My '76 Microbus / Camper : Landyn

i did the whole underside of my old stag with por15 and it went on a treat, but it was only on a wire brush preped surface

 

Another busy weekend sat in the back of the bus, but limited photo's as most of it was mind numbing flatting of the POR15!

However, there were some highlights...

In between coats of POR15 on the underside, I gave the rear light housings a splash of primer, followed by the chrome paint I had left from the instrument bezels... will hopefully add a bit of safety to the back end. I spent Friday night cleaning 30 years of crap off the housings cos I have no friends, or at least none that really want to spend Friday evening talking about how to make the rear lights on a VW bus work better!



Saturday was POR15 sanding... followed by a touch of filling. The flat section to the NS bowed a little and the spot welds, well, they're spot welds, so a few of them got filled while i was there...



On the OS the flat section had been repaired by the garage, so a bit of filler here too... The big bare metal bit is a little bulge in the metal work, but I'm going to live with it



Put another coat of POR15 on the underside elements





Then added a little etch primer, firstly to the bits that had been sanded through... which spread to make it look a similar colour throughout and compared to the POR15 coat it's positively smooth!!







I then sprinted to Halfrauds to buy seam sealer, and they don't sell it!! Pah... Came back and cracked on with the POR15 Chassis Black, not as runny, not as quick to go off... and black.





The only down side to it being black is that it is more difficult to see how well it's going on... if it's gone on well I'll be masking it off and doing primer and top coats next weekend, if it hasn't I'll be putting another coat on!

I popped the rear lights back on to finish the day off, keep the bay dry if it dries during the week... even though it's temporary, it's nice to do a finishing item!

 

Halfords sell brushable seam sealer dude its where i bought my last tub from

That engine bay is going to look spanking when its finished dude
Well worth the time and effort your putting in

 

that engine bay is looking really good mate

Express paints on the airport service road sell seam sealer

 

Right, overdue an update!!

The last few weeks have generally been about getting more bits of the engine ready for the rebuild and painting / prep work. Since the last update the crank case has been for a good wash, the heads are (still) having the valves done, the small end bushes are being replaced and should be getting the crank back with no. 3 bearing replaced and journals polished.

While the machine shop have been doing that, I've been prepping the fanhousing... on an hour a night basis as I'm limited to doing that in my garden after work!! Decided to have this next week off work, so I hope to be in a position to hand the van back to the garage to install the rebuilt engine into a finished engine bay by Easter Monday!!

Yesterday was a bit slow, working on the fan housing and getting ready to play a gig last last night. Today, was all about the seam sealer... not a job I fancy doing again in a hurry! I used brush on sealer, but would welcome peoples thoughts on whether tube sealer would be easier to use in the future. Piccies....

Taped up...





Sealed and untaped...





I was a little unsure what to do about the vertical seams, but guessed they we less critical than the horizontal ones. I left the outside edge of the battery trays unsealed hopefully that'll just let water past the trays?

I went back after these photo's and added a bit more to the wheel arch / battery tray and corresponding OS junction and then finished a can of high build over the joints.

Tomorrow will be flatting, spraying, flatting spraying... hopefully culminating in a bit of blue paint before the rain arrives on Tuesday!

Sorry, but no pics of the fan housing

 

tidy work mate

 

That's a great looking engine bay. Deeply jealous but something for me to aim towards.

 

Right... lets pick up where I left off last night.

As i mentioned, been putting the hours in on the fan housing; it was sand blasted when the tin was done and I've then spent ages flatting off the visible casting marks, filling the pitting in the ally and ensuring the sealing surfaces all do their job properly.

After a few coats of high build and flatting I'm hit the last primer coats this morning, followed by even more flatting, then more primer...





As you can see, conditions aren't perfect but the garden is pretty sheltered which helps.

Towards the end of the afternoon I had a couple of colour coats on and flatted back the visible parts...



The colour is Ford Tango Red Metallic. I've spent ages staring at passing cars while walking the dog to get a colour I like and would work in the blue van. In bright daylight it's a bit orange (which is opposite and complimentary on the colour wheel... apparently) and in dim light it's a more burgundy / red oxidey colour. I got some polarised sunglasses for Christmas which also make the colour really pop!!

The alternative was Peugeot Moonshine, which is a pale metallic silver / blue... but every car I saw in this colour was dented and I didn't think that was a good sign!!

I spent the day doing one coat on the fan housing, then doing the same in the van, sanding the fan housing, sanding the van... and so on!! More high build in the van, still trying to get a good finish after the POR15 debarcle...





After more flatting, it only served to highlight more little microbubbles in the POR15 below, so I reluctantly went back to the filler stage



So, having hoped to be blue by the end of the day I was the one left blue having not got as far as I'd liked will try to get sanded and get another coat of high build on tomorrow if the rain holds off for long enough.

To cheer myself up I went digging in the crate of powdercoated parts and did this....



The finger print by the alternator cover was temporary!

Tomorrow I should be able to pick up the heads, crankshaft and rods and build the short block if it rains.... got to juggle getting the exhaust fixed on the Olop too, so may be a less picture laden update tomorrow night!!

 

Wow some good work there! like the attention to detail too

 

Not such a productive day in terms of show, and a bit frustrating in places.

Started out thinking I'll get the fanhousing lacquered only to find a couple of dings in the front part, right in the eyeline so that got sanded back and I picked up some more paint later in the day... put a bit more paint on and then spotted a stray hair... so, bought it back in to let it harden then i'll be sanding it back again.

In the van, more flatting, grey primer, more flatting... in order to keep the photo's interesting i thought i'd take one from a different angle....



I was worried about impeding rain (which still hasn't arrived down here) so called it a day outside mid afternoon and sealed the van up with some specialist Halfords aftermarket parts...



In better news, I picked up the heads, crank and con rods from the machine shop.... not sure if I've mentioned they're name in this thread, but well worth a mention and recommendation! Banda Engineering in Portsmouth

Crank, polished, bearing changed...



One head... valves and guides replaced and lapped. Will probably start tomorrow by installing the springs so that nothing goes walkies!!



Talking of walkies, the dog was getting in the way and provided this clever little play on words...



Tomorrow, engine build or painting the engine bay blue depending on the weather (paint taking precedent to give it time to harden)!!

Andy.

 

Nice work dude indeed im impressed

 

Actually, feeling it could be going smoother!! i've just been hunting for a "before" picture to help lift the spirits a little....



That and a can of Fosters is helping

 

Keep it up dude and keep the pics coming

 

Right, quick update cos I'm off to band camp this evening...

First job was to reintroduce springs, retainers and collets to the valves to make sure I don't have a dumb moment and have them all fall out...



As a result, i have one good valve spring compressor that may want rehoming, one numpty owner... only used 32 times....



Following that I toyed with getting stuck into the crank case, but since the sun was shining (still) I carried on painting...

I flatted down al the bad bits on the fan housing and the visible areas to keep the base coats as good as possible...



Added just about all i had left of red paint...



and cautiously left it there for a few hours!! came back later and kicked the stand and it hit the deck NOT HAPPY!!! the bottom it took the worst of the fall and there were a few indentations in the upper horn, so back to flatting, painting etc... almost feels like i'm destined to not have this thing painted!!

by the end of the day I started laying on 4 coats of clear.... it's looking ok, now and has been carefully moved inside to dry and harden in the warmth! This is one coat of clear... it looks far better than this already!



In other news... I also ploughed on with the engine bay. One final coat of primer...



Followed by a dust coat of blue and then 2 further thin coats...





and cos all of this is taken using an iPhone, i thought i'd get a bit app-y....



Despite the cock up with the fan housing and the permanent scars it'll wear around it's bottom (oo-er) I'm pretty happy with today's progress!! I'm going to flat the blue down a bit tomorrow before giving it two final coats then i'll let it go off nicely before finishing it off on Sunday or Monday!