My '76 Microbus / Camper : Landyn

Update time!

Been a busy boy today a mrs has taken the dog off to her mums and left me to it, so housework will wait until it rains and I'll get in with the important stuff!

First job of the day was to get a little more Kurust on to the floor in the seat pockets and a little more liberally spread over the floor!!



While that went off I pulled the sticky Halfrauds go faster trim off the side of the van... The PO had filled a couple of trim holes and badly fitted the trim over others so the van leaks like a sieve! More noticeable on the drivers side cos its parked to the kerb. The holes are going to be welded up properly along with a couple of holes under the drivers seat and the OSR seatbelt mount next week.



And a little VW tape to keep the water out for a few days...



The eagle eyed amongst you will notice the peely paint in the slider. This has happened on the bottom rear corners too, so along with a little rust coming through the seams, a small repair the the rear quarters that needs paint and the front arches I'm not that bothered about taking a welder to the 3 year old spray job (blow over)! I've grown in confidence with decent rattle cans and hopefully I'll be able to blend in ok. The current paint has never been flatted so there's scope for a good sand and polish!

One that was done, I hit the cab floor with two coats of Rustoleum CombiPrimer... This will be followed by blue cab steps and Rustoleum white inside, applied in the right order (cellulose then enamel)!





For the paint pervs, this wasn't too bad to apply with a sponge brush. I tried it with 5% thinners to start and it was a bit too thin. The second coat was with out thinners but the 200ml or so I had decanted was becoming a little more difficult to work after 45 mins and could have done with being thinned! I should make a mental note to work from alternate sides with the white so that the paint layers even themselves out!

I've left the seat cubbies until tomorrow cos you need to kneel in the walkthrough to have any chance of reaching!



If anyone has any clever ideas about painting around the brake fluid reservoir I'd be keen to hear them... remembering this is a rolling resto and whilst I've not driven it for 7 months the brakes are working - hopefully!!

 

You could try to cover it with a rubber glove then paint it, when its dry take it of you may be able to undo the screws and lift it a little to get under it. but keep up the good work starting to look really good

 

Busy weekend!! One step forward, two steps back and three forwards again...

The plan was to pop a bit of seam sealer over the welds, notably in the factory locations, but also belt and braces over the PO's welding! So spent Saturday morning masking up...



Applying sealant...



Some bits seemed a little dodgy when applying as if it had trouble sticking... about an hour later I tried lifting the masking tape and found this





Screwing! Not happy!!! I went off to a 90th birthday tea party for the rest of the afternoon to drown my sorrows... in tea! When I got back a few hours later, some of the remnants of sealer and damaged paint has gone hard, but as ever, I'm only going to do this once, lets try to do it to the best of my abilities... so 9am Sunday morning i broke out the wire wheel again...



Masked Up...



Splurged...



And reveal...



I'm not a master with the sealant so struggle to get it as smooth as I'd like, but at the end of the day it will be under carpet once I sort the leaky doors out!!

Managed to get a couple of coats of primer on before a oddly timed Sunday curry...



tbc....

 

That brush on stuff is awfull dude as you found out the hard way

I use tiger seal from a tube that fits in a caulking gun

I normally etch prime the bare steel then tiger seal then when thats cured paint over

I know this doesent help you now but it may help someone else

 

Between coats, I pulled the front of the gear shift out to replace the bushes, clean it up and ended up painting it alongside the accelerator linkage that didn't go off to be powdercoated...





Today, despite a little distraction with the temporary daily driver (an issue soon to be resolved) I got on with painting part of the wheel arch blue...



Now this will probably seem a bit odd, but there's method to my madness!! The interior floor (the bit with overspray!) is going to be painted with Rustoleum which can't be painted over with cellulose, whilst the wheel arch is one of many panels due to be repainted externally with celly. So this little strip will be over lapped with white, whilst in a few weeks I'll repaint the whole wheel arch blue when I have her MOT'd again and can get her to an off road location!! Hopefully blending the blue with blue won't be too hard... any tips appreciated!

The eagle eyed amongst you will notice the flat tyre... I kicked the perished valve while I was shuffling under the van... another job for the to do list before the MOT!

One last little thing from me, I managed to get the accelerator linkage back together... although I think it's a little tight with the new layers of paint!!



And something from Lazy Nicki...



But for more on that, head over to the trimming thread, once she’s had a well-deserved glass of wine and the chance to compose her thoughts!! Also, worth noting that this is only laid loose for now!!

 

Looking good Andy, that seat looks ace.

 

That's what I'm telling the Mrs, but she's spotted a small mistake and is beating herself up about it!

I'm going to have to up my game with the painting!

 

looking very good, following this with interest....

 

Well if she feels like she needs more practice, she can do my seats

 

Its all great dude both what you and the mrs are doing

 

Right, been a bit busy with worky worky and lazy with typey typey! So, to cover the last few months in a blink of an eye...

Porsche tombstones all wrapped up by the Mrs, with a bit of Andy brute force to stretch here and there to get them into place...



Cab floors all painted with L90D rustoleum, pedals powdercoated and greased up, new rubbers and a shiney shaft...



I had enough of the Rustoleum left over so decided to finish up all of the cargo floor too... not least because I had the trim holes welded up and ended up wit a load of splatter on the floor!!



At this point I got it MOT'd for the year, which needed a little work to the brakes, mainly cos I'd not driven her for 9 months!! Then cracked on with the interior fitting...

Rear quarters...



At this point, I had a week of in the 30 degree heat which gave me opportunity to sort out the flaking paint along the bottom edge, the recently welded up trim holes and the cab steps up to the new white paint. With the former of these, it appeared that the PO had painted the top coat onto a good zinc base. It hadn't rusted, but the two coats hadn't adhered to each other either!! So, back to bare metal in the problem areas...







And to skip a few steps and get to the bad points... filled, primed, filled primed, etc.... Masked up.

Stupid Andy was being conservative and was hoping to blend in the repaired sections. The primer was nicely feathered out, but the colour stages were a tad crap...



And this all rather reminded me of...



And those distinguishing marks remained, with a few extra bits of peeled paint that came off with the masking tape!! Grrr!!!



To ashamed to show any other photo's!! Suffice to say, the cab steps are good as they continue to ogical panel breaks; everywhere else, there is paint in places that need paint on them... enough not to go rusty for a season at least!! The plan is to repaint again with better equipment, a bit more time and a bit more practice asap.

 

So, back to the interior where I don't mess things up as badly!!

Underlay and a few bits of wiring in the cab...



Some nice new Madmatz carpets (with obligatory label)...



In the back, and clamped with the bed slam bar...



Under the seats....



Door cards....



More panels and plywood flooring (and some dodgy paint)...



A bit of wood for a table...



Madmatz tiles and some wiring....



rock n roll bed...



and some final little bits of carpet...



So, getting very close to being able to camping.... and the autumn. Natural disasters aside, we should be at VW Action in a fortnight Lazy Nicki is part way through making the curtain and some temporary covers for the seat foams. Still got a few bits to do in the next fortnight and then onto furniture design!!

 

Looks good Andy

 

The interior of your bus is going to be like a show home dude
I love it but an interior like that would be ruined in a day if it was my bus

 

I know what you mean, it's proved difficult to keep it clean for the first couple of weeks... not least the previously reported Halfords /oily feet debarcle!

The fabrics are all scotch guarded, the vinyl is marine quality and cleanable and the carpet is quite forgiving.... i hope

 

Nice job! Looks amazing!

 

Just seen the date of the last post on here.... Shame on me!! Things have kept trundling along slowly since August, so....

First up, back seats. Lazy Nicki drafted into stitch while I supervise and do the quality control part!!

Foam on boards, 25mm bolsters...



Some holes...



Some wadding...



Some loose vinyl and fabric...



Add some tension...



Add a tension pause....
























Et voila...



And a bit for the back....



The rear panel is a bit too big, so going to have it out and trim an inch off and adapt the cover a little.

 

Then decided to get some of the parts in storage sorted out. I have a new engine lid which has required some adaptation to make the hinges work and a new number plate because the holes are in the wrong place (a recurring theme) so that ones on a short back burner.

I've had a dashtop, MCJ steering wheel and a tacho waiting to be fitted for a few months so decided to do a dash refresh. Replaced the wiper motor, painted the dash front, blacked up and polished my rings; swapped rusty fixings for stainless and so on....







Dashtop need some additional holes...





And also needed some additional support along the front lip as the Brazilian part has the HOLES IN THE WRONG PLACE!!!



I've done this in ali with rivnuts, but I reckon it would be better in steel with captive nuts... if only that were in my skillset!!

I did a separate write up of the Brazilian wiper motor, again because the holes were all in the wrong place!! The rivnuts just clear the wiper mechanisms by about 5mm so had to start swapping the nuts for shorter versions after they started scrapping with the wipers on!!

Anyways, after all that, the dash is in, all the ancillaries and the shiney bits where they belong - not in the corner of my dining room!!



The camping furniture is next on the list. I've put my real skills to the test as AutoCAD is my primary tool on a daily basis so I'm currently having some ply CNC cut and will hopefully be slotting it together like homebrew IKEA!! Going to have to come up with some fun names like Buddyboxstig, Foldingtablehig... and so on!

 

Looking mate, some real nice touches you've added. Where did you get the black bulkhead cover things? I like those.

 

Looking ace Andy