1968 Campervan conversion

[joaonar]

:mrgreen:

yes.. the trip was miserable but an MP3 and a great desire to sleep works wonders :mrgreen:
The pit was made thinking that it could be necessary one day later... and it was another reason that made me take the bus to the house.

so... on the next day I decided to change between jobs again:

and a lot to get fixed...

and the "original" skylight... but unfortunately it was broken. Some parts were missing....

and after a few hours...

and finally...

the next day, as it was raining, I went back to scraping...

 

[joaonar]

after I sanded the poptop, I applied some resin to hydrate the fiberglass ...

Not perfect, I know.....

... but I had to sand it again anyway...

 

[joaonar]

and more parts removed from the bus....

...and then I decided to cover it with plastic to protect the paint job....

... and to make the job of cleaning the garage floor more easier, I decided to cover the floor with the same plastic ...

the corrugated metal sheet has not helped this work ... and some lack of space to put my hand and chisel in some areas, didn't help either....

and so decided to get reinforcements ... a can of paint stripper...

and once fully protected .....

I started using the paint stripper... (and also, some protection for me)

and with the help of the paint stripper I managed to rich to the front of the bus faster....

 

[joaonar]

a lot to fix and clean.... so a lot to take out from the bus :mrgreen:

what a puzzle.... :mrgreen:

 

[joaonar]

... and some more parts to remove (with the help of some borrowed tools :mrgreen: )

... the steering box was in need of a good cleaning ...

... even more parts :mrgreen:

... and the puzzle was getting more complicated :mrgreen: ....

This job was almost done but there was still some parts to clean with harder access....

The working positions were not the best :mrgreen:

 

[joaonar]

the week was over and I had to go back to Lisbon.
So I had to clean it up...

my parts "warehouse"....

the next step was to take both suspensions out from the van and clean them both...

 

[joaonar]

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

thanks easy... and yes, it's nice to work with this kind of weather and landscape:

:mrgreen:

 

[joaonar]

I took the 2000 cc's Type IV engine to another well known VW's shop... but it was completely ruined...

... but there's a lot to do first so I'm not going to bother with it, for now :mrgreen:

 

[joaonar]

a couple of weeks later I get back to Viseu to visit my father....he was making the molds for the water tanks ... (yes, fresh and waste water tanks to mount beneath the bus)

... so I sanded the poptop a litle more ...

meanwhile the mold was getting done...

... and time to try it....

We then decided to chane the height from 15 cm to 12 cm's (about 4.7 inches)

when I left (Sunday) the mold was like this:

 

[joaonar]

here're some pictures taken by my father while he was building the mold:

 

[joaonar]

and a couple of weeks later, when I went there again:

The lid will be removable....

 

[joaonar]

While I was there that weekend I borrowed a high-pressure washing machine from a neighbor.
He uses the machine to remove old paint from the exterior house walls so I thought I could remove the rest of paint that was underneath the anti-chip with it....

but it didn't work...
So the next step was to make a small support with wheels and getting another machine... But this was only going to be made in the following year of 2008 :mrgreen:

 

[joaonar]

a few days later we asked a friend that owns a kayaks factory, to helps us making the first water tank :mrgreen:

but due to some minor mistakes in the wooden mold the tank didn't como out as easily as expected....

 

[joaonar]

to separate one from the other we had to break the mold ....

and in the next pictures you can see where the cast stayed glued to the tank

but after a good cleaning....

... excellent! :mrgreen:
and it fits like a glove beneath the bus....

ready to cross the Sahara desert!
:mrgreen:

 

[majorhangover]

Thats a great story and an excellent thread, keep it coming!



water tank looks great too!

 

[joaonar]

Thanks majorhangover ....

so, here are a few more :mrgreen: :

we started working in the wheels for my small dolly (?)...

at the end, they were not used ...
and as I was there so some more scraping :mrgreen:

 

[joaonar]

Another idea I had was to put some pieces of tube to drain water directly into the rain gutters...

.. not perfect but no one will see them once this piece get's into the right place....

 

[joaonar]

The central tube wasn't in the right place....

so I had to change it a litle bit....

and after a few days, they were Ok!

it lacked some sanding and painting... but it will look better in the end.
:mrgreen:

 

[joaonar]

and some more done on this subject...

more sanding to do....
and some cutting also...

 

[joaonar]

and some resin to glue the edges ...