I acquired a 1969 Hamburg Westfalia trailer some time ago. I bought it from a neighbour over the road. My eldest son told me about it, he had seen “this trailer made like a splitscreen” parked at the back of the neighbour’s garden, when the gates were open. I though my son must be mistaken at first, but eventually “saw” it myself...
I asked my neighbour if I could have a look at it and he showed me round. It had belonged to his employer George Kukka (Watford, Birmingham & Glasgow) and he had towed the van behind a sand coloured Volvo. It was one of two built specially for the Company to take machine tools to exhibitions. It was fitted out with a power input to a fuse board, switches and two fluorescent lights in the front corners. My neighbour on his retirement had bought the trailer to move things around. It had done good service moving furniture for his family and relatives and friends....but had eventually fallen into disrepair and had not been used for a few years and pushed into a corner of his garden.
I had to have this and asked the neighbour if he wanted to sell it and he said no but he would think about it... His wife said I would get it at some time...sooner or later!
He does not enjoy good health and has at times been quite poorly and hospitalised several times.
When it was their wedding anniversary and they were going to have a garden party, she came over and said I could have it! I paid very little for it! It then was towed over the road onto my front drive. The gutters were very rotten and the lower panels were very bad, the floor was rotten but I had never seen one like it before.
It has a panelling which covers the wheels in wheel arch tubs inside the body, with twin opening doors at the rear and one side door and has a braked alko chassis with suspension.
I thought it would look good towed behind my type21f fire truck.
I planned to restore it to it’s former glory....I started making enquiries

Restore it before it drops apart

super love the sign writing and the westy hub caps good luck with the resto

That is stunning mate ... looking forward to watching your progress with this one ...

The front panel to the roof/gutter had a gap all along and the rear door top was non existent and the side door could not be opened because the LH frame was non existent but there was a spare wheel!

Roof to frame very weak



Ventilation



The rear lights were non original (after restoring I discovered I can still buy them for £8.50!) and the reflective triangles on each corner had gone missing...

Rear doors & lights



The marine ply floor had been wet for years and exhibited wet rot...but I had a crank handle and the rear stays still worked...I continued to look for someone brave enough to repair it for me.
I reasoned that as long as I could earn money and pay someone with the skills I would just have to work my normal 60 hours a week to pay for it! It is unusual or maybe rare and whilst I had no idea what it would cost...to restore..hey but what does an enclosed trailer of a similar size cost?.

The wheels are on ALKO hubs and the chassis has ALKO brake mechanisms. It does have WESTY hub caps and is unusual.

I initially wanted to make a fire tender truck to tow behind this beast....to take my Melaware and JG Meakin China to shows to sell...

1965 type21f

just found my original link to my van on http://www.vintagebus.com by searching for TLC..

http://www.vintagebus.com/

three years ago but then I heard about one of the best body restorers, who is based here in the Midlands

DaveyH = Dave Haywood so I asked him to come and have a look...

Views of inside and the non existant drip rail and door tops...showing fluro lights as fitted...nice sparks everywhere when connected and wheel tubs each side...

OG demonstrator electrics - German plugs



Inside lined with beech strips for roping items to & to prevent damage



Doors opened well despite frame being unstable



Off to be retored...By Dave Haywood "Classic & Custom"

Really cool trailer! Like it better then the ones with fenders.
Too bad there isn't any funky green metal fot it for sale cause it needs quite some work.
Good luck with it!

...ah but as you'll see my friendly supplier Karl at Autocraft has made me hand fabricated panels of the highest quality.
You will be amazed....I cannot speak too highly of his efforts for me...May he live long and prosper...His bits are superb (somehow does not sound quite right!)
http://www.autocrafteng.co.uk/
Basically the trailer is a chassis, a marine ply wooden floor, coach bolted on top..the panels...

The metal ends at the floor with right angle plates bolted to the floor. Hence why it was repair the bottom and the top rails..

The roof was basically not attached to the sides the drip rail had gone...the door top rails had gone the side door uprights have gone..The corner tops and bottoms are all gone so...the body was very bad..
You may ask why spend all that money? Well how many have you seen?

"Karl can you make these for me...Yes certainly Graham (well actually ....through Dave Haywood)

The original purchaser of this trailer George Kukka bought two identical trailers..to tow behind Volvo estates..

The Westfalia Van Heritage were on the enquiry list to seek history..which I have now found!

So the plan was....
Do an evaluation of the major panels that were needed with Karl from Autocraft - start those into making process
Stabilise the frame (before it fell apart) cross brace it etc
Take off the roof (it was not held on by much...)
Take off the doors
Repair the doors
Make the panels required
Remove the body
Strip the chassis of the hubs and braking components
Shotblast the chassis
Make a temporary floor from the rotten pieces
Fabricate the wheel arches and frame supports
Fit the panels required
Make any missing pieces where they needed to be cut out and replaced etc...

On arrival at Custom & Classic

Condition assessment

Rust



Missing metal



More missing metal



More rust

So starting with the doors

Matt knocking the pins out



Condition of lower panel looks good....not



Door locking mechanism works still



Drip rail and door frame top looks like it needs a little work!

Roof off



Braced body



Braced body



That's better. can see what we are doing now



While we are waiting for the large panels to be made, Put the body aside and next we'll get on the the doors!

and try to look proud of our heritage in amongst all the common splitscreen things that Dave is casting his magic on...

after all I'm a Westfalia you know...