1975 devon revamp - scampervan

i have just noticed that the cab floor sections are the wrong profile around where the steps will be so this will need some trimming.

my wallet is feeling ok atm, i think sills and jacking points will be next on the list once ive got under it and cleaned off all the underseal

 

booked a couple days off work now my back is better to get going on the camper.

i spent today fabricating a couple of bits for the a pillars and started putting the front panels back on - finally i feel im making progress















untill tomorrow ............................

 

Thats looking good dude

 

well after a quite productive day yesterday i had a very unproductive day today and didnt get any panels fitted

i wasnt happy with the fit of the front cross memember so ive held back on fitting it as i might try another panel.
i did however manage to get my rear horse shoes test fitted to the rear to see how much it will lower it by but the wheels are a bugger to fit now, but that could be down to the tyres being too big?? 185/80r14?

i also cut the lower corner off the drivers side rear and the battery tray, which then i noticed that when the last owner replaced the rear chassis legs, the drivers side has been welded wrong and sits about 10-15mm too low at the very end :'( looks like more unexpected work needed

drivers rear lower corner and most of battery tray removed





wonky chassis leg



passenger side



drivers side



then as i was under there i had a good look around for rust, seeing as i just keep finding more and more everytime















rear horse shoes fitted



and rear wheels finally back on, after a big struggle to get them in the arch. i havent decided if the horseshoes will stay or not yet but only time will tell. i guess if they stay my idea for some banded steels is out the question

 

you get some days when it seems like you've not got much done, and others your supprised at how much you've welded on.

Nice work on the A pillers and inner front lower panel bit (or whatever its called ;D) .....think the technical term is genuine VW water trap ;D

looking at the rot you've found inside at the top of the engine bay. It might be worth poking around for filler next to the ends of the hinge panel and the corner where it meets the hinge panel. With the few rust holes you have inside it wouldnt supprise me if you find a few holes on the out side .........I could be wrong though, thats where I found a bit of rot on mine.

bad news about the chassis leg, I'm sure you'll get it sorted though. That battery tray looks like it had a bit of welding done to it in the past

Is it the early inner valance you were trying to fit? ........they are rubbish arnt they ;D, as you might have seen on my thread I fitted a late bay valance and just cut the upper lip off, the lower skin fits nicely over it and less work needed than modifying the poor early panel

keep up the good work

 

Cant belive they are still on back order!!

I ordered one probably back in July, I was told it would be here in Aug, then sept, then Nov .....apparently they have been on order since Febuary!.....think Ive still got the order down for me as I didnt cancel :

I was very lucky in that Davidoft sold me his otherwise I would have had to use the early one. I did star modifying it by putting filler bits on the ends of the big open box section, I continued the box section bit so It would meet and weld to the inner A posts, I then realised the profile wouldnt meet the front skin .....so I would have ended up altering that too.

looking forward to the pics of the other bodges ;D

 

small update from this weekend. didnt really do anything to the camper, but i spent a few hrs this afternoon building the roll-over jig which arrived during the week.
i also got half of my engine case back after a friend has been media blasting it







the jig









and the bodge i was on about previously. if there is a gap between the panels because you havent fitted it correctly, you could always fill it with loads of metal strips bent to shape then cover it in as much weld as poss

 

That's mental gap filling.

 

some more progress although not much

first up i finished welding both the jigs



front



rear



and then the stipping ready for mounting of the jig began



back up on the stands



doors and windows removed



the window surrounds arent too bad though which im happy about. just some surface rust where the rubbers had been



and removed the hammocks and interior panels. i started on the pop top but couldnt work out how the bellows would be attached??

 

nice work with the rollover jig 8) that will come in very handy and save you hours lying on your back under the bus

 

Yes it should do.

Im guessing that your still trying to get that early one fitted then?? it had me confused as if I had it right against the 'water trap' then there would be big gaps at the bottom where it meets the chassis rails .....which I didnt like (and you dont get with the late valance)

Zed said that the gap was ok, it was to let air circulate .....feels strange to me to leave it open to scoop up all that road dirt though > ;D ......I probably would have lived with it if the rest of the panel had been ok

 

there is defo big gaps at the bottom of the chassis rails that poke out from under the valance, but when its against the "water trap" it doesnt even touch the ends of the chassis rails

 

yea, I dont think the profile is right on them, I found that too.

Its like you need some sort of jacking device to push it hard up against them, perhapse that would straighten out the profile a bit better.

You'll find also that with the bad profile, the front panel wont sit hard against the valance and there will be gaps both on sides

 

well as with most of us on here i think, i had a break over the xmas period and finally got back over the workshop today.
i didnt get anywhere near as much done as i had hoped but never mind. but this is what i did manage with the help of my lovely missus

rolled the bus





that wasnt as simple as had hoped. 3 of the welds on the front frame decided to crack halfway through rotation so we had to steady it in posisiton so i could reweld it before we could carry on.

now it was finally secured in position (axle stands under roof gutter), we could crack on with removing the underseal and have a poke around for anymore rot

passenger front inner arch



passenger front "Y" section needs some attention



heater tube needs replacing, previous owner did say the heaters didnt work :



and a shot from behind



thats all for now

 

Great thread mate

Similar state to mine, the good news is you didn't pay much for it, think how you would have felt if you had spent twice as much and found all this :

That PO's repair to the front panel was quality, loving that

Same rollover jig as I have just assembled, reckon we ought to negotiate a discount for TLB with David the amount of people on here who have one! Amything you would do differently now you are using it? Were the broken welds down to your welding or design?

Cheers,

MM

 

cheers mm, all encoragement helps when at this stage lol. tbh i think ive bought quite a good one for the money as ive seen alot more out there sell for twice as much as have been alot worse. atleast i dont have a time limit or a budget as such to get it done in.

i was very hesitant in buyin the jig at first as i wasnt sure if it was going to be worth it, but now its on it was defo worth it as its going to be soo much easier to work on the underside and repair the chassis.

in which way do you mean do things differently?

the welds breaking was due to me not welding it propperly i guess, altho where it did break the metal buts against each other which probably didnt help matters. its all ok now though. my only critic about the frame is its quite wobbly with the camper fitted so i might add some extra supports to the 'a' frames