1968 Campervan conversion

[joaonar]

i learnt my lesson baremetalling the whole bus then not finding the time to paint it.... alot of flash and surface rust over a year but i know it will come off and its all on show. Like Nate says POR 15 will take care of a lot of that. this is a really detailed resto and shows us alot of stuff gone into the resto we take for granted, thats what makes it a great thread .

im glad your happy with the bumper trim

Thanks Johnny.....
I'm not sure I will use these bumper trim. Can I ask for your help ? Is there any thread about wich years/models are the correct ones for these bumper trims? I read somewhere that for the 68' buses the deluxe bumper trims should be the round ones and not these squared ones.....

 

[joaonar]

so... continuing the tell this saga :mrgreen: :

While in Lisbon, I received these repair panels from Hoffmann.de :

to use in here:

and while in Viseu, I received these ones more:

and these one (although already slightly bent :roll: )

and I asked a guy from Tondela called Hugo to restore it again, this time to be done the right way:

 

[Guest]

Thanks Johnny.....
I'm not sure I will use these bumper trim. Can I ask for your help ? Is there any thread about wich years/models are the correct ones for these bumper trims? I read somewhere that for the 68' buses the deluxe bumper trims should be the round ones and not these squared ones.....

i believe the rounded version are US spec and the flat trim is Euro spec, i could be wrong though.

 

[joaonar]

ok, johnny... thanks.
I already tried to find these information but I still didn't find it... but this is not urgent

so, here are some more pictures of what i've been doing :mrgreen:

Between November 2008 and July 2010, I sold the sandblaster and my 100L air compressor. But, in June already knowing that I would need the sandblaster again, I asked the new owner if he could borrow it to me again....
So, in July 31 I went to his house and took it to Viseu.

but I didn't use it until later on, in August.... There was still something I needed from him: a complete front suspension and both rear suspensions.
The plan was to use them in my bus, to take it to Hugo's bodyshop in Tondela, 40 km's away from where the bus was....
So, I went to his house again, a couple of weeks later to carry them....

... and with all the suspensions in my car, I went to Hugo's bodyshop in Tondela:

... and a few days later, we went to Viseu to try and fit them in my bus:

... but I thought they were the same and they weren't. This complete front suspension and both rear suspensions were from a latebay... and they are completely different:

... so we just gave up....

... and placed them aside:

 

[joaonar]

next day I went back to Viseu to assemble both my suspensions. This assembling was temporary, so I didn't bother if it was well set up or not....

.... a lot of dirt everywhere.....

.. lower arms first...

... and the upper ones. For an easier assembling I decided to remove some more parts:

 

[joaonar]

Next day,we finally managed to mount the upper ones...
This was not an easy task... Next time I will try and assembling them with the front axle already screwed in the bus.

... and finally (not perfect but suitable for what we needed):

 

[joaonar]

I then decided to mount both rear suspensions... but once again, what I thought was going to be an easy task didn't hapen.
They are completely different also....

... and so, I had to use my own....

 

[joaonar]

these plates are different also (the original ones are smaller)

I tried to mix parts from both suspensions...

 

[joaonar]

I decided to use the original ones.....

and now, it was a perfect fit :mrgreen:

however, I managed to use some latebay parts... excellent!

... and on the other side:

Done! Now we needed to mount the front suspension....

 

[joaonar]

To mount the front suspension, I decided to use the disc brakes (and some more parts) from the latebay suspension...

... so I took them out....

... and already with Hugo's help, we mount it:

It was not perfect but it was good enough...

 

[joaonar]

next day, I finally managed to take the bus to Hugo's bodyshop:

however I started to be a litle worried when I saw the van so inclined ... :mrgreen:

finally the bus was on the way....

 

[joaonar]

meanwhile, I stayed at home to clean some dirt that we did ...
I spent a few minutes but it was more than enough to catch them 15 km's ahead.
The driver was crazy... He was going at 140 km/h :shock:

and already in Hugo's bodyshop....

and I started to remove both suspensions again:

(pictures by hugo)

... and back to mine

.... and on top of the dolly again...

Hugo was laughing with me taking pictures to everything....

:mrgreen:

 

[joaonar]

next day I went back to Hugo's bodyshop and there was already some work done:

...and below the front turn signals....

... and bellow the windscreen....

 

[T2-Nate]

Hey Joaonar, nice going with the suspension upgrade.
You have to put enough tension on the spring plates in the back however! I see from the pics that your rear end is sagging quite a bit.
Just be sure to do it or it will not be roadworthy...
Other members will correct me if I'm wrong because Brits are notorious for their tampering with suspension :mrgreen:

 

[joaonar]

While Hugo was working on the bus in Tondela, I went back to Viseu and we started working in both poptop's:

in the meantime, I decided to check one of my brakes master cylinder:

... the second piston and the screw that holds it in place:

... no rust inside....

... so I decided to assemble it again ....

I will get new seals later....

 

[joaonar]

Hey Joaonar, nice going with the suspension upgrade.
You have to put enough tension on the spring plates in the back however! I see from the pics that your rear end is sagging quite a bit.
Just be sure to do it or it will not be roadworthy...
Other members will correct me if I'm wrong because Brits are notorious for their tampering with suspension :mrgreen:

T2-Nate.... thanks.
This was only a temporary solution. I needed to take the bus from where it was to Hugo's bodyshop. But to be able to carry it on top of that trailer, I needed to mount some wheels on the bus quickly. That's why the suspensions were and still are so poorly assembled.

 

[joaonar]

In the same day, I went to a factory were they build these kind of swimming pools to ask them if they could make me the second water tank....

... and they did it:

.. so, after a couple days, I had them both:

Meanwhile, Hugo was working on the bus:

I asked him to remove this piece for the spare tire. I'm not going to use it in that place and besides, allows me to have more space available for a leisure battery and some other gadgets :mrgreen:

 

[joaonar]

after cuting the front panel, Hugo decided to ask me to clean that area with the sanblaster:

Hugo has a 300L air compressor so with it, the sandblaster is even more efficient.
So after I had cleaned that area, Hugo continued fixing it:

Meanwhile I was using the sandlaster to clean some other parts .....

.... and Hugo was inside, cuting the bus apart :mrgreen:

.... overlapped small pieces of metal sheet....

... and so they had to come out....

.... and on the other side....

 

[joaonar]

some small modifications on the hoffmann speedster parts....

.... and small pieces were still coming out the bus....

... and some other small modifications for a perfect fit....

 

[joaonar]

However, there were some parts missing so I bought them from Hoffmann:

The metal sheet was as thin as a can of soda and the finishes were really bad.
These parts were so bad that Hugo decided not to use them and make his own replacement parts.
It costed us a lot more time and money but at least we ended up with something we can rely on...

So, I started to take some measures from the old ones:

... and then he cuted a piece of metal sheet...