François's Bus Blog
Stage 1. Research.

The first stage when looking for a suitable VW Westfalia camper to restore starts with many hours spent searching through magazines and the internet, but with a very strict set of criteria that we have at Down Under, finding a potential project can take some time.

Many vans are advertised as original, but on close inspection they often reveal a very different story, with most of them being the stuff nightmares are made of! On average, we'll go and look at between 5-10 vans, but from this we'll only usually see one that really catches our eye and meets our requirements. And those requirements are:

• It must be an original Westfalia conversion
between 1974-79
• The body must be accident-free
• The main chassis and flooring must be rust and
repair free
• All paper work (logbook etc) must tally up correctly with the vehicle body
• The van must be as complete as possible and with as many original fixings as possible.

Once we've hunted down the camper that meets these requirements, it's purchased, taken back to the yard, and the next phase begins ... the full check-over and strip down.

Click here for Stage 2