Hi.... I wondered if anyone had advice about how I can attach bumpers to my bay? I have a 1974 T2 and like all bays it seems to have a bit of a chequered past. Its been lowered and then unlowered again and at some point had a lot of repair work/welding to the chassis. As a result there are no bumpers attached. The front of the van doesn't have the 'sticky-out valance bit'. I guess this must have rusted badly and been removed. In fact if you look at the photo you can see the whole front panel has been replaced as the indicators and neither early or late bay standard and the air grilles are missing. From this point of view what options do I have for a front bumper? I did read of someone fixing non-late bay bumper i.e. the rounded type to the front. Is this possible? What sort of mountings would be needed. I have attached a couple of shots underneath at the front to show what chassis I do have. At the back.... I think at some point the rear off-side section has been completely replaced because as well as having no points for the rear mounting bracket to fit to it is also missing the mud-flap mount. I have included a picture of the back of the van along with photos of underneath the van. On the nearside I think I still have the threaded hole for attaching a rear mounting bracket but the offside has had some welding work and the holes are no more. Any advice here...? Could I just re-drill holes and fit a bracket to it? I don't have the mounting brackets or bumpers so am quite flexible. (I know that late bay rear bumper mounts are hard to come by!) Final (unrelated) question; does any one have experience of using Rustoleum paint to re-paint a van. I have watched the Wiki 80/90 videos of a van being sanded down and then rollered with rustoleum to pretty good effect. Thanks, Matt (After finishing this post I have discovered that I can't attach images... I hope my descriptions are enough!)
Welcome to the forum As HF says post some pics up so peeps can see what you've got or havn't got in some cases, at the rear are there any holes on the underside of two chasis rails either side of the engine near the rear?
http://s1110.photobucket.com/albums/h459/ms015454/ That should link to a photobucket collection of images. There are pictures of the front and back of the van along with 1 photo (horn included) showing the underside of the front chassis. The other two images show the nearside; with holes/threads for rear bumper mounting. The other image is the side with the welding. Matt
looks like you have an early front on? and the rear looks to be welded in areas by stevie wonder.....i don't know how you will fit bumpers on there mate but good luck.
Without re welding the the chasis ends with proper repair sections or at least steel with captive nuts i cant really see how to attach bumpers, also to fit an early type bumper on the front there should be captive nuts in the steps under the doors. not a simple fix i'm affraid. Maybe someone else has any ideas?
it maybe a good idea to look at how they should fit to help you understand what you're missing, i wonder if anyone has a picture? i'll do you one tomorrow if you can't get one but mine is different on the rear, i have a westy towbar fitted which removes the original bumper irons - however if you click a link on my signature it does show how that fits to the existing chassis points and you'll see how bad yours are compared to a rust free set of chassis rails. sorry if i sound like im taking the ******* by the way, but your rear chassis is bad mate and as major said - i dunno how youll get irons to bolt there.
No offence taken! I think a lot of people have done bad jobs on my poor old van. There are no great diagrams of how the bumpers fit on but I've pieced it together by various photos of other people's restorations and some rough schematics on VW Heritage. That's how I came to realise the dodgy welding and lack of points to anchor the bumper mounts to. To be honest she looks alright without bumpers. I might just fill in the holes at the back and repaint it. I don't have the tools or skills needed to re-weld if I'm totally honest. Fitting mounts and bumpers I reckon I can do but fabricating chassis parts and welding... I can't!
do you mean the two holes either side of the engine lid and down a bit? If so they are nothing to do with the bumpers and are holes for waxoiling or something (i think). You can probably get some blanking grommets for them
Hi my rear mounts are shot as well ,I have welded two box sections to the rear bumper and pushed it in either side of the rear valance...It`s not pretty but I can stand on it... 8)
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Unique-VW-T2-Bay-Window-Campervan-bumper-Irons-mounts-/140593998716?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item20bc0e2b7c this is a copy version of what you have missing to hold your rear bumper on, the chassis rails on yours need a lot of tidying before they would bolt on, it's not a massive job in the area on the rear to repair as the access is good, the problem i would be worried about is if the welding is that bad in an easy area think whats hiding anywhere difficult.....
dont know if this is possable but on the front could you use a set of earlybay bumper irons and then fit a late bay bumper to them, someone had welded the rear of mine up without any where to bolt the rear bumper to, i marked where the holes should be and drilled four holes and then welded four nuts in the holes. but if you try this, if the back of yours has been welded bad it mite fall to bits when you drill the holes
i 'm sure with a welder and some metal you could get the bumpers on. i've seen peeps put holes in bumpers for the zorst to come out when they have been really low low ...
I think unless you want to open a can of worms then id use it without the bumpers Im sorry to say this but from those photos its seems the bottom of the front of your bus is full of filler and id have to take the rear chassis rails back to bare metal so see how good or poor the repairs have been If your bus is on the road and your using it then id run without bumpers untill you have time/funds to do a proper resto on the area
re: rustoleum on a bay, my friend is doing his crossover atm. takes a fair few coats and a bit of sanding inbetween each one but the white seems to be looking very nice! (better than the dodgy-bob paint job i've just had). will get him to join and post pics!
Thanks for the advice! I am aware that the front is mostly filler after the van failed it's MOT on it's number plate. the guy at the garage took the plate and number plate tape off with a whole chunk of filler attached! It's really useful to hear some ideas as to what to do with van. I was worried about the strength of the remaining metalwork to support the weight of the mountings and bumper... And it sounds like I am right to be worried! For now I might leave her bumperless and repaint her two-tone. Keen to get her looking as she once did.
