Well, it's great when a plan comes together and on Wednesday I managed to get up to the Yard for some Noodle TLC. The start of the welding and repairing to the body work. The aim is to keep the bus on the road, so tackle each part little by little. This way the budget can be managed and the bus can still be used regardless of looking a bit tatty around the edges, which is really not a big problem at this point! No known structural issues to deal with (yet!), so decided to start at the right rear end and work around in an anti-clockwise direction unless anything critical raises it's ugly head to interrupt the plan!! It's not too bad, but definitely needed sorting, so here are the before pictures! Cutting all the bad stuff out: During pictures: The wheel arch will be replaced next, so the in between adjoining part is a temporary fix for now and the filling and finishing will all be done at the official respray stage......so the after pictures:
I was very lucky that a friend did all the welding for me, so whilst all this was going on I thought I should do something useful. I had a rather queasy feeling every time I looked at the big black undersealed edge running down the driver side, so decided to whoop off the black and respray. However, within minutes of starting, I had that oh so familiar feeling that I really shouldn't have started, as it was going to be a real can of worms! Things are covered up for a reason folks!! I had a very frustrating day of scraping off underseal and filler only to replace with more filler, sanding lots and refilling what is going to have to be all cut out in the future.......essentially a complete waste of time.......I should have left it alone!! Before: During: After: Had an absolute coop with the spray over paint colour though which was a proper old skool kindergarten paint lesson!! As the plan is to respray in the future it would have been a waste to spend a load of ££ on paint, so I raided the cupboard at the yard to find something suitable. Cue a tin of yellow paint and a tin of red paint.......yes, children that's how we use primary colours!! Hey presto an absolutely incredible fluke 'match' by just pouring the red into the yellow whilst stirring it all about.......thought it looked close and it's loads better than the attempt someone has previously had on the left hand side! I got to do the spraying bit, which was clearly very painful for my mate to watch (you know how it is when teaching someone something!) so he decided to speed things up a bit and over did the corner, so the runs were not me on this occasion!! However, I also have a little welding project on the go as a way to learn and improve, so he really does get the last laugh! That is going to be a little while in process, so pics when it's done, but could be some time, so don't hold your breath!! Thanks for reading!!
Looking good Tonka..! I know what you mean by saying "should have left that alone..!!" LoL But looks loads better with the black gone.
Urgh! I was so cross with myself for not just leaving it alone. Thing is I very naively thought that this bit had already been done and would be ok and not need any further attention. It was only when I'd started and revealed the mess that my mate said the whole lot would be best coming out and being redone as it hadn't been done very nicely. If I'd known that I'd have lived with the black gooey stripe for a few more months!! Having said that I'm glad it's gone, as it did irk me!! Funny really, as the dirty great crack in the passenger door is the only thing everyone else sees and that doesn't worry me at all!! If I can schedule it and afford it, I'll try and get Noodle into the Yard one day a month for some professional tickling. I can do lots of the interior bits from home, except that now the weather has improved I'm busy in the garden.........late nights sanding down woodwork and at the sewing machine I reckon!!
Hi Tonka I have just looked at your resto of roof it is the best I have seen I'm in the process of restoring my 73 bay same probs with roof how did you fix the ali sheet to the frame did you weld it ,and the strengthening frame was that made out of ali I would appreciate if you could let me know
There's one thing I have noticed about campers and rust "if you can see it usually three times as bad as it looks". But, thankfully most is relatively fixable and yours is now looking superb given that bit of time you have given up for a good cause, keep up the good work.
The sheet of aluminium was cut to be a fraction larger than the surround, fixed with Sikaflex adhesive and clamped overnight, as per the picture (roof shown upside down). Once this had all gone off the outside edge was filled with a silicon based adhesive and smoothed with a finger (yukky job) to provide a seal and a neater finish. The central strengthening frame came out of the existing roof and was stuck to the aluminium using Sikaflex. The outer pieces that the concertina fixes to were scrap pieces that were up at the yard (apparently packing that comes with parts on pallets) and again these were fixed with adhesive. This is where the concertina is riveted to, so needed to have a gap between this and the roof, so the rivets didn't go through the roof itself. I'm guessing this could be made if you don't have access to something suitable. It's just strips of aluminium bent to give a raised centre for the rivets. The one that I'd seen in the Yard that we copied, had been made by a Coachbuilder. They had clearly done a similar thing using an old roof for the supporting frame and they had kept the skylight. The surround was a donor one and I do have my old one if you'd like it and are local. It meant that I didn't have to have it all done in a day and could keep the bus watertight whilst the roof was sorted. The aluminium sheet was the thinnest I could get in the size I needed. I guess welding could have been an option, but we only had the facility to weld steel not aluminium so not an option for me, but I'm not sure it would be necessary given the ease of using glue! Hope that makes sense and helps! If not just ask and I'll do my best to answer and or get more pictures!
Thanks and yes, rust is definitely like an iceberg.......you can see just a fraction on the surface, the rest is looming underneath! Budget restrictions have meant that this is definitely an 'eat the elephant in small pieces' project and the plan is to work around the bus panel by panel. unless there is an emergency. Plus, I want to use it, not have it tucked up in a workshop for years while I save up! Best made plans and all that!!
Nice van, I've got the same year except mines the more basic Devonette model. It's got the same VW interior panels though, I remember the same satisfaction from finding they weren't knackered and mouldy and once cleaned looked as good as new. I've got a '71 moonraker interior to go in my '79 moonraker, I love the early Devon interiors.
Thanks! The earlier Devon interiors are really lovely made out of veneered ply and really quite sound. It seems to be the later ones were made differently and haven't faired so well with time. I'm pretty lucky that mine is holding together still despite getting quite wet. It's far from perfect, but very repairable once the time and money allow. It is definitely a case of 'don't change what's not broke' for me, as I really wanted a pop top and camping interior in this bus (I've got a T4 as well that I have a different layout for more practical reasons). The layout is just perfect for camping and as that's what I'll be using it for, I couldn't ask for any more!!
Well, eight weeks later and a non starting Bay (you know, that rare beast!) is now chez the mechanic's receiving the love and attention that has been so lacking in it's life over the past few years. Finding a mechanic and then getting it there has been a tad epic though. Big thanks to Chillicamper for some excellent advice on the ignition switch change out. I bought the (much) more expensive switch and thankfully the process of changing/installing it was a breeze. Sadly though it didn't solve the non starting issue........not a single ickle sound from the lump. I was patient and with imminent recovery to the mechanic's yard, a friend came by and helped me narrow down what was causing the problem. When I say narrow it down, we just decided to change everything for new in the end. Started with the starter motor, as this was really intermittent and clearly on it's way out. New one in, but still not starting. Changed the coil, dizzy cap and hey presto it all fired up, albeit lumpy and not very pleasant. Had a bit of an issue with being sold the wrong parts, so bundled new plugs, leads and rotor arm into the bag once I'd got the right bits and left those with the mechanic. Hopefully, by the time I get the phone call to collect and pay the King's ransom I'll have a purring Noodle!
