Patina Loco - lowlight facelift a'go go :)

will do buddy, got the welding to finish up and a fair bit of filler work to do so wont be for a while but i'll deffo be in touch

 

well finally got the front arch cut out today, and I'm sort of wishing I'd left it in lol behind it is a nightmare of bodgery, rust and work!
there are repairs over repairs over rust, the inner step came away in my hand because someone had tried to spot weld it to wafer thin rust, then gave up and glued it on and waxoyled over it. The B post is rotten, as is the entire lower skin of the arch/step and part of the tub, inner valance end and bulkhead to b post seam......lots of fabbing up to do! I could use the practice and it'll save me a few quid but its gonna add a fair amount of time, and with the nights drawing in now time is a premium. I'll post some pics when I feel less depressed about it and I have a plan worked out in my head lol

 

I think someone on here was selling a pair of genuine arches Luis. When I did my bus we used genuine arches and they fitted well. They were the complete arches not just the outer skin. Well worth looking for some. Problem is they are not cheap. Schofields B post repair panels are a good fit and not too expensive. Hopefully the B posts are not too far gone.

 

http://thelatebay.com/index.php?threads/pair-of-genuine-arches.55271/

 

well here is what's left, and what I have to repair lol

 

Sorry these have sold. Brilliant thread Luis i am restoring a bus at the moment but have not found time to upload a thread. Keep the good work up!

 

the inner arch and that part of the tub is about 80% shot, but everthing past that is basically not too bad.
gotta do some major fab work though, but the good news....yes I'm looking on the bright side.....the inner step repair panel that was glued in place is pretty solid so I can reuse that....its a tricky shape so will save me having to try and shape one out of sheet metal ....every cloud etc lol

 

that's
ok buddy....im on a near zero budget at the mo so i couldn't have bought them anyway

 

Is that all! I thought you'd taken the whole arch off.

 

...and replacing the whole arch is the answer.

 

nope, I'm pretty sure I said it was the outer skin

 

it would be if I had a spare 80 to 300 pounds doing nothing lol what i do have is a welder, some sheet steel and a who dares wins mindset

 

well progress has slowed dramatically of late.....the wheelarch has held me up a bit as I need a B post inner repair panel and as usual lack of cash is causing delays. So instead, I weld filled a couple of dents in the rear bumper and finished welding the over riders on. Its going to be bare metal and rust as the final look so filler wasn't an option. Mounted it up and waiting for nature and our weather to do it thing now, after which I'll lacquer it up..
Still have the early front bumper to attack, if it ever arrives lol

 

Just make the b post bits, I cant exactly remember what i did on mine but it wasn't difficult and I only bought the outer skin for both sides.

There will be photos on my resto if you can be bothered trawling!

 

well 2 days of rain has started the patina process on the back bumper quite nicely, and the early front bumper arrived today, hand delivered from sunny Scotland by @Tonyvwcuts so I can get cracking on stripping and fixing that up and working out how Im gonna mount it up

 

I had a look and found the right section....looks fairly straightforward. I'll have to see what I've got left steel wise, as if I have to buy a sheet, there's not gonna be much in it between that and a repair panel lol

 

Regarding the paint, I've just painted a mk1 caddy with some of those cheap gravity feed hvlp guns off ebay. For some reason I got a better finish with that with an expensive devilbliss gun so I can recommend the cheapies. I wouldn't suggest a small compressor on a bus though as it probably won't keep up and you'll get a crap finish. Either way worth a bash at priming anyway can't really do too much wrong with that.

 

I have a rhs outer wheel arch repair panel you could have for nothing. It's a cheap pattern part but better than nothing... In the end I bought a whole arch instead as rot was so bad. How is your right hand front arch?

 

that's really kind of you buddy! Its not as bad as the left hand one, but its not great lol I was gonna fill it up but if you're sure you don't mind parting with it id take it gratefully

 

yeah I was thinking along similar lines, I was chatting to a joinery fella who comes into my work about getting some units designed and he has a fuji spray hvlp setup he wants me to paint some doors for him with......he said I could use it to topcoat my bus so I was thinking id get it primed up then run it down there to finish it up