1970 DORMOBILE - COMPLETE RESTO - IT PASSED :)

[pinheaduk]

sorry should have said, doh

full whitewall

 

[pinheaduk]

well i am absoloutely gutted with myself, i havent been down to the garage for a few weeks, did some damaged to my ankle and havent been able to walk right so didnt feel comfortable getting under the van and lifting stuff around, as it hurt like hell.

i wouldnt have minded so much but the dubs at the beach so that i help organise is on in a few weeks and im supposed to have my van there, my god ive got some serious work to do now, im good but im nowhere nearr that good unless ive got a team of oompaa loompas working with me

 

[pinheaduk]

well i finally did something, i have managed to realignt he corners with the rear hatch as i wasnt totally happy with them, and now at least they look decent and the gaps all round are in good order

 

[pinheaduk]

well today i managed to do a bit of engine work as it has been way to hot to do any welding. i managed to get a free 1600 longblock off a friend with asmall amount of endfloat, so i stripped it down and checked the crank and bearings and they are all good,, took me, my dad and a 6ft scaffold pole to get the flywheel nut off and there were no shims, which explained the endfloat, so i recauculated and put 3 new shims in and got the right amount of movement in the crank.

after putting longblock back together im not happy so far with the compression i get when i turn the flywheel by hand, but ill know more once i do the rockers and take out the plugs and turn it over, the heads look good and the valves look tight, so it could be worn piston rings or worn pistons, whichever is the case a new set arent to exspensive.

the bus is getting there slowly, hopefully by the end of the week, ill have the engine bay area painted and chipped and i can get the tank back in and then try the engine and see how it runs

 

[pinheaduk]

ok so the engine is rebuilt and after setting the rocker clearances properly the compressions doesnt seem to bad by hand, but i wont nknow for sure until the engine turned over and tested, but its rebuilt

 

[easy]

Nice :mrgreen: looks like the whole engine has been shock blasted aswell :wink:

 

[pinheaduk]

hehe you could say that, i got bored and wanted to try a new toy

 

[easy]

:wink:

 

[pinheaduk]

with it only being a 1600 im tempted to use a renault 5 turbo carb on it and give it a little boost but havent decided yet hehe

 

[Guest]

hows the ankle btw?

 

[pinheaduk]

a lot better thanks, doc said no jumping up and down, so beach volley ball is out hehe

 

[pinheaduk]

ok today i decided to take the plunge and do some welding in 27 degree heat just typical the area i was welding was hanging out the garage

it was rear engine lid area, time again as i want to get that area completely done so i can get the engine bay painted and get the engine it for compression testing and just to let me know that after all the work so far the van still lives.

i cut out a small section on the o/s corner as it had lots of tiny rustholes everywhere

replaced the inner rust area also and used some spare inner sill for the corner as the edge was spot on tacked it in placed welded and ground back

then moved onto the n/s inner hatch area as it was nasty and major filler and rust

but i thought it best to do the engine lid repair panel first as it would give me some measurements for the corner

tacked

welded

 

[pinheaduk]

then i rebuilt the rear area of the rubber seal

and then did some loverly metal shaping using the other corner and created this

and i managed to get the lip shape close enough so you wont notice any difference

all in situ

and a bit of primer until i get my powerfile

then i stoppd as i was dying of heat exhaustion plus i was getting distracted by sexy ladies in there cars in a traffic jam

 

[Guest]

hehe, nice repairs, did you get any phone numbers?

 

[pinheaduk]

i wish i did, some of em had huggggggggggggggggggggggge boobies , nice cars to lol

 

[gninnam]

Looking good mat..... 8)

Won't be long now :!:

 

[VeeDubMan]

(posting a post here so I can track what topics I posted to with my other usernames - VDM2 and VDM3)

 

[pinheaduk]

ok this aft i finished the repair on the rear corner as it was riddled with pinholes

tacked in place

i cut the line to overlap slightly so i could grind it back and get the shape right, forgot to take a pic of the completed repair but will tomorrow

also the nearside rear window lip which is somewhere in the begining of the forum adn bought a repair panel and i nice piece of sqaure tube, i used the other window to get the gap correct and tacked in place

then remade the corner window section as id didnt exist from the placement roof

cleaned primed and sealed

just got to complete the underneath of the window lip and make it nice and pretty

hopefully tomorrow do a few little repairs areound the gearbox then im gonna try and get the engine bay done

 

[easy]

Good work 8)

 

[T2-Nate]

:shock: :shock: :shock:
Wooow - I'm really astonished by the amount of work this early's given you so far.
My resto looks like a piece of cake compared to yours.
I feel mildly ashamed that I've only come this far when I see all the crazy repairs you had to tackle.
Great job and hope to see it (and all you guys' resto's at that) in the flesh one nice summer day :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Keep it going strong!