Woody my 72/73 bay window resto project .......an epic tale of rust.......

Its a bit like some one taking in stray animals that no one wants ;D .....I suppose I feel sorry for a rusting classic vehicle ;D

Poptop2 is of the same mind set, have a read of Rhubarbs resto to see what I mean he's done loads of work that would make most people take it to the scrap yard

 

High Diddy are these pics up to date or are you still catching up with the thread ????

 

Thanks guys

still reposting old posts .....this is taking nearly as long as the actual resto on the bus ;D think I've got another couple of days re posting then hopefully be up to date

The only welding I've got left is the front clip, valance and lower panel, a bit around the off side windows and a few small bits here and there

so I better get on with some re posts

Another post from May 24th................

so all the top and rear of the arch are now welded in place and are solid.

the next bit is to push out the bottom of the step, before I did this I welded the front in place, not sure if I should have done this first or not but my thinking was that it should then just push the rear bit out and keep the front lined up.



I used a scissor jack between the arch and chassis



and got it just about level



I did find that doing this closed the gap at the bottom rear of the door and it was rubbing at one point. after a bit more fiddling it was better but still quite close



after more fiddling



and then I could weld down to the bottom of the arch tub



every thing was ground down on Sunday ....then painted in 2K primer





doesnt look too bad, there are a few pin holes along the top of the tub, not sure if I should go back over them or use a bit of stopper paste??
that was as far as I got with the front arch.....but I did do some round the back too..........

 

May 25th 2011.................

not so many "how to" photos here Im afraid.

It was pretty straight forward, drilled holes through the support panel lip at the bottom to weld from the inside (I didnt have to grind out between the seal lip then), tapped into place, welded at the top either end to hold it in place then through the rear.



to weld the top I punched out little semicircles to get some weld in there



and welded



also got some weld on the tabs at either end along the bottom





a nice fitting panel at last!!!



I then smoothed off a few of the welds and primed with 2K







Oh, and I did bolt on the engine lid before I welded up to check the gaps....and they were gooooood

still got the seams to do and the ones on the front arch.

with any luck I will get the last rear panel on and finish the front arch next week end......or I might start the sliding door :

 

A new month - June 01 2011...........

I seem to have lost a day this week end, dont know where it went.....maybe I put it down some where, I'm sure it will turn up. I even had Friday off too to make a 4 dayer of it!!

Friday.........

decided to finish off the back so I made some little tabs for the outer valance to crimp over



and the other side



the other little bit I made was for the lip on the bottom of the rear corner, the one on the lower repair sections is rubbish



see what I mean?!?

so welded on the tabs and the lip on the corner bottom





prepped up the inner valance



and welded it on .....after checking the measurements I took before cutting it all out (which seems so long ago now) and checking with the lid on



I was quite happy with it untill I looked back at some old photos and noticed a slight difference in height of the outer bits of the outer valance that crimp over the tabs I welded on. On the new bit the tabs dont quite go up to the bit that folds in to make the seal channel, they are about 3mm too short. I know only nerds like me will spot it but as its all welded on Im going to live with it and just seam seal the top 3mm. Hopefully you can see what I mean from the pics





and that was Friday done.

next day I started on the sliding door. I wanted to do as much of it on the bus as possible to try to get a good fit of the panels.
started off by chopping the minimum off of the outer skin to have a look inside









luckilly most of the rot was confined to the big lip on the bottom and a bit around the sides.

I held the outer skin panel up and scribed along the top to give a datum for putting it all back together and so I dont cut the outer skin too high up. I then measured from the bottom of the door (or whats left of it) to the scribed line and wrote the measurments along the line.
I'll have to up load the next lot of photos as they are still on the camera so perhapse another up date tomorrow

 

ok so I started chopping out the sliding door rot, with the door still on I chopped out all the rust. then welded on the repair bits to the inner door frame (still on the bus)

then took it off to add a few squirts of mig to the other side



next cleaned off all the transit primer from the repair bit I just welded on and wire brushed it all, then sprayed the inside of the door with 2K primer.

as I was going to do some spraying I gave a rough sanding to the lower corner repair I had coated in epoxy mastic, and tidied up the outer valance and sprayed them too





Oh yea, and wire brushed the sliding door track and outer sill and gave them a spray of 2K primer while I was at it.

Pretty sure that was saturday....possibly some of Sunday too. Pretty sure Sunday evening I painted the inside of the door with epoxy mastic once the 2K primer was dry ......just to give it some added protection.

Definatly know what I did monday.

I started the outer skin repair. As you've seen I cut out as little of the original metal to reveal the extent of the rot, this left a strange
shape : .............was I going to cut any more out : or was I going to graft in the repair an odd way like I usually do :



Ok so you probably guessed, I cut the new panel down to fit the hole I made rather than cutting staright across and higher up like every one else . A couple of reasons for this was, if the repair has to be done in the future it can still be done with the small repair panel leaving plenty to play around with, I wanted to keep the filling as low down on the panel as possible and lastly as the skin was bonded to the inner frame just above where I cut I reasoned it was less likely to bulge the panel out.

so I cut the panel to fit leaving 10mm to tuck under the existing skin and I joddled the edge so it sat flush



a nice tight fit



whilst it was off the bus I made about 8 tack welds along the join, most of them around the middle.

I then re fitted it to the bus with the help of my neighbour to try and make sure it was all looking good................but obviously I couldnt shut the door as I'd not crimped over the edges so off it came. I formed the edges over using a hammer and dolly - not too tight in case I still needed to alter things then re fitted it



looks good, the corners seem to be in too far but I should be able to tweek them out and get a nice profile, I still need to adjust the door to bring the rear bottom in a bit, then I can pull the corner to match the body if you follow my meaning



but it all looks good. really happy with the profile. I've seen a few busses around where the door doesnt follow the curves down to the sill very well so I want to make sure I get this pretty good.

As it all looked good I decided to weld it up, very slowly, one tack at a time and quenching each one...........it then started to rain. It was a light drizzle so I kept going for as long as I could but after 10mins every thing was soaking including me, the welder, couldnt see out of my welding mask as it was all damp and the bus was wet too. So I called it a day.........after frantically packing every thing up drying off the weld and sticking loads of duct tape over every thing to try to keep it dry.

I them spent the rest of the day pacing up and down at the window, shaking my fist at the clouds

Managed to finish off the welding when I got home from work today though, hopefully grind it down tomorrow after work then just got to finish the folds and a bit of tweeking then get some primer on.

 

June 02 2011......

I was asked what Joddling was......

Joddling (or joggling) is putting a little "step" in the metal so the repair will sit under the bit your joining, but will be flush along the join. for long flat panels this helps to hold the panels flush and you can get a good weld on them - if there is a gap between but welds you can risk burning through if you dont have metal behind it. to make a joddled edge I've got a hand tool which sort of crimps the edge - theres a pic of it a few pages back when I did my rear arch repair, the pics also show a joddled edge a bit clearer than the one I did for the sliding door. You can by a joddler for about £40 from machine mart

...................I think I meantioned I finished welding up the slider yesterday, so today I ground it all down

No ripples as far as I can tell, but there is a "ridge" in places if I run my hands across it. I think this is because dispite my efforts the lower repair must have moved in by about 0.5 mm. Having a good look I think I can get rid of these bits with some filler - which I think I might get away with only filling on the repair bit not all over the door. I'll find out once I get some primer on it.

hers the pics............

 

7th June 2011.......

It was one of those weekends where I feel not much got done, maybee its because I've not got any new panels to go on yet - other than the window surround but I want to leave that untill I get a cover or ready to paint that area properly so I can get the window straight back in.

Friday I had a few hours so I chopped off most of the front inner valance







some repairs to the other A post needed



some general under side shots to pad out this post :whistle:









sorry if the photos arnt great, this is the space Im working in......I really should find time to do a bit of gardening : especially as Mrs Diddymen fell down a hole I'd dug a few years a ago, which I obviously didnt tell her about (I'd dug the hole a few years ago - shes not been stuck in a hole for a few years just to clear that up) the grass had grown over it a bit - I suppose covering it with sticks and dead leaves and putting a cream cake in the middle didnt help either



took the wheel mount off the front



heres the rot that was under the wheel



and took off the front grill so I could see what it was like behind





not bad, just a bit of surface rust

all those pics make it feel like I did a lot more than I thought I'd accomplished for a few hours work

 

I didnt want to chop off too much of the inner valance yet untill I've got the new bits for my low indicators and wrap around bumper conversion so I didnt want to chop out too much at this point.

Saturday, again felt like not much got done, I decided as I didnt have anything to weld on I'd do a bit of body work for a change and morale boost. I bare metalled the rear arch that I'd put all the epoxy mastic on and then noticed a bit of filler that I thought Id take back a bit. couple of hours later I found some creases down the side panel where some one had obviously scrapped it down the side ....not too bad, just annoying. I then keyed up the rest of the rear panel and sliding door, panel wiped and then coated with 2K primer to show up where the work was needed







at least its all starting to go one colour even if it is grey!!

I guess that distortion I though I'd caused with the rear arch welding was actually previous damage. In hind sight, yes, I should have chopped the rear arch up higher and straight across if I'd known about the damage.

..........that was about it for Saturday :'(

Sunday I took the sliding door off again to finish the folds of the lower outer skin repair and with the door off I could get to both sides of the panel with the creases.

using a hammer and dolly I worked the area of damage from the inside, the panel is so flexible there I didnt make much difference so instead of using a dolly I used a cloth bag full of shot blast which deadened the blow a bit and managed to reduce the dents a bit. I couldnt get them out completely though so the rest will have to be filled......

......so guess what I did next ;D This is the stuff Im using. As with all the products I've been using this is water proof and non porus so it is ok if it gets rained on.....which it did an hour after it was applied



So Sunday I had a go at fillering, first I keyed up the areas with some 60 grit paper then wiped over with panel wipe. I tried mixing a pea sized amount of hardner of a golf ball sized bit of filler ....think I put in too much hardner as it was going off quite quick, add to that I was applying it and mixing using old phone cards and you can see why I made a bit of a mess :-[ ......I can hear you all laughing, yes I know I've got to sand it all off!!!!

I did try using a straight edge but it was going off so I wanted to get it on the bus to set rather than it setting on the mixing board. By the time I got the straight edge on it I think it was too late to smooth out so left it to set properly







then it started raining....so more pacing up and down by the window inside the house, every now and then shaking my fist at the sky.

So I decided to climb in the bus and chop out the rear seat belt mount



think I'll re do the other side too at some point (probably when its raining)

mg width=800 height=535 src="http://i925.photobucket.com/albums/ad95/diddymen/june%2011/DSC07491.jpg" />

unfortunatly the repair I've got is too small for the rot on my rear arch



chopped out



So I might make my own and use the plate/mount from the repair bit

old and new



new plate is a bit smaller than the old one but I think it should be ok

...........and that was another week end gone

hopefully get the bits for the front ordered soon and get cracking on with that.

 

I'm still reading this and amazed at what you have achieved.

Bit lost to where you are today (real time) perhaps the latest post is "now" but seems closer to completion now than yesterday.

 

thanks Pickles

Still not up to date yet on the re posting ......only up to Junes work at the present, hope fully not long now to get the thread up to date

....and yes, Im definatly closer to completion now ....well the welding at least, then its all the prep work for painting, engine work, mechanical stuff, rebuilding, interior.......so quite a bit to do still

 

A quick repost before dinner

june 16th 2011......

long overdue up date from the weekend just to prove Im still working on it!!

I had/still got man flu Mrs Diddymen said I was far to I'll to work on the bus especially as the weather was a bit damp, who says women arnt sympothetic to man flu???

..........So she said I could fit our new shower screen instead and do some DIY indoors ......very kind of her - and that was Friday and some of Saturday gone

Saturday, as I didnt have my panels for the front this only really left me with wire brushing the underide of the cab or the rear seat belt mount........seat belt mount won.

I decided to graft the new one in under the lip at the top and towards the side of the bus as that join would have some metal behind it to give it some extra strength the other 2 sides were seam welded from both sides - again for extra strength. I only lightly ground down the inside as it wont be seen but most importantly as it maybee a bit stronger than if I'd ground it smooth. Only got the one pic of it finished :-[



and that was the remainder of Saturday gone.

Sunday was raining I decided to have a tidy up inside the bus as I couldnt get in there due to all the tools. Once it was a bit tidier I decided to star separating the body cut for the rear window inside the bus out of the rain. It was quite nice being in there with a cup of tea ;D





and thats it

My panels arrived for the front end conversion on Monday. Looking at the outer repair panel I might just chop out the bits I need and graft them in, probably only really use the bottom bit that covers the valance TBH

was hoping to make a start on the front this week end but the weather looks like it will be pretty bad so I dont know how much I'll get done. I suppose I could do a bit of rubbing down inside the bus or maybe get the dash out if its raining.
Hope your all gettting some done on your projects

 

june 21st 2011

Saturday I was lent a genuine late bay inner valance to see if I could use it for the front conversion.

Sunday when it stopped raining I got out and did some work on the bus
heres the late bay and repro prototype bay valances side by side
rear veiw



front veiw



and side profile



the late bay one is twice the weight of the repro early panel and much better quality but I think although I could modify the late valance it would be a bit more work than getting the repro panel to fit correctly

Here they both are on the front panel

early repro



you can see the open box section that Im going to have to fill at some point



and late bay



the profile would have to be changed at the top for it to work



some veiws of the front skin









heres the head light recess area



and the other side



which I was hoping would fit here



no hope of that though, I know they are all like that but its hard to see from the little pics when your ordering on line.

I'll make it work though.

I also decided to cut out the rough looking seat belt mount on the off side

 

Another post from 21st June 2011.....

Also finished separating the outer skin from the window body cut



you can see the seat belt mount is attached to the outer skin by 6, 8mm plug welds





and whats left Im going to sell to try to get back some of the £63 it cost!!





I also picked up some cab floor repairs and a rear bumper bracket, they should all clean up ok



I then chopped off that front lip and got rid of the remainder of the inner valance







some areas of repair to the lip, trough bit that I dont know what its called will be needed on both sides



and the other side, also started chopping out the rot on the A post.



....and the week end is gone again

 

june 29th 2011.......

where did the week end go !!

Got a bit of wire brushing of the near side rear wheel arch tub and some of the area under the cab on friday

Saturday I went up to the JK open day and got my self a new van cover .....I'm going to try to look after it but I can see it will end up damaged at some point : .

That took up most of the day so only had time to get some epoxy mastic under the rear arch and cab floor/chassis





still got some more to do around the cab area but Im going to have to remove the steering box first or what ever it is that is bolted to the front chassis and covered in oil.

also cleaned off the transit primer from the front valance with some thinners



Sunday I started to finish off the A posts





heres the repair for the off side





Heres how I made the near side

started off with a bit of sheet steel big enough to cover the repair, luckilly I got some bits with a bend already in it



next I clamped it in place like so.....



so I could mark where to cut around the step



I took it off and made a slit, then bent the bottom part forward to meet the front of the step lip bit as this is what the original was like



then I could bend/form it around the metal behind it and finish it off with a final bend for the outer skin to attach to



and here it is finished



I then wire brushed all the surface rust off and painted the inner surface with epoxy mastic.

Sanded back all that filler along the side .......then slapped a load more on
Yesterday I put my new JK cover on and took out the rear window.

It was not as bad as I had expected.......well, I say that, it will all have to be chopped out and replaced as it is badly corroded but there wernt actually any holes for once!.

today I took the afternoon off to weld a bit on the MG's hood frame which had snapped then I had hoped to do some work on Woody.

The weather had different ideas and the heavens opened. I did manage to prep the A post repairs ready for welding and this evening as it was dry and light I got out there and welded them on

Hopefully I'll try and get some more pics through the week

Laters all

 

and from 30th June

As the metal work is nearly finished, I think it's about time I copied some bits from another post I did a while back.................

So, on a serious note (and I dont want to come across as being too preachy).........

For those of you who don't know, I am 2ic for a rescue team specialising in hazardous access rescue and trauma injuries.

A few incidents have touched a nerve and made me think a bit about the restoration work we do on our buses. In the last month we have been called out to 2 serious injuries caused by a grinder - both to the leg and both narrowly missing the femoral artery which could have led to death. Both cases, never the less had significant blood loss and both casualties had used grinders for many years so knew what they were doing - sound familiar??

Personal protection is so easily overlooked. These guys had there safety gear on and they were still injured so stay alert when grinding and don't get distracted.

I don't want to lecture you all, I know we all get a bit p*ssed off with H&S stopping our fun from time to time and Im not a big fan of health and safety rules either, But please take your time to think about your own safety (and others around you) before staring and work.

As a start make sure the area you are working in is free from trip hazards and flamable materials (Not always easy when working in the garage I know)

Never put the grinder down untill it has stopped spinning.

Make sure if you have kids that they dont wander over or start touching your tools or freshly welded metal.

And very importantly have a first aid kit near by or in the house - it's a good idea to have one in your buses anyway. I always carry a large field dressing in my pocket when grinding/chainsaw etc.

If you do have the miss fortune to have a nastly accident get a large dressing on the area imediatly with firm pressure, elevate the injury and summon help. This includes amputations, if it is a finger which is lost pack it in a bag in ice/frozen peas etc. this will give the emergancy services a better chance of reattaching it.
As a minimum you should wear heavy duty overalls (two pairs especially in winter )

gloves, ear and eye protection when grinding/welding.

I wear my welding gauntlets when grinding as they also cover your fore arms.

Eye protection should be of a type to enclose the eyes rather than safety specs and better still is a full face visor. None of this is expensive especially when you could consider what may happen if you dont wear it - I have had to pick up the odd finger which has been severed in the past.

A good thick leather welders jacket is great if your welding under the bus and also gives good protection when grinding.

Yes I know what I look like in the pics......and I don't care feel free with the p*ss taking!!!!

first up - ear plugs and wrap around goggles



Overalls, steel toe cap boots and welding gauntlets



welding hood - you too could look like a medievial archer!! - one day before I got this I could see something glowing out the corner of my eye after welding under the bus, every time I moved so did the glowing thing........I then realised my hair was on fire when I noticed the smell



I would highly recomend one - as a bonus I no longer get a pile of rust left in the bath after washing my hair

Next I use a full face visor for grinding where ever possible (other wise the wrap around goggles) Which I highly reccomend



Lastly for welding (especially above you) I wear a leather welders jacket over my overalls and I have just got my self an auto darkening helmet also highly recommended - my welding has improved greatly with the new helmet

The force is strong in you ...join the dark side.........



I could really scare the kids at christmas in this gear...........

I would always recommend using an RCD safety device for any power tool, this should cut the power in the event you damage the power lead.

Although not necesarry for home use but worth considering is using 110V power tools as this will significantly lower the risk of a fatal electric shock.

Another good thing would be to use grinders which have a dead mans cut off switch - in other words as soon as you let go of the grinder it stops.

............and for gawd sake dont use a grinder with out the guard attached

Wash your overalls - might sound a strange point but if you have been wearing your overalls over a few months, climing around under your pride and joy they will get grubby. If you then cut through into your leg for instance small bits of your overalls/clothing can enter the wound. Although the medics will irrigate wounds if you get a lot of dirt or contaminants in it can cause problems.

If you're working under your bus support it safely.

hope this has not depressed anyone too much I know it is a bit of a long post.

Good luck with your resto's and always remember to put your own safety
first

 

july 1st 2011, nearly up to date

back to the resto!!!

got the A posts welded in Tuesday and tidied up a bit this evening





and the rear window which I took out the other day - I've started drilling out the spot welds to separate the panels







no holes as such but it will all need replacing, a few holes have appeared since taking the photos as I've been poking around with my screw driver

hopefully get a bit more done tomorrow

 

july 6th 2011.........

Pics from the weekend, started off the weekend with a bit of rubbing down









chopped out most of the lower window rot







then sprayed some more 2K primer over the bits I'd rubbed down to protect it all from the weather











still a bit more work to do, shape and straightness is starting to look good
tried a bit of pastel white against the green



and pastel white next to alpine white



painted the A posts





got a body cut for a petrol tank sender hatch



and if that wasnt enough.......

welded one of the rear seat belt mounts in





made some little brackets for the end of the chassis rails to connect to the front valance



which will go here

ndows/DSC07586.jpg" />

welded on





and with the front valance loosly in place







the window body cut also needed new metal grafting in





and finished off with a bit more filling







I've now also taken the steering gear box off to clean up the chassis (as it was covered in oil from the box) then it will need painting. I also had to take it off to make welding the front valance on a bit easier.

I think I'll have to give the steering box a good service and change the seals whilst its off.

 

11th July 2011.....

....I've sort of had a change of heat on the front valance.....

had a crap week end on the bus

First I had a tantrum over the inner front valance, it ended up thrown into the hedge at one point :-[ , I'd started modifying it and then came to the conclusion its still not going to fit right, still be made of really thin material and I dont think I would be happy with it .....so Im going to fit the late one and modify that instead. I think I'll end up with a better panel in the end like a few of you suggested : (currently out of stock so I may fit the early one not sure yet : )

So as I didnt have a late valance I decided to carry on getting rid of the rust under the cab area and take my mind off things and calm down a bit....and noticed the break pedal return spring was broken. No probs I thought I'll get that off then carry on with the wire brushing .......several hours later and getting more angry it finaly came off. Ob Wan: use the force!!!

I then turned my attentions to getting the master cylinder off ....which took another few hours, a jack, a big hammer and lots of swearing to get it separated from the body work (yes I took out the 2 bolts first )

Anyway I'll go into all that in a bit more detail later.....or through the week.

Im just wondering if I should take the whole front off and replace it, so I thought I'd ask your opinions as I know some of you say its pretty quick and easy to do. (front is currently chopped off and new panel ready to go on )

Heres what I would need to patch on mine

around the head lights





area on the front and a lot of holes to fill



aerial mounting hole......and what evers hiding under the seal



to be fair there doesnt seem to be much in the way of rust stains inside the cab so I dont think under the seal will be too bad

so what should I do, patch the front or buy a complete front panel.......which would be the quicker? how easy are complete fronts to do?? ???

Seems like Im so near and yet so far and changing the complete front is yet more work