VW Update

Well, contrary to what my contributions to our little blog site may reflect, I have had time here and there to work a bit on our Volkswagen Westfalia. Even though I haven't documented any progress,“Daisy” has seen quite a transformation since last year.

Once upon a time, about September of last year, Marianne started receiving some rather inquisitive remarks during her normal Sunday meetings. The good sisters were referring to the seemingly growing fleet of Volkswagen buses in our driveway. This due to my acquiring yet another VW bus, a 1968 VW from a local property owner who was ready to send it to the junkyard and eternal demise. Ultimately this find was a godsend, since I planned to remove the rather bulbous fiberglass topper on Daisy, and replace it with a closer to original canvas pop-top, which this donor bus had, and the ethic of keeping vintage cars form decaying in a junk pile is a cause I contribute to. Consequently, I suckered my brother Jeff into helping me tow the motor-less donor, speckled with years of unsightly bird art, from its lowly driveway spot to its new spot, in our lowly driveway. It was, to say the least, not an improvement to the neighborhood’s property values.

During its time in our driveway, the operation of surgically removing essential parts began and it was time consuming yet fun. But, when the time came to use my angle grinder to cut into the pristine 30 year old, vintage sheet metal, I sweated every detail. This critical piece of metal was pivotal in the restoration of Daisy’s pop-top roof and I have been called many things, but professional Auto-Body Technician was not one of them. Therefore, I scoured old photos of VW buses to estimate the location of my cuts. I measured twice, three, even four times, only to back off as I second-guessed myself. I even ventured onto a couple of Volkswagen-only websites to search their discussion forums for any sign that maybe another, out-of-his mind sucker had planned, conquered and documented this territory. No such luck, I was on my own. In fact several people from the VW purist end of the spectrum laid into me, heckling what I was proposing as an abomination to the VW scene.

Whatever. Feeling as though I have to sail, rather than drive, my VW down the freeway with that huge piece of fiberglass above me is an abomination to my scene.

Anyhoo, I took a deep breath and sliced out a rectangular piece in a dimension I thought should fit Daisy. Afterward, as I placed the metal aside and I was pleased with what else I had scavenged from the donor bus, I pryed the white bubble-top off of Daisy's roof and fitted it to the donor bus. What I didn't anticipate was encountering extensive rust around the rim of Daisy’s roof. This was a problem. One that I wasn’t happy with but was true to the roller-coaster of highs and lows of the car restoration experience.

After the dust settled, the neighborhood heaved a sigh of relief as I had the donor towed away as part of an agreement with another local VW nut, in exchange for the welding and rust repair I needed. Which pretty much brings me current. Next will I post details of the pop-top install and removal of all the interior furniture, cabinets and paneling in order to sound deaden, insulate and lay new carpet and wood floor.