# Prestige Detail : 1970 Westfalia Bus



## Prestige Detail (Aug 27, 2012)

*Prestige Detail : 1970 VW Westfalia Bus*

Hi all

Welcome to another post from us here at Prestige, this time is something very different for me a 1970 South African VW Westfalia Bus, my friends at Retro Custom have been slowly carrying out the work on this bus for the last 5 years or so restoring and modifying it to the customers specifications and as per usual Larry and his team have done a great job with the re build and modifications including fitting a 2007cc engine and lowering it all round with some of the trickest bits of suspension components I've seen.



















As far as I can gather the bus was re painted some 3 years prior me to getting my hands on it, in the meantime its sat under a plastic sheet in Larry's workshop gathering dust waiting for the right time to get the thing put back together and detailed, so when Volksworld 2014 started to loom the owner decided now was the time to get the bus sorted, unfortunately as is the way with time schedules it meant that I couldn't get my hands on the bus until the week before the show, the bus turned up on the back of a flat bed trailer as Larry couldn't get it out of the workshop and down the drive as the rear exhaust sits about two inches off the floor and the drive was full of potholes !!

The usual wash and de contamination process is undertaken.










Once I had the car back in the workshop I could see what sort of condition the paintwork was actually in as I had asked Larry not to do anything with the bus before delivery as it was covered in a nice layer of fine abrasive dust.

Some examples of the what the paintwork was like.























































as usual I try and remove as much of the trim as I could to allow for a better finish.



















I noticed straight away that the paint wasn't the best quality Ive seen particularly on the nearside which for some reason had much heavier orange peel than the rest of the motor and my first pass at an edge that I masked left this !

Masking tape damage !










So I had to be very careful with the edges and the paint overall as I had already noticed that there were a few thin edges, so no pressure then, so for this one I went with a 3M yellow pad and Polish Angel Ultimate Compound and a moderate to slow speed on the Flex taking things very slowly and easy, which meant with the timescale some very very late nights.

Cutting stages complete.














































With the cutting steps completed I decided to complete the rest of the bus then go to the refining stages as the paint was very soft I didn't want to cause any damage, so off came the BBS split rims to be polished by hand using the Britemax Metal Twins and considering that they've been in a damp workshop for years were in very good condition.










The interior, glass louvre windows were all dealt with so now I could get onto the refining stages for this I went with Polish Angel Master Final Polish and a black 3M pad, for the finishing product I went with Swissvax Best Of Show.

The finished article.









































































Not a bad result considering the timescales involved.










A big thanks to Larry and Angus and to anyone thats taken the time read this post.

D.


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## jimmas (Jan 24, 2007)

Awesome work, fantastic vehicle


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## yetizone (Jun 25, 2008)

Stunning finish on a very nice classic VW :thumb:


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## neilb62 (Jul 30, 2007)

Amazing..... Nice to see your work rewarded.... :thumb:


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## tonyy (Jul 26, 2008)

Great work:thumb:


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## slineclean (Dec 23, 2011)

Nice work there and I also like the colour


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## KIFOO (Jan 9, 2013)

Looks like another fantastic job mate ,bit different working on a camper


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## Bigharty (Jan 6, 2014)

Beautiful early bay. Suspension is made by red 9 design. Got the same set up. :car:


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## Bill58 (Jul 5, 2010)

That looks amazing, great work!


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## Tiggersmith (Feb 26, 2013)

Lovely low light, probably my favourite DUB.


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## m411mtf (Feb 10, 2008)

Been up there a couple of times, as we used to have a T2 which he did a lot of work on. The guys at Retro Customs are a cracking bunch, and watching this vehicle develop was amazing! It really is a credit to them.

Looks amazing, you've done a top job


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## s29nta (Mar 9, 2013)

looks good,i never seen a bus on bbs before i quite like it. great job:thumb:


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## Spotless Detailing (Oct 17, 2011)

that is sweet. great work man.

callum


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## AaronGTi (Nov 2, 2010)

Awesome


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## Miked3781 (May 6, 2013)

Love this, been wanting to work in a bus for years myself, fantastic turnaround, great colour.


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## waxtrucker (Mar 21, 2014)

Absolutely love it, great work


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## Wout_RS (Jun 13, 2012)

Amazing job!


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## ted11 (Jul 8, 2011)

Fantastic job.


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## 123quackers (Jan 29, 2009)

That is one of the best VW busses I've seen

Love the colour, always difficult to achieve such results when paint is not a straight forward factory fresh, to many unknowns :thumb:

Cracking work :thumb:


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## taz007 (Dec 31, 2007)

epic little van


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## bigslippy (Sep 19, 2010)

Fabulous work:thumb:


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## StamGreek (Oct 11, 2012)

Great work..well done


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## ocdetailer (Apr 9, 2014)

Lovely work


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## 20vKarlos (Aug 8, 2009)

This is a beauty


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