'79 Devon Moonraker resto.

I've not got a lot done over the last couple of weeks due to work and holidays etc. I painted the inside of the rear valance and then put the outer on.




Then I moved onto the sliding door. It's been repaired before, and rusted through again, so I cut the rot out and repaired it. The inner section is about half knackered and half ok, so I decided to keep the good half and use half of the inner repair panel to complete it. By the way, the inner repair panel is an absolute piece of crap, even by Klokkerholm's low standards. I've sworn to myself never to use it again and just make my own in future.

the old repair panel.






Then I put the door on and welded it in.


I'll hopefully have a bit of spare time this week to finish the outer skin, then I'll be twiddling my thumbs untill the mythical shipment from Brazil turns up with my O/S front wheel tub on board which has been further delayed 'till the end of May

 

Looking good as always! Damn these shipments! Although not convinced you will be really twiddling your thumbs and if you get too bored there is plenty to do here :-[

What colour code is the green on your bus please? And is it a VW Colour? ;D

 

hello. I've finished a couple of paid jobs and managed to get a bit more done at the end of last week.

I got the O/S arch welded in. The door I had been using to check gaps while welding the front on was an early one and rotten, so I got a later rot free import. It fitted really well so after a bit of fettling I welded the arch on.






as I was having a bit of a door day, I reskinned the N/S cab door and repaired the inner frame bit.

 

got a bit more done this week.
I'd left it like this.


Finally, I got hold of the front wheel housing, so I fitted that, then went on to repairing the floors.


I spent a bit of time scraping the old stone chip off and the seam sealer which was rock hard and cracking anyway.


I found this under the stone chip/waxoyl on the chassis. It says '30', I noticed there's also one in the headlight bowl on the 'new' front end, I'm guessing it's some kind production/assembley note. anyone know for certain?


I didn't replace the whole floor sections because mine weren't too bad and also the repair panel isn't that great either, so I just let in the bit I needed.


I joined the rest of floor to the new front.


Did a quick repair to the bottom of the N/S wheel housing.


Then I did a bit more painting underneath.


And then I put the wheels back on and put her back on the ground.


I thought I'd more or less finished the welding, but I noticed the pop top was pulling away from the roof.


Unfortunately, once I'd drilled out the rivets holding the canvas to the van roof, I found some more areas needing attention, so I've got to take the whole roof off and weld some bits. I think it was caused by Devon drilling the roof, then the weight of the pop top seems to have flexed the hinges and they've pulled away from the van roof.

I'll get some pics next week.

 

Nobody oils the pop-top hinges so eventually they seize but un-noticed as the tops heavy and sprung.
First the paint cracks then...

 

Tidy welding, keep at it!

 

Top quality resto work going on there. Great job on the front transplant, the door gaps look spot on!

Looking forward to seeing this finished, which won't be long at the rate your working.

Keep up the good work

 

Top work.

 

hello all. I've managed a bit more progress. I decided to weld up all the odd holes which get drilled in van interiors over the years, this van also had two holes drilled in each of the B and D Pillars, I don't know why, but they had grommits in them so I welded them up as well.












I've sorted the bits round the pop-top hinges, then moved on to the N/S rear corner gutter. It's the usual tale of woe you get with bay gutters, made worse i'd guess because the pop-top covers the whole roof when it's down, so it gets ignored.


A quick buzz over with the angle grinder reveals the extent of the rot.


Chopping the rot out.


Then it's the slow process of welding it all up. This has to be one most difficult and time consuming sections of a van to repair, there's so many diffrent profiles and shapes to replicate.




This is the gutter section that schofields can bend up to request, saves so much time.


Then I made a section to replace the outer skin.


Finally I ground everything back, then painted it all.




I've done the welding now, so hopefully I'll be able to get on with removing the paint and filling in the next few weeks.

 

Nice repair on the roof

I had the same issue around my pop top hinges with them only being riveted on, i'm toying with using rivnuts when refit time comes

 

Nice work.

 

Clever/good work dude

 

Great welding. How long did the roof repair take. That would have taken me, er, well, I think I'd still be at it now!

 

Looking good, how did you get on with those scraps of seat runners in the end?

 

very tidy work there mate.

great work on the front replacement and the front arches, those door gaps look really good

K+