Viking Restoration, Blood, Sweat, Tears, Tragik

Discussion in 'Restorations' started by Kruger, Aug 28, 2011.

  1. Good work with the bus mate, what happened with the grinder?? lesson to be learnt there cos ive had a few near misses. glad your ok tho fella
     
  2. Kruger

    Kruger Sponsor

     
  3. Zed

    Zed Gradually getting grumpier

    There's no stopping you now.:)
    As a fellow grinder user, who's now taking even more care, would it be cheeky to ask you to stage a pic showing exactly what you were doing when the grinder jumped? Not so I can say - wow I wouldn't have done that, but so I DON'T do it. lol

    Cracking fabrication work and hats off to you for getting back on the job - I might have called it a day I think.
     
  4. Kruger

    Kruger Sponsor

     
  5. very nice work mate, glad to hear you are ok.
     
  6. There is some nice fabrication on this resto well done, this is first rate, your attempt at a facelift however, is third rate and I suggest that you do not take that up for a living. Glad that you are ok after that, I hate bloody grinders.
     
  7. Kruger

    Kruger Sponsor

    A weekend working on the bus and it still looks pretty much the same!

    Also discovered my super fandango Wurth underseal I brought has turned to marmite during the heavy frosts we've had recently, so thats £120 of underseal that now resembles solidified clay, not happy :mad:

    All the metal that was staying put had been buzzed down with a strip and clean wheel to remove 90& of the rust, just leaving some light pitting that would be treated. Applied a fair bit of Kurust before continuing with repairs, and then keyed it again to add some redoxide to the enclosed areas. Kurust turns everything black whilst it does it thing, not too sure if it works, but its better than nothing!

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    Aligned all the repair sections and inner hinge panel and got them all welded in place, also applied a bit more redoxide.

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    For the fitting the hinge panel I wanted to replicate the seams to the quarters without having blobs of mig sitting in there, so I had the 2 Qtr side panels I fabbed up tig welded from behind to the hinge panel to form a single panel that could be fitted as 1, a bit of drip check sealer is all thats required to finish the seam when it comes to paint.

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    Slotted in place as an assembly, it literally slides down on the engine lid rubber seal return lip,

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    Cut the sides into the quarters, and will be using a joggled edge for this, as will be trying to maintain as neat a weld as possible, going to also replace the load floor rear most lip on the left side aswell, as removing the old hinge panel has weakend and worked the metal too much to get the small return lip straight again.

    And 1 last photo, how I left it tonight, all painted underneath in more redoxide, it all lines up and fits nice but before I weld it I might try it with the engine lid once the new hinges arrive! some small fiddly jobs to do in the corners, but feels like I got a fair bit done today as its not far off now.

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  8. thats some great progress, good on yer for getting back in the saddle.

    .....great fabrication skills as always mate, really nicely done :)

    K+ :)
     
  9. Just wanted to say that I just noticed the RHCP reference in the title!
     
  10. glad to see your back on with the resto after the mahoooosive accident with the grinder and top work as usual :thumbsup: have some karma :D
     
  11. Kruger

    Kruger Sponsor

    Been putting some metal back on the van whilst everyone else has been doing normal stuff with the glorius weekend we've just had,

    I had been waiting for some more engine lid hinges as the first cheap JK set were returned before even trying to fit them, The Wolfsburg West ones although £10 more expensive are spot on, got going and aligned the tailgate to set the gaps for the hinge panel, and engine lid hung to adjust the side gaps, then got it all tacked in,

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    Then a want to be helpful local twonk wanted to assist with aligning the tailgate, after telling him not to push where he was going to push, he put all his 20 stone weight behind the same point, pushing a sizeable dent in the left hand side of the tailgate - doesnt show too bad in the pic, but its a football sized dent, apparently wasnt his fault and the tailgate crumpled like tin foil - yeah right, I'm not happy the tailgate was ready for paint. :mad: but as he's not got a pot to pee in, I'll just have to sort it myself, lesson learnt I'll tell him to pee off in future.

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    Also did a bit of damage assessment on the sliding door, and made a start at pulling it back into some sort of shape.

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    Covered in paint stripper
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    To reveal about 3 layers of green, and one of light blue,

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    Then made a basic puller to pull the large dent from the beltline bulge which had been barely repaired with a lot of filler.
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    Shows the dent, and extent of the dent I've got to lift out,

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    Getting there, but still under tension on the threaded bars.
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    Had to raise the puller on a couple feet to slightly overpull it as it was under tension.
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    And then after that I see another sliding door for sale that I bought, So thats 4 I've got now, all of which need repairing. ::)
     
    89Rallye likes this.
  12. hi, may seem like a stupid question but have you got a link to where you bought your hinges? Thanks
     
  13. Kruger

    Kruger Sponsor

  14. Again glad to see your back on the bus, hope your lip is sucking well now ;).Brilliant fabrication work their too, thats gona be very smart bus when done. Keep up the good work 8)
     
  15. Kruger

    Kruger Sponsor

    Been far away from the van for a while, spending 2 and a bit weeks in Thailand for a much deserved break, but now I'm back and have found a bit of motivation to get back on with it,

    Rear end now all finished, spot welded the lower valance on as didnt want to ruin the engine lid seal return lip, the only problem being the spotwelder I have access to isnt the greatest (single phase) and doesnt zap enough current in one hit to get a good weld, so a pulsed weld is used, generating heat and therefore - distortion, thus requiring more filler :-[

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    In primer again, feels good to get it back to this stage, (Crap photo alert! The engine lid does line up nice, just its not latched down)

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    Then pushed on with the sliding door repairs, cut the lower 5" of the outer skin off and managed to get the inner lower edge on, didnt put too much of the repair panel on, as wasnt necessary and I didnt want to make unecessary work!

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    Health and Safety note, you should probably wear quality clothing and preferably long sleeves/overalls when welding, otherwise you can end up with an isolated sunburn..... ::) to be fair my arm was already burnt from my holiday, but the welding seems to have accentuated it somewhat, also managed to cause a fire, it was the smoke inside my welding mask that alerted me to the lower 8 inches of my T-shirt being on fire!

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    Also been prepping/repairing this old Rover as I'll be banger racing in a months time on fathers day, its only been used on the track once but hitting a barrier hard earlier on and the resulting puncture, knackered chassis leg and subframe, which prematurely ended its 1st race.

    All fixed, jigged and ready to go again now :D

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  16. I'm not the only to get burnt welding in a t shirt then ;) I was wearing a low cut scold by the end of last week
     
  17. Glad your all healed up and back at it dude
    The bus is coming along well
     
  18. so, Ive seen blood, no sweat and tears yet... lol jokes, just read the thread mate, you've made awesome progress on that mate, cant wait to see more progress! keep up the hard work!

    was great to meet you dude! hope to see you again soon!
     
  19. Kruger

    Kruger Sponsor

    Thanks for the comments guys, and was good to meet you and your tidy bus Brucie.

    Just got in from a productive weekend working on the bus (although does look much different!), clocking in about 20 hours,

    Cleared the bus out as was getting difficult to work around all the parts in there, and some bits were getting damaged when the bus was being moved about.

    Saturday, I Cracked on with finishing the sliding door metalwork and put it on to check the fit and get the catches working as it should, as I got the van with a poor fitting door and knackered mechanism.
    Smugly, I sat back with a brew and marvelled at my achievement and also showed everyone who came into workshop the "working" sliding door. :D

    Clamped a bit of box section to the lower edge of the door whilst welding and turning the lip over etc as to try and keep a straight edge to it.

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    Tacked up,

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    All ground back,

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    It fits pretty much! just a small tweak to the lower rear edge/frame required but the gaps are good, not bad considering a door has not been tried on since the lower B post, sills and floor were cut out. :D Lower sliding JK track needing some persuasion with a hammer and chisel though, it doesnt glide as smooth as it should for the 1st 6 inches as the bend radius in the track is too sharp compared to the original.

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    Sunday, Still with momentum for repairing sliding doors, I set about repairing the original door (converted panel van) that came on the van, and converting it to a proper camper door, with a factory window recess, Using a top half of a door I got given with another door I had brought to repair. This door will have a resemblance to Triggers broom when finished akin to (having had 3 new handles and 2 new heads) ;D but I'll probably use this door myself and sell and repair and sell the others.

    Worked out where the strengtheners in the upper door frame were, and removed all the spot welds, as wanted to leave the strengtheners intact, and just replace the top part of the door, unpicked it all on both doors and offerd up the replacement window frame to the lower door frame.

    The photos will do a better job of showing whats been done,..........photos now uploaded.....

    Take original knackered panel van door

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    1 top half of camper door,

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    Cut top half of original door off just below the midway bulge , doing this felt wrong......

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    Ta Da! All offered up, looks barely noticeable which is good :D r />
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    Its only tacked together for now to check dimensions and fit, I'm thinking of making a complete door skin as this one will need soo much filler from where its been previously well knocked about.

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    A cross section of the old door belt line bulge, only about 15mm of filler!

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    Also got the passenger cab door back on the van as that'll be up next and I needed to know how badly it fits, and I'm also fed up of moving it in and out the the van, they're bloody heavy.


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    So left the workshop tonight, tired but feel some good progress was made.
     

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