Now would be a good time to ask what colour the bride and bridesmaids will be wearing so he can choos a colour which won't clash in the wedding photo's.
I'm not doing it just for the wedding so this won't have a bearing on the final colour. We has a few offers of friends VW's on the big day but when I thought about it properly we both decided that it HAD to be my own one. I had hoped to respray it a few years back but funds were never available. Once we get married they NEVER will be so now's a good a time as any!
Hey Owen, Hope you're well fella? I had you in mind after I posted my plans. This job that I'm planning would probably only take you a weekend!! lol
It's been a busy few weeks. I've been spending HOURS with a wire brush on my grinder attacking the paint (and filler). I haven't come across crumbling rust yet at all! Alot of poor repairs in the past but at least its clean metal. So far there has been NO surprises. This never happens!! I've gone through this van at length before and always knew it could do with both a new front panel and rear corner. I popped down to Jon at www.vwspares.ie this morning and picked up a few parts that I needed. Jon has ordered a few more parts for me and my buddy Eamon will be over this Friday to start the fitting. I've just been stripping both the interior and the paintwork every night after work. Windows came out with alot less rust underneath than I expected. New panels It was nice and cosy in there at night with this behind the fiberglass panels. The following 2 pics were from a few days ago and there's much more stripped now! I'm hoping by Sunday the front panel will be tacked in. While its off I hope to get at the heater cables (which I've never had) and I've decided to get rid of the radio opening in the dash for a cleaner look.
It's hard to tell from the pics I suppose but the corner just under the gutter is pretty bad. If you look directly under the tail lamp you can see the white filler. The section there and the corner by the rear door are pretty much made from filler. It was badly repaired before and filled about a half an inch thick. It was just as easy to get the full section. If you look at my vent you'll notice I'm missing a rung. There's a hole behind it into the interior for what I believe was another ariel. I'll have to cut the rung on the repair panel to attempt to recreate the original feature on the van.
The strip down continues..... I've spent almost 2 hours each night just grinding back the paint and filler. For the most part filler was used just to flatten the large side panels. Even though repairs were made in the past many of the repairs aren't great and will need fixing/straightening I almost have the entire bus stripped from the sliding door backwards. The gold paint is just to highlight where welding is required There were a few surprises where filler was hiding some nasty sins. I always knew there was filler in the corners but never sure of how much This hole was full of filler but I have a full section bought to go straight in. As you can see from other pics I have a full rear corner bought to go in so this evening Eamon cut it out And finally, the front panel was removed. It is actually quite good behind there apart from the hole in the bottom right. The deformation panel is rock solid thankfully apart from the right corner and I've picked up a replacement inner panel behind the dash.
I'll take a pic for you later @Zebedee Hopefully yours won't be as bad. I could have put in new windscreen and bottom sections but it is just as easy to replace the entire panel.
The rot on mine goes this far up. Inner panel is mostly gone, so is the inner valance, the panel the washer bottle fixes to and the deformation panel is patched.
That doesn't look too good Mine had some bubbles under the rubber. When I stripped it back there were holes the whole way along. The bottom inch or so the whole way along was also gone. You can see the light coming under it in this pic. You can also see a few drilled holes where sometime in its life someone had screwed a numberplate into the front panel. (as seen on page 2 of this thread) I would have had to repair the whole section under the seal, the entire bottom section plus weld up those holes in the front. It was just as easy (and a tidier job) to just replace the whole front panel.
Looks like its getting the love it deserves. Makes sense to replace the front panel as one. I've patched mine up for the past few (OK 10 ) years but i think its got to the point i either need to get rid of it or sell a kidney to pay for the panels it needs. Its like this inside where the dash attaches.
I've mostly been stripping paint each evening this week.........still Tonight however I decided to remove the interior fibreglass roof panel. It was a fair bit of work drilling out all the spot welds and screws (about 50 combined) and wasn't expecting it to be as heavy as it was when it finally released. All the fibreglass panels are going to need a fair bit of work before going back in. I then turned my attention to removing the paint behind the air scoops. The wire brush on my drill only went in so far so I resorted to chipping it off with a flathead screwdriver. If anyone has any tips I'd appreciate it. This much took about 45 mins
Not easy to clean inside the back vents and child labour is frowned upon now. Maybe you could use a trained monkey to sand in there?
I got it done I the end. I stayed chipping away with a flathead and it only took about another half hour. Because the entire other corner is removed I'll be able to get at it with the wire wheel.
Slow progress due to the Christmas season but some good work has got done. Eamon arrived a few weeks ago and fitted the front interior panel. It was good to see fresh metal going in already. Then on Friday he bet me home from work and had already made a huge start into the front corner repairs before I arrived. Serious respect to him for driving his split considering how bad the fog has been recently. This is how he left it on Friday night. Before and after... (actually after and before) Meanwhile, I've been mainly spending my time on fibreglass repairs. I wasn't planning on removing the headliner but as the rest of the fibreglass needed repairs I wanted it all to look the same. As I mentioned already removing the headliner nearly broke me. About 50 of these little Illegitimate child screws (and pop rivets) held it up. I seemed to be rounding heads on most of them for fun! I finally got it out though. I prepared all the panels and then the repairs began. The fibreglass is 37 years old by now but most of it has held up pretty well. If you can zoom in on this pic you'll see about 9 holes which gives an idea of how many repairs were needed.. Most of the repairs that were needed was to repair holes drilled by previous owners for (presumably) fixings. Anyway, I'm still tipping away. I have some time off in the new year so hopefully I'll get a good bit more done then. Not sick of it....................... YET
So I've taken off the 2 roof vents as both needed work. 2 of the loops have been broken since I bought the van so I layered up fibreglass and formed new ones. (forgot to take pics of them finished but they came out well) Work continued on the rear corner in preparation for new metal. It's not often you come across a battery tray this solid. Just 3 very small holes near the bottom right of this pic Front panel is now on!! A small bit of adjusting still to do but it looks almost like a van again.
