Miss Daisy's Light Restoration

Discussion in 'Restorations' started by popester63, Jan 13, 2013.

  1. Hello All,

    I have been meaning to start a thread for Miss Daisy's light restoration for a while and finally got around to sorting out some photos. She has been a 'work in progress' for a couple of years and whilst not a hardcore resto like some of you guys undertake, it is nice to breath new life into her.

    Miss Daisy joined the family in 2010 - me and the wife spotted her on the Net and went to have a look. She seemed clean and solid - I had been told to pay particular attention to the bottom 6" which I duly did - I later realised there was a lot of other stuff I missed, but at least she had a solid bottom half.

    I actually picked her up on the day of the Royal Wedding and drove 150 miles home sweating like a good un as it was a hot day and the electric window conversion fitted by a PO had packed up, so the windows were well and truly up and not budging.

    This was the full frontal:
    [​IMG]

    And here was her naked derriere:
    [​IMG]

    I knew that she needed new door seals as the PO had given me full kits for each door so I got her booked in for a fettle and a service. I then found out that the reason for the liberal coating of oil in the engine bay was not over-filling as I was foolish enough to believe, but a crazy amount of end-float and the recommendation that I changed the engine :'(

    After an initial disaster with a Heritage 100% new one which seized before the garage handed it back to me, I ended up with a Vege Twin Port and took the chance to ditch some of the bling to get her back close to stock in the engine department:

    [​IMG]

    The electric windows went in favour of good old traditional hand cranks, so at least I could wind the window down and cock my elbow.

    I also restored a rear bumper and ditched the Monza 4 tip she came with for a stainless steel JK setup.

    [​IMG]

    We had a great first summer with many enjoyable trips, but she had a pretty aggressive stance:

    [​IMG]

    Whilst she looked great, running low on 17' alloys with rubber-band profiles and gas shocks was painful - ride quality was awful and we had a few scares getting caught out by potholes at speed, so the next stage of her gradual makeover was to find some stock wheels and refurb the suspension - she already had an adjustable front beam, but the horse-shoes went in favour of some adjustable spring plates and new shocks were fitted (stock at the rear and Spax adjustables up front). She is running low enough to look nice IMO, but no lower - can't tell you the difference in ride quality.

    [​IMG]

    I will post this to see if photos work and then move onto this winters efforts on the windows and interior.

    Cheers

    Popester63
     
  2. kenregency

    kenregency Guest

    Hi i think your van looks great and old wheels look so much nicer. Iam also into part resto on our daphne ,
    which is having her roof cut in as you more and likely aware as i have not shut up about it. :thumbsup:
    also love the roof rack
     
  3. Miss Daisy is a pretty lady ! ;)
     
  4. Nice looking bus mate I deffo like to stock wheels over the alloys. Have the bump stops been removed or was it hitting them that low?
     
  5. Well that seemed to work - kudos to b0dyc0ck2006 for the 'how to post piccies' thread :)

    Miss Daisy has long since lost her original Devon interior and came to us with a 3/4 width RnR and a B&Q 'special' down the drivers side. Whilst is was perfectly functional, the PO had fitted normal kitchen worktop from the bulkhead to the rear putting a lot of weight on the offside - how do they make that stuff so heavy :thinking:

    So this was what she looked like until a few weeks ago:
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    After a bit of work, the inside now looks a bit more spartan. It was only when I ripped out the interior that I found out how damp she was in the cargo floor. The ginger-worm had been gnawing away at the window frame around the louvre and it was leaking like a tap, so that needed to get fixed up as well as welding up various holes that had been cut out of the floor over the years. I am no welder, so I got some help with the hard stuff from Ron and Neil at VW Endangered Species.

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    New rear seatbelt mounts:
    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Decided to go for a sliding window instead of putting back in the louvre:
    [​IMG]

    Lots of old contact adhesive to remove:
    [​IMG]

    I am still wrestling with a leak from the tailgate - have put a new seal on but still got some problems back there, so need to get her dry before I crack on with laying down a new interior.

    General plan of attack once I have stopped the leaks is:

    a. Prime/paint cargo floor.
    b. Fit noise deadening to panels sourced from Woolies.
    c. Fit foil/bubble wrap insulation.
    d. Fit ply floor - 6mm with a 9mm topper sandwiching foam laminate underlay. Some nice tiles on the top.
    e. Fit full set of Porcelain Green cards from Newton Commercials.
    f. Fit full width Bluebird RnR.
    g. Get local cabinet maker to build a nice oak unit to house Waeco CR-50 and Smev single burner/sink combo. Matching rear topbox, side topbox and a removal buddy unit to hide the loo :-[.
    h. Get electrics reinstated - Matty lives near me and did a great job with an interim fix-up so he will be getting a call in a month or so.
    i. Maybe a propex depending on funds.

    Will post further pictures/updates as I go and expect I will be asking for lots of advice along the way.

    Cheers

    Popester63
     
  6. Fab Bus, like they say "Stocks Rock" :thumbsup:
     
  7. dog

    dog Tea Boy

    nice to see another resto starting buddy,good on yer :thumbsup:
     
  8. very nice bus and its good to hear you've had some use out of her :)

    K+ for a new resto
     
  9. matty

    matty Supporter

    Only just seen this looks good glad it wasn't as bad as you thought under the floor.
     
  10. Still trying to find the source of a couple of leaks that are puddling water on the top of the engine bay.

    Rear hatch window seal looks like one culprit.

    I am also getting water coming in on the offside rear - not the windows as they have been whipped out and new seals put in. Took off the track cover and think I may have found the source:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    I think water is running down the side of the van through a wrinkle in the track cover rubber seal and straight into one or more of these holes. Have made a temporary repair to see and the weather looks like it will get plenty of testing in the next few days.

    Once she is dry I can crack on with painting and getting my plywood down.

    Cheers

    popester63
     
  11. It has been slow progress since my last post. Still been struggling with water leaks threatening to turn her into an indoor swimming pool. Working through the causes of different puddles and found the drivers door was a major contributor. There was a polythene membrane but it was not stuck to door, so tackled that on Saturday:

    [​IMG]

    Thanks to Paul Weedings advice, I made a poly inner flap which I fitted first and then used my new door card as a template to cut a new poly membrane and fixed it with double sided tape. Took the chance to fit new door card bungs and also to take the door handle off, fit new gaskets and a bit of bling (probably only non-stock thing she will have externally apart from roof rack, by the time I am finished):

    [​IMG]

    Work on the inside has been painful - just about every surface was coated in old contact adhesive and the PO had sprayed waxoyl over the bare metal/rust cargo floor. Removing both has been a nightmare and after trying various solvents, I ended up using a paint scraper and taking bleedin hours. Just about there now:

    [​IMG]

    I am going to lay a new plywood floor but want to make sure the cargo floor is in good nick - it is solid, but did not have much paint on it, which given how much water has been pooling there is not great. So, plan of attack after getting it cleaned up was to lay down some red oxide, which got done yesterday:

    [​IMG]

    I will be adding one or two coats of smooth white Hammerite to finish it off before the ply goes down. know choice of paint is a controversial topic ;) but I figure that this finish is way better than what was there and if I succeed in stopping the leaks she will go on for years to come.

    Seeing a bit of paint on the floor has given me a bit of a boost - I am sick to death of the rain water, contact adhesive and waxoyl that has been greeting me every time I open the slider and it is nice to start to move past that part of the project.

    Cheers

    Popester63
     
  12. I know how soul destroying scraping all that old junk off is dude so well done for sticking at it
     
  13. Lazy Andy

    Lazy Andy Supporter

    Looking good... you're going through pretty much the same as me!
     
  14. good progress...well done for sticking with it ;) (pun intended :D)
     
  15. Great looking bus and good work on improving an already great van.
     
  16. Thanks for the support :)

    The great thing with this forum is the amount of ideas and advice available - I have this project all planned out in my mind with a lot of ideas I have picked up off a lot of posts on here.

    I have a very large pile of goodies waiting to go in once the floor is down, so it is going to be interesting to find out if the result matches the picture in my minds eye ;-)

    Hammerite next!

    Cheers

    Popester63
     
  17. Managed to finish painting the floor over the last couple of weekends. Put a couple of coats of smooth white Hammerite over a base coat of red oxide. Pretty pleased with the result compared to what was there before - it is going to be fully covered by ply so just wanted to make sure it was solid:

    [​IMG]

    Been bloomin freezing doing it as I don't have the luxury of a garage. Still a bit worried that I have one mystery leak still unfound, but aside from that one I have fixed all the other sources of unwanted hydration.

    I have a couple of sheets of marine ply to get down now. Going for the 6mm infill, topped with a layer of laminate closed-cell foam underlay and then a 9mm top sheet. I have a nice set of Madmatz tiles to slap on top of that.

    Took a breather from painting to lose the smoked rear light lenses in favour of stock:

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    Before

    [​IMG]

    After

    Looking forward to starting seeing her come back together.
     
    paradox likes this.
  18. That floor looks loads better dude

    Are the smoked lenses you removed cracked or scratched at all?
     
  19. Cheers. The old lenses are fine - just not to my taste given the 'back to stock' theme of my mini-resto.

    If you want them they are yours for the cost of postage.
     
    paradox likes this.

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