1968 Campervan conversion

[joaonar]

A couple of months ago and after posting this thread I decided to buy a new beam from Alex - Transporter Haus:

but somewhere along the way, someone dropped it and it got bent on one side :| :

 

[joaonar]

On the oother side, it was fine:

...the powder coat cracked in several places:

 

[joaonar]

I even bought a digital caliper to confirm if the distance between tubes were the same:

However, Alex sent me a another beam to replace the bent one:

 

[joaonar]

To be able to assemble this beam, we had to cut the torsion leaves:

.... for the torsion arms to be mounted like this:

So, let's cut (and that's easy with this machine):

 

[joaonar]

... and the hard part was to drill new dimples on the torsion leaves:

.... and we just gave up. I went to do this task on a turner with proper tools for the job:

 

[joaonar]

Although without proper tools to drill the new dimples, we decided to do everything else that we could:

 

[joaonar]

In the end, when completely assembled and ready to hit the road, the torsion arms should look like this, although in this picture they aren't secured in place:

 

[joaonar]

When I got back to the bus, I did something else: I assembled the gear rod.
Several years after removing it, finally went back into the bus.
I bought this kit although it has some negative reviews but I assembled into the rod anyway.

 

[joaonar]

... and finally:

 

[joaonar]

After a couple of weeks and with the torsion leaves already cut and with new dimples, I decided It was time to start assembling my front suspension.
First, I used my swivel pin kit ....

.... but even with the help of my manuals and easy access to the internet ....

... I managed to assemble this washer in the wrong order....

some times I feel really dumb

 

[joaonar]

I didn't like the idea of assembling the front suspension without dust seals so firts thing I did was to ask this forum for opinions here

...so, I bought a pair of original dust seals but I had to reduce the outer diameter:

 

[joaonar]

... however, the first seal I used, was a little tight and I had to use some "persuasion" to install the first torsion arm:

.... which led me to have to further reduce the diameter of the remaining ones. Even so, I had to use a hammer to mount the other torsion arms:

 

[joaonar]

After some struggle (as usual) I was able to mount the beam in place ...
My hydraulic jacks are too small for this task, especially being my bus on a small cart:

 

[mike202]

Very interesting reading your thread, and great work! 8)

Is the insulation you are installing mainly for heat, or for noise?

 

[joaonar]

Hello Mike. First, thank you... but there are a bunch of more interesting threads here. Mine it's just too long and boring :mrgreen:

About insulation: welll, both! Dynamat is mostly for sound but there are some other Dynamat materials for heat insulation and I'm still ponder buying them or not. However, the aluminium layer has plastic air bubles in the interior and it's for heat insulation. The last one, works well both ways.
I can tell you that knocking on the outside of the panels where I applied Dynamat, the sound and felling is like knocking on a piece of wood.

 

[joaonar]

a couple of weeks later, I was able to assemble a few more parts to the front suspension:

... however, I first disassembled my calipers completely, removed the paint job I did earlier and repainted them with a new paint more effective (I hope :roll: )

 

[joaonar]

the new track rods are in place:

....however, on the driver's side, after installing the hub and disc brake on the spindle, I realized that the disc brake was scratching in the brake backing plate. It wasn't scratching all the time but only in a particular angle of rotation. This meant that my disc brake wasn't rotating paralel to the backing plate. This was happening because my hub was with a irregular surface, due to excessive paint or even because of my previous rust treatments.... Anyway, during the procees of cleaning it and testing it, one of the two small threads from the small bolts that secures the disc brake to the hub, gave up. This meant that I was going to leave the driver's side, unfinished:

 

[joaonar]

So, I started doing another task. When I painted the front signals bulb holders, I wasn't sure if that was a really good idea, When I was mounting them on the bus, I used some transparent multipurpose grease on the bolts and some of that grease reacted with the paint, removing it. After this, I decided it was better to remove all paint and just polish them:

and after polishing them, I protected them with a primer on the outside...

 

[joaonar]

... and after this, I used the 2K varnish again.
When assembled on the bus, they were looking like this:

 

[gninnam]

Brilliant work