Whilst I'm waiting for the rear quarter to arrive from FBI VW I moved on to the front and started on one of the doors. They are both in bad condition, to the extent that if you slam the door there is a shower of rust but I'm really keen to get on with them as to me they were representative of the condition of the van overall, so if I can bring them back to their former glory it feels like something of a milestone. As you can see, the skins have lots of issues and the bottoms were very rusty. When the duck tape was pulled off, most of the door bottom was left attached to it! I have a repair section from Schofield's, so cut back to good metal whilst the door skin was attached , the idea being that I would have a reference point. Couldn't find any sections available for the front so a cardboard tempate was made and transferred onto steel, which takes me a lot of time but I find it rather satisfying. Then onto the door skin which was carefully ground off to reveal the inner section which is in reasonable condition, considering I was expecting a lot worse. All the brackets need rewelding to the bottom and then I can start on the reconstruction work.
After numerous trial fits, the repair section was welded in along with the newly fabricated section and bracing bars welded at the bottom. Bottom section in place, plug welded to the beam behind. Fabricated corner section which will need a small amount of filler but I'm pleased with the overall result
Forward section had a step joggled into the original panel so the repair section would sit flush and could be ground down. Thanks to @JamesLey and @Dubs for the advice on welding the skin to the frame, hoping to get this completed tomorrow.
I kept trial fitting the skin for about 3 hours as I wasn't sure that everything was fitting together as it should, in particular the hole which corresponded with the threaded mirror attachment point. After lots of seemingly very minor adjustments the panel seemed to fit correctly so the edges were punched and plug welded, the top joins at each end of the window frame seam welded and then all welds ground back, at every point trying not to put too much heat into the panel to cause distortion With the help of my wife Dawn, the door was fitted to check and also to give some reference points for the front wheel arches which are going to be replaced. Thankfully the door fitted in the available space!
Thanks @JamesLey Now the next job is back to the rear where I'm repairing the offside rear quarter as per previous post. FBIVW sent this. I'm thinking the best way is to drill out the spotwelds and replace the existing D pillar and rear quarter but as there is a section of the chassis still attached, is there another way worth considering? I've only ever bought new parts so this is all uncharted territory for me.
Good luck with the resto! Looks like the original colour is L21H Marino Yellow. Are you going to go back to original?
Hi Dave, originally I was going to paint it Reseda Green, but there is so much of the original Marino yellow, both in the engine bay and underneath the rather brittle underseal. I'm only the 3rd owner so feel I have a responsibility to return it to the original colour.
Hey, hello fellow moonraker restorer.... I'm in the exact same position as you. Mine is a taiga green
Over the last few days I have been working on the sliding door. It never looked to fit too well at the bottom and there was a filler crack on the skin which corresponded with a few tack weld burn marks on the inside of the door. On closer inspection, the bottom of the door frame had not been replaced so there was nothing to hold the folded edge of the door skin. First job was to cut back to solid metal, hopefully without having the cut out the lower captive nuts for the lower runner on the forward edge . Luckily this proved to be solid. At this point I began to realise the bottom of the existing door skin was not going to act as a reference because we didn't know it was correct as there had been many repairs and the original skin had rusted out but was still evident. To give this some context, this is a section of the bottom corner where there are 5 layers of metal- Guess this is why it didn't fit very well at the bottom! The repair section for the frame is pretty poor (as warned in the Haynes restoration bible) because it doesn't extend far enough so you either have to flatten sections or weld an additional strip. I have to say at this point that none of what I have done in thsi thread is ever mean't to be a guide on how to do something.... there are lots of experts on this forum, my contribution is just the exploits of a first time bus restorer! Anyway, once determining nothing could be counted on as a reference I tack welded the repair section and then fitted the door to get measurements of what was required. ....and then added approx 10mm to the bottom, welded the repair section into place and fitted the door skin repair. The inside faces were painted and left overnight, then welded and the skins folded over the next morning. Then fitted again to make sure it looked correct. This was the inital fitting and I'm pleased that the gap at the bottom looks even and I'm sure can be improved with some tweaking. Still a long way to go but have made some reasonable progress over the last week.
Where about in Cardiff did you buy it from? Must be a fantastic feeling that you have literally saved that bus!
Smashing job there mate. Those inner sliding door repair panels aren't great are they? I pumped ours full of cavity wax to try and preserve it a bit.
Hi @Moons from memory it was quite close to the city centre and bought from a lovely lady called Liz. I presume you live in the area so do you know the van?
Thanks James, this has to be the worst repair panel to date but for some reason I'm still really enjoying it.
Hi Panzer, good luck with your restoration. I see you are trying to find a rotisserie- I think that's a really good call as spending 4 months underneath the van was less than optimal.
I think I have just acquired one, so yeah it should speed the restoration up nicely. Mine is going back completely original,I'm just in the middle of talks with a very special company who can reproduce the original devon brown geometric lino. I've sourced the correct colour formica for the units, the original electrolux 122 fridge is about to get serviced. I'm registering for gas this week for the welder......... job after job after job... why do we do this ha ha ha
Back on the rear corner where I noticed the accident damage. I was lucky that VWFBI rear corner in good condition and they were able to ship it to me in spite of the lock down conditions. Once I got it I wasn't sure whether to chop the chassis legs and weld the whole thing complete or drill out the spot welds and repair the sections individually. The first option didn't really seem correct so I opted for the latter paying particular attention to seve the D post and the rear outer wing section. Once these parts were salvaged, the corresponding sections were cut out of the van to reveal the good, non damaged sections. As you can see, there really isn't much left but I didn't see there was much of an option- if the damage was there I would always know it wasn't correct. The D pillar has now been dismantled from the assembly and thankfully both this and the wing section survived so the next stage was to trial fit and then tack weld it in place to check fitment. And then the wing was trial, fitted to see if everything lined up. Thankfully everything looked pretty good for a first fit so it can all be taken apart, painted and then welded in. The previous restorer ground off the lip to attach the battery tray to the chassis so as I had already cut some of the cover to enable the chassis repairs, a repair section was used which included the lip And then the same was done on the other side The engine bay is now very solid and the next job is to get the surface rust off the remaining areas, followed by a coat of primer on all bare metal including the wing, D pillar and new battery tray..... then final assembly Does anyone have pictures of how the air cleaner bracket is attached? I took some pictures and drilled some reference holes- the pictures aren't that good and I welded the holes by mistake! This part of the build seems to have taken for ever so I will be pleased when the wing is finally in place.
