1968 Campervan conversion

[joaonar]

next day:

I took the bus to Vlad's bodyshop again. Unfortunately, halfway, it started to rain.
Next I was going to take the bus and all parts to the north of Portugal (300 Km's from vlad's bodyshop) where I've got a bigger house with a larger garage and where we're going to rebuild the interior and also where I could restore the fiberglass from the poptop....
Meanwhile, some pictures of the assembly, again ...

I used a piece of rubber under the lock...

 

[joaonar]

a few days later, I finally managed to mount the front bumper :lol:

 

[joaonar]

next day, I managed to mout the rear one:

and then put my stuff into it and disappeared for a weekend :mrgreen:

finally on the road ... even if incomplete!
:mrgreen:

 

[joaonar]

and a week later (Sunday, 15 Jully, 2007) in a portuguese meeting... there she was:

:mrgreen:

 

[gninnam]

:lol: 8)

 

[joaonar]

meanwhile I received a package (but one botle was damaged :evil: )

it had lost half of the content

and

to use where? In here....

... and here.

and yes... I should have done this first :roll:

 

[joaonar]

As planned, on a Saturday morning (21 Jully 2007) I took the van to Viseu, a city in the north/interior of Portugal.
I filled it with everything I had to take and almost with no more space for anything else, I put myself on the way.
However my battery was so weak, old and worn that it no longer accepted being recharged therefore, whenever I needed to stop, I couldn't turn it off :mrgreen:

Half way I heard some shots coming from the rear axle.
This was not the first time that happened.
So I stoped near this beautifull Buick to try and find out where the shots were coming from...

... but the noise of hammer blows or shots was becoming increasingly violent and a few km's later, I had to stop again and ask for a friends help who lives in the next town (Leiria) ...
Here he is with his latebay:

(I love this detail :mrgreen: )

With him I phoned a well known Portuguese vw's shop, just a few km's down the road and I went there to see if they could solve my problem.

... and they managed to find my trouble maker...

While they were fixing it I realized that I had a lot to clean and fix under the bus :roll:

a couple of hours later, I was back on the road....
I then realized that my 1600 cc's motor had seen better days....
40/50 km/h .... and leaving a long queue of traffic behind me .... Even putting myself on the roadside to let them pass

finally at 9.00 pm I arrived to my first destination... about 40 km from my final destination

 

[gninnam]

Fantastic story and loving the pictures too :mrgreen:

 

[joaonar]

Thanks gninnam...

so here are a few more :mrgreen:

Next day, Sunday morning, and with the help of jumper cables, I finally managed to turn it on again and I left Casa da Câmara in the way to the next town.

Since I had to return to Lisbon that same day I went to buy a bus ticket.
I had to leave her in the middle of the street with the engine on and asked some taxi drivers to keep an eye on it.

finally, a little later, I reached my final destination.

... and with my father's help, we started to remove everything from inside the bus.

 

[Guest]

i love that! you can just open the house up and pull the bus into your front room

 

[joaonar]

some parts I bought over time....
for sale in a shop that was going to close for works - 30€

and these ones for 18€

Good enough for me.
And the fridge from Ebay.co.uk...

....and slowly, the bus was getting empty...

The original poptop canvas: double-sided, completely waterproof and when stretched, formed an air pocket in the middle of the two sides ... functioned as insulation

and the cabin seats, compared with the midle one, almost never used...

... and some "tools" that were always at hand

and the interior layout ...

and my chemical toilet on the original position....

... and my cabinet in the original position...

and at the end of the day, someone driving me back to Lisbon (340 km's)

 

[joaonar]

a few weeks later, I returned to Viseu and this time, to do something concrete in the bus...

and the lower/rear corners I had to clean and protect

but to reach them in a better way I began disassembling the bus again:

My motor really needs to be fixed...

and after a lot of cleanning it was looking better...

... and always wearing a breathing mask

 

[easy]

Seriously cool pics! i love Portugal my uncle lives in Monchique :mrgreen:

 

[joaonar]

to rest a litle from the cleaning work on the bus, I changed my line of work:

... a little later, I decided to apply metal-ready and por-15 in the area that worried me most:

... and as I had already started cleaning up, I was not going to stop. I had to clean all this...

and also here,

and in here,

etc, etc....

 

[joaonar]

the luggage part already sanded....

.... and gradually, the bus started being dismantled again:

I thenn began cleaning my engine bay....

.. but my engine was in the way, so guess what??

first I needed to remove all my gas from the tank....

... and with some help, we took the engine out:

 

[joaonar]

Seriously cool pics! i love Portugal my uncle lives in Monchique :mrgreen:

thanks easy... Monchique in Algarve... It's about 275 km's from Lisbon and 600 km's where my bus is now. This is a small country

 

[joaonar]

the engine outside the bus....

and then, I had a lot more space to work....

metal-ready...

and more parts to remove from the bus....

..more areas to clean...

and if I had the engine outside already, why not taking out the gearbox also?

... and she was needing a good clean also...

and my fuel pipe.. what a danger!

 

[easy]

Cool 8) great work. The joys of working on a bus in a warm climate 8)

 

[joaonar]

and opposite to the battery side, a litle better....

and the fuel tank looking good from the outside....

... and continuing with the cleaning ...

and my appearance, after several hours making this kind of work

... and more scraping :mrgreen: ...

 

[gninnam]

Keep them pictures and the story coming :mrgreen:

(I bet the trip on the coach was very miserable!!!)

Underneath is starting to look good and to have the use of the pit in the garage - very lucky