Lottie, a 79 full restoration Part 1/2/3/4/5

I've got a metal set of heat shields and the sound deadening. They are no good to me as Desmond has an inspection hatch, I was going to sell them so if you would like to save me the trouble of listing them on here drop me a message. I paid £40 for them, I'll deliver them for that too!

 

Many thanks Paul, that is a kind offer but Lottie has also been fitted with a hatch and it would be a travesty to cut up a good set of shields. I hope to get some alloy sheet and make some to fit around the hatch nicely. Have you fitted anything to Desmond in lieu of the originals? You don't have another rear bumper by any chance?

 

I beat you to his bumpers! Paul dropped them off down here about 3 years ago. Still need to paint the buggers.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Ah, never mind. Nothing fitted in place, however when you craft a set can you make two sets and i'll buy the other set off you?
Sorry as James says my late bumpers were donated to Iris, I have an early one you can have but it might look a tad odd.

 

Hi James and Paul, Yes I had noted the meeting of generosity and good home and I expect they will look brilliant on Iris after your careful restoration. Paul, I will let you know when I make progress with the shields, we may need to make a template for Desmond as I note he is a bit older than Lottie and also my hatch was a retro fit and there are bound to be differences.

 

I'm not a great fan of American terms but "Jalousie" I like even though lacking the clarity of 'louvered window' but it was a difficult bit to renovate. Mine seems to be similar to a Devon from all the chatter on TLB and I separated the glass from the alloy operating mechanism and took that from the frame. After a good clean and polish I fitted the frame to the van; no easy feat as twas a tight fit especially the top inner corners of the frame. However after much gentle levering and sore finger tips she was settled in place and the mechanisms refitted with pop rivets and plastic washers. Not wishing to over-compress the alloy and washers I did not snap the pop river mandrils but tapped them out and sealed the rivets with silicone. The bottom flange on each glass retainer was straightened and glass refitted with superglue then flange tapped back and new seals fitted, white self adhesive rubber (Screwfix) to the top of each louver and new brush seals (https://upvcspares4repairs.co.uk) to the sides of the frames. Here are the seals:

and the rascal fitted:



Now that Lottie is becoming marginally respectable I have been pondering security and felt the Jalousie could easily be pulled out if the seal filler strip was removed. So I added a little angle bracket to each corner under existing frame screws (red arrow) just to annoy any little tea-leaf.

 

coming on nicely

 

I like the dies you made to form stamped sections. I was considering making a hammerform for a front corner section of my cargo floor. The repair that is there now is very solid but I am trying to make things more factory. I think the wood dies are a better idea than the hammerform, which would take a lot of beating on to get the right shape and even more to get smooth. The form would probably get beat up in the process unless it was metal. Hardwood would probably survive a few pressings and yield a better result. Metal could be used in parts of the die if needed. I have seen them made with a combination of metal and hardwood. Making a male and female die would probably not take much more effort than making a hammerform . Your bus came out great, thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks Orwell, another factor to consider is the work hardening caused by many blows, ideally hammerformed panels should be annealed to reduce the internal stresses. Pressing, though time consuming in making forms is more likely to emulate the properties VW felt were needed. Good luck with your cargo floor repairs.

 

I had similar woes with my van, the lower cowling was completely missing on mine and the steering lock had been smashed. ended up buying a complete column from a show and playing jigsaws to get an entirely in tact column. However in my searches I did find that custom and commercial sell that part but it's £70 which is a lot for a tiny bit of plastic. I managed to get an entire column for £100!
https://www.customandcommercial.com...ing_block_plastic_housing_2_part_74-79_13520/

 

Many thanks for that, the price is steep and I hope that I have a cheaper secondhand part en-route but its good to know there is this option.
Today I have been adding nice new seals and rear lights, need to renovate the main wiring loom before I can test bulbs but you can see the reflectors work fine!
Incidentally the dark stuff in the filler neck hole is Waxoyl probably an overdose.

 

Having fitted the new seals I decided it was time to get the sliding door in place. I have tested it with the 3 rollers but this is the first time it has had a seal and latches fitted. So I was pleased when it rolled nicely along the rails, given all the sill reconstruction, and from a distance it looks good, but all is not well:

The bottom right corner does not marry perfectly with the body, the paint on the lower edge has some tiny blisters, the front lock unit seems to have a problem with its internals perhaps a broken spring to the thumb latch, the middle hinge has too much play between the U and door fixing and the shuts are not equal all round. There is nothing too difficult here just an an odd collection of backward steps to be worked through carefully. So in the true spirit of enjoying a restoration, this is what I did next:


Yes, something fun and completely different, having just received a box of nice goodies from Auto Elec Supplies I set about renovating the main loom, chopping off some mangled connectors and sleeving covered in Bonda during some past life shoddy repairs. I have added 3 extra wires to occupy empty slots in the front 8 way connector block, 1 for the oil pressure sender unit to the after marker gauge fitted in lieu of a clock and a couple of spares for the future. I am also building in the reverse light cables and will use shrink wrap and concertina conduit (good idea James Lay) to protect everything. When all is fitted and I'm on a high I will get back to the door.

 

Sometimes that’s the best way! Move on to something else and come back with a fresh set of eyes. I need to repaint our slider (again!) as I’m not happy with it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Too true James and given the sliders are the front doors to these little homes on wheels they are worth a bit of extra care.

 

So moving on and still avoiding the sliding door tasks, I have installed the loom and made up the plumbing for the servo vacuum, also made a start on the engine bay heat shields; photos to follow. But the big story is the donkey has been brought in from the shed to see the the cart, they were parted almost five years ago and taken into care (intensive). My next project did the load lifting:

 

Main loom and servo vacuum pipe (15mm copper/epoxy primer/black) fitted and clipped in place:

 

Looks familiar! Seems to work quite well, there’s even two holes drilled in the chassis to bolt it too.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Yes James, your solution seems a lot better than another (unusual diameter) tube to rust. I am hesitating with engine installation to try and make sure most engine bay tasks are done whilst access is good. Heat shields and insulation, I spent so much time looking for a solution; could not easily find a sheet of aluminium alloy, started to make in steel but did not progress well and finally returned to the web to try and understand what was originally fitted. All I had to go on was a couple of dome head rivets and a fragment of hardboard, fortunately found good threads and piccies on The Samba so decided to copy:

Above the boards I fitted 25mm rockwool batt (boiler insulation) trimmed to size and bagged in black poly.
Still prepping engine with 3 snags to sort since it rebuild in 3 years ago. During bench runs I noticed the cooling flaps were not opening fully so I removed the fan casing and found that the rod between the thermostat and flaps was chafing on the slightly bigger fins of the new cylinder head. So I have made a new rod with a slightly different shape and now have full and free movement. Carb needs a further clean up and check that the butterfly bushes are not rotating. Finally need to sort out a tiny leak from the sump drain plate. I also put a gallon of fuel in the tank and checked for leaks before fitting the blank plate to the filler neck void.

 

Finally finished fettling and fitted the engine, this was a case of Jenga in reverse; lever/lift/woodblock - front left and right until I could deploy a long solid plank and the trolley jack. Once straight and level with the gearbox input shaft, it slid home nicely. So then a day renovation the tired old wiring harness ends with new cable and shrink wrap and fitting new tin wear seal and various connections.

Almost ready to run but first need to renovate air filter housing and now realise I probably need a new vacuum connection to the manifold. Mine has the late paper element type and 4 small vacuum connections and so far I cannot find a good explanation of what plugs in where so grateful for advice. My manifold had a 12 mm angled stub below the carb which is perfect for the new servo. Also fitted is my de-mountable (see Page 6) air filter support

 

lovely job looks brillant