What the heck is a Dorper??? *

[Volktales]

Weird name, and I had no idea what conversion it was when I bought it... I bought this bus for $500 from a regular customer at the shop. I didn't know he even owned a bus as he was driving a Eurovan camper. As it transpired, he still owned the first camper he bought from a friend back in 1973! It was sitting up on blocks in an open carport on Metral Drive in Nanaimo for years. I used to pass it and think someone should rescue that. I never thought it would be me! The carport was attached to a rental property he was selling so the bus would have to go. The engine was long gone but I was assured it was sitting in Vancouver for some reason! Other than the battery tray area, the bus was rust free, and ALL the original camping stuff was still inside. If I bought it, he stated he would go get the engine and deliver it... Told my wife I bought something big at a garage sale that day. Technically it was true... The engine arrived the next week. This restoration was relatively quick and not too expensive. Unfortunately my camera ate the before shots and none have survived...





Chianti Red is the original colour. Once again dear old dad did the paintjob. He didn't mind this one so much as the welding was minimal and it was very straight. Just the usual minor doink under the front mounted spare tire.





The original rebuilt engine. Was a 1700 when new, now an 1800. Engine was removed years ago due to the usual dropped valve seat. The bottom end was perfect as the bus still has less then 120,000 original miles.





The top "canvas" is unusual as it features a wood grain appearance. Although the pop top is large, there is no sleeping arrangements up there.





These are the original Dorper cabinets. The outer surfaces have been refaced with a lighter tone to better match the original headliner. The alloy moldings on the edges are not original but the ones on the top edge surfaces are. The sink, cooler are also original features. The cabinet in the foreground has a removable top and the original stove is contained within.





The back seat folds down into a bed with much thicker foam then a Westfalia and is quite comfortable. Again the upholstery is original.





The table is clipped into the wall and is supported be a ledge attached to the sink cabinet. This works quite well.





Note that the "bed" cushion has a cut out for the air intake for the gas heater.





The large pop top has lots of storage space available for your camping stuff. Nice and bright in there too. Damn heavy though.





Has a nice roof vent as well. Took forever to clean and make this thing work. I still have not replaced the curtains. The ones that came with it are rather YUCK and I have not got around to it yet. Originally the floor was covered with a nasty red semi shag carpet and I could not bring myself to install it! My friend Brian did all the interior wood work and made a very nice job of it too. Hopefully I will drive this thing more this year when I get collector plates...

[Volktales]

So up until quite recently, the Dorper has been out of action for some time. One of the main reasons was the front seats. They still featured their original covers and were in fairly decent shape for the year. Unfortunately one of them was dry and rotten and split, causing a chunk to disappear. This bummed me out so I bought some new covers some time ago but knew I did not have the skill to fit them nicely. Fortunately I know someone who could and was willing to install them for me. This gave me incentive to actually get the bus out and use it this summer. And use it I did...

But first, fix those damn seats...

And here is the reason why.  A nice rotted hole up high where everyone can see it.  The off white covers have turned brown as well, like they always seem to do eventually.  Yuck.

As usual, when there is a crappy job that I can't do, Don gets elected to do it.  He started by removing obvious hardware from the seat back.  Unfortunately these seat frames are riveted together, and you cannot separate the backrest from the seat cushion without drilling the rivets out.  Naturally I didn't want to do that, so Don had to work around this problem.

Many detail photos were taken of the "factory" wiring that holds the covers in place.  Don made sure he would replicate this on reassembly.  More on this later...

Various tabs like this would have to be carefully bent back as well.

Just about there.  Note the original pads and padding.  All this was sound enough to reuse.  Don said it is much easier to work with this stuff then the aftermarket foam padding that is available.

Good riddance.

Here Don is almost done the back rest.  Remember those wires in the earlier shots?  The TMI replacement covers do not come with wire; they come with crappy string instead.  Get yourself some haywire and replicate it like original.  You will be glad you did.

The seat cushion is similar to deal with.  You can see the wire in the picture.

And there it is.  On the shorty split workbench...

One down, and one to go.  This is time consuming work, so when your upholstery guy charges you some big $, don't be surprised...

The second seat was finished the next evening.  Again it was a lot of effort, but the end result was certainly worth it!  Now I can use the bus with pride again.  There were some other steps involved, and if anyone is interested, I will post more pictures.  Once again, thanks Don.

[Volktales]

Soooo it was my original intention to attend the Great Canadian this year. For a variety of lame reasons, this did not work out. But I did some more work to the bus prior to this in anticipation anyway...

The turn signal seals were full of cracks and bugging me.  These were bought from CIP (were else?) and lasted only six months before they cracked like this.  Great quality...  Anyway I bought some new ones before the show; again from CIP but what are you going to do?  The new ones where a different brand and I hope they will last better...

Looks better for now.  I also applied some of that 303 protectant stuff that is similar to Armour-All.  Hope it makes a difference...

I also decided to remove this sticker on the back of the bus.  I am applying for collector plates, so no stickers like this are allowed.  It was deteriorating anyway, and as you know I am not a patina fan...

Look what was under the sticker.  Another sticker!  Note how it is lined up to the trim below.  Too bad that trim is not centred to the bus, and this explains the bigger sticker over top of it!

I like it without the sticker better, but unfortunately the glassfibre underneath had discoloured due to the sticker, and sanding and polishing did not help.  Sigh...

I did finally get a new tire cover.  The best looking one is from CIP, but again they are crap quality.  This time I covered the spare tire with plastic before installing the cover to prevent the tread "bleeding through" like the last time.  Again I doused it with that 303 protectant to try and make it last longer.  The last one had no UV protection whatsoever and deteriorated within six months.  Now with the bus in the garage all the time, it hopefully will last a bit longer...  Why can't products be made with good quality anymore???

[Wongai]

Those tire covers are terrible. Mine is less than a year old and it's in shreds. If I take it off, it will fall apart into compost.

There are some cool custom covers on the Samba, but you could buy a set of wheels for what they are asking for them.
b

[mitchy965]

why not get our favorite upholstery guy to pattern off that junk and stitch up one out of marine vinyl, in your color,with your favorite logo.

[Wongai]

I'm in!

[Brenticon]

Hmmmmmm.
Maybe get enough orders in and he can ....
Hmmmmmmm

[tony]

I thought a "Door per" was the Brazilian taxi/bus configuration with six doors , one door per person!