Shorty's '71 Early Bay

OK, so my bus is no scrapper that I'm bringing back to life, but there are more than a few jobs need to be done and sone desirable (personal preference) changes I will make along the way.

I will try to stick to DBS rules and photo log any developments!!

Some pictures of the bus as bought in Oct 2011:

So, first up had to be the brakes... bought my bus in October to find it had an auto lane change function everytime the middle pedal is pushed... Not good!

Bought new Caliper repair kit from Status VW (very helpful and CTTP sponsors!) and had these fitted at The Vdub Factory in Newport.

Calipers 'repaired' I got them home along with some new brake hoses and set to work!!

Now fitted, bled and ready to roll!

Can't be putting weather dulled wheels back over my new brakes, so got to work on my (MWS) Fuchs with a tube of Autosol and a polishing cloth... Not a bad result if I do say so myself... Centrecaps off at the moment - need work!!

Forgot to mention... The bus has a CE adjustable beam up front... Wound that down 2 notches on the adjusters while I had the front in the air... Tempted to go one more!!!

Mmmm shiny things!!, nice one

nice stance!!

New steering wheel, bought for me my my wife for my birthday...

whats the sticky out bit in the bottom of the side panel? .....like an exhaust?

US spec electric hook up point

thanks

Was gonna get round to that... we got any sparkies in the club that could convert to UK spec electric hook up, and rewire my interior plugs to run of those and a 12V leisure battery... I can do mechanicals, but electrics are a black art to me!

Big Al is a sparky and knows his way round a car's elastic-trickery too.

On the recommendation of DBS' own Cleverchap, I went out and bought this!!

Still working on my brakes - last corner now, which was/is proving to be a very very stubborn Brake Drum which did not want to come off, even with a hub puller!!

I went to all the hassle of buying the right tools for the job - which subsequently broke!!!

I ended up spraying it liberally with WD40 and just twatting it with the biggest hammer I could find - which worked in seconds!!

Pictures to follow (before you start!!!)

If all else fails ... Hit it with a the largest hammer... ! Sounds like a good plan

No worries with the electrickery, pretty simple to convert to uk spec!

Big_Al wrote:

No worries with the electrickery, pretty simple to convert to uk spec!

I'll be in touch when I get that far... thanks for the offer dude!

Officially, the previous owner of my bus was a complete numpty! (that's about as polite as I can write on an open forum!) you can guess what I actually think!

I base this upon discovering that the incorrect brake shoes are fitted to my rear drums.. small wonder I am having problems with the fecking things! still, an easy and reasonably cheap one to put right...

OK, so... Finished fitting the adjustable spring plates, got the new front brakes on, unceased the back brakes and changed the wheels.. More pics taken along the way, but here's the result taken whilst on a much awaiting drive out this afternoon.

looks ace mate

why thank you! It's coming on as my Dad would say..

ride height on that is spot on I reckon, sweet

Does it just drive straight in to the garage now?
Looks good by the way.

It's f.close getting it in the garage now... Talking mm's!!! I no longer have to let the front Tyres down... I did let half the air out the rears yesterday, but I reckon if I ake a brave pill it might just go... We'll see..

Chronologically in the wrong order, but heres some pics of the spring plates being fitted a couple of months ago...

Just to get to this point was a right ball ache! I first had to get the hub nut off, which meant buying special tools and battling with the hub and drums to get them off so I could release the handbrake cable... got the in the end though!



The old Spring plate came off the spline very very easily - I think this is because the previous owner had had them off not too long ago to drop it 1 spline..



Stock spring plate off... the adjustable spring plate waiting to go on....



Stock spring plate was rotated 1 spline... I have put the adjustable back in the stock position and used the adjustment to bring it back down.. the result is a nice ride with a lowered look to boot!