Mick's 70 Lowlight

Taking Check

Type 2 Bay Window (1968 - 79)

Mick

Monday, 11 June 2012

2370 Hits

Managed to spend some time this weekend going through the lowlight and taking check of whats what. The bus was packed to the brim with parts and so it needed to be unloaded to see what parts were missing and what parts needed to be sourced. The bus was supplied with some nice extras such as a roo bar and a spare full width rock and roll seat including the rear matress and all of this needed to be taken out of the bus to be able get in and take a look

With the bulky stuff removed from the inside I was able to remove the sink unit and take a gander at the cargo area. The floor is in great condition with no rust at all, likewise with the cab floor as well. The interior is complete apart from the drawer in the sink unit and has at some time been covered in some very '80's looking grey contact covering. I will probably eventually remove the interior and just fit the full width rock and roll bed, but for the time being I will leave it in place until it is back on the road.

With everything out of the bus I was also able to go through the engine. The bus was supplied with an engine of unknown provonance albeit one that actually looks pretty good. The end float is within spec and it shows no signs of leaks, not that this is really enough to determine if the engine is good or bad, but it at least gives me the confidence to simply reassemble it and gamble that it will more than likely run. Unfortunately the tinwear on the engine is completely incorrect - it's not the original engine from the bus. Early low lights have peculiar shaped firewall tin that is unique to these early 1600 busses. Later busses were fitted with the Type 4 unit and so had different tin. Hopefully I can locate some correct tinwear, otherwise I might be forced to modify the existing tin to fit.

Cleaning the bus out also gave me a chance to take a look at the rock and roll bed. The bed is slightly different in operation to the one I used to have in my old Westphalia. With the Westy beds the bottom of the seat can be lifted up to access underneath, with this bus the seat is fixed and to access the underneath you either have to use the sliding doors in the seat bottom or swing the seat base up into the bed position and access from behind the seat back. Whilst not a massive issue it does make storing stuff underneath the seat a little harder. My plans are to store my portable two burner petrol stove and stand under the seat along with the cookware and storm lamp. Whilst this is still doable by accessing it from behind it would be much easier with a westy style rock and roll seat but with westy style brackets at $800 a pair here in Aus I dont think I will be changing anything soon. I might take a look into making the whole of the front panel hinge out of the way instead.

After taking check of everything I've put together a bit of a list of parts that i need to source. First off is to locate the missing engine tin so that I can reassemble the engine and get her running. I will also order new master and slave brake cylinders as I intend to simply renew the braking system - no point in mucking around there as i intend to use it as my daily driver.

With everything removed from the bus I also took the time to clean up and refit the front lights. These were loose in the cab so I decide the safest place for them was back where they belong on the front of the bus. I also repainted the front badge white instead of black (Sorry Matt) and will do the same for the bumpers once I've found the correct paint color.

With the interior cleared of stuff it was time to sit back and enjoy a nice cup of tea whilst reminiscing... It's getting on close to 20 years ago since me and a mate toured around Europe in a '73 Westy and at least ten since I sold the Cal Look '66 ...Ahhh happy memories. Hopefully soon I will making more by travelling around Aus in this bus with the family. I can't wait.