My viking resto, Now for sale

nice work buddy, keep it up

 

Just bringing my resto thread back from the depths of the resto section, cant believe that i haven't touched the van since October when i wheeled her across the road to my rented garage
Itching now to get back started next month, had a nose round dub freeze today which has got my juices flowing again

 

pull your finger out ....even Dog's cracking on with his

 

I know mate tell me about it, at 1 point i wasn't that far behind you, and some of the other guys are just resto junkies
I plan to get her back on the drive next week once i've sorted out a decent cover and get the welding finished

 

That's some serious work you've put into your van dude!! Massive

 

top work dude very neat

 

Well work has re-commenced on the bus
Managed to to make a start on was of the little patches on the front inner and A post

A bit off rot in the top inner panel, marked up ready for cutting out



Repair piece made up


And welded in, plus repairs to the return lip where the new front panel folds over


A couple of little repairs


Welds ground and a coat of primer

It will all be covered by the new out front panel, so don't need to be super neat, will trim the two bits at a later date
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Can you do me a favor and take some clear pictures of the replacement cargo floor? Specifically the piece on the sliding door side. I have been searching for the section just inside of the door (the top of the lower slider track)- but all of the pictures on the vendors sites don't show it with that part of the floor.
Thanks for the help!

 

Will do mate, but i'm pretty sure that it falls short of the slider track

 

Thanks!

 

Got some more down on the inner front panel over the ester hols
No pics as it's not really that interesting

Repaired a bit of rot on the a pillar





And made a start on cutting out the last rusty outrigger and jacking point, just need to order a couple of repair panels and i get that all solid again

 

ad another good day on the van today, the stuff i order last week turn up this morning so i left the kids to look after themselves and got cracking

This is the area i was going to sort out, i had already cut out most of the rot



Now that i had the new repair panels i made the inner sill good and gave it blast of weldthou primer




With plenty of trial fitting and trimming here and there, the new inner b post was welded in



Then it was the outer b post panels turn to attached




Some seem sealer applied

 

Then to finish off the day the inner wheel arch welded in



Welds ground back and a coat of primer



Last pic of the gap with the sliding door

Which is pretty spot on

Hoping to get some more done tomorrow

 

Great stuff dude its good to see it all getting its shapes and contours back into place
Where did you buy those repair sections from?

 

Autocraft and Schofields, always fitted well so i've stuck to them pair for panels
Certainly nice to see it start to come back together and begin to resemble a bus again

 

Some more progress from todays session

Removed the rest of the cargo floor, the heating splitter thing other the rear axle was rotten so removed that too


welded in the top hat section at the front and cut out the rusty one and jacking point out at the rear



Welded up some spot weld holes in the top hats and made a few other local repairs here and there
Just got the remaining bit of floor and poor repairs to surrounding areas to remove and sort our, get another length of top hat metal, then i can get it all welded and painted, then it be ready for the new floor halves

 

Got a bit more done which just lead to finding more problems

Cleaned up the cargo floor step, which is solid and should look good once the new floor is in place


It was at the rear end by the inner wheel tub that a came across problems
Once i removed the poor old repairs i found the inner sill strengthener was rotten and had been poorly patched and the sill closing panel was rough as well
This is whats left after i've chopped out the grot



But to fully remove the grot i had to sacrifice the lower front part of the out arch which has been replaced at some point and is sound


A close up of the inner sill strengthener and poor repair


So after having a think, i thought i would have a look and the pervious arch repair
From the inside even tho it looks at bit of a hack job it would pass


From the outside once the filler had been removed, again looks fine apart from the about of filler needed to level up the panel
Because a full repair panel has been used if i wanted to renew it would need a full side panel at a cost of 250 large ones


So i decided to go for just the lower front arch repair panel for the time being and i'll see how i get on
Pic of hopefully the last panels i'll need to buy for the bus


Planning to get cracking on this over the weekend

 

due to a change of plans today i managed to grab a couple of hours on the bus until running out of wire stopped play

First off was to repair the sill
I cut out the rotten part sill strengthener, and the bottom lip of the inner sill, welded up the previous repair to the strengthener


Made a repair piece for the inner sill and welded it in, it will be trimmed to length once it's all completed



Welds ground and primer applied

​

 

Next was to make the piece for the strengthener




Clamped, welded and finished off



​

 

So that was the sill finished, and my attention turned to the bottom of the c post that fixes to the sill strengthener


A couple of little pieces made up


and welded in and thats when the wire ran out


Hopefully more wire and some cutting discs will arrive next week so i can get back on it next weekend