Aircooled VW South Africa

So I closed more holes and found some that I'm not sure if they must be there. Please can someone in the know comment.
Also in the corners of the roof hole are quite big holes. Not sure if they are for water outlets, but there are also no grommets with pipes. I am also in a bit of a dilemma. The back seeems to have been repaired and badly at that.
If you look at the bottom of the right hand corner of the rear hatch all is fine. But when looking at the left it's another story. Seems a new corner was welded in or if was somehow bashed out of square? Anyone have any suggestions?
The rear hatch does seem to be straight.

Those big rear holes are for water drain
Can not remember if one was steel piping or rummer

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Thanks Bugger,
I see there is a hole like that in every corner, but they don't go to a pillar to drain.

Not sure but could they not be for the wiring of the Westfalia ?

Herman

Hi Allen

1. The holes pictured in the roof is where the top stretcher bed mechanism attaches to.

2. Westy's are sunroof busses, so will have the drainage holes because of the sliding roof. The 2 front holes would drain down the B pillar where there would be a hole at the bottom. These are not applicable as yours is a Westy and it wont have water inside that part of the roof area.

3. Its difficult to make out in your pics, but is it not the boot lid that's buckled? It appears to be full of old putty? I would test another lid to see as it would have to have been one big accident to get the entire left corner to be twisted like that.

Thanks Sean,
Stretcher makes sense, where is it fixed at the back?
Holes as drains make sense that there aren't rubbers since it will never get water there, well hopefully. Otherwise something is drastically wrong.
I will check and measure again. The bus did have a lot of putty because the panel beaters were too lazy to push out dents to minimise putty.

Another question, what is between the roof and ceiling if I can call it that. Seems like wasted space and difficult to get to the back. I have some foam tape on either side and to remove that will be a mission. Could easily store a solar panel in there.

Thanks for all the info.

sean wrote:Hi Allen

1. The holes pictured in the roof is where the top stretcher bed mechanism attaches to.

2. Westy's are sunroof busses, so will have the drainage holes because of the sliding roof. The 2 front holes would drain down the B pillar where there would be a hole at the bottom. These are not applicable as yours is a Westy and it wont have water inside that part of the roof area.

3. Its difficult to make out in your pics, but is it not the boot lid that's buckled? It appears to be full of old putty? I would test another lid to see as it would have to have been one big accident to get the entire left corner to be twisted like that.

Yip I forgot itis a westy not a normal sunroof bus

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AlanH wrote: Sun May 03, 2020 5:35 pm Thanks Sean,
Stretcher makes sense, where is it fixed at the back?
Holes as drains make sense that there aren't rubbers since it will never get water there, well hopefully. Otherwise something is drastically wrong.
I will check and measure again. The bus did have a lot of putty because the panel beaters were too lazy to push out dents to minimise putty.

Another question, what is between the roof and ceiling if I can call it that. Seems like wasted space and difficult to get to the back. I have some foam tape on either side and to remove that will be a mission. Could easily store a solar panel in there.

Thanks for all the info.

Again, as it could have had a sliding roof, the opening part of the roof would go into that space when opened.

In my Westy, I slide the front stretcher into that space.

Reckon a solar panel can fit in that gap?

brianj wrote:Reckon a solar panel can fit in that gap?

If you can find old sliding roof aluminum guides then it could work nice for making a slide out tray
For anything thin to store

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I used to keep the fold up tables, beach umbrellas and flat items in the space

brianj wrote: Mon May 04, 2020 12:50 pm Reckon a solar panel can fit in that gap?

I like to keep my solar panel on top of the roof, in the sun

So, did some more work.
Checked the back again and can find nothing except a suspicious kink on the side that seems out of square.
So the right looks OK. The left however has a kink and I'm not sure it is supposed to be there. And even worse I don't know yt how to fix that. And then just to see some more visible progress I started stripping te old paint and putty off with the grinder disk Sean recommended.
I am impressed how nicely they work. BTW, got them at Chamberlains at R 189.00.
I also noticed that the front had a repair done, obviously very long ago since they used lead or rather tin in stead of body putty. Till next time thanks for looking.

Today was a continuation of stripping paint and body putty.
Some spots were easy and it seems they were the original paint. Others were repainted and it felt like the paint used was like an oil paint as it felt grimey when stripping.
Anyway the bus is now stripped up to the window line and I must say looks pretty cool. All the rust spots and putty filled spots are less visible.

That actually looks quite good. Good progress so far!