Ron's 76 Westy Restore

[CaptRon]

I have owned this Bus since 1995, and have wanted to do a restore on it since then.
As you can see it looks very good on one side and at the back, but it had been hit on the front and drivers side, and was poorly fixed.

I spent about 15 hours stripping it down, loading it up and taking it to the painters.



I will be doing some more posting in the next few days, to let you all know how it's going.

[Ken]

Looks like a nice solid bus to begin with, can't wait to see finished.

[CaptRon]

Yea, It's never seen snow, but I do have some rust.
At the bottom of the windshield, (like they all do), also on both rear side windows at the bottom and on the bottom of the rear hatch.
Also the battery box was just starting show the first signs going bad.

The mice got to it about 10 years ago and I found there mess everywhere.



They chewed up the pop-top canvas, and my add-a-room.

I worked on tearing down the engine to the heads today, so I can clean it all up and hopefully find an oil leak that I have.
I think I may have been the small boot that goes from the block to the fan housing on the dipstick. It had a good size tear in it.

The engine is in real good shape, I did a compression test on it before I pulled it and got between 135 to 142psi for all four cylinders.

[CaptRon]

Here are a few pic's of some of the rust I found.





The battery area was really getting bad so I ordered a new panel for it.



I toke it to Flatline Custom and they have been working on it off and on for the past two weeks.



The engine cleaned up good and I dropped off the tin to the powdercoater two days ago.



I stripped off the hardware on the top and sanded it. It will be painted next Tuesday.



I hope to have everything back from the painters sometime in April and get it ready to go back on the road in June.

[Randy]

Sounds like a plan. My favorite color on a late bay.

Randy

[CaptRon]

Sorry for slow update, but I have been out of town a good bit over the past few months.

I got the Bus back from Flatline and I can't say enough about the paint job Danny put on. It is just the way I wanted it to look and how he said it would look from the beginning.
I would highly recommend them to anyone who is looking for great paint job at a good price.



I started to put the Bus back together on 6-28 and finished it on 7-18 for a road trip to Oshkosh, Wisconson on 7-19.
I reassembled everything by hand so as not to damage the paint, and I made it on time.
The shakedown was 510 miles one way pulling a trailer through Chicago. I am proud to say that the Bus went all the way there and back without any problems.
Here are some pics:


Powder painted the sheet metal and reassembled the engine over at Bills shop.






"Dan the glass man" made putting the glass back in look easy.


Here it is all ready to go to the show, and at the air show.

It's 95 % done and I am working on it in bits and pieces. I plan on slowing down and enjoying this last part.

[sweeth20007]

Great work Ron ! Very cool ! do you have any pics from the air show?

[CaptRon]

Thanks, sorry to say I do not. It's one of the larges outdoor events in the country and I try to go every year.

Here's a cool link http://bcove.me/2wsz6qp0 watch in full screen.

[wwebner]

Hey Ron,meant to tell you,Love the avitar.
Bill

[CaptRon]

Thanks Bill,
It's a scan of a picture I toke at the Limerock show back in 1995, (before digital).