1980 VW Vanagon L Westfalia

Jiggawattjames's rides

By Jiggawattjames
( 5 )


This is my 1980 Volkswagen Vanagon L Westfalia camper

This will document my 600 day project goal to get it back on the road and fully campable!


This is the picture I was sent when my friend found it. It had been sitting for well over a decade but it was almost complete and had no structural rust



Me; Disassembling the rear drum as it had rotted away and fallen apart causing the van to be unable to move even when being dragged


Ratcheting the van on to the flatbed for the 2 hour trip home was a chore but worth it!

All loaded up and ready to go!


So as you can tell... Theres a dent... When I finally freed up the stuck rear wheel we gave it a tug and it FLEW down the driveway and hit my friends truck (oops) Lost a sidemarker in the ordeal but honestly it looks worse than it is

This is my co-pilot, apprentice and first mate Steve! He was inspecting the living quarters and evicting any straggler mice

Kali also very much enjoys the new hangout spot

Took the back apart to have a look at the motor and take the tail light out to start banging out the dent so the hatch could close and seal. The whole fuel injection system on the aircooled 2.0L is basically missing; Pumps, intake, sensors, ECU all gone so I think I will be converting to dual carb just for simplicity and cost

I love how complete this thing is 

Gas pedal fell off... Yep... There will be more on this as the photos transfer from my phone to my computer

The original Dometic RM-182 3-Way fridge is still there and clean but with no propane and no 12V battery I had to try it with the 120V shore power. Good news is the 120V works great, the 12V also works great (stole a battery from my Ford to test) but the fridge doesnt get near cold enough to be acceptable... Unfortunate141,000 original KM and yes, this is a Canadian market specific van

Home sweet home

Smashed the dent out enough to work with it, Ill get it fixed when I get the whole body done down the road

I have no idea why the turn signals are missing but just another thing for the list

I cut all the black mold out of the pop top canvas just to make it safer and smell nice. A replacement is the first thing on my list when the cashflow allows

This was originally a brown van with a white top, Im unsure who painted it Polar Silver but they did a TERRIBLE job...



Comments

This is going to be dope! Always toyed with getting something like this for festivals/ tailgating etc. looking forward to seeing how it turns out

Posted by turboski on 5/12/21 @ 3:23:41 PM

Nice! This will be a great roadtrip vehicle. Planning on keeping it the same color?

Posted by MPower on 5/8/21 @ 11:44:06 PM

Looks sweet! Love these and looks like a fun project excited to see more.

Posted by bdub on 5/5/21 @ 1:28:12 PM

Looks like quite the project! Glad to hear no heavy rust as that is a problem with these. Any big plans for the interior or pretty much just restoring it to stock condition? Nice to meet Steve and Kali too!

Posted by stevegolf on 5/4/21 @ 10:02:00 PM

Thanks! The interior will be resto-modded basically; I want it to have the OEM feel but LED lights, proper storage and updated appliances both for safety and usability Steve and Kali are great! I have another pupper helper named Kessel but he is usually too distracted for pictures haha

Posted by Jiggawattjames on 5/5/21 @ 1:24:30 AM