Pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!

Who says that Disneyland is the happiest place on earth. When it comes to VW's, this place hands down is the best place - Wolfsberg West in California. It is THE place for VW enthusiasts for all restoration parts.

Took the opportunity to stock up on much need parts while I visited LA. Removed the original rubber from the entire bus as this had hardened over time and was cracked and split. Have replaced most of the external rubber apart from a few rear light seals which I forgot to pick up when in the States. Switched out a few chrome bits that are pitted and dull like the aerial, headlight surrounds and a new set of fried egg blinkers. Will source a new emblem when I look at buying some additional parts..... it is amazing as you start to dig around just how much comes up that needs to be replaced. Years of dirt and grime hide a lot of problems.

Also decided to replace all the pop out window frames and will also add pop outs to the two fixed side windows. I know this is straying from the path of restoring to stock but I have seen a few bus with pop outs all around and safaris and I kinda like the look.

First decent look

Un-packed the van and it came with a few parts to treat the motor with a tune up - had points, distributor cap, spark plugs, leads, vacuum hose and replacements fuel lines, gaskets etc. As well as these have a few other bits and pieces that should come in handy to maybe trade with other VW owners - spare steering wheel, steering box, headlights and a few vw beetle parts - one mans junk is another mans treasure as they say.

The bus was missing the rear seat and managed to track down via theSamba.com a guy who had one. He sent me photos which showed nicely covered seat in original covering and we settled on a price. Just a little pissed off, actually a lot, that when I finally got the bus in New Zealand, the seat that he sent was completely bare of any cover, padding ...... just a rusty frame. This guy trades lots of early bus parts on theSamba.com - thanks a lot for your honesty chump.

Looks like most of the floor supporting structures (both sides rockers, inner rocker panels, every outrigger and jack point) will need to be replaced. Just as well I had ordered the replacement parts from the photos the shippers provided - I beams, Top Hat section, U support, cross member supports, long side panel wheel arches, both rear corners as well as dogs legs, complete front floor (previous owner just did a rough as guts patch job) and have all lower nose cone panel and inner support panel behind front bumper  - so virtually replacing the entire lower chassis structure with fresh, clean, new metal.

Some of the repairs are definitely suspect so it is best to do things right from beginning and remove much of the bondo the had been lathered on to hide the repair sins. Once done it should definitely be able to stand up to the magnet test.

Well there is a fair bit of work to do here but I plan to do most of it myself because that is the Kiwi way. I figure what is the worst thing that can happen?..... will have a go and if it is not right then I will take it to the pro's to fix up. No biggie - how else am I going to learn this stuff and besides that is part of the fun owning a Volkswagen.

I also shouted myself a Westfalia 3 bow roof rack. The bus has gotta look good doesn't it? just a little something to top it off.