1970 DORMOBILE - COMPLETE RESTO - IT PASSED :)

[pinheaduk]

ok managed to finish the drivers seat, but im not 100% happy as its not as nice a fit as the passenger seat, but its good enough for me to sit on

the upper stripe looks like its leaning slighty due to being on loosely

 

[pinheaduk]

done all ive got to do now is the door cards but im not bothering with them for a while getting sick of stabbing mself with needles

 

[gninnam]

Look really good in the pics 8) (hope they look as good in the flesh :wink: )

Well done and I hope you are proud of your new found skill

 

[pinheaduk]

well now the seats are done its back to the van and i managed a few hours today and got the sliding door finished and had a look at the o.s corner and did a bit of work and primed it

 

[pinheaduk]

ok its been a while since i have had chance to get to the van so i was happy to get some time in.

Today i finished the sliding door and rear arch area as the the door when locked was slightly higher in consideration to the rear arch, so i had to put a slight skim on the rear arch panel near the door line and its come out nicely.

Also today im very close to finishing the rear corners, just working around the light area as i added the reversing lights so a slight skim in between the reverse and brake lights.

I also started to rub back the rear hatch and the petrol flap, and under the loose paint i discovered these stickers which are original, wooooooooooo hoooooooooooooo

tomorrow with a bit of luck ill get chance to do the swauge lines on the corners

 

[pinheaduk]

well unfortunately due to silly me with a grinder i have been unable to do much work on the van over the past 2 weeks as, i got some iron filings in my eye and had to visit the eye clinic and have a needle stuck in my eye to remove the filings, which sounds awful but it was kinda cool hehe, but due to that was told to avoid any dusty areas etc and due to me working with filler, that did not help my cause.

but now i can see, still a little blurry but good enough to get back in the garage and get finished with the filler work

but hope everyone on EB has a great Christmas and New Year and all i can say is more to follow

 

[Trikky2]

Just spent 2 hours reading the whole thread.

Couldnt believe the amount of rust you found, had a previos owner used it as a lobster pot?

Amazing amount of work. Well done.

 

[pinheaduk]

ok its been a while since my last post, due to work,christmas and new yr, and other bad stuff but i managed to get a bit of motivation, thanks to Haveacamper's STICK or BUST thread, made me realise the same thing, basically ive done to much to let it go.

Well got down the garage early this morning and have done nothing but swallow filler dust and other horrible crap up my nose all day

the rear corner needed a little tweak near the bottom as i moved the van and forgot to move a table and got a little ding need more space, so had to sort that out

then double checked the side panels and finished the bottom of the sliding door, will know how straight they are when the spray putty goes on and then do the prepping for paint

the patch on the sliding door is a sandlewood beige colour which i was checking out, but not to sure yet :S

 

[pinheaduk]

then i did some bodywork on the upper interior where the rear roof was welded on and a few rotten bits on metal on the o/s

not overly concered if there not 100% perfect as they will be getting covered with that stretchy vinyl stuff

did a bit more tweaking on the front panel, this is the one panel that is giving me serious grief trying to get the thing smooth, getting close though

after getting wound up a little with the front panel i moved onto the inner upper sliding door where i repaired the lip

before

after

after that and to finish off the day i did one of the rear corner beltlines and got the shape as close to original as possible

 

[Haveacamper]

nice bit of prepping there mate. glad to hear we are all getting a bit of much needed appreciation for what we own and where we want to get to

NaFe

 

[pinheaduk]

quick update from yesterday, finished the other beltline corner and nearly finished the rear roof a real pain in the arse its been ill be glad when its done

this weekend touch rust, i should be able to get the first coat of high build primer on there seeing as my stuff arrived

 

[pinheaduk]

yipppeeee, the rear part of the roof is done at long last, and i managed to give it a quick ocat of primer to protect it

the front has also had a coat of primer after the beige primer went on and rubbed back to try and get smoother, its close

theres are a few runs under the o/s light housing but not to worry as trigger jammed and this is only one of many coats going on the bus

 

[pinheaduk]

darn it, i knew that id forgotten something, STOPPER, oh well ill flat it back and go over the panels with it tomorrow

deary me

 

[pinheaduk]

well i finally got some stopper and its like super glue such a wierd consistency but kinda funky to use.

you want the thinnest coat possible on the panels as its only there to fill pinholes and some surface scratches etc

so i started to put some on the panels which are near as finished as i can get them

started by doing the sliding door as this is the one part of the van that is the closest to completion

then did the rear panels and one of the corners as the other needs a bit more tweaking

then got my spray gun and the primer out after sanding back the stopper and give the sliding door and panel a coat or high build primer. there are still one of two pin holes and the odd scratch but nowhere near as many as there were

i also removed the paint runs on the front panel and applied some stopper which is yet to be removed.

got the dentist tomorrow and not looking forward to it, so might not get to garge

 

[pinheaduk]

got a dilema now? as i am getting closer to the paint stage i have to decide on colour, and i am still unsure, i have a few options but nothing at the moment is standing out at me

i am tempted to use one of the original colours for the year which is lotus white from bottom up to the gutter and them a universal white on the roof.

then i have got some sandalwood beige which i could use up to gutter and then white, or do i go up to beltline then pastel white from beltline up

or do i stonechip the whole van :S

the interior will be dormobile furniture which i intend to modernise and remoe the plastic edgiings etc and use a router and get some nice bevveled edges and the colours are as the upholstery earlier in the thread, red/cream vinyl.

if anyones has any good combinations of colours etc or pics i would much appreciate the input

cheers

 

[Rexer]

Looking good mate, its a bit of a race to the finish line with our busses
I think we should share a well deserved beer at a few shows this year :mrgreen:

oh and how about L512 for the colour, not that im biased or anything lol

 

[pinheaduk]

i agree would love to have a few bevvies after there all done at a few shows


forgot to say was also tempted by the matt black, blackboard paint so then at shows we can all have fun and chalk the van to death

 

[Rexer]

NOOOOOO dont do it mate, i had an old yank that i matt blacked and regreted it as when i took it to a show and it got dusty people started writing in the dirt with a wet finger and it never came out. its a bastard to keep clean.

Go with an old school colour mate (my opinion of course)

Nick

 

[cyberdyne systems]

Really enjoying seeing the progress and hearing the usual frustrations people go through with this kind of work and overcoming them to produce a top van.

As for the colour, i'm a major fan of original colours, they already work because we are used to them, other colours, whilst they can look good come and go out of fashion, an original colour wont as its part of VW history.

Gareth

 

[pinheaduk]

ok got a little bit done today but not too much as my teeth are twitching after dentist and felt awful

i rubbed back the stopper on the os rear panel ready for a coat of primer

and would you believe on this van i have a RUST FREE PANEL the rear hatch

it has a few little dents but nothing major, mainly in the corners and along the bottom lip, quite a few paint chips due to the shite job that was done before, they literally painted over everything good or bad

here it is after a quick rub of 60 grit to reveal a few low spots

and here it is after a skim of filler and being rubbed back, can just see a bit of pink filler near the lock hole as needed a little more due to low spot being low

more tomorrow hopefully