1968 Campervan conversion

[joaonar]

Another one to clean: the lower sliding door bracket.
With these pictures I will be able to mount it all again.... :mrgreen:

 

[joaonar]

Other task to do: clean all paint and rust prevention treatment from these screws.
It was a stupid decision to metallize the central hub with the bolts in it. The excessive amount of metal from the anti-rust treatment and the excessive paint will make the nuts almost impossible to fasten.

In 2008 after sending some parts to metallize...

(...)

and after painting them, in 2012::

(...)

So, first I use some paint stripper:

... and after using a wire wheel brush:

but they will not be like this in the end....

 

[joaonar]

Some other parts to clean: my engine lid original hinges

and another bunch of parts, already cleaned and ready for being zinc coated:

... and some more, that will be just polished or zinc coated:

 

[joaonar]

Another part that I disassembled and clean: the sliding door hinge.....

 

[joaonar]

 

[joaonar]

After taking them to be zinc coated, they were looking like this:

 

[joaonar]

and some parts I just polished:

 

[joaonar]

Another part I wanted to clean: the poptop roof inner support....

 

[joaonar]

 

[joaonar]

Others parts to fix: my opening quarter lights frames....

...and after some struggle, they came out:

 

[joaonar]

... and after a few days, some more parts were back from being zinc coated:

(the tailgate lock)

 

[joaonar]

 

[joaonar]

Another part I decided to clean was all the heater system that is behind the dashboard:

And the best thing to do is to take as much pictures as need to be able to assemble it back again :mrgreen: :

 

[joaonar]

...and one side already disassembled 8)

 

[joaonar]

and the other one:

... done!

 

[joaonar]

a couple of days later, assembling time:

... is it going to be seen? No... but at least is cleaned and now I know how it works 8)

 

[joaonar]

Again at Viseu, I went to Hugo's bodyshop and I started disassembling the windshield wiper mechanism:

... and with some other parts, I decided it was best to clean them all using the sandblaster.

 

[joaonar]

... while inside the bodyshop, Hugo was fixing this part from the poptop roof inner support. After several years of use, the central tube was starting to be cuted by another part from the support itself.... literally cuted! :shock:

However, witth all the tubes cleaned, this structural flaw became noticed. When I assembled it again I realized that this cut was getting really deep, so I had to fix it before all the support would break in the future and while in use.

First, Hugo needed to clean the inside of the tube:

... and then, using a rod with the same diameter as the inner side from the original tube, he cuted two small pieces, one for each side of it:

 

[joaonar]

and finally, it was time to weld them in place:

After Hugo had weld the small rod pieces it was time to grind the welding excess:

Perfect!:

ready for another 40 years.... :mrgreen:

 

[joaonar]

Once again at the place where the bus is, it was LEGO time. It's a very satisfying task but at the same time it can be a really desperate one. This is because it feels good to assemble cleaned and almost new parts in a bus painted fresh but trying to find the correct bolts and nuts can be a really desperate task :mrgreen: :

Meanwhile, these parts had been chromed and were waiting to be mounted in the right place: