1972 Crossover Dormobile - Full Restoration Work In Progress

[Camperdan]

The post I bought was the complete outer post from floor to roof - it's a genuine (Brazilian) VW part and the fit was great..... however it was a little expensive when you consider that I chopped it in half just for the piece that I needed.

I got it from VW Heritage, it's number 9 and the details are below:

9) B pillar outer, 68-79 left
LEFT complete B-pillar outer skin for LHD models
[211-809-255] £60.95

9 B pillar outer, 68-79 right
Right complete B-pillar outer skin for LHD models
[211-809-256] £60.95

I had to get this as my post was rotten up beyond the height of the front arch and the other existing B-post repair panels where just not tall enough. From memory I think there were a few differences due to the LHD RHD thing but nothing that affected me using the lower part that I needed.
Well worth the money in my opinion and if i had to do the same repair I'd use this part again.

 

[Haveacamper]

cheers dan, that would have been handy if i had realised someone did that complete one. i'd already bought the inner and out from schofields - just goign to make that blanking plate that is missing. so after a day off due to a few reasons i got the welder down with me again and made a MASSIVE amount of progress that i'm thoroughly pleased with.

our attention turned to the drivers bulkhead this evening and first things first we decided to approach this side slightly different to the N/S - this is due to us realising that the bpillar would have been best to put in first as the plate wont bend over it very well.

so bpillar plate in and the prep work carried out for the sheet to be marked up and cut:

this took a bit of hitting to try and fit to the same profile as the original and eventually got it pretty close.

the plate was marked up and a few trims found it fitting pretty dam well:

again tack by tack ensuring the new plate was flush with the old, we got to here:

and took slightly slower eventually got it all seam welded:

ground down all the welds and a few tacks here and there to fill in pin holes, then primered quite badly (noticed after the photo so primered some more):

and hear you can see the two new bulkheads in place. i think with the faintest of skims with filler you wont notice any difference...with the exception of the scallops missing after all i am doing a custom hehe:

thats it for me this week as i'm away seeing g/f again. all in all i'm pleased with this work and has turned out better than i thought it would. especially after discovering how bad the drivers bulkhead was when i removed my interior back last year

NaFe

 

[pinheaduk]

some nice welding there dude, does my nut when you grind back and fine a few pinholes hehe

keep it up

 

[andewilson]

i think you may find other people following suit. looks great and its certainly easier than trying to form the shape into repair panels.

 

[Guest]

nice work nafe 8) , would the only way to get the scollops be to get a donor?

 

[Haveacamper]

Ye i think so johnny. But from seeing lots of resto threads and enquiring with a few breakers, this is a frequent area that it already patched or rusted through.

 

[pinheaduk]

have to agree there, i beat the metal with a panel hammer to try and get the shape back, looks ok, but took for ever so next time i think ill be doing the above, nice and simple and gives more wheel space

 

[Haveacamper]

ok, this evening i didnt have the welder with me so i referred back to the wheel arch, and i got very surprised, as i am sure you will too when you read on....

i finished trimming and snading down the edges that were left from when i cut the old and found that the wheel arch fitted surprisngly AMAZINGLY!!!!

dont worry this is not my welding at the bottom. this will be sorted out and possibly replaced

sill lines up well with blanking plate

closing section where stock filter shelf is:

closing section by the fuel filler - its a real good fit up against the metal here. very inpressed

even inside the camper up and around it fits really well:

lines up well with the approximate line i drew before removing the original:

fits nicely up against the fuel tank shelf too - although the lip of this shelf is a bit ******. still contemplating replacing this whole shelf going forward and down to the rear cargo floor.

going for a camera in the knee to sort cartilage out tomorro so wont be down the van for a few days. may get down on weekend, but not entirely sure what the op is going to be until they get the camera in.

 

[pinheaduk]

nice looking fit, did one on my late bay few years back and could not get a nice fit whatsoever, well done

what happened to the knee btw?

 

[Haveacamper]

what happened to the knee btw?

long story, but 4 years after my knee reconstruction its playing up again so they are taking a look at it for me

 

[Loxy]

what happened to the knee btw?

long story, but 4 years after my knee reconstruction its playing up again so they are taking a look at it for me

Too many pies and it just couldnt cope is what I heard......

 

[Haveacamper]

quick update:

i've recovered from my knee operation and popped down the van for my first eve back. my time was concentrated on sorting out the inner b-pillar on the N/S. managed to get the b-pillar all lined up and tacked in place. then managed to offer the inner sill into place and again tacked in place. i will be keeping this tacked in until i manage to sort the sliding door guide out. then i will need to offer this up and check i have the piller and sill in the correct place to allow the door to shut properly.

i apologise for the lack of pictures but i forgot to take any when i was down there.

should be going down again this evening and tacking the O/S wheel tub in place and sorting out some holes in the chassis... watch this place.

NaFe

p.s. its good to be back on the case.

 

[Guest]

Good to see your on the mend and well enough to be back at it. I'm definitely enjoying your thread alot!

 

[Haveacamper]

quick update - i managed to take couple of pics of my inner post tacked in and inner sill tacked to the top hats and slot cut in new bulkhead to accomodate the sill:

no picutures from this evening because the only work i did was not really visible. all the tacks, with exception of the inner b pillar and inner sill N/S were welded fully. another words all the jacking points and outriggers and top hats were welded fully. last going off mydad and i sat and chatted about how to go forward with the petrol tank shelf and the bulk head section that runs between the two rear wheel tubs. IT GOING TO BE TOUGH!!!! i think we will replace the whole section between the wheel tubs and just the O/S section of the fuel

NaFe

 

[Haveacamper]

everytime i plan to carry out certain jobs on the van, they seem to change when i get down there. i did plan to work on the wheel tubs as mentioned, but i found myself working on the front most tophat and the central cross member chassis section. i have to put in a new jacking point/outrigger front N/S. i'm not sure whetehr i have to replace the ONE jacking point i was going to keep, because i've just realised that the PO put the wrong JP in. its one for the rear so doesnt have the notch along the top that you need to sit the inner sill on. all he's done is cut the notch in it, but bigger than required.

anyways i'm collecting a load of goodies - and parting with alot of cash - from FBI this afternoon. i should be picking up the following:

Front cab doors
tailgate
engine lid
front complete arches
and complete rear corners

watch this space. exciting times :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

 

[gninnam]

Nice to see you are still cracking on with this :wink:

 

[Haveacamper]

cheers gninnam.

managed to squeeze some good work in this morning when we hit the barn before 8 this morning. attacked everything in line with the front most top hat. - so thats the front top hat, the cross member and the two jacking points/outriggers.

just so you know what we were planning on achieving the following pics show how the new lower bulkhead, tophat and the outrigger will line up. all pretty colour coded for you guys, honest

once everything was prepped i got the tophat tacked inplace and checked that this lined up as expected with the cross member. then fully welded the cross member in place. et voila:

i forgot to take a pic of the two jacking points tacked in place, but here is a quick pic of how the tophat lines up with the two inner sills. as i was cutting to length, and therefore trust it would be the correct length, i did bother with the tabs. this will be welded fulling in the goodness of time, but at the moment its just tacked in place. until i have everything tried and tested

 

[pinheaduk]

looking top notch

 

[Haveacamper]

ok, so some real slow progress over the last few weeks. this is clightly to do with the fact the last month i started looking for houses to move into with the g/f and this has followed with a very low amount of enthusiasm. I had all the emthusiasm to help Loxy get his camper back on the road and mot'd but since then i have really lacked some get up and go to do mine.

hoping that this is just a low spell and this will pick up again.

so...attention has finally started on the front end of the camper. order of play wis going to be:

**hang doors to check that thewhat i have at the moment is lined up and fitting
**cut O/S door frame out and graft in one off donor
**hang doors to check gap
**strategically cut off old clip and graft on new clip
**check door gaps
**replace O/S outer wheel arch
**check door gaps
**replace N/S outer wheel arch
**check door gaps
**replace both inner wheel arches
**fit new floor

is was happy days when i fitted my two new cali import doors and found that neither side fitted - with the side in better condition fitting worse!!! after much panic and measureing doo gaps and doors and checking against Loxy's camper i came to the conclusion that the old doors must have been jacked and butchered to fit. i clarified this when i tried my cali doors on the my South African import clip replacement and the door gap was a hell of alot closer.

i proceeded onto the next task, which was to unmask exactly how bad the door frame was on the drivers side. the fact the a picture is worth a thousand words - i'll save myself 5000 words:

then i eventually had the bottle to start cutting the window pillar section out:

this didnt take much cutting as you can imagine:

once all that crap was cut out my attention had turned to the top section of the B-pillar:

the non-structural, inside part shows that thepillar is aloso gon eat the top. what i may have to do, is carfully remove this panel around the window to enable me to weld the inner section of the graft and then tack this back on.

what has happened is that underneath the pop top roof, the front most hinge has been patched badly allowing water to travel both down the b-pillar as well as running along the door pillar and down the a-pillar. as you can imagine, the a-pillar especially, is a thick bit of metal so for this to have rusted to nothing it must have been going on for a while.

do you think i will need to noth the b-pillar section? i think i will be doing what vw-aircooled showed me with the a-pillar - remove the outer skin, notch the inner and outer section, then weld the skin back on.

the old man is back on wednesday so hopefully we'll be able to get down there and he'll be able to kick my *** into shape and get this motivation back, that i have had all this time. i'll need it as i will be alot further away from the camper so very resticted on the times i will have time to work on it.

[Journalist: Nathan Wooldridge a.k.a young'un, mouth, NaFe]

 

[Nelly]

Looks like you've got your work cut out there :shock:
But if the rest is anything to go buy you will make a good job of it :wink: