Those lights really are truly outstanding. Nobody makes a bezel of that quality for a simple l.e.d. surface fixture. That's a nice bit of detail. (translation- I want some and now I'm a bit miffed that I can't simply order some online.) Where did you put the switch for them? I see you have Styrofoam in your side panels. Does that insulate against road noise at all or is it just for temperature? I wonder if that would be better than the original pink fiberglass fluff that's in my bus. Does anybody ever try spray foam insulation or might that trap moisture inside?
Now that the roof lining is fitted up & the lights are working, we focused our attention on the trim panels and the flooring and we cut all of the floor pieces cut to length and shaped, not bad, 8mm thick waterproofed flooring from B & Q! next weeks plan is to finish the trimming, glue the floor down and prepare for the cupboards!
Bit of a setback these past few days the ride height on the back of Gusbus was lowered (front was but the beam was rotten, its back on a stock beam) so we set to On first sight the inner donut bush was past its best, no problem, we got a set in preparation! Looking at the torsion bar and springplate, the end of the splines had burred over and we couldn't separate them, that was the least of our worries as the spring plate had badly corroded and started to crumble away, the boss where it is welded to the plate had lost its thickness around the outer radius and was less than 2mm thick. We got the grinder on the springplate, split it and freed it off - luckily it freed itself and the splines on the torsion bar was okay The corrosion on the boss is evident here!
Last we knew you could buy new springplates from VW Heritage - went online, no longer available. RCC Imports had some on eBay, £20 each - worth a punt, they turned up Thursday and look pretty good, just surface rust. Rebuild time and a lick of paint round the torsion bar housing Got the torsion bar in, new donut bush fitted up and the height set on the springplate - stock height (he says hopefully) and also new bushes on the a arm. Got a bit more paint on, the rest I'll do when its ready to have the wheel back on
fit for scrap! the ones from RCC had surface rust and a little pitting, a damn good coat of paint has sorted them!
Right hand side now rebuilt with new bushes on the A arm and both donut bushes, final lick of paint and voila Stripped the left hand side down and this was just as bad, bush past its best and lots of corrosion on the springplate' boss and lots of flakes of rust A Arm had a bit of damage to it, was dinged a little and the bush was perished Rebuild time, cleaned and painted the housing and the new inner donut bush in Springplate back in and a lick of paint (not finished as we was struggling to get it home properly and time ran out) Next week we will be back to stock ride height and ready for a few touch ups and Scott will also have the interior ready (if all goes to plan)
Reporting in! Tyres fitted to the alloys today - Falken 195/70 x 15 with a 102 load rating, hopefully get them fitted next week
Mostly bitting and bobbing at the moment but each little job is one off the list! Sun visors and seat belts next week
Great job, you're right, might as well do it correctly the first time as have it fail on you and yours, on the side of the road. (and have to crap the weekend).
After the nightmare of springplates, we have done a few little unseen jobs like fit the front belly pan, sorted the rubber cones out on the rear, fitted sunvisors, we have now started trimming Gusbus out..Jailbars, looking good Seatbelts and anchor points all fitted along with the cab mats colour coded with the seatbelts Couldn't resist fitting this fella to the gearstick
You have a lot of red wires Mark, I hope everything works because tracing faults isn't going to be much fun!
