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

This is looking fantastic! Credit to you mate.
I'm actually itching to see the finished bus! I hope mine is half as tidy as yours.

 

lovely quality of work owen nw

 

cheers guys

I cant wait till mines finished either

If the rest of your work is as good as your upholstery skills, yours is going to look awsome

 

Mrs Diddymen has been a bit busy the last week doing a bit of sewing

first panel finished......



then a second



and I had time to fit them on Sunday





and then a door card...



then side panel fitted....



then sliding door card fitted



those clips are a pain, it took ages to get them all lined up, and even then I broke a few!! ...I've got to take the sliding door one off again at some point as all the clips on one side broke ....even though I spent a good hour lining them all up and trial fitting!

....last few pics a bit later

 

Looking good!!!

If you haven't managed to get the clip in the centre of the big panel or the sliding door panel, then you could try gluing a magnet to the back of the panel, aligned with the rails. If you leave it like that, the panel may run on the wheel arch.... mine has

 

Wow! Your bus looks amazing, Those interior panels look great.

There is going to be a great showing of quality Late Bays doing the shows next year, can't wait.

 

Maybe the year after next...

Don't hold your breath, this one will NEVER be finished.

 

Dear mister @Diddymen , I have decided to break from my usual poking fun comments today and replace them with praise, well done MRS Diddymen

Dale pull yer finger out , use second hand clips if you can they don't break x

 

good call mate, I'm not 100% all of the clips on the slider are in, as the front edge doesnt have any, I'll peep down the side with a torch and take a look ....great tip about the magnets

thanks mate ....but I suspect @zed may be right ....I'm going to do my best to prove him wrong though

I'm going to make a big push to get it on the road for next year, only a few more interior panels to do, flooring, R&R to make, foam and upholster, upholster and fit new front seats, finish off headlining and pop top, make a few interior cupboards, fit some thing to play music ....make a bed in the roof for the kids .....waste a lot of time tinking about what else I could do to it

 

close enough ....I'll take that as praise

The old clips I had fitted fine, new ones I had to make the holes a little bigger

 

both door cards are now made ....heres a pic of one



the other one looks the same ...but in reverse

....ok, so I was too excited to take pics

plastic membrane fitted to the door - I put a double skin in the openings which I tucked inside (hopefully this should stop any water getting on the door cards



then it was a simple matter of spending another half a day lining up the clips, before finally fitting it and putting all the bits back on





I broke all the clips on the bottom of the door, so it will have to come off again at some point!

Mrs Diddymen is making a few more headliners up as she's had a few people waiting a while, but hopfully I can convince her to do a bit more at the weekend and get the last kick panel done, and the tail gate. The rear side ones I'll have to make my self as the ones I've got are too short, then got to decide if we will be upholstering panels for the seat baulk heads or not.

I might start stripping down the seats for her to start on while I make the bed

 

Point the clips outwards from the centre of the card and you'll be withing a few mm.
As if stretching it to fit.

 

outstanding dude!!!!!

 

Stunning work Dale as ever. A real credit to you.

 

I solute you and your workmanship!!!

 

looks great so far....Where's the unfinished horse going to fit?

Clip tip: Assuming you've put the holes in the right place ( on some aftermarket panels they're wrong) and you've got the right length clips (see pic...these are available in different lengths)

1) stick a short piece of masking tape above each door/body hole radiating up onto the edge of the surrounding metalwork...
2) vertically mark off each hole centre in pencil.....
3) offer the panel up by hand (without clips in) and using the panel edge like a ruler, draw a line along the edge...
you end up with a series of pencil crosses....
4) measure down from the cross to the centre of the hole in the door/body/etc.
5) transfer this measure ment to the back of the panel and fit clips accordingly....






The other method involves fannying around with a torch and long nosed pliers while you make a mess of the hardboard...I've tried both

 

We did a bit of this, best advice I had from my brother was to fit them up before trimming with the clips visible through the panel. Draw around the tail of the clip on the outside face, then draw around the clip on the inside.

I've still managed to snap a few mind

 

Thanks for all the compliments and tips everyone

The clips I've got looked a little different to the ones in @vanorak pics .....they kind of have 3 prongs and I had to drill out the holes in the van to 8mm .......I was a bit impatient really and should have ordered some different ones

I did fit the clips before trimming .....but didn't offer them up to the van first

Oh well you live and learn .....unfortunately I have been having to use the torch and long nose pliers method lol

I've put the rest of the trimming on hold for a bit as I've got wood

First bit of flooring played to pack out the cargo area, and got a couple of 18mm ply sheets cut roughly to size to start the r&r bed

...I managed to get the measurements off the faded drawing @davidoft wrote in orange Ink .... found some measurements on line to check with the ones that were too faded to read and they all seemed to tie in

I'll probably still need a few pointers and tips when I start @Dicky thread will probably be my main source of info ....be prepared for a lot of questions

 

not many pics, but a fair bit of work for the odd hours I've managed to grab over the weekend

...started on the R&R



so, the flooring is in - well, the packing piece for the lower recess (9mm)

the base part of the seat/bed is now roughed up and temporarilly held together with a few wood screws. I'll take it all apart again once I know it will fit and put some better fixings in

I've not fixed the hinge mech in place yet, just wanted to get rough positions right at this stage.

I did have to chisel a bit out of the sides as the bracket was for slighly thinner wood (I'm using 18mm ply) ....so I guess it would have been for an imperial measurement ....which reminds me I've not updated the starwars part of the thread for a while



you can also see from the pic above that the hinge doesnt sit flat on the wheel arch, due to a bulge in the pressing of the steel. The pic below shows the other side



but that side sits flat, as when I repaired that side I didnt spend weeks trying to replicate the shape ....doesnt sound like me

so I'll probably pack out the hinges both sides so they both sit at the same height

fingers crossed, I might even finish it next week end ......the bed that is, not the whole van .......who am I kidding, I'll find another job to start