Its been a long time coming, here goes..... This is where poor Freya has been parked up for over a year now And turned into an expensive shed And for any really persistent thieves, behind the big locked gate, in the locked non-starting van, once you get to the drivers seat under all that junk.......was the crooklock! A turn of the key gave a very lazy turn of the engine, so ive towed her forward......... so i can get to the engine and now got battery on charge Now trying to remember all the things that needed fixing......not including welding.... Engine kept cutting out - suspect air leak and carb out of tune Brakes - had a loss of fluid and needed a going over anyway Just before it went off the road it had developed a shudder on taking up drive - driveshafts or maybe clutch? Lots of minor stuff! And probably major stuff! That should make for a pretty comprehensive list then! A full restoration would have been nice but i think now its going to be a case of just getting her back on the road and using her
Cheers guys and gals! Connected up the fully charged battery this morning.............and she started up straight away woohoo. Not bad for an old knacker that hasnt been touched for over a year eh! I was really pleased with the bus aswell! So thats it, resto complete..........im gonna drive to spain now, sod the tax, mot, and long list list of repairs needed. Im outta here haha
The world's coolest shed I reckon! Well done on getting it started and good luck the resto/escape to Spain.
Davidoft of TLB fame has kindly agreed to do some work for me. Very helpful guy, gonna travel over to do the work in my garden and happy for me to help and show me what to do, happy to talk stuff through on the phone and generally very helpful so all in all its a perfect arrangement for me and im very thankful. So he is coming over on Sunday to start working his magic with a welder. I like to think of him as a new and improved Paul Daniels, if only so i can be Debbie McGee, his not so attractive assistant. So the plan for now is to do the sills and jacking points etc so i can get an mot and get back on the road, then take care of the rest as i go and as funds allow. Ordered my first lot of panels today, using some Autocraft bits as they seem to get good reviews. Heres whats coming off The usual stuff i believe. Luckily the floor and tophats seem pretty solid so hopefully not too many nasty surprises. Today ive started cutting stuff out ready for David. I seem to remember somebody on here tried to rearrange his face with an angle grinder, so after a day of holding a grinder upside down under the bus im feeling that perhaps a pair of goggles arent enough. Im going to get a full face mask jobby before i continue. Ive never done this before so trying not to cut away too much, i want to do as much as i can to help but dont want to end up causing him more work. Nearside jacking points off today, found a small hole in chassis rail behind rear jp. Hopefully do the other side tomorrow.
You do have to be careful with a grinder in the restricted space under a bus - top tip - keep it out of line of anything you care about - like your face. Then if it jumps you'll probably just loose an arm.
Sunday 9 September was Davids first day fiddling with Freya with me trying to help. Taken me a few days to write this up because ive ended up with conjunctivitis so ive been even worse at "seeing" than normal. I wont blame David though. Yet. So Sunday was daunting yet exciting.....its a bit scary seeing your van get hacked to bits, but obviously its exciting because it means its getting fixed yippee! Decided to concentrate on nearside as thats hows shes parked! So off came the sills.....looks like the slider track can be saved, just needs a bit of tlc. so from this to this..... Then off came the front lower part of rear arch, nothing too worrying hiding here Although the front arch was clearly rotten id wanted to just patch it up for an mot until i could afford decent arches, David pointed out that id pay him as much to patch it as i would for him to fit a new arch. It has cheap crap arches on at the mo so for the sake of an extra £90 i could fit another cheap arch and even if it only lasts 5 years it still makes things easier and keeps the cost down now. Now i know everybody slates the cheapo arches but its whats already on there and basically i cant afford good ones right now so we figured slather those bad boys in paint/waxoyl/underseal/grease/whatever and she'll be right for a few years. This little bit of surface rust haha you could just rip the whole arch off with your hands, well rotten So off came the front arch..... Taking off the arches it became apparent that the last person to fit new arches liked filler Chopped out a bit at rear of front wheelarch/load floor/bulkhead After the arch came off we took a look at the defo panel behind the bumper, looked a bit crunchy on nearside, so again we decided easier to replace the whole deformation panel than ponce around patching, so off it came Nothing too bad behind there, couple of small patches needed Well i gotta say David certainly knows his stuff. At the start of the day we took the slider and passenger doors off too make things easier. He spotted dodgy things straight away - like the slider door seal was on back to front, the little guide wheel in the runner was worn, among other things. How the hell would your average joe know the door seals on back to front?? Now my slider has always been a 2 handed shutting job....one to pull, one to push back of door in.....upon refitting, the first time he shuts it, he does it one handed! Same thing with passenger door, its never closed properly...needs a good slam and then the bottom corner sticks right out. David spotted some basic problems with it, and again upon refitting, it shuts with a normal shove and lines in almost perfectly (in my eyes!) with the body work......i couldnt help it, i stood there opening and closing my doors marvelling at the difference ;D Anyway all in, it seems my bus isnt that bad rust wise, the usual bits need doing but so far we havent uncovered anything too bad. Got the new panels waiting here now, so as soon as i can i'll have him back for the next installment. I kinda thought ooh i'll have him over for 4 days or whatever and that'll be it done, but as usual other stuff has got in the way and im still trying to figure out when to get him back here. So, till next time..... Top geezer David
thanks for the high praise, but i am only very good at cutting things off!!! , i was hoping you could weld
Oh dear the familer look of rotten inners n outriggers!! Boo The usual van rot!! I do like a viking! ;-) Keep it up
Completely not related to the actual topic, but the title of this thread makes me smile everytime I see it ... our daughter is called Freya and I get a picture in my head of her with a Viking hat on! Don't know why as she has never worn one Fantastic name for your van, if she is anything like our Freya expect the occassional tantrum but lots of fun (I also think that the van will be slightly quieter when running than our daughter ...)
