Full restoration of a 1976 VW Camper

Two years ago we ripped everything out of the camper, the cabinets, mattresses, windows, and headliner.

There was a lot of mouse poop in the headliner. Grose!

I am redesigning the van to have an outdoor kitchen. We took out the sink and cooler and plan on replacing the interior with our own personalized design. We will be installing a screened in awning off the sliding door side of the camper for outdoor cooking. Out door cooking is one of our favorite parts of camping. The bugs, they are our least favorite part of camping.

We blocked 12 weeks out this winter, 2026, to begin tackling the body work.

This week Evan has removed the engine and transmission. Everything is coming off and out so he can focus on the shell and body work. This is probably the most overwhelming part of the job as Evan is assessing the rust damage and making a to do list. I walked into the shop to get some photos. “Hey Evan, How’s it goin’ so far?”

After a walk around the van you can see we have our work cut out for us. I went back to the office to make some calls resourcing a good rust neutralizer, protector and an undercoating for the chassis.

My job is to design the interior and choose the color story. I created a mood board to help decide if I want the bus to be Robin’s egg blue or green. Let’s take a look at the options and inspiration here.

We are undecided between 3 color stories. Leaning towards Green we went to the auto parts shop to sample paint colors.

If we go blue I will have to redo the plaid on the mattresses and seats. If we go green we can stick with the green and orange plaid we already have, though the front seats will need to be reupholstered.

We decided to go green. 1975 Fiat Green #45096 and to stick with the original Green/Yellow/Orange Plaid