I see loads in Warmley.Used to be one by the midland spinner & webbs of warmley bike shop too. Mines actually at my unit in Chipping Sodbury. Would be good to have a poke around a van that's actually road worthy.
The plan is to pull all the glass out of the bus as most of the rubbers have shrunk back. So I'll replace all the rubbers & treat any issues I find along the way.
I've had a day on the bus so I pulled the interior from the rear & pulled a load of unnecessary clutter from the loom. I had intended on removing the front seats but after using an air compressor to clean the runners & a tin of penetrating fluid on the runners I still couldn't get the seats to budge a millimetre. I cut all the rubbers from the windows & removed all the glass.I was really pleased not to see any major rust issues just pepper holes.I marked all the holes with a marker to make then clearer. I removed the belly pan & traced a loom up to the dash that was connected to a heater switch on the dash.I think at some point there was a seperate heater in the van as there was an ignitor under the floor & there is pipework hanging down that looked like it may have been linked into the standard heater system. Also my van was obviously a 1700 or 2000cc with injection as I found the ecu in the engine bay.I traced all the loom up to the dash & removed it all. There was also a speed limiter behind the kick panel on the drivers side so I removed all the loom to that aswell.
When I stripped the interior I made about 40c in loose change & some interesting paperwork. Also found some paper book matches.I did find a vile of rabies vaccination that I thought was a bit scary.
Yep my landmarks the same ,people who don't have US busses don't understand the difference between UK and US rusted busses, I was shocked when my worse bits on the Landmark were just surface rust and good metal underneath ,whilst my UK devon rusty bits just flaked away into nothing.
Ye it's really good.It means I can mig weld blobs into the pin holes & grind down.It's the same as the gutter rails.It looks really bad but it's actually solid with no corrosive rust at all. What would be the best thing to use to treat the surface rust before I refit the windows? I also found this plate under the dash, could anyone tell me what info it contains please?
Today I grabbed my neighbour who owns a body repair shop. He had a look over the van & found nothing more than I had already noticed. He is going to braze the pin holes in all the window recesses as he things welding will find more holes. He also told me a good way of matching the paint after he's replaced the rear wheel arch & any patches he needs to fit by adding primer to the paint I've decided I'm going to scotch brite the whole van when it's complete & spray over with matt lacquer. Can anyone tell me how I find the correct colour blue for my van?Is it anything to do with the vin plate above?
My job got cancelled today so I took the opportunity to go & play on the bus. Even though I want to keep as much patina as I can I also want the van to be clean, so today I gave it a wash & then started to do a quick T-cut. I started on the drivers door & also did the door shut & both rear window sills. I left the long rear panel to show the difference a quick paint buff & polish can do. The top half came out really well & I was initially pleased with the bottom half but I want to do it again. I removed some of the rusty water marks that were running down the rear vent area & it looks so much nicer.
After some help in 'mech tech' I managed to get my seats out.The runners were completely clogged with dirt & rust & I had to use a metal drift & a BIG hammer. I then started cleaning up the bases & as everything was now out of the van I gave the mouldy headlining a clean & balm.I then used turpentine on the cargo floor. I then spent an hour T-cut & polishing the front half of the front panel before I ran out of T-cut.
I am happy to report that other than a bit of surface rust all the cargo floor corners & rear arches are rot free.Which is nice.
Finished the front end today. Also took the dash vents out,sprayed them & cleaned up the dash top. This door is next.
factory eberspacher nice. mine has one too, not working when i got the bus but with some help it now works a treat.
Just a small update. I was browsing ebay & came across a few parts that I thought I don't need but as always if you don't get them when you see them, then when you want them they're either bullion money or you don't see them again. Nothing special but a very tidy, crack free spare wheel cover. I then cleaned it up. I also moped the side of the van to see how it would look. I'm just waiting to get it into my mates bodyshop. Hopefully before the weeekend.
Got home early so decided to tackle my locks. I stripped them down after reading the link that was posted on another thread I started.Here's the link. I've got to say it's very easy & massively satisfying when it all works. http://thelatebay.com/index.php?threads/rekeying-a-lock-tutorial.434/ Cleaned & refitted as many wafers as I could so now I have matching ignition key to front door handles & boot lock.The only issue I have is the sliding door lock.I've removed the retaining clip from the back of the lock but I cannot get the barrel from the lock. I've left it in soak in WD40 & I'll get back to it asap.
should be enough to keep you out of trouble this winter. try to keep us updated on here with your pics as you go along. the 1975 tintop I bought last year was originally in similar condition to yours and the same colour. the po restored the van which is now red and white. you should maintain a full photo record of your van as it is now and all the way to full restoration. i have that for my van and shows what can be done on these vans. you should get lots of interest from the folks on here as they have done it all before and can give helpful advice. good luck and enjoy.
Thanks for the positive comments. Over the years I've learnt that whenever I build a project it's always good to keep a build thread , both as a good way of seeing how far I've come & to hopefully help others with any issues they have.
