Hi guy's-

I've just acquired most of a spaceway interior to fit in my microbus- I'm missing the rear units and the easicool as well as the table-

I've had a good look at all of the pictures I can find on here/ the web as a whole and have a couple of questions.

1) How do the cooker units hinges attach to the van? Direct into metal or should there be a wooden packer piece?
2) How does it lock in open/ shut positions?
3) is there a recognised source for a good oak veneer to reproduce/ repair panels?
4) does any one have a spaceway that I can poke around and take some pics/ measurements from that is going to the Volksworld show at the weekend?.

Cheers in advance for the help-

any decent wood supplier should be able to provide oak faced ply....or just buy some oak veneer off ebay and veneer your onwn wood...bit of wood glue and a few clamps, very satisfying

Thanks for the reply- thats kind of what I figured- I guess it is all in the French polish to get the desired finish?

Anyone help on the other questions?

I've been doing my interior with 12mm ply and oak veneering it. Very easy to do and as already said very satisfying especially when someone thinks you've crafted it out of real oak.

Cheers, I am hoping I can get the hang of it- Fingers crossed!!

The cooker unit attaches by hinges that screw into a shaped oak piece that is screwed into the bulkhead behind the passenger seat. I recently made a copy of this piece for Rocket Ron.

The cooker locks into the floor using a vertical plastic bolt - they are usually either broken, missing or replaced by a metal one.

I'll get some pics up when I have time.

Thanks- that's good info and pictures would be a massive help- I will have another look at my cooker unit- think there is a plastic bolt on there-

Thanks again:)

OK,

Apologies but things could start to get a little nerdy from here on in......

I have just uploaded 70 odd pics to the samba that I will gradually filter through into this thread (and maybe a few into my main build thread in the readers rides forum)

If you can't wait they can be found here......

http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_search.php?search_author=Paul_Revere%27s+Ghia

These are a few to get you started- I am new to this Devon business and am loving the quality & Oak finish- I am sure I have a load of questions to ask!

My plan is to convert/ restore the spaceway to fit into my 63 LHD microbus- I will be deleting the easicool and going with a full width bench- I haven't decided how to tackle the reorientation of the buddy seat yet so that could cause some head scratching-

Any Spaceway info you feel you would like to share would be much appreciated in this thread-











Any ideas what this is for?

Hi Seth
Well done for winning the interior.
Looks like you are doing exactly what I'm doing - adapting the rhd interior for a lhd van. The trick is to arrange the interior so you can make up the bed You can have the cooker on either side of the van - I'm possibly going to have mine on the door side and adapt the hinge plate and rollers so it still swings out. That means I'll be making a mirror image buddy seat. Alternatively the cooker could go on the other side which means you would have the buddy seat on the door side - that would mean you would have to make a third side for the seat, but it would also mean that all cooking would be inside the van.
The catch is for holding the drop-down flap between the seats in the upright position. Do you have the flap? If you go for a full width R & R bed you won't need it so you could sell the catch to me as I don't have one
Nice pics BTW. That cooker unit on the right should have a Virr Varr top that lifts off - not hinged. AKAIK all spaceways were fitted with Argyll cookers with no legs - the cooker fits on two alloy rails riveted to the inside of the unit. So yours is interesting because it has legs. The rear clips for the warming rack are also unusual. The hinges on the large door are in fact the rare and desirable hinges for the rhs rear crockery cupboard - I have some NOS correct hinges for the cooker doors if you need any. I'll take some pics of the units I have.

In fact we need to make this THE Spaceway thread so thanks for starting it.

Off for a day on the ocean now - wind and rain increasing nicely and I need to service the engine
Brian

i have a vir var table which I think is from a spaceway, if anyone needs one

been out in the Garage having a play this evening for a few hours- Made a start on the cooker unit- removed the cooker- definitely looks like the OG fitment- No evidence of anything else ever being in there- Also, it is bolted in with semi captive nuts that look very original- It is an argyll unit and is beginning to clean up very nicely-

This is the lid from the other cooker unit.....

.... Is this Vivar??

The black one looks identical but with a black formica top- It has the remnants of the original catch plate in the bottom exactly like this one? Could this be original? It certainly looks it..... the hinges whilst not OG seem to make sense to me- they are the kind that you can slide off to make the lid removalble still.

I also removed the large black door with the hinges you mentioned to investigate further...

.... There is no evidence of any other kind of hinge ever being attached to the hinge or the framework- these are also the same hinges used on the rear shelf storage unit. What years were the spaceway interiors made? Did they adopt the 'use what we have and make do' kind of approach??

Also obviously on the cooker unit I am using the water tank cupboard seems to have been completely sealed- Is this likely?? No door on the front?

The table came with one long leg and one short- Luckily I had another two legs in the stash that are the correct length- It appears to have had another two plates on the bottom but these have now gone- Is it normal to have five plates for the legs?


I am planning on going full width with the bench seat so will need to source another off cut of the top trim from one of these seat backs- Does anyone have any off cuts?


and Brian, yes of course we can sort something out for this catch...

.... I do not have the flap and wasn't planning on using one in my conversion- so you might be in luck!! Good idea about making this a reference thread for all Spaceway pics- It would be really useful!!!!!!!

I just found this page with loads of reference pics of another 66- seems to share a lot of features with mine- I find this soo interesting!!

Here's another good thread with loads of reference pics- Interesting that it has the same cooker as mine, and the same warming rack rear brackets etc....

Fascinating! It looks like your cooker unit is indeed a variant of the normal one. Is there a built-in water tank? Plastic or galvanised? I have a feeling that the unit above and yours are very early versions, partly because the props on the easicool sliding seat are made of welded rod - later versions were steel tubing. The whale tap is also an early version - fitted to pre 65 bulkhead Caravettes. What on earth is this for? seems like a board that fits where the table and 'infill' part would be on the normal Spaceway. And what is the contraption fixed to the side of the cooker unit? Are you still out there Big Al and Shaun - can you join in this thread? Cool rack BTW

The top of your cooker is indeed Virr Varr and the table should have five leg plates - four for free standing when outside and one for the table when fixed to the wall. When the bed was made up a short leg was attached to one of the leg plates to support the table in its bed position - between the rear seat and the cooker unit.

It may be that Devon offered some options for Spaceway interiors - I know customers would ask for the interiors team to produce furniture to their own spec.

I'd really like the catch if you are not using it

Brian