The Lime - Show Prep and Michigan VW Show

May 21, 2006 was the 19th Annual Vintage Festival hosted by the Michigan Vintage Volkswagen Club in Ypsilanti, Michigan. This was long planned to be our first outing in the new Westfalia.

Prior to departing on the trip we had a long to-do list. As you can see from the pictures, Vanessa insisted on fabricating new interior panels for the van. I cut them from a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood. Vanessa sanded them and I stained them in green water based stain.

Vanessa also used her new steam cleaner to clean the original Westfalia plain cushions. You should have seen the dirt come out of them!

I also installed our Innovatek radio from www.mp3playerstore.com, purchased during a promotional no reserve auction at www.ebay.ca for $60 very late at night prior to our departure. The radio is actually a DVD/MP3/CD/TV/AM/FM/WMA player. I rigged it with a toggle so it is triggered either by the ignition when driving or the toggle when camping. I wired it into 4 Rampage 60 Watt 5" speakers purchased for $9.99 a pair from Princess Auto. I recently won a 8.4" colour screen from the same company in a similar auction for $67 and will be installing it shortly to make use of the DVD and TV features of the radio. Pictures will follow once this is installed fully. Oh, by the way, the radio sounds great, especially when you can hear it over the engine noise.

The last pics are me driving along the 402 near Sarnia, Vanessa in front of the Van at the KOA in Ypsilanti, and our van (the one in the middle) on display at the show!

Watch the next posts for images and repair info on the steering system. We were lucky to make it home from Michigan as the van now sits in our driveway with no steering whatsoever!