Haha, well we never actually knew until today! I guess like you and Ellie we've been more focused on using the bus than polishing it. I do polish him though
Might have been even worse if the spare hadn't been on the front to spread the load? And... afterwards... spare on the front hides a multitude of sins.
Progress. The brief was to repair, fill and not replace and that's exactly what we've got...but to a bloody good finish. I want Chip back to use, not to sit in a garage for months A nasty bit that looked horrible..wasn't so bad There was also a nasty big hole here.. That whole panel has now been skimmed. It had some odd dents which are still there but not, if ya get me... Screen surround with new metal filling voids and a nice top skim And the front. It's been pulled out and flattened off to profile. The holes are for the new carrier. I'm proper happy that this has been thoughtfully drilled before paint so it can be err painted...
Pah, don't be daft. Yours is far from scrap. It's actually not a lot, but to sort it back to decent paint seems 'other worldly' to us non body people. Some brave folk on here get stuck into chassis replacements, wings, rear quarters, roof cuts etc etc. I'm happy inside a box of gears so horses for courses... ...wait until you see what I've got planned for that
It's not as easy as it looks to get something that probably doesn't really fit to line up in 3 dimensions. I was only really getting the hang of it when I gave up.
Feel-good Friday! Well it's not all roses in the garden because Chip is an All American Bus . What I mean by that, and it's not meant to be disparaging, is that it's easy to blow over a coat of paint and perhaps overlook that the paint should really stick to something. Anyway, all sorted. We've accepted that a bit more prep is required for a lasting finish (we kind of knew anyway) and Chip is ready for paint next week... Paint layers over previously poorly prepared surfaces. I kind of like it, although it's being dealt with, coz it's honest bodgery.
Pretty happy that is all that it was actually. From a respected body guru... "it's as good as you thought it was"
So next week is paint. Very excited. The bumpers, wheels and door covers have gone off for powder coating (which will be painted on the visible surfaces when they come back) so big crossed fingers...
The two covery things that sit under each of the rear windows. One side covers the middle slider track...dunno what they're called They've got a bit of surface rust on the bit that's never seen, so our man decided to get them stripped and powder coated in white, and then they'll be sprayed on the outer surface to match the body colour. Just a bit of long term corrosion protection to the surface that you can't see or clean properly Ray.
I’m a numpty, I was thinking front doors Makes sense now and great idea. I think people call them track covers.
A quick dash into our local Scandinavian retail outlet has bagged some black out fabric. We've had similar on the T3 for the last few years and it's the nuts for keeping out the light, giving some thermal assistance to the glass areas and keeping in the light. It's so good, you cannot tell we have lights on in the van at night! Mrs Monkey will use this 4.5m X 1.5m cut to line the new gingham curtainage.
