Evening all.. its been a while since our Ollie has seen a cutting disc or a grinder for that matter, but tonight saw the return of the resto!.. after a month or so off, what with other job commitments and holidays, we havent got alot done, but thankfully tonight we made a great effort and got the nearside arch on, welded up and looking great, sadly however i didnt get any pics as the camera was dead from the Italy trip..Doh. But tomorrow i will snap a few and get the resto thread up and running again... Ian
Cheers Diddy,... 8) well, after getting rained off for almost an hour tonight, it finally cleared off so i could get some pictures, and also let us carry on with the other arch repairs. last nights efforts, N/s arch... still need to tidy the welds alittle, but its nice to have an arch that isnt made of paper mache. So tonights job was to get the other side on,proved to be alittle more difficult. Needed to box the inside of the bulk head so we decided it wouldnt be a bad idea to sort the massive hole we found on the other side too, so that was cleaned up before we started.. Patch was made and a repair patch for the B-pillar also sorted.. Spot of tidying up.. and looking loads better.. after a fair amount of fetling, we got the new arch into place, but found the cab floor to be missing around an inch where it meets the arch, so had to make an extention piece.. Still got alot of welding to do and grinding, but the arch has been tack welded to hold it in place...hopefully get it fully completed tomorrow...
Cheers buddy, Have Scott to thank for that,. wouldnt hesitate in recommending the work he is doing. Infact we are going to look at a Beetle tonight after we were stopped yesterday by the owner. Hopefully by the end of tonight, the front end should be complete of welding and patching... Happy days!.. 8)
Good stuff I have always found it very rewarding when I finish a section - My bust is at paint stage and very frustrating at present -
Must admit i cant wait to get it preped ready for primer. be a different bus when its all one colour.. Love your bus mate, alot of work gone into that, its a credit to you..
Evenin all, well sadly the prediction of getting the front end all sorted of welding was alittle far from the truth after the constant battle dodging the rain storms..sigh but we did manage to get the other arch on!.. welding on... and its on! finally, seem to remember the last one, being made with "The Mirror" and a shocking amount of filler... found more holes after fitting, so a patch made and welded on, and sods law, just when you think you are done, the "go" pedal shows us some more work. and after abit of a tidy, the new weld was coated with Redoxide,.. need to sort that little patch under the pedal on this shot... And yesterdays work protected.. Proper chuffed as Scott has asked me to help him restore a beetle once the bus is done.. can piggin' wait!! lol.... thats all for now.
restoring a beetle next eh? ....sounds like you've caught the bug .....well I thought it was funny ;D
about time there was alittle more of an update... Its amazing how much stuff you gather doing these ere' Resto's. the non opening slide door was causing alittle concern, with a fair amount of orange peel and cracking paint to the lower edge, so special tool No1. was used to see what was going on.. and then tool No.2 all was not good, the sill was shot, so that had to come out.. wih the door removed the heavens opened so we got undercover, with said door and set about making a repair section for the inner door, the door skin wasnt too bad, but we decided that if we were going to do it right, we would do it right...so the outer 6", at some point, will come off... sadly we didnt manage to get the otter door done, as the remaining steel wasnt long enough, so we finished off the patching inside the van The inside of the bus is once again solid!!
next up abit of patch work at the front now.. New repair section made for under the pedal....and a patch under construction! patch welded and ground down repair section being fit to the A-post, New floor section treated to some red oxide
some good work going in there!! can i ask what front arches you're using... and the rewelded section in them?
Cheers guys.. Paul, the arches are from jk. They weren't the greatest fit so they where cut and made to fit correct at the bottom of the door. It will need a skim of filler, but they are a much better fit..
