Westly Gets New Shoes

I took Westly to the mechanic for some brake work, and he told me that I should have a look at my right front tire.  I'm not really sure how it didn't blow out on me, given that it had a +1 foot tear on the sidewall...  A new set of 16" alloys from GoWesty with some nice tires later, and Westly had gained some road manners and lost some highway noise!

PSA - Leave Woodwork To The Pros

I tried my hand at cabinetmaking for the van.  I had drawn everything up in Google SketchUp and figured I didn't have much to lose.  Well, turns out cabinetmaking is an art.  The end result was a lot sloppier that I wanted, so we're keeping the accessories and beginning the search for a professional cabinetmaker.

The 4th In The Sierras

A few friends and I took Westly into the Sierras for the 4th of July for some much-needed mamping (man-camping).  Needless to say, there was a substantial difference in cruising speed and comfort between the guys in my buddy's new M3 and Westly, but there's nothing that the 1000W sound system can't overcome!  The climb into the mountains was a bit hard on the van - it was 108˚F in the valley, and the steep highway up had us cruising in the shoulder at 25mph.  We had done a bunch of research about dispersed camping before heading up, and needless to say, we found a great spot (details below)!  Lots of off-roading and a serene hike to a nearby lake.

http://www.totalescape.com/outside/campsites/14s11-sequoia-nf/

Westly Geets Bootylicious

Not taking a liking to having bare bumpers, we placed an order for Twin Peaks bumpers from Rocky Mountain Westy (http://www.rockymountainwesty.com/).  Installing the bumper was a SNAP!  Drilled a few holes in the front bumper with a step drill, and everything slid right into place.  I was worried that the dent in the front bumper would need to be flattened, but the plates seemed to fit right over it.  Chrissy's dad also hooked us up with a sweet carbon-fiber pattern Colgan bra!

Westly Has A Beer (Or Two)

Boonville Beer Festival 2013!

Putting The Pieces Back Together

After days of wet sanding, cutting, and polishing, we were ready to get Westly drive-able again.  We ordered a new SA Grill, LED indicators, LT Truck Mirrors, new hookups and seals from GoWesty.  The old handles were sanded down and painted with POR-15 Chassis Coat.  The windows were tinted by a local shop.  Turns out, they made several mistakes, and the tinter claimed that it was extremely hard for him to tint the windows OUTSIDE of the car.  After much bargaining, we got the shop to comp the labor, and we paid $100 for premium tints.  Putting the windows in was a chore, but acting on a tip from TheSamba, we used thin nylon string sprayed with soapy water to pull the seals back into place.  It took a bit of practice, but we only ended up making a minor tear in one seal.  No biggie!

A New Layer of Paint

We chose to paint Westly with a 2-part aerosol epoxy product called Spray Max 2K.  Turns out, it's pretty awesome stuff - you crack the activator at the bottom of the can, shake, and spray.  They make a primer, a base, and a clear that are all of pretty great quality, and paint colors are custom-mixed by dealers (thanks 66autocolor.com!).  In all, the process took us about 3 months to put all the paint on (I miscalculated the amount of paint we needed, so we had to place a few more orders).  The black spray on the inside is Spectrum sound deadening paint, made by Second Skin.  We figured that if we're going to spend some serious time in this van, we might as well make it a little quieter.  Surprisingly, this stuff makes a HUGE difference.  In all, we're very satisfied with the paint job - there are a few minor blemishes, but for a rattle can job, everyone seems to be impressed!

Westly Gets Naked

After a few camping and fishing trips, Chrissy and I knew that we could get more use out of the van with some new cabinets, and while the bright green paint-job was great for the 80's, Westly needed a new look.

Bids for new paint hovered around $10k.  I wasn't about to shell out that much, and we figured we were well capable of doing a decent job ourselves.

We tried fitting Westly in our garage to paint him.  It was a tight fit...  Wasn't gonna work...

Luckily, my roommate was generous enough to lend us a giant space at his shop.  With the help of our buddies, we were quick to strip Westly of his cabinets, furniture, and accessories.  Soon after, it was hours upon hours upon hours of sanding, bondo, sanding, and more bondo.  Turns out that a good portion of the panel behind the sliding door was poorly patched before, and some bondo magician had managed to cover up some pretty bad body damage - albiet poorly: