purchased in august 2006







went travelling around france and northern italy summer 2007 covering 3500miles. came back and started a restoration around November last year. i have revealed a mass of coverups by previous owners that has put my schedule masively behind.

i will collate my thread from earlybay.com and put my progress up for all to see what i am being faced with.

NaFe

sweet that looks like a great van dude

look forward to seeing this progress

Nice! Welcome aboard

[url=http://imageshack.us]

The hole on the left is where the bottom of the fuel tank is piped off to go to the fuel pump. But the one on the right isn't meant to be there. This section is riddled with deep rust and will have to be completely replaced I think:




Now the front is pretty much bare I could evaluate the damage…..







2nd hand beam as mine was shot as will be seen


then, after some hassle from vw speed shop sending me shit shit shit quality adjusters for £60 i went to coolair and got a proper pair. last week went up my old mans factory where he was kind enough to weld them on:






zip cut the steering damper bracket off the one tube and moved to the other side (the beam i bought was from a LHD):



then i sent it off to be shotblasted and powder coated. half a week went past. and here are the results:

REMOVAL OF MY OLD BEAM











A FEW MORE OF PREVIOUS OWNERS WORK AND 35 YEARS OF RUSTING:



A BIT OF CRUSTING AROUND THE FLANGE:


NOTICE THE SILICONE AROUND BY THE SPLINE FLANGE. mmmm...


CLOSE UP OF SOMEONE'S HANDY WORK WITH THE SILICONE GUN:


WITH A LITTLE PRY OF THE SCREWDRIVER A REPAIR PATCH POPPED OFF!!!.... NOTICE ANY SILICONE (that isnt grease)





IF YOU CANT SEE IT, MAYBE A CLOSE UP WILL HELP .....



All in all i'm very glad that i bought the 2nd hand beam as an impulse purchase. i had a little thought that i may need to replace my existing beam, but that has easily been demonstrated. I'm just glad that i didnt have an accident with the old one in place. Because i'm not too sure whether it would have stayed in place....



i used a 1mm disc cutter to zip around the cab and removed the floor in sections. the pivoting pin on the handbrake cable under the floor is somewhat stuck at the moment so we've cut around the handbrake.



just the start of the clean up to see what metal is gd or not so...


as you can see, some places need to be patched up. some of the PO welding is good enough to grind down and be OK. however, any bit that look dubious will be reworked.


the last little bit which is a pig to get off so will wiat for the new floor before doing anything


anyone wanna buy a rust free floor plan. being described as a USED NOS panel. how much do you think??? maybe i'll post back to PO





well after much deliberation i finally decided to start work on the front panel. i rejected the thought of removing the whole outer skin. instead i decided that i will remove the bottom part to expose the panels below the indicators. this will also allow me to then replace these (if necessary) and also fix up the A frame pillars. so here was the progress tonight. after attacking below the lip, to siomply expose the rusty bits i set about peeling the section back:

















i think i better order the two inner panels as well as the new outer skin!



my aim of today was to cut the outer skin a little higher so i could take the two channels at the bottom becasue it was obvious that they needed replacing. also, i'd then be able to see how bad the end of my chassis legs were.

not entirely sure what this piece of metal was meant to be doing. it was the only decent bit and was just stadning on its own inbetweeen the skins. maybe its a foreskin



once i had zipped the outerskin a little higher i literally peeled the middle skin away. it was only spot welded in a few places, and the bottom half was pretty non-existant. so this is wat i was faced with removing. who would have thought that i'd be faced with doing this part before the resto started. i no i didnt


as donkey says in shrek 1 "i suppose its another one of those layers things again" the half decent metal is what you can see from under the van, which made me think that this bit was initially ok




the other side also had patches, which i knew about, but thought it was done to a decent standard (i.e. shitty metal cut out first)


because it was such a mild dry day outside i decided to open the rikity barn door and get some air into the barn and shine some real light onto what i was trying to do. also, this would help to dry out the floor which had got bit wet over the last week with all the bad weather.


this is just to show the inner most skin and how much its been patched over the years. some patches better than others, but due to the state of the original metal that has been left there, its all going to be cut out


this is with the inner most skin removed. i decided to cut around the end of the chassis rails because there is bracketry as well as the bumper mounting plates.


before cutting the driverside out i made a mark where the new chassis rail will be going. i already have the chassis rail to replace the one i cut out, but wanted to check the rest before i put the new one in. i think the two inner ones (raiils with bumper mounts) are ok, but think the outer passenger one needs to be replaced (partially or fully)


another dodgy looking plate. looked good when lightly covered in waxoyl. but from this side doesnt look too proffesional

i started by sanding down to bare "metal and seeing the quality of metal around the bottom of the windscreen. it went from bad to worse..










trying to see where the rot finishes. somewhere near the lower inner panel...


if that wasnt enough for me, i decided to proceed with sanding up the A-piller on the drivers side, which kinda knew was bit dodgy. i think this really pushed me over the edge....





loxy trying to rub it in ...



me trying to stay positive and play along...



carrying on following the rust attention, well loxy's attention (mine had long gone) continued up above the door back towards the B piller.....





so attention moved to the panel opposite the sliding door, which was full of ripples and i already knew had had some patch work (on the dodgy side) previously. i knew this by what i found when i remove my dormobile interior. so i got the sanding disc out and checked out the B pillar and moved backwards. before long i had realised that i;d need a bigger disc.... the snow had hit the littel village of Gilwern earlier than forecasted.....


it was time for the chisel and with the slight use of the disc cutter for spot welds i discovered...









rather then only using the required sections of the repair panel someone decided that it would be best to lap the old and new and filler the contours. this means that if this panel is worth saving then i will need an even bigger reapir panel now cos the same size one wont be any use.

attention moved up to the swadge area of this panel to see if this panel was worth saving. an area of concern had been outlined and a bit of investigation undercovered the expected...



and then...



that was enough excitement for one day. i needed a coffee and a nights sleep to digest my findings



here you can see the reminence of the inner wheel arch, or is it the original outer skin??? i think the van is going to be a gd couple of inches thinner by the end of this resto. you can see the line i've zipped along. the middle panel you can see below the zip line is the extent of the overlap.



the area by dividing the middle and quarter panel has had some very discrete patch work. you may not be able to see it but have a go. its there somewhere. i'll circle it for you if you cant


this picture you can see again the extent of the overlap that a PO thought necessary. they they spotted along the top out lip and didnt bother grinding back. they just went ahead and caked the filler on like a friday night slapper.


just an aside: i'm still on the same sanding disk from when i started around the windscreen area.

i'm hoping that this is the only bad side and that it was parked by a house or shed for a while and picked up the moisture. I've recently sent off lletters to all of the previous owners with exception of the last to ask if they have any info on when the 2L T4 engine went in or work they did. one guy owned it for 10 years. with 14 owners i'm hoping for something back, but not holding my breathe.

FYI: if you want to get previous owners' last known addresses then fill in a V888 form from DVLA and cheque for £5. as long as you dont intend to use the information (addresses) in a malicious way then they should give you the addresses


at last.... i spent a few hours on sat and sunday trying to find the best way to remove the O/S sill in one go. however after much effort and time i realised this was not possible. because the person who put this replacement in did not spot weld the sill in the same way the original one way i found it very difficult to get the cutting disk to the welds. having said that i have managed to remove the sill (outer,inner and strengthener)...

inner wheels arch... i'm not too sure how much will need to be removed because the bulkhead has been seriously patched and not to a high standard. for the moment though i just just out the section of the sill that petrudes through (for strength)




after alot of effort and time i eventually removed the replacement sill. i left bits of the original sill welded on the outriggers and tophats to be ground down when i get the sill


what aided me in removing the old sill was cutting out the edge of the floor. this was pretty much rotten through near the edge so i dare say i'll have to remove a bit more (e.g. floor under seat mount is shot). doing this simply made removal of the sills bit easier


started putting together a big list of parts and hoping to make a mamouth order in the next week of so.....

Well its been a long time since i've updated this thread. initially this was due to a combination of being so busy in work that by the time i got home and had dinner there wasnt much time to get down the van before packing stuff back up again. i was starting to feel that by the time i set my stuff up, figured out where i got to the previous visit i had to pack up. the other reason was because we went through a spell of very cold weather in the evening which, when you are working in a very drafty barn, and lying on the floor alot it didnt make comfortable times. however, since the Volksworld show, my project has come to an end and i am now leaving work at a reasonable time every day. the week that followed the Volksworld show I took off work, before startin my new project in work, and carried my enthusiasm from the show into slingshotting me into gear and doing some good work on the van.

so, i lined up the inner and middle sill O/S with took alot of faffing and tweaking. i spent alot of time lining it up using Loxy's van as a reference.







once i was happy with the location i took the sills off, stripped the black paint off and sprayed them with weld through primer ready for tacking them in place.



i checked the location and stitched the inner sill to the end of the tophat sections and plug welded along the inside of the inner






i then paid my attention to the middle and rear O/S outriggers and the tophats that are attached to them. i had noticed several bad patches and soon appreciated that the removal of the two top hats and corresponding centre chassis section couldnt be taken out until the floor was removed. therefore i thought if i was very careful and zipped out the floor with a 1mm cutter i'd have half a chance of putting it back in. unfortunately this was not the case due to the ever keenness of VW and their spot welds. in every trough of the floor VW opted to put two spot welds on each top hat. in the end i bit the bullet and cut out sections at a time and ended up grinding the spot welds off.



i then went to remove the insulation of the heater channel and was surprised when i opened the insulation and the channel itself fell on top of me it worked out ok because i was removing the y tube and the heater channel as i will be using J tubes from engine straight to exhaust and using proex piped into the dash.



i then started taking the top hats off and prepping the relevant panels and trials fitting them as i went along. i also started cleaning up and priming the chassis sections in this area.







then towards the end of the week off i managed to take off a dodgy angle that a body shop guy i know put on my chassis to mount my new belly pan on and chipped off old waxoyl. then i primed it ready for bits and pieces of patchwork i would do in the near future.

N/S:


O/S:


here is one of the patches i made for going behind the rear outrigger on the O/S:



that brought me to the end of my week off and i went to brighton with g/f to visit her brother and sister in law. had wicked time. i'm now back to work and i've started makng a few patches in the evenings and fitting some more new stuff to the van its all going forward and i can see the progress.

NaFe out... for now

dude fair play you have a attacked that thing

i love cutting up old vw's looks like your making progess tho

have you put a date on when you want all the work completed?

i originally put a budget and a date on it, but they have both gone out of the window multiple times

the most recent proposed date is for Volksworld 2010 as i dont think i can get it ready for Vanfest 2009 in time.

and no i'm not telling you the budget

haha keep the budget to yourself - and only yourself - i got in lots of trouble when i let slip how much ive spent on my oval

and timelines i worked out that a 6month build realistically is 5 years

Mate loving this thread. I can see me having to start some type of resto on me bay in the near future although will be hoping for a rolling resto

there is still alot more for me to update with regards to what i have done - its just getting around to doing it

NaFe

i completely forgot i was doing this thread. i will let you guys just flick through the pictures on Earlybay, and from now on in i will update both

enjoy...
http://forum.earlybay.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4067

NaFe

ok its been at the body shop












the farm cat wasnt too excited the camper was going to the bodyshop



wahey!!! the work has started. i went to the bodyshop this evening and had a good chat to the main man. they have fitted the front clip and both outer wheel arches. the guy was telling me that they literally screw all the panels together with self tappers to check everything fits. then when everything is good he welded up the front clip and arches.
this is the passenger side:


this is the drivers and you can see where they have fitted it to the doorframe my dad and i fitted.:

the outer panel can now be re-fitted once the welds on the inner panel is ground down.

they butted the four chassis legs, but staggered each leg. they took the flanges off the two old chassis legs and cut the outer ones back. as seen on this side. they also then put new gussets ontop


you can see the but weld on the outer and the new weld on the inner right up against the flange. he kept the flange as it looked alot neater.

passenger door gaps:



passenger inner wheel arch area:



when fitting the outer wheel arches he opted to keep the original outer b-pillars and kept the replacement ones and spot welded from inside, which will then be ground back:


the replacement floor is both LHD and a late bay - the only one i could get from schofields. with it being a late bay the handbrake is differnent and therefore the frame had to be taken off:

this is the frame underneath:


the new floor then had to be bent a little more than the press and a blanking plate needs to be welding in where the late bay has the step integrated into the floor rather than the wheel arch:


the guy at the bodayshop has taken loads of pictures which i'm going to get off him at the end, so you'll not see many progress pictures just the finished ones sorry.

i spoke to him about the progress over the next week and he's going to get on with the following: tomorrow he's going to finish off the front area then next week one of the guys is going to start on the panel opposite the sliding door and he's going to replace the rear corners. i think that i am onluy going to need to use up to the swadge line, but he'll bare metel it and see.

i discussed with him about the option of a custom fuel tank and he was more than happy to design one to fit the hole rather than make a tank with a given volume. he also said that he'd make one to utilise my fuel sender - as this is calipbrated to my fuel gauge. he's going to see whether its easier to fix the old fuel tank or make a new one. either way he's going to make the call as after all he is the professional. the engine bay inspection hatch has also arrived and that will be grafted in. i really look forward to seeing it next week.

well i popped into the trimmers on the way back from wokr today and the chap seemed a real good guy. spent 45 minutes chatting to him about different possibilities and routes i could co down. discussed the whole vinyl and leather route. he recommended leather for the front seats but whatever i wanted for the door cards and bed - due to cost. he also recommended me to stay away from perforated trim as it is difficult to clean as the cream goes through the holes and generally looks dirty. also he recommended that i put the darker colour of the two in the middle of the front seats as this is where i will sit. he seemed very helpful with tips etc and didnt seem too hung up on charging me for the most expensive either. he told me that i had to weigh up the look with the practicality. we discussed using two different colours and stitching. as i wasnt too sure on the patterning of my door cards and the rear seats he gave me a ball park of £2-2.5k for everything. thats door cards bed, seats, two buddy seats, front kick panels. roof bunks, headlining up front. he told me it would be best for me to make the templates to save me some money.he quoted about £500 for the front seats in two tone leather

the quote he gave me was based on all leather. and obviously the vinyl would knock a fair bit off, but also it would knock the quality off and also the lifespan of it.

he was working on some other bench seats whic took my eye. not necessarily the colour difference but the texture difference.





he also mentioned that he knew of a company that could embroider script into the leather if i wanted VW or something scripted into the headrest of my tombstone seats.

i discussed about the order in getting the interior and the upholstery and paint done in, and he said that he may not even need to see the bus so it can be done last. therefore i am thinking that i will:

-wiring and trial fit everything once i get it back from the bodyshop
-get the interior made,
-then paint the bus,
-then refit the interior
and then get the trimming done.

ok, popped up the body shop this afternoon. all i can say is, this guy could make a living out of what he has done for the last 30 years

i bought an inspection hatch but the lid was plastic. Unfortunately it needed to be shrunk in size, but being plastic they cant cut and weld. so the guy at bodyhsop said that he could cut the hole carefully and use what he cuts as the lid. he has made a frame to fit underneath. this worked out well as the T25 hatch has a differnt corragated profile that is in the back of an earlybay:



he's put a rubber beading around the surround and will do the same for the lid itself once he's tidied the edges up:





so the middle panel is completely on and it looks amazing!!! cant believe how things line up. the doors line up the roof lines up and the wheel arches line up - inner and outer.






this is the only part that is welded form the outside:


all the rest is spotted from the inside so unseen:





the LHD rear floor came with an adaptor plate that you weld the the O/S floor section. they have spotted this to the bulkhead, the middle panel and also the sills:










front end is all finished with exception to sanding the spot welds down and sealing:



blanking plates as you can only get LATE BAY floors



they've also started on the rear corner. this is the picture of the corner they havent started:


and the other side


original battery tray hahah ye right


and the removable valance is being fitted tomorro too


i'm off up there again on friday to check progress. so what do you all think???

o dear

fair play to you dude tour cracking on nicely - matty is gonna shit a brick when he gets his eyes on this thread

haha how come?

well i popped up the bodyshhop this afternoon. there wasnt much visible progress so i havent taken any pictures. the work they have carried out since wednesday was prep work for the two two corners they are grafting in, tacking in the surround.

the other main thing that they have done is started to sort out the rear valance and fitted the oil tank. because the porsche engine that is going in is a dry sump engine there is an oil tank to fit where the battery usually sits. they have mounted that in place so i can remove it downwards with the tall lights still in place. also they have managed to keep the mud flap part of the wheel tub to reduce the shit that gets flicked up. what they are going to do is make a removable blanking plate to fit underneath to ensure nothing gets flicked up and also to ensure the cool air doesnt just get sucked in and goes out the bottom.

i've got next week off so i'm off up there tues morning

dry sump porka engine...... niiiiiiiice - i heard they fit straight in

and mattys camper is in worse condition than yours dude and hes booked it on a ferry to belgium in july