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Allow us to introduce you to Dahlia.....A 1977 Volkswagen "Westy" Camper Van.

We will be performing a complete restoration, bringing her back to factory original specifications.

Our client received the "Birth Certificate" for Dahlia from Germany....she was built Wednesday, November 24th,1976. The birth certificate also verified that she is "numbers matching"...meaning the engine is the factory original engine!

We began by doing a "basic tear-down", which involves removing the bumpers, lights, exterior trim.

We sanded the lower two thirds of the van and exposed the areas that will require fabrication.

It appears that Dahlia will require a large amount of fabrication, where we will be replacing rusted out panels with high quality aftermarket replacement panels. There are several structural areas and "jack supports" that will also require replacing.

Mechanically, Dahlia appears to have been well cared for, and with the exception of a few things like the aftermarket exhaust, Dahlia appears to be in mostly stock condition.

We will be bringing Dahlia back to her original state, and she will be painted the factory correct "Marino Yellow" (VW paint code L20A) premium single stage paint finish.

We sanded several layers of paint off the lower exterior panels and viewed excessive use of body fillers used to fill in all of the rust holes. There were also surprises along the way. We found "stick on exhaust foil tape" covering rusted out structural areas and painted over with a brushed on undercoating material.

We removed the interior, the bed, sink, the cupboards, carpet and underlay. We disconnected the interior wiring and fridge and now have a clear look at the work needed to the interior.

With all of the fabrication complete, we turned our attention to repair the doors. The two front doors received complete door skins, the sliding door was repaired and the rusted out rear tailgate was replaced with an almost rust free one from the Southern U.S.

Now that the fabrication is complete, we turned our attention to the body smoothing. Lots and lots of block sanding and use of special high build primers. We made certain to recreate the correct factory seams and creases. This step was very important and time consuming, but the finished product will be worth it!

Now that Dahlia has her correct Marino Yellow paint, we turned our attention to the bumpers. After rust and dent repairs were completed, we painted them too. We also fixed Dahlia's dash top, now in the correct satin black finish. She now has her front bumper installed, tail lights are in, headlights installed and the repaired front grille and front marker lights are back too.

Our attention is now on all of the doors, stay tuned.....

You are viewing the 1977 VW WESTY DAHLIA in projects on hold.