Steady Eddie 72 Body Restoration

Discussion in 'Restorations' started by SteadyEddie, Oct 10, 2017.

  1. JamesLey

    JamesLey Sponsor

    Where you based mate? I have an i beam in our garage that i didn't end up using on our bus.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     
    paradox likes this.
  2. Nice one, thanks for the offer. Unfortunately I’m in the other end of the country, Darlington in Co Durham but thank you for the offer.

    If I completely fail I’ll just spend the momey but was hopeful I could try and put something of my own in. That said, I’d like to feel safe on the road so it’s only going on if it’s right!
     
    Valveandy and JamesLey like this.
  3. Hey Eddy it never ceases to amaze me what you guys in the UK will restore i am on the central coast of NSW Australia and am only a couple of KMs from the beach i struggle to keep the light surface rust under control i would not even attempt to try and keep that bus on the road, i would be parting it out and cutting my loses ,good on you for trying to save it
    Rob
     
    JamesLey likes this.
  4. Thanks Rob, To be honest a little bit of me keeps wondering why, especially having never done more than replace lightbulbs before now! Still, it would be sacrilege to leave it to die so I might as well give it a go. I've never been to Australia but would imagine the dry weather means things don't rot quite as quickly as they do here in the UK.

    Nothing to report from last weekend, I went back to my family home in Somerset for the Guy Fawkes Carnival. If you don't know what it is please google it, you won't be disappointed!

    Anyway, back to it today. I did some reading to work out why my plug welds on the chassis H beam ends didn't work. Second attempt today, I drilled 10mm holes rather than 7mm and whacked the welder up to max. They're certainly not the cleanest welds ever but they hold perfectly well.

    The top bar shows a nice comparason of the previous attempts and the new ones. My welds were simply arcing onto the top sheet and not getting heat down into the bottom one before. Much better this time.

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Progress on the van otherwise is limited. I've managed to return the shotblasting grit (my poor Saab didn't appreciate two trips with 1/2 ton of glass grit in the back) and waiting for replacement finer grade stuff to arrive soon. once it arrives I can clean up all the inaccessible areas before treating them and fitting the new panels over. For now I'm just faffing with small odd jobs which aren't half as much fun.
     
    JamesLey, Valveandy and Zebedee like this.
  5. A little bit more progress today. I've finally managed to get the sliding door inner sill to fit. I've probably spent about 3 days faffing around just with the sill, there were so many bodged repairs to cut through and file off and in so many awkward places. I'm not a huge fan of lying under the fan eating sparks all day long but it's got to be done.

    Test fitted, it needed some slight adjustments around the top hat sections where a lip needed to go over the top of the top hats and H beams. That would be fine if I had the floor out but instead I made a couple of 'alterations' to the sill... alright, that makes it sound to precise, i just hacked some holes in it until it fitted!
    [​IMG]
    At least the rotten H beams didn't get in the way
    [​IMG]

    Ends of the H beams out, between them and the floor appears to be a sheet of untreated but non rusted sheet metal. either this metal has by some miracle survived four decades with nothing but waxoil for protection, or it's a very new piece. The previous bodger must have seen the rotten H beams and thought 'they'll be fine' and proceeded to tack a piece of 1mm steel to it. I think its that steel which has held the beams together.
    [​IMG]
    test fitted ends (apologies for the bad photo, daylight had gone
    [​IMG]

    I'm not a fan of working out in the cold wind. Maybe I'll move into the shed for winter!
     
    Coco likes this.
  6. Dazza

    Dazza Eyebrow not high brow

    One thing that I admire on these resto threads and yours is no different @SteadyEddie ...is even though you're up to your neck in rust, dust and general crap.....you still manage to get the camera out and photograph your work...I know its a record of the resto for you but it does help the rest of us learn as a result...top man...
     
    Coco, Valveandy, art b and 4 others like this.
  7. MorkC68

    MorkC68 Administrator

    that's the beauty of some of the superb resto threads (and the Mech tech section) - the wealth of information posted is immense, the knowledge shared on here is second to none!
     
    Coco, mgbman, 77 Westy and 3 others like this.
  8. Thanks Dazza! You're right, everything I'm doing (and I genuinely mean this) is based on reading other people's build threads and Mech Tech on TLB. I don't have a clue at the best of times but I wouldn't be here without other people's photos and threads.

    I can't remember what I had for breakfast, let alone what I've done on the van so I take hundreds of photos to remember what I've done but also what it looks like in those hidden places you'll never see without cutting. If anyone wants more or better photos of any sections I've covered I'll be glad to send them on so others can!

    Onto my latest progress, as promised, I've moved into the shed, it started snowing today and I'm too much of a wimp to stay outside on a snowey dark evening.

    I've discovered why the passenger window winder handle kept falling off when shutting the door, it appears there should have been a screw through the ball into the door which is missing, another screw to add to the shopping list. More importantly, I may be able to get the window mechanism working again too. The U shaped slot which held the glass up has rusted out and the glass has been balancing precariously on two bolt threads, no sign of the rubber that should have been there. We're lucky it didn't fall off and break!
    [​IMG]
     
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  9. Dazza

    Dazza Eyebrow not high brow

    Snow???? Where do you live?
     
  10. Darlington in Co Durham, I was working in the Yorkshire Dales today as it was coming down, didn't settle today but its the sort of area which snows in June!
     
    paradox likes this.
  11. Dazza

    Dazza Eyebrow not high brow

    It does get a bit fresh up there... I guess.....wrap up warm.:)
     
  12. you're telling me! I'm a southerner originally and still haven't acclimatised to t' North
     
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  13. I live on the edge of the dales and we had a flurry of snow today
    Last year it just poured down all winter
     
    SteadyEddie likes this.
  14. @SteadyEddie i didn't realise you were making the I beams. I'm not 100% sure but i think i have a couple of foot long sections in my shed you could have had. :(

    Snow? We've not had any proper snow on the west coast of cumbria since winter 2010. Just before i bought a RWD daily driver. :rolleyes:
     
    Coco likes this.
  15. Above brum....:hattip:
     
  16. Day

    Day

    Just read through your resto thread...
    Great work...well done so far.

    Keep at it and remember when all done you'll build some great adventures and memories with the new family member.

    Enjoy what your doing.
     
  17. I had some very slow motion slides last year round a few corners. We camped in the van up in Osmotherly two years ago in the van and 2ft of snow came down overnight. it was exciting going sideways down the hairpin bends on the way home, I've never slid the van before (and hope I never will again after all this work!)

    Thanks dude! exactly right, already created countless memories in the 3 years we've had it before now, can't wait for the years ahead!



    So this evening distraction has been the door rubber seals and what a pain they have been. All the other seals, sliding door, engine bay, boot etc. pulled out no problem but the front door seals have been glued in. I presume they need to be glued around the hinges but didn't think it was necessary everywhere.

    Anyway, the perished rubber meant it kept tearing rather than peeling away with the glue. So now I'm left with patches of rubber stuck in the awkward recesses. I'll have a go at them with a wire wheel on the grinder tomorrow but I'd welcome any better suggestions???

    before
    [​IMG]
    after
    [​IMG]
    Not sure my panels are quite up to the job, I may need to do some more faffing with sheetmetal before anything goes back in
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
    Coco and paradox like this.
  18. For the remnants of the seals and glue
    Heat it up with a hot air gun and use an old flat bladed screwdriver to scrape it away.


    When my van was on the road I wild camped a fair few times around osmotherly.
    I quite liked been all tucked up in the van when the weather was crazy outside.
    An early morning walk around codbeck reservoir
    Then breakfast and a mug of tea in the van is a great way to start the day.

    I’d never camp in the car park at codbeck though
    Too many undesirables come around
     
  19. I would like to say I'll give it a go but I've made it this far without a heat gun. I'll definately need one for other jobs so think I'm going shopping!

    We did exactly that although we actually stayed in the reservoir car park, though the snow prevented anyone except the local farmers getting around which kept people at bay. The little cafe in the village was a welcome lunch stop by the open fire. Maybe I'll see you there some day when both vans are done.
     
    paradox likes this.
  20. Updates from the last couple of days:

    Over the weekend it was warm enough to do a bit of work outside so I tidied up a few areas of surface rust. The floor under the sill has clearly been repaired at some point but was left as bare metal, lucky there wasn't anything worse than surface rust. Managed to get everything stripped, cleaned, rust treated and primed

    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Same situation behind the H beams

    [​IMG]

    Window out of the side panel and there is a bit of work to do there, I hope I can find/fabricate repairs for the windowsill.
    [​IMG]

    Into the shed and found the same situation on the sliding door windowsill.
    [​IMG]

    Though the windowsills are only a small job compared to the bottom of the sliding door!
    [​IMG]

    ... and the underside of the front doors. I managed to cut away the outer skin (what little there was between filler and newspaper only to discover a very rotten inner. Going to clean this up as much as I can but may have to improvise. It would seem an easy enough shape to fabricate but its welded from every angle so it would be a right pain to cut out and weld a new one in. If anyone has done this before, let me know how hard it is!
    [​IMG]

    In other news, I took @paradox 's suggestion and got myself a heat gun, it took a while but all the rubber and glue is now stripped and gone! I may do the same for some of the old Waxoil in time.

    Thanks again all for the support and assistance :thumbsup:
     

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