As it's raining and cold today I have generously given myself the day off fixing roofs so time for an update. Been busy buying rust free doors and stuff. Trial fitting the cab doors to see if they fit and if they fit how good the shut lines are going to be - The o/s is fine but the n/s showed that where I had replaced the front arch way back when I made a bit of a pigs ear of it - The top curve where it goes down to the step had twisted inwards leaving the arch about 10-15mm too far in. Was going to look shocking. My main man, assisted by my good self 'adjusted by cutting a slit from the seat belt mount all the way to the step and levered the whole arch outwards using a redundant roof bar off a 1998 Rover 220 diesel - I knew i kept that for a reason. Result is - Needs the carnage left inside dressing and welding back together, but it fits. I like the colour of the door as does my GF which has called into question the plan of keeping the van Orange/white as it once was. We will see.... Other progress- The slider side is now pretty much solid again with rear arch, outersill and rear corner in. the battery tray still needs to go in. The sliding door has had a repair done but in my typical way not really finished off - that will be made good in the next few weeks. Ta ta Matt
As the bodywork is well on the way, time to look at other things that need to be done to get us rolling again. The front beam has been slowly rotting away so it needs to go.... Martin at Bristol Cherished Cars http://www.bristolcherishedcars.co.uk/ , My local VW expert stepped up and I took on the role of providing tea, pizza and biscuits whilst asking stoopid questions. He did let me undo some brake lines and hit things with a hammer though! So the van was jacked up nice and high Wheels off first and this is where my moment of glory came in. I undid the brake lines from the hard pipe from the flexi, without damage to myself or the van I then took on a more observatory position. The handbrake cable jobber, gearshift jobber and clutch cable jobber were undone and passed back through the beam. The steering idle jobber arm thing (see why I looked rather than did?) undone and track rods undone. The spring arms were removed after undoing the ball joints that didn't want to come out. A large amount of hammer time was employed to separate the arms form the beam. As you see below the effort involved separating the arms from beam the actually killed Martin- that's his legs under the van Luckily he recovered quickly and after some tea and food the relatively easy part of dropping the beam off revealed... No rust! The old beam is a little worse for wear now... The screw driver is there to show the hole, not a rare Westfalia optional extra. It starts to go a little bit wrong now as the second hand beam I bought some time ago appears to have a buggered thread on one of the adjusters, best thing to do is to get a new set of adjusters and weld them in as even if we could clear the thread out it's pretty important part not to have 100%. So that's it for now, hoping the beam will go back on next week. Cheers
hello sir.... you were great at doing what you did..... when i need a new tea, biscuit and pizza fetcher you are the only man i would consider!! lol...
matt is great at putting beam spring leaves in ... well maybe he needs more practice actually!! lol.....
So then a couple of weeks have passed by and there is progress. The cruddy window surrounds on the rear side windows have been given some attention. New sections let in on both sides Then join the dots to give a continuous weld and get the v-section on for the covers to slot into. Other things finished off include the n/s front wheelarch butchery and the half finish sliding door repair from years ago. Left with the van really looking like progress is made - the front beam is back in too. The welding is coming to an end - just the o/s front seat belt mount to be cut out and renewed, which should be done next weekend. My bodywork guru has started talking about filler and sanding discs etc so it looks like the a landmark is in sight.
Well, I'm not really getting along with this site now - and having spent an age writing up how progress is on the van the *****ing late *****ing bay won't let me update the thread so I think i will ***** this off and have a beer!!!! Adios
Here goes again... Soooooo, The welding is all done with the final seat belt mount nicely in place. What a lovely neat job - where the b pillar meets the top on the wheel arch inside the door shut has been reworked from the bodge up that was there previously and will look as good as new after paint etc. Moving onwards, the mammoth task roughly shaping the new panels after all that welding is well on the way. Apparently the idea is to get everything roughly shaped up and then spray filler to get the sides as straight as poss before paint. The front panel has had the round pressing that the new panels have cut out and replaced with a flat bit and smoothed over. Sliding door with a good layer of jollop on ready to knock back into shape Back end coming along nicely Long side progressing - taking a lot of filling/sanding to get this ready I have been messing about with the back end height and trying the wheels that I have to go on it. They are rubbish mws fuch copies with a bad offset but they were cheap and will do for now. Think I want it at this sort of height so will see what happens when the interior and doors are back in/on
So, a while has passed by and there is more progress. The body has had the rough filler work completed and sprayfilled all over. A light guide coat dusted over and then using blocks of varying lengths and shapes sanded down. Then the primer went on... Here's the van seeing daylight for the first time in 6 months. The doors etc are being given the same treatment and are not too far off primer as well. Next jobs for me are: engine out and clean up engine bay for primer and paint. Finish off suspension height adjustments, refurb rear brakes and new hard brake lines back to the flexis. Not too far off the exciting shiny paint time now I think with a bit of luck - Then I just need put it back together.... Cheers
Mini update. Had a couple of spanner sessions and thanks to the kind use of doug's (bay searcher) jack, axle stands and moving heavy items around skills, got the engine out. Removed the firewall to clean the 40yr old oil mist spread over it. Took the fuel filler neck out as we spotted a couple of pin holes in the filler recess and didn't fancy welding next to the open fuel tank. Also: stripped o/s rear brakes down to component parts to check over, clean and make sure adjusters and wheel cylinder are in good order; took off o/s driveshaft as one gaiter was split, removed CV joints ( easy once i found the circlip holding them on) and took gaiters off ready for new ones; got covered in grease. Having a good push on getting the van as ready as it can be before it goes for paint as the mot runs out in June and I'm gonna be a bit miffed if I get a long fail list that stops me going to the seaside in the van. More soon....
Another day, another step closer. The doors etc. have been given some attention this weekend. They have been spray filled and needed to be sanded back for priming. There were a few little improvements made to the shape and the inside returns given a clean up. First thing, get the van out and clear the workspace Waiting to be sanded back End of the day: all doors and hatches primed. Also got the bumpers welded up and beaten back into shape and primed along with the sliding track covers, front grill thing and dash top. That's the photo worthy progress taken care of. Other dull stuff done includes degreasing and keying up the engine bay for painting.... More, live, as it happens, keep tuned in...
