Nell Our 76 Bay - Take 2

Discussion in 'Restorations' started by Mr B, Apr 17, 2012.

  1. Started a resto and thread over 3 years ago on Nell our 76 Bay but ended up going to NZ for a while a couple of years ago and started a new job last year so things got pushed to one side for a while but now I have regained control of the garage, and grown a pair back on, things are about to start again!

    When we got back I noticed there had been a little issue and most of the threads were missing but I'd kept some of the stuff from ours in a word document so should be able to cut / paste in here

    Noticed a few of the names I was at the same stage as (ish) have made great progress so this should act as a great motivator for me (Diddymen - still haven't got the back arch on but it looks very good held there with magnets!)

    Hi all

    I’ve been meaning to start a thread for sometime to show progress with our 76 Bay Bus, Nell, but as there hadn’t been much activity until recently it didn’t seem worth putting things in like “lapped another valve in this week” and I’m also hoping this will spur me on a bit too having seen all the great work carried out by others!

    We bought Nell from a guy who was moving back to France and the deal was agreed the week he was due to leave but, as we couldn’t pick her up until the weekend after he left, we were trusting his brother-in-law to handle things and he turned out to be a solid guy despite saying he hated old campers and we were mad to buy her


    The cash was handed over and we started the 60 mile return trip noticing the fuel gauge hadn’t moved from empty so we hoped we’d make the nearest garage, however, the engine was popping and lacking power, despite ticking over really well when we fired her up first thing, so I was hoping it was just an aircooled thing and all would be well once warm

    A mile out of the village we’d picked her up from, Nell wheezed to a stop so we set off in the Audi to the nearest garage for a gallon of petrol but, sadly, this didn’t seem to make things any better so we limped back to original owners house and spent the next couple of hours trying to sort the engine out but had no luck with this either

    The engine was popping back through the LH carb and there was little difference to the engine at tick over when No 3 plug lead was disconnected so I swapped a couple of plugs over, which made no difference, and checked the valve clearances which we a little slack but, again, made no difference when adjusted

    Long story short, we phoned the guy in France, explained the situation and were tempted to walk away from the deal, and have our money back, as something had clearly happened between our viewing and picking her up but, she kind of got under our skin already so we negotiated a deal around a worst case scenario of an engine rebuild

    I returned the following week, limped her around the corner to the village pub and took advantage of my breakdown cover to get her home and was delighted she managed to just fit under the garage door where she’s been ever since

    Engine was compression tested and No 3 was down on dry and wet tests so I took it out to rebuild then cracked a rib in a barbeque related football match a week later, which put me out of action for a while, but then found a recon type 4 engine on e-bay which I’m just about finished rebuilding after checking the valves etc

    We were also slightly distracted by doing an interior refurb on our T25, Basil, so we could go off to Devon in the summer and this took over a month but, no more excuses, Nell is the focus and I hope to be able to update without the preamble next time

    Mr B”


    The "breakdown"
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    Getting home
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    A couple of quick little jobs and she'll be on the road in no time!!!!
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  2. great to see your back and reposting mate :) :)

    cant belive you missed TLB crashing and all the posts being lost, every one having to start again........I'm sure it was even on the news at some point lol, ;D ;D ;D

     
  3. Cool to be back man. So where are you up to with the resto now then?
     
  4. Hi Diddy and Obi

    It's been a while since anything interesting happened but I've been chasing the usual bottom rot from back to front on the RH side

    I've decided to start replacing, rather than removing any more, as it will make it feel as though I'm making progress instead of
    having another job on the list!

    I'll stick some more of the original thread / pictures up soon and try to catch up with the thread and Diddy!

    Mr B
     
  5. hope your still taking pics of all the new work ;D

    ......theres a bank holiday weekend comming up so you'll get lots done ;D ;D
     
  6. Just took the welding gun to the bus for the first time in a year to put on the new rear arch closing panel

    Trimmed and positioned really well, all cleaned up on both surfaces, good clean earthing point, plenty of light on the subject, new 1.5 "cheater" plate on the helmet (really made a big difference and better than taking my readers on and off!), practiced on an off cut of the new panel, everything ready, deep breath and pulled the trigger - bang, blew a bliddy hole in the original bit!

    Much cursing, and the introduction of a flattened copper pipe, later it was on but not as pretty as I'd hoped for - flap wheel will hide the poor bit but got good penetration and it's solid

    Trying to do a little every night and a couple of solid hours each weekend so getting back on track but regretting losing momentum as we'd be there or there abouts by now

    We also try to get away at weekends in our T5 so this kind of gets in the way a bit too!

    Good to see how far you've got with yours now and I'll really need to get my finger out with this side as the other may need a little more done than this one!

    Will keep the photo's coming once I'm up to date with the old ones

    Mr B
     
  7. Welcome back mate. I remember having an agreement that we'd both get our vans to Vanfest, er, last year! Not much closer really!

    Did the same thing with the welder over the weekend. Tried to patch up a small hole in the tail gate and blew another hole in the tailgate itself. Blooming annoying.
     
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  9. Attempting to catch up with a bit of the original post and taking the engine out

    "Planned for the blank canvas will be camping interior and we sourced a Westy stylie pop top, which will replace the rag top (eventually!), to make her a full camper
    Still can't decide if we'll change the paint colour which is a very faded antique cream / sealing wax red combination even though the log book says green
    She's already been lowered and is running on 15inch Audi steel wheels with 195 / 55 tyres but we'd like these to go back to standard with lower profile white walls and original hub caps but all this is a long way off as things stand at the moment - you have to dream though
    Added a couple more pictures of the engine coming out which I managed on my own with the help of a "Jenga" type technique which involved a thick piece of ply under the engine and dropping it onto a stack of wooden props with a trolley jack.
    I removed one level of props from each side at a time, repositioned the jack at each stage until I got it as low as possible on the jack then used a shovel as a lever on one side at a time to remove the last of the wood, dropped it onto a piece of MDF on the floor and then dragged it out and into the garage
    All very controlled and the only issue was having to jack the back of the bus up slightly for the rear tin ware to pass under the valance”


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    Next to the Ebay "reconditioned" unit!
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    Will try and catch up with the old stuff and start posting new as soon as I can

    Mr B
     

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