1975 devon revamp - scampervan

All good ideas a mate of mine had many a r 5 turbo had not thought of takeing some of his spares lol
Think it would be best to keep the turbo under the van the. I take it you will just go to the carb after the turbo then

 

My bro says im tryin to merge the two most unreliable engines ever known haha. First plan was to run it low boost and without an intercooler but I think I may look into either a small charge cooler or a small intercooler. Charge cooler would keep the shortest boost run tho for less lag

 

Don't you just love these bus's.always full of "supprises"

But of work from last night



Hinge panel removed



Boot lid seal Chanel









Inner hinge panel







Rear of "d" pillars





Rot removed



And start of a new panel fabricated from 1.2mm steel

 

Now to this eve. I had to weld the exhaust up on my mates mk3 gti and as i was doing that he was looking around the bus and spotted the panel i started to fabricate last night. He's fabricator by trade so offered to knock me one up tomorrow during his lunch that will have been folded properly rather than hammered round a piece of box section.

Anyway tonight i feel like i have taken another step backwards

The rot in the seal Chanel wasnt just in the outter panel but the inner also. I don't want to replace the corner if poss so i carefully removed a section of the rear corner so that I can refit it after repairs have been made.

Begin the outer skin









Sometimes I wish I could turn a blind eye to these places but i only plan on doing this the once

Until next time

 

Looks identical to how mine went - both inside and outside, you're going about it the proper way though - as you know its all too easy to pretend its not there and cover it up.

Its time consuming to do well, but keep going and you'll look back without doubting whether it'll need doing again a years time.

 

Tonight's work

My friend remade my inner hinge panel so i got it welded in place



Inside of the d pillar cleaned up and rot removed ready for new pieces to be made and welded into place







Now its just rot to the inner that I need to cut out. Its good fun trying to get a grinder into all these small areas without damaging another panel too much





It took a while but i finally managed to get all out the outer hinge panel removed so fitted the new one to check alignment. So far so good, although I need to get the d pillars repaired before i can fit this panel



Scary how much its starting to look like a camper again



Quick question though, I lined up lower d pilar repairs and it looks like when the previous owner replaced the rear chassis legs, they might have welded them in too long???

 

So what's the question?

 

Hi Jimmy... thanks again for the tyres!

Having looked for your resto thread, I now realise that I had already seen it but not put two and two together to recognise it was you I was getting the tyres from. Had I known, I'd have asked to collect the tyres from your workshop so I could see your work first hand!

Fantastic work going on here, so I can see why it's taken two years so far. Keep up the good work... I look forward to seeing more pictures over the coming weeks and months!

 

Haha just re-read it zed and i didnt actually ask the question. How long from should the chassis legs be at the rear? Eg how far from the very rear of the engine bay to the end if the chassis leg?

 

Hi mk-bay, it was good to meet you. If I'd of thought about it we could of popped up there. Its only about 4miles away from my house. Its a pain to find though if you don't know the area.

 

Didn't realise how long it's been since I last update.its been slow lately with having some nice weather and other commitments but finally go back on the bus last night.

Managed to make up and repair the d pillars





Roll on tomorrow night

 

Tonight's progress

Now the d pillars are repaired I cut the rot from the outer panels and re-fitted them with a few tack welds to make sure everything lines up. I also fabricated new panels to replace the areas where I had removed the rot.







I then trial fitted the outer hinge panel and check for alignment. It all needs adjusting abit but its getting there. Although I have found that the rear chassis legs are all over the place where they were replaced previously. I think I need to cut the previous repairs off, repair the bottom of the d-pillars and tack the rear crossmember to the d-pillars then weld the chassis repairs back on in the correct place, otherwise I'm not sure how else to get them aligned correctly? :s

 

put some pics up of where you think the rear chassis is wrong buddy, i'm sure between us we can point you in the right direction, seems like such a lot of work to put it right
great work so far though
that d post rot is in such a random spot, the bottoms always seem to rot out, but the top bit seems odd to me, going to have to check mine now lol

 

Progress has gone slow again due to private work but plans for the bus changed today, hopefully for the better. I managed to buy this cheap but will get more pics when I can arrange to collect it



It's a 2.0 non-turbo sport so will be a lot more reliable than the proposed 1600tp turbo

 

Donor car was collected this eve but won't be pulled apart for a little while longer. Went and visited Andy at TSR conversions and the subaru conversion is apparently really simple to do.





And a BIG thanks for Paul Weeding for the info on the rear chassis legs.next up cut them back off and refit them in the correct place

 

Between my bay and a mates t4 I'm currently working on its been a busy one today.

Got my rear 1/4 panels repaired and pretty happy with them.will need a skim of filler but nothin compared to other parts eg rear arches haha









Introduced the scoob to its destiny also

 

Finally some progress I'm happy with

With advise from paras restoration, I cut the rear arch panel off my bus this eve and replaced the majority of it with a flat sheet of 1.2mm steel and I'm really happy with it just need to finish welding it on properly

Before



Warped and distorted metal removed



Old piece



New piece with edges joggled



And spot welded in place





Then made a start pulling out the scoobs heart





That's all for now

 

Another day done and another panel sorted. Just need to keep this pace up and then the end will come abit quicker lol.

Other arch done this eve. It wasn't as bad as the otherside but I still wasn't happy with it so cut out a large section as replaced as per the otherside







And another bit to patch up next time





Also decided to completely remove the fuel filler neck and I'm really happy I did. This was just a fire waiting to happen

 

Good move on removing the filler neck
Theres a lot of busses running around out there with perished rubbers

 

Not sure what's happening atm but I'm having a productive few weeks on the bus

This eve I've managed to fit the hinge panel









Fitted the nearside outer sill