My Hi-Tops gonna be cool.. So Nyeuur. 8^)

Great thread - Cunning plan getting the students to restore your bus for you.

 

She's going to be a stunner - can't wait!!!

 

nice progress

many hands make light work .......get the students to strip the underside - by hand > > ;D

 

Ta for comments guys, n yes is great havin the students give me a lift, is good for them too. @ burnout, gonna mount the rad centrally to the underside, lay more or less flat between the chassis members. RJES was part way through testing some proto-type rads n scoops on various vans when last I spoke to him quite recently. Considering going with one of his tried n tested setups rather than the usual trial n error situation with landrover disco rads n fans, have heard can be ok yet occasionally temperamental when towing etc. Need to confirm price with him first tho. Gotta spend a fortune with him as it is, what with bell housing, throttle flipper and engine brace etc etc..
Anyways, van is on the trolley ready for blasting this Friday, weather permitting. Will post more pics this weekend of any progress. Spk soon guys. 8^)

 

cool, will check RJES site again, didnt notice the cooling bits. Is there any reason why central and not closer to the front or back with the rad? Ive got bottom 6+ inch to worry about before i get that far

Hope the weather holds for your blasting sesion ;D good luck keeping the workforce motivated!

 

Hi all, Last post was yonks ago, been busy with all sorts of rubbish, progress with the bus has been a bit slow of late, those nagging little snags that you gotta do before paint. I had the van blasted as mentioned in my last post, wasn't as straight forward as i would've like but we got there in the end. The pics below show a large make shift tent we made utilising the workshop up and over doors, the weather was bobbins and I needed to shelter the blaster. I knew it was gonna be loud, but WOW! it was like some one was revving up a jet plane in the workshop. To cut a long story short, had to abort half way through and re schedule for following week with better weather. We strapped the bus to a trolley and rolled it outside, we had to negotiate 2 speed bumps, the second of which snapped the front legs and Castor's clean off the trolley and the shell just slid forward, thought it was just gonna nose dive into the tarmac, proper trouser moment. Anyway, remounted the bus on the spit and blasting was done. great job, really pleasant guy, really convenient and really cheap in my opinion for the degree of effort he put in.
Other things I've been up to recently include, preparing replacement rot free axle (which I had to buy as mine was goosed)for lowering adjusters, some pics below, also been cleaning up all welds on the underside etc. The biggest current undertaking is replacing the gutters, I thought they'd be salvageable/repairable but there not so new'ens it is then. Bit of a nightmare really, bought the ones that come with about 3" of roof including a small swaze, chopped em back to just the gutter and 'flat' and plug welded them on top of the existing 'flat' after cutting out the gutter curls, again pics below. Was really worried at one point thinking I was going to end up stitching a full roof on it as I was running out of options, I don't know if anyone else has had any experience with poor gutters but they ain't a nice job, not to get them looking right anyway. Mine ain't finished yet but so far I'm really pleased with them.
Anyhow, enuff waffling, hope you are all well and busy camping ya lucky jouses.. I can't wait.. but it looks like I'm just gonna have to.





















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A piece of roof corner section fabricated at the college.





Removed steering centre bearing from axle to gain access to 'dimples' that secure inner torsion bar boss, drilled out the dimples and cut the slots for the adjusters. free'd the boss's off with a wheel stud welded to a bar and screwed in the grub hole of the boss followed by much grunting, pulling and pushing with lashings of WD40.









A few more bits n bobs to do till its ready for paint, speaking of which I'm looking into some super waterproof polyurathrane high gloss paint which you can have mixed to your colour and is suppossed to be the muts nuts. kinda thing they paint oil rig legs with. Sounds cool for the underside with which I've decided to go body colour (sierra yellow) with gloss back suspension/steering components.
Will be back with more soon, hopefully primed and ready to go..

 

great work, love that roof corner and the guttering

......now get some paint on quick before it starts rusting ;D

 

Glad your back updating dude

 

what college do you work at? mancat? good work going on there lad

 

Hi again, yeah, used to be MANCAT, merged with City College now n called The Manchester College. Got a couple more pics to post, nuffin too exciting, couple of pics of gutter repairs and my dash in Primer ready for some tricky airbrushing ma pal at works gonna do.











Gutters look a bit pi**ed at the mo but with a bit of fettling they'll be good. Hoping to have the van in Primer in the next couple of weeks, can't wait, sick of looking at it the way it is haha..
Spk soon. ^-^

 

great pics

 

Hey all, back with some more progress, bin a while again so got plenty of pics. Really beginning to take shape now, we've reached the final stages before paint, its in roll-on etch currently, made some imperfections easy to see and the snagging continues... ^-^

Lipu the bog maggot enlightening a student..









Front panel kit lower panel not quite aligned correctly, became uber apparent when the doors were offered up, made a weld fill repair nec.






ground back and filled.
















Yaaaayyyy... some paint.. roll on etch, but still... Paaiinnttt.. really enjoyed this part.. (as well as watching Lipu apply the stuff). Can really feel it coming together now. can't wait for the rebuild. ;D

P.s Lipu is actually a dear friend and collegue, his name is Pip.. He has been involved along with many others supervising students during repairs. Its been ace so far and lots of students have got so much from it. )





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Repairs to front grill, It was weak in the middle and instead of bowing with the curve it was creasing, unbelievably about 3 hours work went in to welding a super slim brace bar across its back edge and a skim repair to the face... looks great now.


Revisit to rear arches as once etched could see slight deviences..




Van gettin slammed... well, put on smaller axle stands.. :




Students starting to prep and flat the interior.. warm work that is... Glad I'm not doin it.. >


Small repair to sliding door aperture seal lip.




Van exterior now completely etched primered, final prep work now begins on the interior and underside. We're currently flatting and sealing the interior. Thats it for now, will be back soon, with more painty pics.. Yay.










Over and out, Peace n Love n all that, hope some of you's are at least squeezin somet outta this soggy summer. ) ^-^

 

That's looking really good. There's something about a stripped out bus painted in primer. I wish I had that much room to restore my bus though!

 

looking good 8)

 

looking good, must be very handy having soo many helpers for the tedious jobs of sanding back!!

just out of interest how much did all the welding cost?

 

Looking great, Roll on etch primer? whats that then?


PS loving the slave labour, do you wanna send them round to flat my bus down?

 

wow looks like its been a biiig job...

keep up the good work... will be larrrrvveelly when finished x

 

Hey folks, Smee again, bin busy as Esther Ransons tooth brush.. ;D
Got a few piccies n stuff, hope everyones well and at least got a few outings in the rubbishy weather weve had. I managed a camping outing to Shell Island a few weeks ago, never been before, Loved it and can't wait to return in ma van.

Only got a few moments here to post some pics so I'm afraid I'll have to leave it up to you to work out whats going on.. I did actually put loads of details into this post a few weeks ago and just as I uploaded it all went pear shaped n crashed, I'd been at it for about an hour as well.. Grrrr.

Oh and @ Jimmy, the welding came to approx £7k including parts. had to sub it out due to the time factor, would of never got it done at the rate we move at college..

The other question in relation to 'whats roll on etch primer?' To be honest I don't think theres a big advantage to it being roll on apart from the easier application, can be put on a little thicker it seems. Etch primer is just a acid based primer that permiatates into the metal and gives a good key for the following coats of high build primer etc... Maybe you already know that tho.. ^-^ I am certainly no expert in body and paint, all about the nuts n bolts maself.

Ps.. dunno if anyone can advise, but there's a couple of places during this thread that it repeats a massive post due to a quote.. I tried to get in touch with admin a good while ago to see if it was fixable but no joy.. I'm prob bein a bit anal but it kinda messes up the flow of the whole thing. the big one is about half way down page 2.. the commebt simply reads 'nice clubman'.. haha, but it has caused the story n pics to fold back on its self so it kinda dont make sense.. oh wel,l any advice/help appreciated.

Anyways, heres a few pics.



Etching the interior.



High build primer exterior





Bagged up ready for underside prep



Underside Etched.









High build primer to underside





Applying seam sealer.

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Stonechipped..





High gloss poly marine paint in Sierra Yellow... yummy.. ^-^

















Back in the workshop for further interior and exterior prep before a full inside n out with Pastel white..



some wheel arch porn.. phwoar, sexy arches.. O0







Haha, couldn't resist hanging its eyeballs on..



Its almost like its woke up after a year since having its eyes removed and being able to see again and thinking, 'Hang on.. where the hell am I...?'
lmao.



As it stands, still not quite satisfied with underside prep, especially Wheel arch tubs, I have just ordered some specialistist rubberised stonechip, (the type applied to modern VW's undersides). So going to re-scotch and key the tubs etc, re-apply aforementioned stonechip and re-cover with marine paint. Hopefully that should be enough to keep me going for a few years..

Over and out peeps, love n peace n all that, till next time.
PS, still loving your thread Diddy, check it often at work, spend many a dinner hour reading it and others. love this site and the people on it. Thanks for all positive feedback and comments. Sometimes in the dull moments, it's what ya need to keep ya going, am sure we all agree on that, and hats off to you chaps doing it in ya gardens etc.. You are the real committed guys, either that or you're the guys who really need committing.. C

 

Bloody hell! If the top side of my bus is half as good as the underside of yours I'll be happy. Good work dude!