]

Thought I'd get the trailer ready for our holiday. I don't really want to be dragging a gearbox all around Europe, so I thought I'd IRS the trailer & remove the metal for the back seat area so I can drop the floor & make more room, I've also taken the rear bumper off to have it re-chromed.

I've stripped out all of the MDF as this is crap I'll be replacing this with Plywood.

[chrisradioman]

My kids always complain about the bed moving around in the night so I decided to have a look, the corner of the wood has split so I removed it I'll get a new piece made, I'm also going to try to source the white vinyl & replace this at the same time:-



I bought a spare bulb kit, first aid kit & a lugage net from Halfrauds ready for our holiday




Bit of a trial run, got my Aqua Roll, my Awning, poles & petrol can on there:-

[chrisradioman]

My M8 Simon gave me the idea & I've seen them for sale for £120 at the shows, so I decided to take a trip down to Focus DIY & buy my own for £24.99 bargain. It's exactly the same stuff you just got to cut it yourself.




I also ran in the mike for my Becker Bluetooth hands free kit:-

[chrisradioman]

Ever since I've had Milly I've had to unlock the sliding door then open the two front doors, the keys I had only open the tailgate, sliding door & start the bus, I decided today to address this so I followed this link & fair play its awesome:-
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewto ... sc&start=0

Here are a few pics I took:-
I bought a few new gaskets:-


As you can see the old ones are a bit dodgy:-





My M8 Mike welded a piece of lower tinware for me ready for plastic coating:-


Then he welded a new captive nut on the underside & now I have 6 bolts holding my tow bar on, I've connected up te electrics & tested them & give the trailer a trial tow. I'll fit the proper plate on tomorrow, but it tows a treat:-

[chrisradioman]

Done loads of work today, Jacked up the Trailer & put it on axle stands unbolted all of the gear box, axle tubes spring plates etc. While I was doing this Mike cut out the boot floor & rear fire-wall as you can see I've saved loads of weight:-






The cardboard is to stop the sparks from the grinder wrecking the glass:-

[chrisradioman]

As you can see Mike's cut away the frame forks as well as there is never going to be another gearbox in there:-
You can clearly see here the difference in length of the torrosin bars of a swing axle & IRS Beetle:-


Some of the stuff that will save us weight :-





We also found a couple of nasties underneath so Mike cut them out & welded new metal in, I've had about a bucket full of rust under there:-

[chrisradioman]

Mike cracked on with the trailer while I was working today he's selded up the end of the frame horns, cut off the seam & sam welded the sides back ready for the IRS brackets, also cut out some more rusty bits:-



Tomorrow I'm hoping to have the a-arms etc back from the plastic coaters & get them all fitted, Mike should finish most of the welding tomorrow as well, here are a few shots of the nasties:-




This is the old floor we cut out:-

[chrisradioman]

Fitted my Westfalia Tow Ball cover supplied by Dean in Britania Tow Bar Centre, cheers Dean:-


I've also loomed in the wires for my Split charging relay & fitted it to an existing hole on the fire wall:-

[chrisradioman]

Collected my Bumper for South Wales Metal Platers in Treorchy, it wasn't cheap at £175 but they done a good job.

[chrisradioman]

Found these pics on my camera today:-





Fitted my rear bumper now for good:-

[chrisradioman]

Everytime we delve further it seems we find more bodges & rusty metal, here are a few pics:-