‘The worlds most expensive cupboard’ is how my wife referred to our ‘other’ van. I’ve owned this for about 15 years and merrily drove it everywhere. It cost me £1000 and came with a Vege engine (which is still going strong in my daily Westy), 4 new Empi 5s with new tyres and a rock and roll bed. After many happy years I decided to take it off the road over the winter to sort out the bodywork. That was about 7 years ago! I bought a roll over jig, did all the welding (the roof and gutters are original...and that’s about it!), Bare metalled it and then bought my Westy and stuck the ‘76 in the corner of the garage. It filled with spares and boxes (hence the title) and I bussied myself with other projects including one of my beetles and running the ‘73. A few weeks ago I restarted the project. Made a roller, swapped the garage around and dragged it out. Several years of sitting naked had left it with a layer of surface rust (ratlook isn’t an option). I’ve spent a couple of weeks re-baremetalling, re-replacing the rear arch I wasn’t happy with and treating it all with Phosphoric acid. I’ve just finished scotchbrighting it in readiness for Epoxy primer and thought I’d share some pics while the dust settles....
Cheers! It’s a good shell now everything is new Just finished Epoxy primer. Next job is to spin it over on the jig and epoxy/stone chip underneath. Finish the rear valence (which I’ve left off at the moment as the jig hits it) and then....filler. All front (inner and outer) is new, doors new, arches etc and rear nearside full panel. These shouldn’t require much fettling. Offside centre and rear panels will need work to get them straight. PO appeared to have confused the van with a oil tanker and welded it with a stick welder. Cut it all out and replaced but it’ll need straightening out.
Hi Karl, Looks good.. great to see you got back into the old camper. Have you completed the Beetle ? I was the fella that nipped over for the rims a few months ago ...
Hi there again! Beetle is in Epoxy too. I’ll hopefully get time to work on them both over the winter. Beetle now features a 2” narrowed beam and dropped spindles and awaiting an IRS conversion.
Finished stripping and treating bolt on panels with phosphoric acid in readiness for some epoxy primer... Once these are in primer it’s time to put the bus back on the rotisserie and prep/prime the underside.
Managed an afternoon on the van. Scotchbrighted the panels I’d treated. The acid leaves them a blueish/grey ‘etched’ tinge. Blew off the dust, panel wiped them and epoxy primered. Next job is to store all the bolt on panels away and flip the shell over to give the underside the once over (again!) and spray that. Liking the look of that Tintable Raptor.... There’s not any filler or seam sealer anywhere on the van. Sliding door and O/S panels will need most attention. Hoping the rest shouldn’t need too much.
So do I @Merlin Cat . It’s lovely to see it all in one colour rather than a patchwork of panels. I had gotten so used to seeing it in bare metal!
Back up on the ‘rotisserie’ this morning. Tidying up some welds and cleaning/degreasing/prepping for epoxy. Always a bit nerve racking when you first lift the van onto the rig but once it’s on it’s easy to spin over once you get the balance points set up
I think this is who I bought mine from... looks similar (but newer ones have different locking mechanisms from the look of it; https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/153207195523 I’ve had it for years and I adapted it for use with beetle too. I’m too old for laying on my back getting rust in my eyes
I’ll need to vacuum out those bits!!! The van rests on axle stands on the gutters when tilted. Once you set the thing up properly it’s really well balanced. The big hole in the side where the sliding door goes means it’s slightly off balance flipping over onto the N/S but really easy.